red dead redemption? more like butts. A review.

[nickfil]

TOO LONG DIDN'T READ: if you like GTA, you'll like this. If you don't, it won't win you over for all the same reasons GTA fails to.

So I'm about 6ish hours into Red Dead Redemption. In the interest of full disclosure with this review, i've never been a fan of GTA games. They always seemed kind of aimless to me. I've casually played GTA III and II only because i was around them in college. A buddy of mine gave me GTA IV, but i still haven't played it.

What i was hoping would happen here with RDR, is that rockstar would come out of some of the trappings of GTA. Finally get to do things with the open world style that they have been thinking about couldn't becuase it wasn't "GTA" enough. I haven't really found this.

I'm going to break down the missions and their positives and negatives. Not specifics. No spoilers. But their intentions, and how it feels to play through them. What you consider as a player.

You basically have 3 tiers of missions you can work on. The first is the main story. It is moved forward by initiating actions with 2 different people that are helping you capture or kill Bill Williamson. How some of these actions help you are often vague. Mostly the game feels like you are kind of just coasting through the world. That you help the marshal because it is a waypoint on your map and the next thing to do more than anything else. Much of the story and relationships you build with these characters is made through conversations that you have no control over while you follow to whatever location the mission is. Because of this, the meat of the relationships you build with other characters is not in your control and is made while you are staring at a horses ass and kind of bored. Once you get to the waypoint, you accomplish the task and move the story forward. Often your hand is held through the situation by the game. This seems conflicting to the overall feel of the open world. While i have to spend 4 minutes riding through the world to get somewhere creating the feel of freedom, once there the path is linear. Heard the cattle in a strait line from A to B. Jump on these specific boxes marked by waypoint to get into the barn. The dialogue is serviceable but is peppered with gems. This is indicative of the vibe i get from RDR. That rockstar through so much out there into the world, eventually something will stick with with player. However, you have to wade through so much to get to these gems they almost don't seem worth it.

The second type of missions that you get are 'stranger' missions. Side quests that you do for people that you meet in the world. These would be more interesting if they had a greater impact on the world, or would put you in more complex or interesting moral situations. The quest that springs to mind is one where you find someone committing an unarguably evil crime. Now, the player knows what is going on from the start, but your character, john, seems totally oblivious and helps out the bad guy. John realizes it at the end and you can choose to step in or not. This all happens in the middle of no where. You make a choice. Your honor gauge goes marginally up or down. This is indicative of these missions. They occur within these video game bubbles. They never really affect what happens to the world all that much despite how horrible or amazing they might be. Their scope is never subtly measured. The situation never complex. From what I've played, I don't expect to be in a situation where i want to do the right thing, but it makes the game more difficult. I don't expect to be in a situation where the easy thing is so easy and simple the evil thing is so crazy unthinkably bad, more fun to do for the player, but less likely to take because you try to do the right thing within the world. When rockstar creates a world like this and wants to sell it to me as a real world with consequence, when these video game bubbles occur for marginal stat increases it makes the whole thing stale. The situations become more simple symbols of situations rather than moral gray areas or tests of yourself and your own moral compass.

The third situation is someone along the road is wronged in some way, or you see some kind of combat happening and either intercede or keep moving. These seem the most exciting for me as a player, but you gain very very little reward in game for doing them. Which is a shame. A man road past me saying "they are going to hang my friend and he did nothing wrong, you gotta help me." This is probably the most loaded statement and fun thing I've experienced in the game. Bad or good who wouldn't stick up for their friend. Who wouldn't lie to keep them alive. The potential for this going bad, or you accidentally helping the "wrong side" because you jump in guns blazing is huge! However this is never explored. You save the man. Everyone is happy. Marginal stat increase.

I have so much more to talk about with this game, but I've typed so much at this point. I could go on and on about creating a fun game vs a real game. As well as the actual play mechanics of the game, but i think we've all played a GTA game at some point. Plus, wall of text and all that. In the scope of the game, I'm still kinda early so maybe some of the things I've talked about will change and mature. I'm going to stick with it and try to get through more of the game. Honestly though, if it doesn't start wowing me a little more i might just get alan wake instead. heh.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Besides Vice City and 2, I haven't found any of the GTA games very fun, however, for me, it is very much about the scenery and the idea of what you are doing. I love the old west and steampunk style themes in games, and we don't see enough of them. I'll probably pick it up in a couple weeks.

[nickfil]

Besides Vice City and 2, I haven't found any of the GTA games very fun, however, for me, it is very much about the scenery and the idea of what you are doing. I love the old west and steampunk style themes in games, and we don't see enough of them. I'll probably pick it up in a couple weeks.

Yeah. Admittedly this game and GTA is more the mood of the game rather than the game itself. The horseshoe mini game is a clear indication of that. It caters to the guy who wants the old west experience rather than the guy who wants to play something fun.

Lets be frank: horseshoes, in all forms, were never fun.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

Besides Vice City and 2, I haven't found any of the GTA games very fun, however, for me, it is very much about the scenery and the idea of what you are doing. I love the old west and steampunk style themes in games, and we don't see enough of them. I'll probably pick it up in a couple weeks.

Yeah. Admittedly this game and GTA is more the mood of the game rather than the game itself. The horseshoe mini game is a clear indication of that. It caters to the guy who wants the old west experience rather than the guy who wants to play something fun.

Lets be frank: horseshoes, in all forms, were never fun.

Very true, still I found GTA fun when it was set in the 80's, and I'd probably find it fun in the old west. I'm not much for the "gangsta" theme of most R* games.

[noiseredux]

what does "more like butts" mean?

[AppleQueso]

GTA in the old west? Sounds good to me. Though I'm not a HUGE fan of the series, I'll probably wait until the price drops a whole bunch or it pops up used somewhere cheap.

[puke_face]

I'm liking the game quite a bit in the story mode. The only thing I can't figure out how to do yet is when your going after a bounty, how the hell do you capture the person as opposed to killing them? I've killed every one I've came across so far, because it doesn't seem clear to me how to go about capturing them. The multiplayer is very strange. My brother and I gave it a shot for about 2 hours, ended up just fucking around and killing random people, ourselves, getting mauled by bears, cougars, all that noise. Also found out that you can't talk to each other on the bluetooth headset if you are a pretty good distance from each other on the map, unless you are in that person's posse. Like I said, it is strange so far, but haven't really tried to hard at it either.

[nickfil]

what does "more like butts" mean?

It means i didn't like it so much and akin it to the buttox.

GTA in the old west? Sounds good to me. Though I'm not a HUGE fan of the series, I'll probably wait until the price drops a whole bunch or it pops up used somewhere cheap.

Yeah- i think i would've been lighter on the game had i waited until it was 10 bucks and without all the hype. But... if you like gta at all you'll like rdr.

I'm liking the game quite a bit in the story mode. The only thing I can't figure out how to do yet is when your going after a bounty, how the hell do you capture the person as opposed to killing them?

Lasso my friend. Lasso and hogtie. Hold the triggers for lasso so they stayed caught then get over to them and tap y i think.... or x.... one of the two. Hogtie and pop em up on your horse. Bring em in.

This is another thing i don't really like. Not a crit on the game really, but design. All the tutorials of how to play happen within the game and don't pause it. So you'll get a paragraph of text and then the game is still going. You might even be mid mission. So you are focused on what is going on around you and miss mechanics of the game. I am positive I'm missing how to do things properly.

[Pingfa]

Sounds much too similar to GTA to me. I generally find GTA and the many copycats rather boring, but I'm interested in Red Dead Redemption because of the old west feel and because to me Red Dead Revolver is among the best multiplayer experiences - and the singleplayer is fun too.

[nickfil]

Sounds much too similar to GTA to me. I generally find GTA and the many copycats rather boring, but I'm interested in Red Dead Redemption because of the old west feel and because to me Red Dead Revolver is among the best multiplayer experiences - and the singleplayer is fun too.

I liked red dead revolver too! That is kinda why i thought that maybe redemption would part ways from gta a bit. But it is in the same vein. I'd say if you are wary, rent or borrow it first.