Red Dead Redemption - Game Review

Rockstar's Dead Dead Redemption bears some striking similarities to their other similarly praised title GTA4. The game employs an open world map that lets you choose the order in which you perform jobs and tasks for a cast of interesting and offbeat characters, while at the same time allowing you the freedom to just ride around shooting people and exploring the environment. The similarities end there though as Red Dead feels much more alive and teeming with personality despite the fact that there are only a handful of people per town and you'll spend a great deal of time simply galloping across the desert.

All of this is what put me off at first, I made the unfair assumption that because the world was more empty and going from a car in GTA4 to horse in Red Dead would make the game slow and boring. I couldn't be more wrong. Read Dead's world is teeming with personality and gorgeous landscapes that invite you to waste away hours just exploring deserts, towns and forests. The storyline is simple but the characters really drive it along and make you care about the outcome. The few moral choices there are feel like actual choices and not just a way to get a better ending. I came away from the experience exhausted and a little sad that it was all over because the ending is so amazing that, even after playing for 30 hours, I was a little shocked that I was finished. I simply wanted to keep playing long after the credits rolled.

The action is fantastic, with a fine selection of weaponry that all seems to get a work out, rather than focusing on one gun. You'll be taking strongholds, chasing badits, collecting bounties, breaking in horses, jumping onto moving trains, and that's just a fraction of the mission variety on offer. The amount of gameplay here is astonishing and puts every other game, Western or not, to shame. Don't let the time period put you off, there is so much to do here and it never feels like its dragging its heels or padding things out.

Red Dead is not just the best Western game ever made, it's one of the best games ever made, period. I've never felt such a level of immersion or enjoyment in a game, especially one I had no interest in at first. The few bugs that sandbox games are prone to are forgivable because of everything else the game has to offer. The graphics, gameplay and soundtrack are all incredible, coming together to make one of the best games of all time. Every gamer should have this in their collection.

10/10