Red Dead Redemption — PS3 Review
First things first — you want to know how this open-world Western compares to Rockstar’s other open-world game, right? Fair enough.
Is this Grand Theft Horse? No, that’s an insulting comparison that doesn’t begin to describe Red Dead’s beauty. Is this a better game than GTA? Technically, atmospherically, visually: absolutely. Narratively? Too subjective to call. Will you enjoy it more than GTA IV? That depends on how much you like the setting.
We’re under no illusions that urban sells. Given the choice, people would rather shoot Uzis nd drive cars than gallop through canyons on a horse. True, Red Dead does its best to lure in the GTA demographic with the promise of bloody shoot-outs, animal-skinning, and Deadwood-grade swearing, but its biggest strength lies in how faithful it is to frontier life, and of course, the incredible landscapes that spill out from both sides of the US/Mexico border. You won’t find any ’teetee bars’ here…
Stay for the scenery
While the three distinct areas you play within are stunning to look at, Red Dead never outdoes other PS3-lookers, like Uncharted 2 or Killzone 2, in terms of sheer sharpness and obvious beauty. There’s no equivalent, for example, of the snow in the crashed-train section of Uncharted 2. There are scenes that stop you in your tracks and demand to be appreciated. For us, the biggest wow moment came half way through the main story, when we found ourselves on an isolated fort in the Mexican portion of the map, Neuvo Paraiso.
As we looked out from the top turret, the sunset bathed the whole canyon a brilliant shade of orange, accentuating the curves of the gorge below and highlighting the monolithic rocks that punctuated the valley below. Vultures flew overhead, picking at the spoils of our recent fire-fight, and the people in the fort went about their business. It was a perfect snapshot of what Red Dead is about: being the best, most atmospheric game it can be. That moment alone puts the concrete detail of Liberty City in the shade.
What impresses more, though, is that the world feels alive. And we’re not just talking about the town folk reacting to you, or the incidental events as you ride through the environment (like robberies, posses tracking down criminals, or men hunting). There’s wildlife everywhere, and although not the fully-fledged eco-system the developers were hinting at pre-release, it all feels like a natural extension of the scenery. Some you see — like armadillos darting between bushes in the Mexican desert, or bears lumbering through the woodlands in the northern territories — and some you hear, like crickets or crows overhead. The environments may seem like expanses of loneliness, but they’re teaming with life.
Easily distracted
And yet, strangely, Red Dead’s enormous scope and beautiful world is also its biggest enemy. To get the most out of it, to experience the fascinating story of John Marsden, you need to finish the main story. The pay-off at the end is worth the price of admission alone, but to get there you have to complete roughly 15—20 hours worth of missions, watch hundreds of typically well-scripted cut-scenes featuring characters that are both distinct and likeable, and not get lured away by all the treats the world tempts you with.
Can you ride past a man being chased by coyotes and not stop to help him? Can you resist the urge of checking ‘just one more location’ for a spot of buried gold? Can you gallop past a Grizzly bear without stopping to shoot it down and skin it for Trophies? Nine times out of ten, the answer is ’no’.
The upshot is an investment of 30 or so hours spent in the game to reach the climax. Even then, there are fresh missions to complete once the credits have rolled. Past experience with stable-mate, GTA IV, has taught us that the majority of gamers never actually reach the finale — even the more dedicated ones. Why? Because there are too many toys in the sandbox. Red Dead Redemption is more streamlined than GTA, and completing the story missions leads to new equipment and genuine progression, but the urge to wander is still strong.
Get stuck into the plot, and the main missions bring plenty of variety — much more than we feared from early hands on sessions. Although the most common scenario sees you riding to a point on the map, shooting up some bad-guys and then leaving, these are punctuated by some thoughtful and genuinely different tasks. Like herding cattle across the plains, or acting as a shill for a Snake Oil doctor, or teaching another character how to hunt wolves.
Importantly, though, each mission holds together in the context of the overarching story — there’s never a sense that Rockstar San Diego has crammed in variety for the sake of it, or that what you’re doing deviates from your overall goal of revenge. The only real weak-spots in the otherwise excellent narrative stem from the occasional bout of stupidity from Marsden himself; the various factions who claim to be able to help him find the members of his old gang (who he’s hunting on behalf of a shadowy government organisation) string him along for ages without coughing up any info, and it’s usually blindingly obvious to everyone but Marsden himself who’s planning to help, and who’s just taking advantage.
Show-downer
Another slight disappointment is the duelling. It feels too random. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose and there’s little rhyme or reason to why. It’s down to a combination of poorly worded tutorials and controls that feel out of sync with the rest of the game. Not a huge problem — but as duelling is an iconic part of virtually every Western film, we’re disappointed Rockstar didn’t quite nail this aspect.
Even the usually divisive soundtrack is well done. There are no radio stations (duh) or hastily shoe-horned Country and Western themed tracks playing here — just the sporadic snippet of an instrumental track played on guitar. Music fades in and out to complement the scenery, the time of day, and the on-screen action; so while you’re aware its there, the soundtrack is never intrusive or game-breaking.
There are a couple of moments where you actually hear a song (performed by Jose Gonzales — his track Heartbeats was on the Sony Bravia advert with the coloured balls bouncing down the hill) kick in, as they mark special moments in the game. With such scarcity of music, we desperately wanted these particular vignettes to last longer — but that’s precisely the point. In sharing the experiences of our hero, Marsden, we can empathise when the bright flashes in his otherwise murky world seem to fade all too quickly.
This refreshing restraint is evident throughout the game. It’s not just in the soundtrack — it’s in the scenery, it’s in the dialogue, it’s in the missions. There’s nothing over the top or try-hard about Red Dead Redemption — you never get the feeling the developers have taken aim at a specific rival, or made deliberate strides to avoid being pigeon-holed as GTA Wild West.
Sure there are similarities between the two Rockstar games, but Red Dead stands aside from and — even though the office is split, with some preferring GTA’s scuzzy urbanity — arguably taller than its urban cousin.
07/16/2010
— Filed under: Games
Tags: Red Dead Redemption, Review
