To shed some light on the story first, the game focuses on the character John Marston, a somewhat ‘reformed’ outlaw that lives peacefully with his family, attempting to forget the sins of the past. This soon changes however when he is approached by the Bureau and sent off on a mission to clear out members of his old gang. This is the core story of the game that you will be playing through and hooked to the most, but the way you approach it and your pacing is largely determined by how often you get sidetracked with side quests and other things.
Red Dead Redemption goes the sandbox route of gaming much like that of Grand Theft Auto, but just in a western setting. With this comes a lot of side missions and things to do, that will easily keep you occupied for hours on end. As an example, the playthrough we watched showed off Marston encountering a stranded Mexican Man in the middle of the desert. Normally you’d expect him to ask for help or so, but this one in particular was a bandit and knocks you off your horse and attempts to steal it. The horse however knocks him off and returns to our protagonist soon after when Marston whistles, as this horse in particular was tame. It was also noted that each horse you have is substantially different to the other; sometimes it won’t respond whatsoever and you’ll be left stranded in the desert, other times it will respond to you accordingly, so the dynamic nature of the game is certainly exemplified.
Stop... lookin... at my crotch.
Another example of randomised side quests and such is a town that was taken over by a large gang, and you’re approached at the entrance by the sheriff to take it back. This leads to a rather large and intense fire fight between you and the gang, and also showed off the games nifty shooting mechanics, which work much like that of a 3rd person title like Gears of War. It also returns with the Dead Eye feature from the original Red Dead Revolver, which allows you to slow down time, pick points on an enemy or several enemies and then let it go, making Marston fire off several shots with pinpoint accuracy in rapid succession. It works a little bit like VATS from Fallout 3 just a lot quicker, and allows you to take down enemies very quickly if need be. Shooting at oil lamps and molotovs in enemies hands can also prove to have a positive effect for you as well, as (obviously) it causes them to explode and set anyone near it alight. So the game has some nice exploding barrel tricks up its sleeve, just they’re not red and blatantly obvious from the get go.
And the best part about the gun fights and stealing of the horse is that it was all random within the world. Things like that and several others will happen at any time and any place within Red Dead Redemption so playing through the story will always be somewhat different, as the obstacles in your way will not hesitate to change. This and with several optional side quests that you can seek, the main story and even a lot of exploration related quests such as treasure hunting, Red Dead Redemption will likely be a game that gamers can leave in their console for a long time.
Visually, Red Dead Redemption is shaping up to be a very nice looking title. Texture work is quite solid particularly in character models, the animation is motion captured in most instances and looks excellent (especially in the horses), and the lighting is very impressive, with full day and night cycles, light streaming through volumetric clouds, and a very impressive draw distance that really aids in sucking you into the game. It’s using the RAGE engine that also powers Grand Theft Auto IV and from what we’ve seen they’ve certainly improved the engine's efficiency and rectified many problems that GTAIV suffered. That being said, we did notice a few hitches in the frame rate when things got hectic, there’s quite a lot of pop in when walking into more populated areas, and some of the dynamic shadows are a little on the low res side, so hopefully by the game’s release Rockstar would have fixed these minor but noticeable issues (though we were assured the frame rate will be fixed).
Look at my horse, my horse is amazing.
On the audio side, we couldn’t complain, as the voice work, music and sound effects sounded great. Gunshots were loud and explosive and gave off a strong reverb, voice work was excellent for what we heard, and the soundtrack was mellow and relaxing whilst out in the desert, and heart pounding and suitably epic when a gunfight ensued. Audiophiles will likely be pleased with the overall work that went into the sound, as all of it is sounding excellent so far.
Red Dead Redemption is looking to be a very strong title for the first half of 2010. The gameplay we have witnessed in our preview screening looked quite polished and enjoyable, and many of the issues we had with GTAIV and such have been rectified. Questing and the dynamics are looking to give the game a lot of replay value, as it’s consistently unpredictable and also fluid in progression, so there will be little frustration when playing the game. Though we still have slight worries due to some visual anomalies, physics glitches and just how broad the random events are going to be, from what we’ve seen so far Red Dead Redemption is shaping up very nicely, and looks to satiate the hunger of many westerner and sandbox fans alike.
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