Archive for June, 2010

Read Dead Redemption

Anyone that has read some of my previous posts knows I’m a cheap ass and it’s not easy for me to come to terms with paying full price for new games.  It’s just too much damn money for something that usually doesn’t last very long.  The reviews and hype this game was getting though convinced me to bite the bullet and buy it.  I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I knew it was a Rockstar game so I assumed GTA the Western from the YouTube videos and comments I’ve read.  In the end I found I was only partially correct.

Graphics

The look of the game is pretty stunning.  I thought I was used to what the current generation consoles looked like and what they were capable of but somehow Rockstar really outdid themselves making a beautiful game that somehow runs great on the 360′s limited hardware a mile ahead of what other games are doing.  While some people complained that the game’s landscape gets a little repetitive and I can see where they’d reach that conclusion, I didn’t really get tired of it.  I guess it was just the atmosphere that it generated for me.  I felt like a gritty ass cowboy fighting my way through the old West.  Rockstar really delivered here.

Sound

The sound in the game is also amazing.  The ambient Western score playing in the background of the game really added the finishing touches on an already gripping atmosphere in the game through the visuals.  I thought they really nailed it but then on my way into Mexico an original lyrical song started playing and it blew me away.  The sound and music really sets it apart as something on another level.  It’s one of the few games I actually had to get the soundtrack to after I finished the game.

Controls

The dreaded aiming 3rd person shooter style Xbox game was going through my head while I was standing in the checkout line at Best Buy struggling with handing over $60.  However the game eased my pain a little with it’s auto targeting mechanics and Fallout 3 V.A.T.S. style bullet time mechanic.  While making the game a little extra easy at times, the aiming system did make it at least enjoyable to me.  Not to mention you can pull off some pretty crazy gun fight antics with the Deadeye system.  Other than the aiming, it’s pretty standard fair for controls.  The horse riding controls seemed interesting enough although there is a good bit of riding around in the game, the awesome visuals and soundtrack make it bearable to do so much traveling.

Story

With the visuals, sound and controls all coming together well to make an excellent experience, the heart of Read Dead Redemption lies in it’s absolutely great storytelling.  Great writing and voice over work created a compelling story of a old gritty cowboy coming to the end of his era and fighting for redemption (there’s a point to the name of the game) with his life and his family.  The story of this game raises the bar for other games in the future and it’s delivery and quality is going to be talked about for quite a while.

Multi-player

I didn’t really worry about the multi-player until I finished the single player story.  Mostly because I couldn’t stop playing it.  I did get a bit of time with it though once I finished the story.  Multi-player has a couple different modes.  The first is a open ended almost mini-MMORPG mode where you can level up to earn better guns/horses and work with (or against) other group’s posse’s to take out gang hideouts and complete mini-objectives in the RDR world.  Hilariously your starting character at level 1 doesn’t even get a horse, he rides around a donkey with the expected sounds that should be associated with such donkey intact.  The more traditional 3rd person shooter modes exist also such as team deathmatch shootouts and the like.  All of these taking place in the Read Dead Redemption setting with the Western style behind them make for a pretty good time.  This gives the game some solid value after the completion of the story mode.

Conclusion

Most of my game adventures are played over the course of a few weeks once I decide to commit and finish a game.  20 hours of Read Dead Redemption took place for me in about 4 days.  That says something, at least to me; about the quality of this game.  As a complete package, Read Dead Redemption is one of the best gaming experiences I’ve had in the last 10 years.  Between the mini-games, solid story, and value added mutli-player; it’s going to be hard to dethrone this as game of the year.  Unfortunately for RDR; Starcraft 2 is releasing this year also else there would probably be no competition for it.  Regardless RDR is an experience no gamer should miss.  My original impression would be a GTA Western, when I said I was partially correct – it does bring a lot of mechanics and feel from GTA but with a level of storytelling and atmosphere that sets it apart and in my opinion makes it superior in every way.  Also the ending isn’t quite when you expect it to be.  It’s not over till the credits roll.