Grand Horse Theft Auto

Red Dead Redemption - Xbox 360 and PS3

Made by the fine developers at Rockstar, well a combination between Rockstar North and Rockstar San Diego, a new massively open world action-adventure Western video game has sprung onto the scene, stealing the year’s nominations and awards for the game of the year and possibly beyond. This game is called Red Dead Redemption. A game you’ve probably heard of and you know plenty of people who have it on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 and a game that threatens to take hours and hours of someone’s life away. Perfect. Just what you expect from Rockstar, being famed for such classics as Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne and the somewhat up and down series of Manhunt. The company is known for its open worlds, but here, for the first time, the Wild West is explored here, covering a massive terrain, taking a good 15 minutes to cover from the east side of the map to the west. And it’s all done on a horse or a carriage, no cars or bikes to speed away. Here everything is turned on its head, and it makes a refreshing change.

The story follows John Marston, in the 1911, he is taken away by government agents to investigate former gang members that he was in, and otherwise his family will be in grave danger. It’s a common plot here, but in these times, it’s something different, and the player is thrown right into the deep end being shown the world around him. And quickly you begin to side with John and the connection you have is very deep for a video game character. He’s a villain and a hero, and with the choices you make in the game, this can change. If you want to kill animals, kill people in the local towns, steal horses or rides, cause general havoc you can, but you’ll known for this behaviour and people will act differently and of course, you’ll be tracked by the sheriffs of the towns and have a bounty over your head. Now if you help the townspeople, save people’s life’s and go general deeds for strangers, you’ll be given fame and fortune and people will be instantly nice to you. So it’s totally up to you how you play this, for me, i was the good guy. I didn’t kill many strangers, only ones that tricked me. Fucking tricky people who stand there wanting help, you get off your horse and then they try to kill you and take the horse. It’s shocking. But that’s what i like about the game. It’s that clever.

All the reviews you’ve read, all the comments your friends have made, the game is quality, throughout it never drops, it may take a little while to getting going in how hard the missions are, but it’s totally worth the pay off. Now i haven’t finished the game yet, but I’ve had a good 12 hours of play with the game, more than enough to finish a regular game like God of War 3 or something similar, but here, at least 50 or 60 (depending how good you are) is needed. The look of the game is stunning, especially with the PS3 engine, the sun setting over the desert landscape is truly spectacular and has one of the best looks for a game I’ve seen on the console, except for Uncharted 2, God of War 3 and Final Fantasy 13. I have not played the online multiplayer but i hear it’s very addictive, but sadly i have my addictions elsewhere with Call of Duty and Fifa. I might check it out one day. But if you have a PS3 or an Xbox 360, and you have a good week or two to spare over the summer, this game is defiantly worth the money. And with the recent announcement of Additional Downloadable Content with new side missions and a mode where people are zombies, yes, zombies, the game could have another 20 or 30 hours thrown on top. Almost as bad as a Final Fantasy game!

VISUALS: The visuals are at the forefront for video games and it’s a high benchmark to follow. You’ll fall in love with the way the game looks 19%

SOUND: A great soundtrack, mixing the Wild West sounds of horses and the environment to the music thrown in along with the sometimes amazing voice acting 18%

GAMEPLAY: Mixing the great points of GTA with the gunplay of Uncharted, it’s evolved the genre to new heights 19%

LASTING APPEAL: Let me know when you’ve 100% the game 20%

SPECIAL FEATURES: Online multiplayer and with up and coming DLC packs 18%

94%

Simon Childs