Red Dead Redemption went under the radar for me in many ways, it was only just before launch a couple of weeks ago that I realized I wanted it. Then I read a couple of reviews and I realized I wanted it a whole lot. I watched endless westerns, listened to country music and practiced my best Eastwood squint to get in the mood. I wasn’t sold by the concept – Grand Theft Auto in the Old West – not that I didn’t play Grand Theft Auto 4, but the GTA series of games, as great as they are, leave a bitter taste in my mouth. The balance of an expansive world, quirky humour, and a fantastic story just doesn’t balance out the distasteful and terrible violence as well I feel terrible – TERRIBLE – every time I run someone over in a car. But I read a few reviews, then a few reviews more, and looked at the screenshots and I just knew I would need this video game. I hadn’t lost myself in a video game world since Mass Effect 2 (three months is a long time for me not to throw myself into a virtual world) and was about time.
I am far from finishing the game, although I suspect I will make considerable headway during my stay-cation next week, but I wanted to give some first impressions, all of them positive.
The setting is perfect. I am in love with the world and putting the game within a violent society does a lot to make up for my general queasiness from the random and brutal acts of violence. I really have only scratched the surface of the game so I may be put in a moral situation eventually that I feel uneasy over, but roaming in a world that more believably has people facing a terrible end constantly seems more believable. I have killed a couple of people I really didn’t mean to – a guy being attacked by coyotes at the beginning fell victim to my terrible, terrible aim. As well, passers-by who solicit me as a gun for hire especially when on horseback may well meet the same end as those I am supposed to kill.
The quality and creativity of the setting itself is also superb – far more imaginative than the generic urban settings of GTA3, GTA:SA and GTA4 and it speaks volumes about why I found Vice City to be superior than those other entries – a generic urban city has nothing on something that is created with love like the Old West world of Red Dead Redemption. Relying on every cliche and tried trick in the huge body of work in the Western genre Rockstar has succeeded in making a world I love playing in.
I would live in Red Dead Redemption if I could. Something that many games, and in particular other sandbox games, miss is creating a world that people would want to live in even if they weren’t the hero or antihero. No matter how dirty or grungy the Star Wars universe is, I would love to live there. I don’t need to be a Jedi – I would be satisfied with moisture farmer, really. Often I will long for being a hobbit, and I’d love to live in any of a dozen fictional universes. Contrast that not just to the Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto, but the bleak world of Tristram in Diablo, the ancient Greece of God of War, any planet within the Metroid series or most places in the Mushroom Kingdom. These are all places that seem like it would suck to be anyone or anything other the main protagonist. Not true of Red Dead Redemption – as long as I could figure out how to wield a weapon sufficiently I would retire there just as happy as Doc Brown seemed like he was going to be.
It’s huge. I have no idea how far I am in the game, but I’m having a blast and I know I’ve only seen a fraction of the world. I rode through an amazing thunderstorm last night, watched the waterfalls at sunrise, and love breaking new stallions. I can’t wait to see what else the game has in store for me.
Why did it have to be snakes? There is a downside, and I knew it going in. There are snakes. I’ve been bitten twice and yelped in real life both times. I’m quite frightened of heading too far into the bush as a result, but I’m still playing so that’s a good sign. For those readers who didn’t know, I have quite the snake phobia but I’m willing to work around it for this game and Indiana Jones movies.
Due to peer pressure I have gone out and got a tumblr blog. In its infancy I still don’t know what it does that say this blog doesn’t save a good deal of interactivity with other tumblr users (and that’s likely enough). But I do worry what this means for this blog… I already blog far less than I’d like and having yet another outlet for my social media and writing means this blog may suffer further.
