There was the Good, the Bad and the Ugly, and then came Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar games. The American West has inspired a lot of famous writers and almost every kid costume. I can't imagine someone who didn't wear a cowboy costume in his early years. Such films have gone round the globe and it seemed that the videogame industry had put aside this genre, until of course, Rockstar Games made a success from this genre.

Rockstar are famous for their Grand Theft Auto series which have made a huge hit in the market, and now it was the turn to make a Grand Theft Western game which goes back in time, and after playing the game on both Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, I can clearly say that in this game, a lot of passion was injected in developing this game.

Since Rockstar is famous for making controversial games and it kept that image although sex scenes have been drastically removed, although there is cutscene before the mission 'Gates of El Presidio' there is a sex scene showing the rebel leader Reyes, which is quite a funny scene. Since the game features the American West scenario and to reflect those times, issues like immigration, racism and federal government can be found in the game. Although some may be offensive, one has to keep in mind that the game must reflect these issues, since that was part of the American history and it cannot be changed.

For example, at a point in time you will have to work with a Native American named Nastas who will be discriminated by a funny fellow professor named McDougal trying to find why their race is inferior. As I said before, although it may seem offensive, this gives a sense of history and authenticity according to what American West and history was about. History cannot be erased, and I have played throughout all the game, and can positively say that it is balanced and not directly offensive.

In Red Dead Redemption you are thrown in the cowboy shoes of Mr. John Marston who is an ex-outlaw who has redeemed himself for good which of course, this has replaced his old friends to old enemies. He's the western badass which you can compare him to Clint Eastwood. He's cool in his ways when sometime after a mission you will see him laying against a pole with his hat hiding his eyes and smoking a cigarette. Everyone knows that whatever you do in life, it will case you back and this is what happened to our hero. He is left alone to fight for his own and for his family in a wild and lawless land, and that is just the beginning of Marston's story. As all you may know, Rockstar Games have the fame of delivering an impressive story-line, and as per capita, they succeeded in accomplishing a fine plot. The main story features a span of twenty hours but there is too much to do in the game that it would be difficult to stick to the main story only, there is too much going. This of course, being to the fact that the game is an open world game and Rockstar Games has affirmed their mastery on.

The story takes place in the dusty and dry plains situated between the Mexican and the U.S. border. You will meet a number of supporting characters which will help you to get things straight. As a standard by Rockstar Games, the dialog and voice acting is impeccable, with an impressive use of the facial motion with voice synchronization.

Apart from the main mission you can have a lot of side mission which will keep you stuck to the game. Herding cattle, capturing wild mustangs, tracking down outlaws, treasure hunting, sharpshooting challenges, playing horse shoes, playing poker & blackjack, bandit hideout shootouts and more side missions/ quests you can think of. You can spend hour being lone star, just riding in the wild watching the sunrise or sunset, finding herbs and desert flowers or hunting wild animals and loot their skin. If you want to be a bandit, then you can rob people, assault trains, steal from banks by cracking safes and assaulting convoys. This is just enough to get you for months of endless side missions, and if you are still not satisfied with the twenty hour main story and side missions, you can go online using the free Rockstar Social Club and take on leader boards and extra challenges.

The first side mission that I have found was the one on the road to Armadillo village where a man wanted to buy a piece of land from an old man. The old man doesn't want to sell him the land, so you come in to try to make the old man sell. You have two choices in the game when making a side or main mission, i.e. either try to honestly make the deal or take it by force. You can be the bad or the good guy. It's all up to you, well everything is up to you since if you will be good, you will earn fame and honor, but if not, you will be wanted by the law. So it's like you would end up playing the game back from scratch after your complete it all, to see what it would look like if you gone bad. With the fame and honor, new items will be unlocked and bandits will be more cautious before assaulting you.

As one can see, there is just too much to do and see in the game. At every corner there is something happening or something moving. The game is never static or stale and it gives a feeling of a well designed game. If you are in a village you will randomly get challenged by an angry cowboy for a duel or help a prostitute being attacked or a fellow having his horse stolen. Although the duel is nice to play, after some time it gets a little bit too easy to do. Outside the villages you will get to meet persons being attacked by a gang or wild animals. Talking about attacks by animals, don't think you will just ride in the wild un-noticed. You will get attacked by cougar and bears along the way, so be careful. One can say that's it's an infinite game!

If you still are not satisfied with the gameplay, you can take your shooting online where the online part features cooperative and competitive modes with a maximum of 16 simultaneous players.

The competitive area includes the standard shootouts and a capture the flag type. This mode is quite funny, and can be used to pass some time especially when standing in a circle and everyone draws their pistols. The forte of the multiplayer is the cooperative free roam which is a lobby where it lets 16 players to join into a world and the invade the single-player map where you will be free to form gangs to assault hideouts, trains, banks and forts as a team, or you can just enjoy a nice ride in the countryside. You are open to do whatever you want in this mode. A larger number of side games from the single player mode are available to download from the Social Club where you will gain experience points to level up and unlock some nifty stuff like character models, modes and better horses.

The environment is somewhat spectacular in its view. You will never see a quite or static area if you stop. You will always see a critter running around, a deer, a rabbit, and vultures flying high in the sky or a bold eagle crossing the sky. Apart from the animals, you will occasionally see trains passing, caravans, people passing by with their horses and other activities. The environment involves every object in the view and weather affects everything. Like example when it's windy your hair, grass and everything around you if affected while when it's raining you see things getting wet and rain puddles. This adds to the world realism effects and authenticity of the game.

The graphics are impressive and astonishing with great detail from the artistic point of view, the colors, the land details have been greatly given attention. A good supplement to the graphics is the amazing western oriented soundtrack which adds character to the game and elevates the gameplay.

As regards to gameplay, Red Dead Redemption is a great achievement. The covering system is very smooth and fluid as when you are running towards a cover post, you can press the R1 button and John will slide onto the cover position. The covering system is smooth and in changing from one position to another and it's not like hiding behind a wooden crate will get you infinite shield. You have to strategically move from one position to another. The shooting is very realistic and you will occasionally hear the sound of the bullets hitting the rocks making that 'Pewwww' noise like in the western movies, and if you shoot an enemy on the hat and it will fly off or if you shoot him in his foot he will stump around. The shooting mechanism is interesting and very easy to adapt to since the aim will automatically position itself on the enemy when the aim is near it. This does not apply when you use the Gatling gun.

Since we are talking about this, it would be good to talk about the physics of the game. The biggest challenge of this game was the horse muscles and motion which is very real and detailed. Also when shooting somebody it's not just shooting someone, the impact of the bullet on the body is very impressive.

So, for the part which either I didn't agree on and parts which should be improved. The game difficulty is somewhat rewarding to the player, in the sense that it will not be that easy for the player to pass the single player main missions. I mean you will die here and there, but it's not very challenging. This can be considered as a pro or con since a very difficult game will get boring and a very easy game could be just as bored. Red Dead Redemption is somewhat in the middle. It isn't easy to accomplish, but it should have been more difficult.

As regards to bugs in the game, the only two things that I have encountered where that in one time the game just hanged during a mission load screen and the when entering a village after a cutscene, the ground textures disappeared. One other thing that I could have changed in the storylines is that John Marston is too good and he always helps everyone irrelevant to what they did to him. The last thing is that maybe the voice of John could have been set with a lower pitch.

Conclusion

There is one thing to say about Red Dead Redemption, that it is a must play and that Rockstar have taken gaming to new heights by creating a huge sandbox game where its possibilities are very large. The game should keep for stuck for months. The story-line is impressive and gameplay is fantastic. A very job well done! Let's just hope that Clint Eastwood doesn't get mad for the fact that John Marston is taking his 1st place in the Western genre.