Just picked this up over the weekend. While I didn't get as many hours in as I'd have liked on account of sunny weather, I had a chance to delve into the world of Red Dead Redemption.

Lets get this out of the way: Oh my ****ing bbq, its amazing.

Though I hear some people saying its GTA with horses, I have to disagree. Of course, it shares various mechanics with the more recent GTA installments. The action is expanded from the GTA4 model. Missions start by going to specific waypoints on your map, which initiates a cutscene leading up to the action. You can steal horses and carts and wagons. Its open world. You can cause havok and terrorize everyone. Etc.

Where it leaves the GTA model, and why I find it doesn't feel like GTA at all, its that your thrown in a wide open world, not a cramped city filled to the brink with civilians and cars and cops and "order". The scale of the world in RDR is simply huge. The wider space really changes the way this genre plays. Its closer to an open-world RPG à la Gothic or Elder Scrolls, minus character creation and stats.

What I'm happiest about is that the gunplay is actually fun. I couldn't wrap my head around the way GTA4 worked and found that fighting indoor like outdoors was just annoying. Not to mention that gunfire sounds were just flat and mostly terrible. Thats not the case in RDR. The booming shots will punch you through your speakers.

The Dead Eye combat feature is a bit of a mixed bag for me, though. I originally liked the slow motion, but I find rank 2 which automatically paints various shots by moving the crosshair over your enemies somewhat unwieldy. I end up killing most people, instead of incapacitating them like I wanted. Hopefully rank 3, which lets me paint shots like I want, will work out better.



Overall, great game, anyone here's got it? What are your impressions on it? Play to run any MP?

That's really awesome. I must say when Gun came out I really really loved that game (cept for it being so ****ing short), and I really do like the Western theme. One of the reasons I liked San Andreas a lot more than GTAIV was just how open the areas were in the desert/forest areas.

I may pick this game up when i get home

One thing I failed to mention is that you can die FAST. I've had a little trouble getting used to the radial guns menu, and have often left the lasso or knife selected by mistake. If that was the case and I got ambushed on the roads by three or more men, I'd die before I actually had the chance to switch weapons. Of course, that promotes more thought process. Now that I'm used to it, its getting better.

John Marston is an excellent lead character, badass and awesome and the overall cast of characters I've met so far, from Marshall Johnston to Seth to Bonnie to the swindling merchant are all brilliantly protrayed. Facial animations are a little subpar to what you'd expect nowadays in light of games like uncharted and god of war, and general civilian animations are still a little stiff and robotic. Cutscenes are just awesome.

I loved GUN too, and this easily blows it to smithereens!

I love it, IMA COWBOY.

I shed a tear the first time my horsie died, as I was gutting and skinning him

We should totally do some MP lulz, I think you already have me on as a friend. But for other people it's AndrewOfPie

I do have you as a friend, saw you playing last night. I'm totally game to posse up and go hunting and clearing out bandit hideouts sometime. I'm not big on competitive multiplayer though. There IS a free coop dlc pack coming out in June, I think.

And my horse died by drowning at one point. I find it annoying the game just randomly throws a new horse at you if you try whistling after your horse died. Where does it come from? They should just force you to hike it out to town, take a stagecoach back to somewhere where you can either buy a horse, lasso and break one, or at the very least be given one by the nice folks at McFarlane Ranch.

You just randomly get a new horse? That is indeed disappointing. I wanted to grand theft equine

Well, honestly, I just don't whistle for it. When I found out they gave you a random horse after yours dies, I Just shot it in the head and forced myself to hike back to town

hahah! You shoot your horse in the head as a matter of principle, interesting

And its hilarious when you're out in the wild and someone runs up to you screaming for help, just to suddenly throw you right off your horse and steal it from under you effectively calling you a sucker. Then you just get up, pop dead eye mode on and riddle them with holes.

Oh I failed to mention, duels are really cool. Its especially satisfying when you manage to shoot the gun out of your opponent's hands. Won two duels that way early on. Only died once. There are also lots of fun minigames. Five Finger Fillet and Horseshoes are particularly fun.

The other way to get your horse back from a thief is to whistle for it, instant +50 honour.

That's lame, Detty

Rest of the game does sound pretty damn cool though

Why is it lame? It makes your horse rear and the thief falls off, you get your ride back without killing the dude = honour.

I'm going to have to try that. Thats pretty awesome.

I'm going for the good, law-abiding guy so far... though I "cheated" at one point. I am, of course, not afraid to kill. I'm not especially kind to cattle rustlers during my nightwatch rounds.

Early on, the part where you meet that girl Jenny from the opening train scene out in the wild, you bring her medicine and what not. After that she just lays there dying and refuses to let you bring her back to town. I decided to hogtie her and bring her back to town, where I dropped her down and cut her loose. -100 honor, but god be damned if I let some stupid faith-blind girl die out in the wild.

I lost loads of honour for accidentally letting a hostage die in a gang hideout

Buy the bandana, then you can do whatever the hell you want without hurting your honor as long as you're wearing it (flipside is you also can't gain honor while wearing it).

I've yet to manage to save one of those people getting hanged in random encounters. Though the last time I tried I discovered you could shoot the rope... too late

If I was going to intentionally screw up I would have worn the bandana...

I was just pointing it out as a general way to go nuts and commit a lot of crime without as many repercussions. Especially if you want to do some of the achievements/trophies like the $5000 bounty one or the train one.

I desperately want to get this game, but I can't afford it.
I've been playing GTA4 to hold me off until I get some income (never beat it, got right up to the last 5-10 missions).

The game is good, and fun, and the graphics are great, but what makes me absolutely love this game is the story. Amazing. Maybe my favorite.

I loved the whole story except for the ending. Why'd John have to die and get replaced by his whiney little ***** of a son?

Aw, come on, the ending is the best part! It was perfect. Plus, it sets up the perfect "he shot my pa" situation, but with the kind of excellent moral complication and ambiguity that I loved about the story

Well, it wasn't the actual ending itself I hate but rather the fact that my character's badass voice has been replaced with a whiney little kid's voice.

Jep is right, game owns.

My gamertag is jj1325 if anyone wants to play sometime

I was thinking of picking it up but anyone comparing it to an elder scrolls game isn't making me want it.

I haven't played a good western game since Outlaws...

This thread is making me want to buy this game I hadn't even heard of. I guess it's ok I haven't bought a new game in ages.

I got is yesterday. It's awesome. Definitely has the GTA gameplay feel, but the environment is completely different. The setting is just perfect. Not too far into the story yet, but it's really great so far. Lots of interesting characters and random side quests.

I also love it because it takes place in all of my favorite areas of the US...well, plus some other places. Awesome setting.

My other post was short so I'll elaborate a little bit. Yes, the game is awesome. It is definitely similar to GTA 4 because of course it's the same engine, except this time they didn't get anything wrong. Movement is no longer slow or clunky and the fighting is massively improved. Everything is much more fluid and the rural environment really, REALLY, works for this game. A good story, tons of stuff you wouldn't think would be fun in a game that I have spent hours doing (hunting, for example), and the random things they have planned for you in the desert wasteland don't feel forced and are often lots of fun. There is a ton of versatility in each situation and the amount of items they give you to play around with definitely helps with that. The lasso, for example, is among the most fun weapons to use in the game.

Another great thing is that the missions you are required to do that are only interesting once, like herding cattle, only happen one time. Rockstar seems to finally understand that we don't like to do dumb **** over and over (but this game allows you to replay missions, so you can if you want). Also, the problem of accepting a mission and having to go to the other end of the world and back is over. Either you can fast travel, or mission givers are located near the actual objective now.

Though all of this sounds a lot like an improved GTA 4 set in the wild west, when you get the game you will be surprised with just how very different the games really are. And how much this one kicks ass.

And whoever said it is like an elder scrolls game, no, no it isn't. In fact, I can't think of one thing besides horses that make them similar.

when is this out for pc

I played my friend's copy today and I fell in love. I had no idea it was the same engine as GTA4, it's so much better.

Never.

At least, it's not listed as PC and they haven't decided on whether to do a port or not. I assume they will though since it's been so successful.

They didn't list GTA IV for pc for the first couple of months either, I remember being on some forums and arguing about that, I knew it would end up coming.
But... with Red Dead, I'm not so sure. I'm thinking Rockstar isn't so concerned about pc nowadays

I worded myself wrong. The game mechanics themselves are closer to GTA. The wide-open world is what I meant was more reminiscent of an Elder Scrolls title than GTA. (Lush, wide-open contries with settlements instead of a cramped cityscape.)

The PC version of GTA IV was a pretty crappy port too.

Yeah that's the main reason I think Rockstar doesn't care about pc anymore, I meant to say that in my post >_>

I actually don't mind if it's 360 only...the more good 360 exclusives that come out, the more I feel like it was worth buying one..

But, it's not 360 only...

It's on the PS3 too.

[Curse you instapost!]