It’s Grand Theft Horse… and I mean that in the best way possible.

The ways of the Old West have long since been extinguished, and for good reason: they absolutely HAD to go. Nonetheless, our society has taken to glorifying cowboy culture in virtually all forms of media. Western films have become so popular that they’ve warranted their own separate genre, and “outlaw music” (a.k.a. Country) is still a prominent music style today. However, the same things cannot be said for Western-themed video games. Ever since gaming first materialized on the scene roughly 30 years ago, one of the few Western games to be particularly noteworthy was Custer’s Revenge -- and not at all for the right reasons, I should add. But that’s all changed, now that Red Dead Redemption is here.

Red Dead Redemption is actually a sequel to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver, a game that proved to be a modest success for Rockstar but came and went without really shaking up the game industry. However, the game seems to have much more in common with Rockstar’s previous offering - Grand Theft Auto IV - than it does with its action-oriented predecessor. Everything from the presentation to the controls to the mission structure feels like it was lifted right out of GTA IV. If you‘ve played GTA IV, the sense of déjà vu can sometimes be so overwhelming that you’ll feel you might as well be controlling Niko Bellic in spurs. However, the game differentiates itself enough to justify its existence, and there are certainly worse games to be compared to than GTA IV, right?


Instead of continuing as Red Harlow from the first game, players “saddle up” (see what I did there?) as John Marston, an outlaw who wants to change his ways and start up a farm with his family. However, the American government isn’t just letting him walk away from his lifetime of crime, and it’s withholding Marston’s wife and son until he tracks down and kills members of his former gang. With government agents calling all the shots, Marston must dive back into the lifestyle he was trying to get out of in order to earn his redemption (!!) and finally be able to leave the outlaw life behind.

Once again, the folks at Rockstar have demonstrated a knack for crafting interesting and relatable characters. Although Marston takes a gruff, no-nonsense attitude toward most characters in the game, there is still a shred of humanity in him that makes you want to root for his success. As Marston hunts down people from his past, he enlists the help of a diverse array of striking individuals. These include Landon Ricketts, an old, wise gunslinger and Marston’s childhood hero; Seth, a creepy and disgusting grave robber obsessed with treasure; and Irish, a drunkard who would much sooner throw Marston in front of a moving stagecoach than risk his own neck. There are many other interesting characters populating the game’s world, keeping the story fresh and injecting the game with plenty of personality.


Like in GTA IV before it, you start out only having access to one section of the game’s map, and you unlock the other sections as the story takes you to them. Marston’s quest for redemption starts in New Austin, where he must organize a siege on the fort of Bill Williamson, Marston’s old partner-in-crime. The pursuit then takes him south of the border to Mexico, then back up north to… well… the North. The final section of the map is easily the most intriguing, with its thriving port city, thick forests, great plains and exclusive (and often dangerous) animal species. It stands as almost a direct contrast to the rest of the game’s vast deserts, canyons, and Old Western settlements.

Also not unlike GTA IV, there are plenty of side-missions and other diversions to distract you from the game’s story. These include completing tasks for “Strangers” (random people you encounter that aren’t related to the story but can be just as quirky and interesting as the story characters nonetheless), clearing out gang hideouts (certain areas in which you help out random characters by eliminating all enemies present), completing Challenges (which involve activities such as gathering plants, killing certain animals in certain ways and hunting for gold bars), doing jobs like horse-breaking and night patrol, bounty-hunting and gambling away your money in the game’s various minigames, which include Old West favorites such as Poker, Liar’s Dice, Arm Wrestling and Horseshoes. Between all these distractions and the game’s many story missions (only slightly less than the amount in GTA IV, which is saying something), Red Dead Redemption’s single-player mode will keep gamers busy for a long time.


And then there’s the combat. Combat in Red Dead Redemption is very akin to that in GTA IV, with the same basic controls and mechanics. However, thanks largely to the game’s Western setting, it’s different in a few ways that actually make it a little bit better. For one, you’re often required to engage enemies while riding horseback at high speeds, particularly in story missions. Fret not if this sounds difficult or cumbersome - it’s definitely more streamlined than the car combat sequences from GTA IV. The horses are fairly easy to steer, and you get much of the same lock-on ability that you do on foot. Plus, there’s something incredibly satisfying about shooting someone off his horse while both of you are riding toe-to-toe at speeds exceeding 35 mph.

The other major difference in Red Dead Redemption’s combat has to do with Dead-Eye Targeting, a feature brought back from Red Dead Revolver. As a skilled gunslinger, Marston has the ability to slow time down to a crawl and cherry-pick up to five targets, which you must mark by highlighting them with your cursor and pressing RB or R1. Once you’ve made your selections, pressing the fire button will send the game back into real time, where Marston will hit all marked targets with deadly speed and accuracy. You probably won’t use this feature too much at first, but by the time you’ve upgraded it to its highest capacity, you’ll find yourself willingly using it at every opportunity. It doesn’t make the game too easy, either; between the limited meter that regulates your Dead-Eye abilities and the consistently challenging combat scenarios, Red Dead Redemption will keep you on your toes for the most part.


In terms of sheer value, you’d be hard-pressed to find a better buy this year than Red Dead Redemption. In addition to a lengthy solo campaign that would keep most gamers busy for roughly 30-50 hours, the game features a multiplayer mode that is nearly every bit as expansive as the single-player game. The core of the multiplayer experience is Free Roam mode, which drops you into the same basic world map from the solo game and allows you to form a posse with up to seven other players. From there, you and your posse can travel around the map and complete many of the same activities available in single-player as a team, such as clearing out gang hideouts and completing Challenges. Or, you can go around harassing enemy players by finding and killing them on the map or challenging them to a variety of competitive game modes that pit posse against posse. Each of these competitive modes begins with a fun and chaotic “Mexican standoff” that leaves all players to fend for themselves.

With a refreshing mixture of cooperative and competitive gameplay, as well as an extensive ranking system that rewards players with new mounts and weapons, Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer component is great fun, and a definite improvement over what GTA IV had to offer. However, after a few weeks of enjoyment, you’ll most likely find yourself returning to Call of Duty or Battlefield or whatever you were playing nonstop before this game came out. Still, a steady stream of multiplayer-centric DLC gives plenty of reason to keep coming back. The first DLC pack, titled “Outlaws to the End,” was released for free on June 22nd and adds six exclusive co-op missions to the Red Dead experience. The second, “Legends and Killers,” came out on August 10th and adds several new competitive maps, as well as a slew of new playable characters taken from Red Dead Revolver. With three more DLC packs to follow, including a zombie-themed pack, Red Dead Redemption is likely to have a spot on your shelf for months to come.

As you might expect from a massive open-world game, Red Dead Redemption has its share of bugs and glitches. Most of these are of the mundane sort, such as characters not rendering properly in cutscenes, Marston getting stuck on objects and characters’ feet clipping into the ground. However, other bugs are less game-breaking and more… hilarious. You might encounter some highly unusual glitches while playing, such as people soaring through the air like birds (or running around the desert like coyotes). I personally didn’t see any of these during my time with the game, but they have been widely reported. In fact, if you search “red dead redemption glitches” on YouTube, you’ll find a treasure trove of hilarious gems.

Red Dead Redemption was in development for more than five years (it was first showcased at E3 2005 as “Untitled Old West Project”), so it’s refreshing to see that it not only lives up to the hype, but it sets a new standard for both Western-themed games and sandbox games alike. Don’t let my overuse of the phrase “like GTA” dissuade you from checking it out; even if you’ve logged as many hours in Liberty City as I have, Red Dead Redemption is very much worth playing. It may even be one of your standout gaming experiences this year.