I think it's pretty undeniable that Red Dead Redemption is great. I'm just not so sure it's a great game.
This is the biggest seller of the year so far, a virtual juggernaut, yet in a lot of ways it's unlike anything that I would traditionally call a "game." Horse riding simulator, man killing experience, landscape appreciation creator, yes. But tying all of those things together into a package that has the gameplay match the ambition of the concept and the artistry of the Old West seems to have been a bit of a stumbling block.
I've included this picture for a reason. This is a book that sat on the Western shelf at Chapters, the book store I worked at for six years, and never sold a copy. I can't remember too much about the book, other than that it features Jesus on a horse traveling through "Whoop Up Country," but it's a patently ridiculous concept and no wonder it didn't sell any copies. The funny thing is, though, that in a lot of ways, Red Dead Redemption has you play as a deity on a horse. John Marston (although, as the game later goes to show, that may not be his "actual" name, as he was born in an orphanage) is a gruff, no-nonsense ex-outlaw with a score to settle. Another outlaw that he rode with back in the day by the name of Bill Williamson is on the loose, and the government has taken John's wife and kids until John helps them out to bring Williamson to justice.
This is a set-up that often borders on the cliche, and at other times dives right headfirst into it. Marston himself isn't so bad, as he has a certain depth that makes him probably the most likeable Rockstar character… ever. Even though his character occasionally verges into being just a straight-up killing machine, at least you can identify with some of his issues, at least on a surface level. As for the other characters, I'd call them a mixed bag if the bag had at least a few interesting characters in it. Basically, throughout the game, you have to travel to meet different characters who will help you catch Williamson (and, in return, need you to do an endless parade of favours for them), and invariably, the characters will straight-up tell you what their particular quirk or character trait is – and it's usually only one or two of them. Take Seth, for instance. He's crazy! Not only that, but he tells you he's crazy! Or Irish. Guess what? He's Irish! And drunk! Who'd have thunk it?
The characters get a little bit better in the Mexican section of the game, when Marston has to cross over the border to try to catch Williamson, but only marginally. Landon Ricketts, a down-and-out old gunslinger, is probably the best of the bunch, although even he falls victim to saying things like "well, now that I'm old my pecker don't work so good," etc., etc. This is the classic case of telling instead of showing, and it seems like Rockstar didn't trust the player enough to determine what type of character s/he is dealing with without just saying it outright.
Not faring much better are the themes of the game, which are actually very interesting, but could have been conveyed without the characters just talking about them. Bonnie McFarland (one of only a very, very small amount of female characters in the game, which is a real disappointment to say the least. Come on Rockstar, not all females in the Old West were prostitutes) is the worst offender in this regard, as in the endless conversations that Marston has with characters whilst on horseback, she continues to talk about the changing tides of American technological change, as well as changing values as city folk impose their will more on the last remnants of the Old West.
Now don't get me wrong – this is a very interesting thesis for a game to try to tackle, and it's one that we've seen (obviously to greater effect, of course) in films such as There Will Be Blood and others. But it's one that I got without having to listen to a single word of dialog, namely because the game is set in the early 1900s, really at the end of the Old West era in the US.
There are other themes, too, that the game puts forward unintentionally, I think, that it fails to deal with effectively. For instance, you do A LOT of killing in this game. Like, I probably killed over two hundred people by the end of my playthrough, and the game makes no big deal out of it (besides the occasional snippy quip about how "you sure do kill a lot of people, Mr. Marston"). It's a modern video game convention to have killing be the primary mode of play, I guess, but it seems really strange that even though I was trying to play the game as squeaky clean as possible, I still killed so many people, and the game made no mention of it.
That's a theme that speaks to the American experience, too, and would have been ripe for commentary. I mean, I could have handled killing so many people if the game was making some sort of point about it. Instead, I killed because that was the only way the game could think to make a game out of its scenario. Don't get me wrong, a lot of people died in the Old West, but this is a modern retelling of those events, and I definitely would have appreciated some context.
Gameplay, then, boils down to only a couple of things, despite this game's status as an "open world" game. You ride your horse from one end of the gigantic world map of New Austin to the other, stopping along the way to take missions from various people. The missions are divided neatly into two categories – the first is where the game sets up some sort of context for your actions (ex. you need to find a treasure map for someone, or you have to help out an elixir salesman), and then throws bad guys at you to shoot to a bloody pulp; and the second is where you horse race. So literally, the main game has you doing those two things, over and over and over again.
Thankfully, the shooting is relatively fun and responsive. Unfortunately, though, this is another area with piss-poor game design, as John Marston is an untouchable omnipresent entity. He can regenerate health. He can slow down time to shoot guys in the face. He can get shot seven times in the stomach and not die. He can kill guys by shooting them once in the arm. He is a Destroyer of Worlds, dressed as a cowboy. It's really jarring and for a game that purports to be a simulacrum of real-life, I'm not sure why they made your character so completely undestroyable. Oh, sure, you'll die once and awhile, but I found that that was mostly when it was dark outside and I couldn't see who was shooting at me.
This kind of design spills over into the non-shooting segments as well. For instance, the game gives you a compass, wherein you can see the locations of every important person that you need to talk to. How does John know where those people are? Who knows? Not only that, but he apparently has a high-tech GPS system that he brought back from the future, because you can program in the destination of wherever you want to go. The physical package of the game even comes with a goddamn map, so I'm not sure why this was necessary other than to make navigating the world as easy possible. With that being said, I'm not sure how one could make the experience enjoyable without these additions (I can only imagine how frustrating it would be to try and find the people you want to talk to without this system), but it really just serves to highlight the fact that videogames don't really have organic solutions to a lot of the ambitious ideas that they currently seem to have.
Of more worry, though, is the way the game babies the player during a mission. I found that I could completely tune out during the (lengthy) cutscenes in the game, and once I reached my mission, the game would scroll text along the bottom telling me exactly what to do. "Hide behind cover." "Guard the prisoners." "Pick up a rifle." And on and on. Each mission, then, became a series of little instructions, as if the game had the impression that I was an idiot who couldn't follow the general outline of what I was supposed to do from the cutscenes or from the other characters I was with telling me what to do on the way to the mission.
There was one major issue, though, that really pulled me out of the game and made me question the validity of this genre of game entirely. See, it's not a role-playing game, that's for sure – John Marston has a very defined personality – yet, the game wants you to make "decisions" about what kind of person he is. Is he the type to kill prostitutes, tie up nuns and pull them from his horse, and get drunk every night? Or is he the type of person to go to bed on time every night, and only kill when necessary? Leaving this up to the player doesn't make any fucking sense, because whatever you do, it's probably not going to line up with how John is as a character. It destroys the textual unity of the game into a million little pieces. (Not to mention the absolutely morally reprehensible "Achievements," which you can read about here.)
This is a problem with most other Rockstar games as well, and one wishes they would just put their bloodlust on the backburner for awhile. Between this, Grand Theft Auto and Manhunt, they're basically some of the most sadistic bastards out there. People have said that, "oh, they're not ACTUALLY saying that you should be a incontrovertible asshole – they give you the choice." Yes, but maybe instead of giving us the choice, they should just not give us the choice. It's clear to me, now more than ever, that a more "linear" progression really can tighten up the thematic elements and the plot and most of all, make clear the morality of the game, and that's important to me as a person who naturally feels apprehension about being a sadist.
I've talked shit about this game for long enough, though, because there are things that this game does that I've never seen done so well in a game, and mostly, they're things that have nothing to do with the "game" portion of it at all. For one, this is easily the best looking game that I've ever seen with a realistic visual style. Well, at least when you're looking at the game while actually playing it. The cutscenes can get a little wonky, and there's definitely some uncanny valley stuff going on, but overall this is a game that looks absolutely astounding. I've driven through bits of Nevada, and this game absolutely captures that otherworldly landscape to a tee.
Riding around on your horse is also a blast, and there were times when I would be riding, looking at a sunset over a canyon ridge, and I would think, "this is the best game I've ever played." The presentation is just phenomenal, and that extends into all aspects of the game. There's one moment in particular that will stay with me for a long time near the end of the game that I don't want to spoil for you that's both haunting and evocative, and kind of blows the near-silliness of the first two-thirds of the game out of the water. As well, the use of this song in particular just sent shivers up my spine. It's effective because it's only done once – the rest of the time, the game is filled with sparse, effective, and unconventional Western music.
The game really just captures the period with such a keen eye for detail that it's no wonder the game took so long to come out. That time was really used effectively for making the game world one of the best I've ever seen. The game might have its share of problems, but this aspect of it absolutely does not. In fact, it's enough for me even to recommend the game to you, because despite its failings as a game, the presentation more than makes up for it.
This is a game about America, and while it certainly tries to tackle the mythology of Old West to criticize it, I think that Red Dead Redemption ends up being more of a product of American ideology and thought than it is a critique of it. In that way, it's fascinating independent of its aims, because it captures a moment in American culture, past and present, really effectively. The Old West has never been seen through this light, and it easily makes Red Dead Redemption a worthy addition to the pantheon of Western literature, films, and games (of course, as pretty much every other Western game that I've ever seen has sucked, real bad). It's too bad that the characters, plot, and gameplay keep getting in the way though.