{"id":4504,"date":"2010-05-20T18:35:10","date_gmt":"2010-05-21T00:35:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.gamingwithchildren.com\/?p=4504"},"modified":"2010-05-20T18:35:10","modified_gmt":"2010-05-21T00:35:10","slug":"once-upon-a-time-in-red-dead-redemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/2010\/05\/20\/once-upon-a-time-in-red-dead-redemption\/","title":{"rendered":"Once Upon a Time in Red Dead Redemption"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>In the vast expanse that is New Austin there’s a lot to do. Most of involves killing but hey, this is the wild west as seen through the lens of Sergio Leone. The Italian “Spaghetti” Westerns, starring Clint Eastwood, loom large over Rockstar’s latest playground and I couldn’t be happier about the result. They nailed it. From the man-of-few-words hero\/villain that has a name (Marston) to the endless parade of classic and homage ridden sidequests. I haven’t delved far into the main quest but the desert and I have more than a passing acquaintance. It’s a dangerous place, not as lonely as it should be, but there’s something interesting around every corner. Thankfully, the pace, except for the main missions, is yours to make.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On your way to rescuing a Snake Oil salesman who’s been ambushed you might come across a young man desperately enlisting help to stop the lynching of his friend. A widow has lost her boy, and you’re out on the prairie hunting down a bounty hunter (the chases that result from these can be heart pounding), when you come across a homesteader who is trying to rescue his daughter from bandits. I was legitimately saddened when I misjudged the situation and she was gunned down right before I put a bullet between the eyes of the bad guy.<\/p>\n

These are hardly spoilers because there’s an awful lot more to do and those are just side quests. Red Dead lends itself to stories, provided you can overlook some of the – probably necessary – gamey-ness (actually, you can also hunt game hereabouts), some of them can be quite affecting. I was chasing down a bad guy when he veered off into some scrub. It was a great tactic, and I couldn’t tell if it was on purpose, but this stirred up a wolf pack who chased me down and killed my horse. The bad guy got away but I was able to salvage some cash by skinning the wolves (and my horse) and then I carefully walked on back toward town. Soon enough I saw another man running for his life from more wolves, after a harrowing struggle in which I failed to save him (I fail at these side quests a lot – don’t ask me about the guy what got hanged, I couldn’t “Good Bad and Ugly” the rope in time and he swung against the darkening sky.<\/p>\n

Oh yeah, the graphics are gorgeous and the transition from night to day and vice versa is cinematic and often worth stopping to marvel at. The only problem is how the bad guys blend in with the scenery. This is mitigated by the sight of smoke from their guns and a radar system that shows where they are in relation to you.<\/p>\n

There’s a cover system but Rockstar has never been great at this sort of thing, but the part that annoys me most is the fact that these villains are almost all crack shots. You heal automatically as has become the custom in games lately – and there’s medicine for emergencies – \u00a0but if you’re caught in the open they can cut you down right quick. You’re always outnumbered too.<\/p>\n

The game’s honor system is interesting. You can befriend more bad guys if you strike down the law, or innocents. If you wear a white hat (not literally but other outfits can be found or bought), that’s tracked too. So far I’ve only made one mistake and that was shooting down Johnny Law just because I saw a guy getting chased. Pity that guy I done saved was the bad guy….<\/p>\n

I haven’t gotten far enough to really comment much more except to say that this game feels more polished than even GTA4 and, oddly, it feels like there’s more to do in the old west than in downtown Liberty City.<\/p>\n

As far as being offensive goes, it’s a lot less violent and bloody than any of the classic 60’s and 70’s Westerns – especially the Wild Bunch – but you will hear bad words now and again. There’s drinking, but it isn’t mandatory and some missions involve legal for their time drugs like laudenum, cocaine and opium. The ESRB claims there’s sex and nudity but that must occur further in the main story. I checked the saloon and found a few whores (“Want me to clear your barrel for ya Mister?”) but unlike GTA, there doesn’t seem to be any prostitution or lap dancing.<\/p>\n

I’ve been waiting since Outlaws for a good Western and while I normally prefer linear to open-world, I’m happy to roam New Austin territory looking for thrills. If only I could shoot better and they could shoot worse, maybe then I’d feel more like a hero\/anti-hero and less like a candidate for Boot Hill.<\/p>\n

Oh, check out Youtube or the website for the Multiplayer trailer. I haven’t tried it yet but it looks awesome.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Anyway, if you ain’t a fan of the Wild West you should consider Red Dead anyway – it just might make you a fan. It’s that good.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the vast expanse that is New Austin there’s a lot to do. Most of involves killing but hey, this is the wild west as seen through the lens of Sergio Leone. The Italian “Spaghetti” Westerns, starring Clint Eastwood, loom large over Rockstar’s latest playground and I couldn’t be happier about the result. They nailed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4504","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-game-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4504"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4504\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4504"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4504"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gamerdad.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4504"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}