Red Dead Redemption - Playstation 3

Rockstar's finest open world game to date, Red Dead Redemption takes place at the turn of the 20th century (1911) to be exact. If you're expecting to blast Native Americans from the tops of their unsaddled horses maybe you should look elsewhere. These are the last days of the unlawful old west. Electricity lines stretch into the horizon, high above railroad tracks. The fictional world is on the brink of industrialization.For starters, more so than any other open world game I've ever played, you don't play this game, you experience it. You live in the world. You are John Marston.The story of RDR isn't top notch but it's interesting enough to keep you going along, and includes touches of timeline contextual social commentary regarding politics, religion, suffrage, social status, the effects of technology on man and more. And it's worth playing to the end as the story culminates in one of the most unexpected and original ways to end a game I think I've ever seen. You just have to experience it for yourself to truly understand what I mean.The graphics and sound are very well done. Voice acting is ranges from average to well done which is on par for a RockStar game. Ambient sound effects are really effective in setting the tone and immersing the player into the game, be you nervously dismounting your horse to skin an elk because you hear the growl of a grizzly bear nearby, or hearing the footsteps of your boots on the wooden floor of a rowdy saloon, an upbeat piano song playing in the background. Steam powered trains chug their way through the land, cougars scream as they maul you and the eerie cry of foxes at night will leave you feeling unsettled as you travel through dark moonlit forests where wolves and vastly more dangerous mammals could be lurking. Pistols and rifles sound loud and hefty (there's a good-sized roster of firearms in the game if you're wondering), and causing an explosion inside a cave results in a loud muffled explosion that will have you reaching for the volume controls.Graphics wise, player models and textures are just merely passable, but the environment you live in for 20-30 hours is where the beauty of this game lies (I spent just over 40 hours but did 100% of the single player content). The world is really the star of this game. Riding through Armadillo at night, with rain pouring down and spalshing in muddy puddles, the occasional bolt of lightning brightening the cloudy sky in the horizon was a surreal experience. There were times I'd just be riding around and I would marvel at the beautiful landscape before me: The orange and yellow sunset peeking through the evergreens of Tall Trees, contrasting the bright white snow underfoot, for example. Sunsets and sunrises were particularly stunning, as were the moonlit desert environments, the bright stars twinkling in the sky high above, not yet obscured by the pollution of modern industrialization. Truly an immersive world. If you're sporting a nice, big high definition display you will be rewarded with some jaw-dropping views that will make you wish you could capture screenshots and save them for later.Yes, there are a ton of mini games and side quests to keep you busy, but they are completely optional. As you ride around you'll be approached by strangers begging you assist them with things ranging from helping them get back their horse that was just stolen, to assisting a friend who is about to be unlawfully hung by a group of thugs. It's up to you. Ignoring them won't effect your reputation in a negative way, but helping them will give you a little extra spending cash and sometimes a bump to your reputation. You'll be challenged by gunslinging duelists who wish to make a name for themselves. Accept their challenge, or ride away. Again, optional. The stuff is there for your entertainment, and to flesh out the world, but it's up to you what you do with it. Then there are mini-games like playing games of horseshoe, blackjack, poker, five-finger fillet, etc. Unless you're going for 100% completion, all these things are optional. That's the beauty of such a well crafted open world game: The option to choose.And as with all open world games Red Dead Redemption has it's fair share of bugs and glitches. Nothing game breaking ever happened to me (game breaking meaning a quest bugged and wouldn't let me finish it, or any freezes or crashes - nothing like that ever occurred during my playthrough) but I encountered a few bugs that were at least amusing to behold. No video game is perfect and RDR is not an exception to that rule. Expect chugging framerates in heavily populated areas (Blackwood city being the worst offender), at last on the PS3. If you're a fan of Westerns and you have, like me, become jaded with the GTA series after, what in my mind, was a disappointing GTA IV, you owe it to yourself to check this game out. This title has restored my faith in RockStar open world games. Multiplayer is decent so far..I've only invested a couple hours but I'll probably move on to another game rather than try to reach the level cap of 50. Looking forward to more single player DLC, which was announced recently.Gems like this are few and far between. Red Dead Redemption is my Game of the Year for 2010....so far. Give it a shot, bucko!JULY 30 Edit - PS3 VS 360 version: I just learned that, graphically and frame rate wise, the 360 version is superior to the PS3 version. While the 360 version is rendered in true 720p, the PS3 version only runs at 1152x640 - a whopping 20% decrease in resolution. So if you have both consoles I would recommend getting the 360 version. It's a beautiful game regardless, but the 360 version has a more stable frame rate and higher resolution. But don't take my word for it. Google "digitalfoundry red dead redemption face off" and read about it yourself. I played the PS3 version and I loved this game so much I'm going to pick up a used copy for the 360 and play it again!AUGUST 24 Edit - I have now completed the game on both PS3 and 360. Having played both I can indeed confirm that the 360 version looks superior to the PS3 version. The higher resolution on the 360 is immediately apparent, as are the higher number of plants/bushes/shrubs rendered at any one time. Both versions are beautiful, and both have frame rate issues in populated areas and the occasional sudden texture pop-in. In both playthroughs I only encountered one minor game-breaking bug: In Blackwater I shot a seagull which landed on a dock there. When I went to collect its feather the character glitched through the floor geometry and fell in the water below, killing him (he can't swim).I would like to add that a lot of people are calling this Grand Theft Auto in the old west. There are a lot of similarities between the two games but I've enjoyed RDR moreso than any other 3D GTA game, of which I own them all. In my opinion it's easy, but unfair, to simplify Read Dead Redemption as 'Grand Theft Auto Old West'. It's so much more than that. If you look beyond the similar mini-map and user interface, there's a game with so much more soul than any GTA game I've ever played.

I wanted to emphasize a point that at least one other reviewer made -- given the period setting for this game, it seems so much more realistic than GTA IV ever did. Given the relative lack of law enforcement and the transient nature of the West, the "anything goes" kind of feel is there at level of saleability that I haven't seen in another game.I have to compliment R* for the depth of the experience and characters in the game. While there are the expected scripted missions, all kinds of stuff just happens out of nowhere, and you are forced to make very quick judgments about what you should do. If you see a guy being chased down by two others shooting at him, do you intervene? You know none of the background, so who is on the good side? Who on the bad? Do you just watch it play out and do nothing? There are real in-game consequences to your decisions, as measured by the honor and fame needles, and your "wanted" level. The number and diversity of the random situations you are confronted with are truly remarkable.R* also did an excellent job of making the West alive with animals and diverse geography. The hunting aspect of the game is really fun and adds to the experience. I got killed once by a hog that seemed to have the dexterity of Lazarovich, but that was probably just me since I haven't played too far into the game.The level of detail in the game is also very impressive. I was near a tree and shot an animal, and the report caused several birds I couldn't see to take flight from the tree. I rode over a dead guy and my horse left bloody horseshoe prints. And then there's all the stuff you would expect but are still amazed by -- the detail in the towns, shops, etc. and the way the horses ride and carriages feel to drive.There are some things R* could have done better, and I'll close with those. I hesitate to call them "cons" because in a game so rich, I have to ask myself what more I am truly allowed to expect. Regardless, here they are: (1) graphics could have been better in some instances -- some popping textures and inconsistent frame rates, but at the same time I am amazed that the game can keep up at all given how quickly scenery can change when your galloping along on your horse and changing direction; (2) the weapon wheel can be a bit clumsy; (3) some visuals could be sharper -- not sure why the game is not 1080p, but perhaps that would have required additional disc space that wasn't available given how expansive the game is; and (4) I agree with an earlier poster that it's a bit weird for the lead character not to be able to swim. It could have been fun to try a fight in the water with knives or something, save people from drowning (or not), do some log rolling, etc.All in all, I consider RDR an achievement in gaming. The genre has so much appeal to kids, I would thing R* would do well to have a scaled-down "E" or "T" version that focused just on hunting, treasure, and gathering quests. My kids would love it. They are clamoring to play/watch RDR, but there is just so much inappropriate content for kids in the game that, regrettably, there's no way to parse out any activities in the game for them. If they made an "E" or "T" version, they could sell several million additional copies, IMO.