It’s 1911. John Marston’s wife and child are threatened by federal agents, driving him on a mission to capture or kill the now infamous outlaws that he previously called friends. Obviously things do not go off as planned. I’ll get it out of the way by saying no, it’s not because of your insane cousin’s lies. This is in no way any form of Grand Theft Auto. (I can only recall one or two instances where hijacking any form of transportation is necessary. ) However, Grand Theft Auto references aside, Marston’s trek takes him across a vast rural landscape that crosses the Mexican Border and back to save his family in this open world epic.

Is John Marston a welcome and worthy Rockstar Games legend or should he just bite the dust?


John Marston is a badass outlaw that demands a badass shooting mechanic. The combat is very similar to recent Grand Theft Auto games. Lock on to aim for the chest and manually aim for the head. In Redemption on the other hand breaks the targeting if you attempt to aim at any other part of the body or if, say, your foe hides too far into cover. This is how games should do combat. It worked with GTA IV and this modest change should be gotten used to within seconds. The new kid on Open World Street is the addition of “Dead Eye” targeting.
Dead Eye slows time dramatically, giving you the accuracy of a real cowboy like in the movies. When time is slowed down, you can point out where you want to shoot. Fatal headshot or a crippling knee shot? A kill or disarm? You are the outlaw and it’s up to you. Once chosen, you get a swift stream of shots on the chosen targets.

Say if you were slow on the draw and a baddie pops out of cover and pops a cap in your sorry hide. You go to a hospital, right? Things have changed, cowboy-to-be. This time if you don’t make the grade in a mission, you have the option to restart from the last checkpoint without more ado. In GTA I used to be so provoked having to spawn at a hospital impatiently waiting for a text message to start at the last checkpoint in mid-mission. In contrast, to a certain extent I miss Liberty City’s hospitals. There were many instances where I would go hunting and some bear or cougar would maul me to death and since there’s no hospital to keep the game going, I would lose all my items (including my hard earned skins) since my last save. As a GTA fan I immediately took it as an unreasonable joke.

There are many old west-inspired mini-games to kill time (or boost your gamerscore) like Poker, Liar’s Dice or even a fierce game of Horseshoes. Rockstar even pulled off an engrossing hunting mechanic for when you are broke in funds and are rich in the itchy trigger finger. I may be frustrated with losing skins from my last save, but on the other paw (bad pun) hunting and skinning the furry bugger is most satisfying. If you’ve finished the campaign or wish to not even touch the main story, you’re in luck, as some stranger on the street or roadside will ask a favor of you or even challenging you to a duel to make him or a skilled duelist such as you more famous. The icing on top is called challenges. “Challenges” boost your fame and go towards your 100% completion. There are ten ranks in each challenge which consists of, say, kill and skin 6 rabbits or shoot the hats off of 3 people without killing them. It surely kills time, speaking of time-killers.


Graphically, this game is a diamond! A pearl! Whatever you prefer, this game is a superstar when you just look at the carefully-drawn nature from the fascinating rock formations to the way the horses and other critters animate. It is very hard to find such development that has so much care for a game’s rural deserts and the organisms that inhabit. The land looks spectacular in-game day and in-game night. I could complain about its occasional pop-in and graphical hiccups (hats not appearing right away, etc.) but I won’t even dare. The detail stunned me in GTA4 and goes on goes on with Red Dead. THIS is what sets this game apart from any GTA. My old Wood Shop teacher would call it “insanely great”. Fair, but I would call it the best looking game to date.


Upon just talking about the visuals, the game still looks great and some of the time killers from Marston’s story are still intact. For one, the whole world will load with the obvious addition of the found players. This is the lobby. All public games will begin by putting the players in randomly set areas and players are free to exterminate each other. Unlike GTA, players can form a posse. This isn’t a guild or a clan. It will erase itself when you leave all posse members leave. Call it primitive, but joining or forming a posse is key to success in the much more lawless multiplayer. I sometimes end up killing a player for droppings and giggles but then the droppings hit the fan when the player spawns and chases you on horseback, guns-blazing, across most of the map. This does not detract from the score, because Rockstar can’t control how people play and neither can I.

In multiplayer, prepare to rank-up, take over gang hideouts, and unlock new challenges and titles. Remind you of something? Yes, I suppose this could be considered a massive-scale open world Call of Duty. Not to mention you also unlock new weapons, characters and mounts. Doing challenges and killing players awards your character experience and up to 50 experience levels total. Open world CoD? Sign me up!

Players level up faster and undoubtedly more by joining a more organized competitive match via the menu. This begins with a nail-biter of a standoff where all the participants are in a circle and then all of a sudden start shooting back and forth. The lucky one that is in one piece wins the standoff and earns more XP. The game now officially begins in spite of what game mode is chosen. The standoff winner just gets a head start. The organization and the insanity combined will keep your blood pumping and your trigger finger itchy for months to come at the least. That’s a Nigel West Dickens guarantee!


During my playthrough of Red Dead Redemption, I had some frustration, a lot of satisfaction and even some tears at the epic ending. Best of all, I still can’t get enough. Everything about it is engrossing and will keep you guessing to the end.

Outlaws to the End.
Keep your fingers on those triggers because this game is a must.

METASCORE: 95 | MY SCORE: 97

Until next time,
Andrew “PyGuy” Pyle Signing Out.

Another excellent review, you deserve more recognition for your reivews. 500 Viz.

Good Review and I own/beat the game! I highly recommend this awesome game 10/10 by me

Wow, super-extensive review! I agree with David this deserves recognition. *Clap clap clap* I totally agree with you, this is an awesome game, whether you're playing through it or just mucking around to kill time, it's tons of fun... I'd recommend it to anyone, even if they don't normally enjoy games like this (like I expected to)!

I like your reviews, you should submit one to a reviewing site or magazine. They're a real delight to read and I think I might buy that game the next time I get enough money.