FRIST_008 Red Dead Redemption Review

Red Dead Redemption is GTA 4 in the Wild West. It's solidly made, but after GTA 4 it doesn't spark much excitement: there are few new ideas in the game. Story. The story follows the usual Rockstar formula, and that's its main weakness. That the hero would be betrayed by the federal agents, that they'd try to kill him and that he'd be avenged, I predicted already a third of the way in, at the start of Mexico. And that's how it went: one Marston was killed, the other took revenge. The old man's death is a cliché: in movies the oldest one always dies first. The only thing that breaks the formula is the death of the main character. The long string of peaceful scenes in the finale made me wonder whether Rockstar would dare to do it, and I was sure they wouldn't. They did, and for its time that's a bold and truly strong move. There was no wow effect, though: I had already played out that option in my head. Characters and atmosphere. The characters are grown-up, the game strives for realism and honestly conveys the spirit of the Wild West and the character of its people. But the mature presentation doesn't save it from being banal: almost all of it is long familiar from movies. Platinum. After the credits, every mission can be replayed for bronze, silver and gold: don't lose a single cow in 5:20, finish without taking a single hit, shooting only in the head, and all of it against the clock. On top of that, there's a hard mode where you die from two shots, or one to the head, and after dying you restart even a half-hour mission from the very beginning. It's hardcore for the sake of hardcore; you just want to forget about a platinum like that. Bottom line. A solid, well-staged, but predictable game, neither here nor there. The finale pulls it up to a solid eight, but it's hard to give a twenty-hour game a higher score because of a single mission. I hope RDR 2 surprises me more.