I’d been there before in a hundred westerns, but now I got to go... yes... as a dodgy-looking guy called John Marston. As the train pulled slowly to a halt in Armadillo I continued to regard my fellow passengers and take in the dusty world outside. I knew I would soon make it all my own (just like real life!)
When opening credits had finished - themselves a spaghetti homage - we knew we’d be riding third-person across a rugged ‘scape filled with old barns, rocks, ravines, creeks, cacti and dangers of many kinds mostly involving bandits. Nothing would be safe... but we'd be safe from nothing. An almost dog-eat-dog world. And we would be searching… for redemption… and for the next cheesy cut-scene with more madcap western stereotypes babbling their intros to the next mission… And this would all lead slowly towards some lonely, final shoot-out. Once more Rockstar Games had seen too many movies… but they knew what to do about it. They knew what a stunning setting it would all make with places like Gaptooth Ridge, Mercer station, Thieves Landing and Escalera.
Red Dead Redemption, its add-on game Undead Nightmare, with their Multiplayer Free Roam world with Competitive and Co-operative maps, make up a gameworld that will be long remembered.
They were powerful experiences for a period of many months. Basically an alternative world in the Wild West, that took the rise of the open-world sandbox adventure game, and polished it. Rockstar are the makers of Grand Theft Auto after all, so they had made these games before. Now was their chance to take the Wild West and plunder it for long hours of immersive fun, and they managed just that. And all so … cinematically. With a real gritty style. A terrific shooting system. And such a sense of freedom.
The trademark game mechanic is the Dead-Eye targeting system, which allows the player to aim at targets in slower motion on the battlefield and then attack with a flurry of bullets.
[from Red Dead Wikia]
You can get lost in the wilderness and encounter all sorts of distracting missions and strange bandits, or... you can stick to consulting the map and finding marked missions in order to see more storyline and progress your character. But it was clever like this, for it was so easy to get distracted. Those distracting missions were deliberately distracting you, making it harder to get on with the game. Sometimes it would be like the fates of Red Dead Redemption were conspiring against you, when it came to getting from A to B. Gossip overheard in the town taverns reflected what sort of progress you were making as did the local paper sold on the corner. And yet still we rode, taking in the landscape, the space, taking potshots at birds far away and saving the innocent… or not.
And then there we’d be… again... lying randomly somewhere underneath the sound of vultures because we had strayed again. To our old ways. Cursing the choices we’d made...
...And another tempting choice was to flick up the Multiplayer Free Roam and load the same, entire worldmap but online… sharing it with other friends or up to 15 anonymous explorers. Mostly they would pick you out from long distances with sniper rifles until you learned to keep down and keep watching your map for nearby connected foes. But also there were mini-adventures to share, mini-games, shoot-outs to enter cooperatively or just ride into town, shoot everybody randomly and then await the coming of the Law. And these posses of the Law were as ruthless but even more fun than in GTA. Occasionally, another player would attract their attention and you could just watch as they were most often finally shot down.
You can get lost in the wilderness and encounter all sorts of distracting missions and strange bandits, or... you can stick to consulting the map and finding marked missions in order to see more storyline and progress your character. But it was clever like this, for it was so easy to get distracted. Those distracting missions were deliberately distracting you, making it harder to get on with the game. Sometimes it would be like the fates of Red Dead Redemption were conspiring against you, when it came to getting from A to B. Gossip overheard in the town taverns reflected what sort of progress you were making as did the local paper sold on the corner. And yet still we rode, taking in the landscape, the space, taking potshots at birds far away and saving the innocent… or not.
And then there we’d be… again... lying randomly somewhere underneath the sound of vultures because we had strayed again. To our old ways. Cursing the choices we’d made...
...And another tempting choice was to flick up the Multiplayer Free Roam and load the same, entire worldmap but online… sharing it with other friends or up to 15 anonymous explorers. Mostly they would pick you out from long distances with sniper rifles until you learned to keep down and keep watching your map for nearby connected foes. But also there were mini-adventures to share, mini-games, shoot-outs to enter cooperatively or just ride into town, shoot everybody randomly and then await the coming of the Law. And these posses of the Law were as ruthless but even more fun than in GTA. Occasionally, another player would attract their attention and you could just watch as they were most often finally shot down.
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| the world map |
It can only be celebrated, those who fired this game up on the consoles of the day. Not only did we experience the real possibility and scale that gaming had now achieved, but probably the hints of what it one day could become. Massive. And finally the dream of being in a western comes true. A real feat of design and level creation. With a narrative that takes John Marston down to the creek.
Some negatives are the usual Rockstar faults: emotional immersion suffers compared to a movie since the narrative and cut-scenes are hammy and self-indulgent and take away the pace of the playing. It can be sometimes tiring to get to or find the next mission. What about a slicker narrative that cuts even quicker into the gameplay? GTA 5 didn't really improve on this, although there was a bit more going on. They knew they had to build more into the Multiplayer Free Roam in order to increase the longevity of the game.
Character progression suffers as in GTA 5: even though there are sometimes a choice of missions, you do know there are the “key” missions which have to be played in order to progress, or unlock more map sections. This formula is ok if you’re new to it all but for seasoned players the sense of realism in single-player deteriorates.
I'm not saying there aren't some amazing moments that provide a real connection with the game. Once the first part is complete, a song from Jose Gonzales strikes up and you enter some new terrain - a kind of Mexico - towards your next mission and the start of the second half. Your appreciation of the game soars. You really wonder if the character you’re playing can actually find redemption.
Character progression suffers as in GTA 5: even though there are sometimes a choice of missions, you do know there are the “key” missions which have to be played in order to progress, or unlock more map sections. This formula is ok if you’re new to it all but for seasoned players the sense of realism in single-player deteriorates.
I'm not saying there aren't some amazing moments that provide a real connection with the game. Once the first part is complete, a song from Jose Gonzales strikes up and you enter some new terrain - a kind of Mexico - towards your next mission and the start of the second half. Your appreciation of the game soars. You really wonder if the character you’re playing can actually find redemption.
Then there were all the little things you could get up to, just to see what could happen. Like tossing folks down canyons, lassoing nasty types and dropping them onto train tracks. Youtube started filling up with new channels for gamers posting creative or hilarious sandbox moments. You could say the new artform of spectating while others play or provide commentary on video games was truly beginning...
What else can I say about this game, or that this game makes me want to say about games generally? Its missions drew you into its world, some of which could involve merely helping an old flame to round-up wild horses. Or defend a barn from bandits. Some taught you things about this historic time where many a book or documentary cannot bring to life.
None of the missions were particularly difficult but this enabled the player to feel like we were always on the point of progressing. The open-world game becomes more about the experience, or experiences on offer. Like the mini-games of poker, knife games, darts etc, that can be played in the taverns against bots or against other online players of the online map. It’s all a great illusion of prowess (thanks certainly to a masterfully designed weapon system) and it enables sustained enjoyment that doesn’t frustrate or challenge like a conventional, level-based game. You can’t really get stuck in games like Red Dead Redemption, you can only progress and experience the places and scenarios it takes you through.
When the multiplayer game loads there is more a sense that anything can happen. The Multiplayer dimension plus the add-ons expanded the life of the game for many more months as all shooting scenarios were exploited. There were even huge battles you could join.
I won’t forget joining random posses of online players. Another memorable aspect was the excellent Co-operative Multiplayer levels, specially designed for groups of gamers to work alongside for a brief time in a multitude of scenarios of rescue, defend or attack.
It all makes essentially for a very immersive shooter with a dimension of storytelling and a load of mini-games and side quests. And this formula is still being applied to the more recent games such as Grand Theft Auto V, on an even larger map scale. At the same time, it’s not Skyrim, or such RPGs that took steps further where anything seems possible for your character that you are trying to build. However, the style and slickness of the gameplay in Skyrim suffered when compared to the immediacy of Red Dead. But then, in Red Dead the main occupation is basically shooting.
UNDEAD NIGHTMARE
And there is the Undead Nightmare add-on... a zombie wild west. Not just an add-on but actually adding an extra dimension. Here, the map we know and love is a cursed, changed realm with a new kind of danger. It’s all being steadily overrun by an undead plague. This means that if towns are not rescued the undead could take over and gradually overwhelm the map.
This is a great idea. Actually it’s one that has been applied to some entire games: the slow, breakdown of a whole, open-world war or map, unless the players unique involvement can turn the tide.
The multiplayer section of Undead was similar, but making full use of the shooting system in this setting. I vividly remember the Undead Overrun Co-op where, unless you worked together with your other players you would be overwhelmed quickly. It’s a survival mode featuring endless waves of undead. There are some cool elements: you can revive your friends if they are downed and also be the first to find one of the spawning coffins that give supplies and ammo. Working together was crucial. However, I used to hold back, helping occasionally but waiting until my fellow players were dead. Then I’d camp out in a clever spot where I could take out zombies and therefore be the last man standing. The whole scenario is the closest thing to that ending in Tarantino’s film Dusk till Dawn.
All that shooting gets tiring, and the control over one’s own destiny or character is not there like the massive open-world games of today. So one day will come another total Wild West experience. Maybe it will have more disincentives to draw your weapon and greater character depth, meaning that to do bad or to do right could have real consequences on your character and abilities. But will it have as much sheer cinematic fun as this?
