For the first couple hours, I was convinced I was playing a reskinned Grand Theft Auto IV. My mini-map looked the same, missions were being distributed evenly, narrative and character exposition was being delivered in a similar manner, and for some reason I had GPS. A change in setting was obviously apparent and a few engine tweaks were noticeable, but Red Dead Redemption was giving me weird parallel universe flashbacks to 2008.
I will concede Red Dead sells the illusion much better than its thematic predecessor. Saving anywhere, long obstructed by an adherence to realism in GTA, is realized thanks to the vast amount of open world territory. There’s no way to rationalize saving at arbitrary points in the city, but making a campsite on the frontier? Sure, that makes sense. So does taking cover against rocks in the vast expanse of the Wild West rather than random oil drums at industrial sites. And, though still somewhat arbitrary, conversations amongst rednecks riding together on their horses feel more realistic than forcing people in cars to talk to each other. John Marston is still guilty of being a doormat for seemingly anyone who needs a favor, but such is a sacrifice to the gameplay.
Ideal game design lays a few ground rules before tossing the player into situations where they demonstrate their understanding of those rules. Poor games let players abuse those rules, good games challenge players with a myriad of ways to overcome obstacles with those rules in mind, and great games allow the player to improvise upon those rules in adverse situations. Red Dead Redemption favors the latter. “Main” missions broadcast structure typical of open world games, but the side missions deliberately played on my expectations. At one point I was riding out in the middle of nowhere and came upon a desperate man looking for a ride back to town. I obliged and slowed my horse down, but then he pulled me off it and stole my horse! Though I was taken completely by surprise, having never expected that to happen, I managed to improvise and pull out my rifle and shoot the stranger, riding away on my horse, in the back of his head. It was completely instinctive. Obeying the criteria of exceptional design, an otherwise throwaway moment wound up as my favorite part of the game thus far.
Other seemingly random instances have played similar tricks on my expectations, albeit with limited success. While out in the wilderness I have seen or heard gun battles in the surrounding area. When I approach one of two things usually happen. Either I can’t figure out who to shoot, or I wind up shooting the wrong person and losing Honor. Unlike GTA, stepping into the role of a homicidal maniac isn’t easily rectified by hiding in the bushes for a few minutes. Losing Honor has long term consequence, not to mention heavily conflicting with the nature of the character. Some tricky save slot work could alleviate this, but generally I’m role playing Marston as a good guy. A lack of clarity toward what the hell I’m supposed to be doing in those instances is a bummer, but hopefully I’ll get more acclimated to the plight of the troubled as I continue to play the game.
The lasso, which had been heralded as Red Dead’s signature mechanic it introduces into the sandbox genre, has been fairly underwhelming. It’s cool that you can lasso stuff and it does take a bit more skill than simply shooting someone, but ultimately its implementation feels limited. My girlfriend was watching me play, saw me lasso someone, and asked questions like, “can you throw them off a cliff,” or “can you hang him from a tree” or whatever other sinister ideas the GTA III generation might expunge. There isn’t anything particularly wrong with having these ideas (and eventually I was able to appease her by dragging a guy from my horse), but they represent a world of disconnecting chaos Rockstar is content to leave behind. Like GTA IV, Red Dead is a plot driven affair focused on developing characters, setting, and narrative, rather than one that allows the player to fully exploit its mechanics with deviant behavior. There’s plenty of stuff to do, but it’s all confined within the structure of the game world. Besides, Just Cause and Saints Row are doing just fine with their particular toy box brand of insane mechanics.
While I do spend a majority of my time hopeless entranced in Red Dead’s splendor, I do have few actual complaints. Interface is, quite frankly, something Rockstar has never been good at. While the map system has gotten much better, I don’t see why they make you go through two rounds of menus to get there. I look at my map all the time and having to pause and click through tripe is a bummer. I wish it was mapped to button on the dpad or something. Likewise, the challenges are a similar bitch. Grey text on a black background (that turns white only when highlighted) sucks, as does entering into and then shifting around a menu to get there. It’s not player friendly, it doesn’t have anything to do with Red Dead’s aesthetic. Just like the map, it’s needlessly cumbersome. I will concede, however, that bitching about the interface is essentially nitpicking. Ten hours in and it’s shaping up to be a great game.
