Games of 2010: Red Dead Redemption

By Johnny Minkley Published 26 December, 2010

First great western.

Red Dead Redemption is the work of game makers at the peak of their powers and confidence. What defines the experience is not simply how much Rockstar has crammed into the world it has crafted, but also what it has left out.

In stark contrast to Grand Theft Auto's urban sprawl, full of sound and fury, between the flashpoints of action in Red Dead there is a poignant artistic restraint to the unfolding story of John Marston.

Outside of the towns and villages, travellers come and go, criminals pounce and wildlife endures, but the sense of space overwhelms - both the physical space of the game world and the breathing space afforded to the characters within it.

Rockstar's approach to the soundtrack is also characterised by restraint. From GTAIII onwards, music has proved one of the series' strongest assets, the in-game airwaves filled with hours of licensed music and pitch-perfect talk show tomfoolery.

Red Dead's early 20th Century narrative clearly rules out a similar approach, so Bill Elm and Woody Jackson were instead commissioned to produce an original musical score. And the result is a measured triumph.

The challenge of scoring an unscripted, dynamic experience is one games composers have been tackling for a while. Elm and Jackson's solution was to pen a suite of music in the same key - A minor - which can then be layered and adapted as the on-screen action demands it.

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In keeping with the feel of the game's widescreen ambition, the twanging guitars, snarling trumpets, reverb-heavy whistles and moaning harmonicas evoke memories of the great Westerns of cinema - in instrumentation and dynamic range, it's classic Morricone.

Beyond this the experience is bookended by a beautifully sparse, contemplative piano piece, Exodus In America. It's a lovely, simple number highly reminiscent of Michael Giacchino's Life & Death theme from Lost - all yearning chords and pregnant pauses. (Compare them for yourself: Lost vs. Red Dead).

But the most inspired use of music in the game is reserved for the handful of songs it features. And the first instance is the game's greatest creative moment - and my gaming highlight of the year.

(There are major spoilers coming, so if you haven't played it you might want to click away now.)

After surviving a ferocious assault on his river craft, hours into the game, Marston finally makes it across the border into Mexico.

Saddling up to ride into the unknown, the finger-picked opening of Jose Gonzalez's Far Away kicks in and I quietly pace along, totally absorbed in the grandeur of the sequence, staring miles into the distance towards a setting sun.

So simple and yet so thrillingly effective. And a moment that highlights the unique way in which interactive entertainment can stir the senses. I could have done anything I liked at this point; but the mood change compelled me to slow down and savour every second, carefully adjusting the camera to frame Marston's iconic coolness.

The effect is magnified because it is the first song you hear in hours and hours of gameplay. Rockstar achieves more emotional impact in those few minutes with a single acoustic number than an entire GTA soundtrack.

The next time we hear a song is towards the end of the story. With a line that cuts to the heart of Marston's predicament - "Our time has passed, John" - Dutch leaps to his death. Finally, Marston is freed from Government servitude and given back his life, his family.

Again, I could have ignored the music - another acoustic track, Compass by Jamie Lidell - and skinned my horse for kicks; or I could have replicated the swagger of the earlier border crossing.

But the previous 20 hours of gameplay had been building towards this moment, where Marston would at last be reunited with Abigail and Jack. And so I galloped as hard and as fast as I could, down through the snow-covered hills and on to Beecher's Hope. Home.

While GTA games have always been artistically remarkable, I'd never call them beautiful. Red Dead Redemption is a beautiful game. And it's also one of the great sightseeing games.

Uncharted 2's vistas were stunning to behold but the linear gameplay meant you could never truly explore them - the wonders of the horizon will always remain tantalisingly out of reach.

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Red Dead lacks the breathtaking fidelity of Naughty Dog's masterpiece, but it trumps it with a straightforward but powerful promise: if you can see it you can go there.

I haven't enjoyed the simple act of travelling through a game world as much since The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. In Nintendo's game, quietly floating across the moonlit sea beneath a sky of stars was a pleasure in itself. Similarly in Red Dead, taking a train ride or idly trotting along the bank of a river as the water burbles past is strangely consoling.

From colossal, arid rock formations to lush forests teeming with wildlife, Marston's world is full of sublime 'Kodak moments' - I routinely found myself seeking out the best vantage point to watch the sun rise.

The experience is no more vivid than when it is reduced to its essentials: one man, on horseback, riding between the long shadows of a distant sunset. Pre-programmed by a diet of Westerns the immediate response is just to marvel at how utterly cool this cowboy is.

Setting aside all the artistry on display it is John Marston, ultimately, that makes Red Dead Redemption. Brilliant writing and a superb performance by relative unknown Rob Wiethoff make a mockery of rival titles' cinematic pretensions (I'm looking at you, Alan Wake, you cloying, cliché-ridden berk).

Marston's stature becomes clear in his absence. After his death, the avenging son, whose role you assume, cuts an anonymous, uncharismatic figure in the wake of his father's turn as one of the most compelling, memorable characters in videogames.

Abigail Marston: We tried to change, isn't that what you're supposed to do?

John Marston: We did change and it's over now.

Picture of Johnny.

About Johnny Minkley

Johnny Minkley is a veteran games writer and broadcaster, former editor of Eurogamer TV, VP of gaming charity SpecialEffect, and hopeless social media addict.

Read more articles from Johnny by visiting the Johnny Minkley archive page.

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Comments (63) Latest comment 1 year ago

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  • macksed #1 1 year ago

    Reading this just makes me want to play it again; great game!...and to think I only ever played because I got it as a gift!

  • CaptainQuint #2 1 year ago

    Fantastic game, it's just a shame a stupid bug ruined my entry into Mexico - cutting the song off dead - when I briefly got off my horse. Bastard.

  • Oh-Bollox #3 1 year ago

    I really enjoyed RDR, but the main problem for me was the inconsistency of Marston's character, because of the gameplay padding.

    He's a reformed man, yes, but he's still quite capable of extreme violence, and to try and make me believe he would put up with the unbelievable foot dragging from virtually every other character broke my suspension of disbelief cleanly in two. He's on a mission to capture or kill his former best mates, in order to be reunited with his wife and son; not a mission to play silly buggers. Although if he'd been consistent, about 70-80% of the cast would have been kneecapped after the second 'job' they gave him, and made to talk.

    Good ending, when it finally got there.

  • spiritsnake #4 1 year ago

    This is my Game of the year, awesome awesome game, plus enjoyed many many hours playing it online with my posse.

  • djed #5 1 year ago

    Sorry, but I take issue wit the sub-heading. The first great western was obviously Desert Bus.

  • metalangel #6 1 year ago

    @Oh-Bollox: That's true. Rockstar's games now seem to be about a put-upon man who for some reason feels compelled to work for a bunch of liars and charlatans.

    Carl Johnson, for example. He'll be framed for the murder of that cop by Tenpenny, right? But he can kill hundreds of cops over the course of the game and it doesn't matter. Why not just kill Tenpenny?

    Marston at least can't just kill Edgar Ross, as his family are being held in a federal prison. However, each cutscene starts with him becoming genuinely angry and frustrated with the idiots he's dealing with... and yet he then always calms down and goes along with whatever stupid tasks they set for him. Given his skill, violent past and the fact his family is at stake, you'd think he would just beat or menace the assistance he needs out of West Dickens - "Now it's your turn to help me, or I will make you very sorry you messed me around."

    I suppose that's why Marshal Johnson was my favourite NPC. He was charismatic and brave himself, and the missions he sent you on were just.

    EDIT: Incidentally, I can't read the damned RDR wiki any more as half of it now seems to be spoilers and other shit about Undead Nightmare.
    Edited by metalangel at 26/12/10 @ 08:38

  • prudislav #7 1 year ago

    still hope for PC conversion

  • SlapLaB #8 1 year ago

    I loved RDR... however I could not keep feeling that they created the world first (beautifully, ok), and only then created a story to go with it. Some of the missions and the way they were introduced felt very artificial. Perhaps that also explains the somewhat inconsistencies in the characters as people here point out.
    Beautiful game, but I wish the story was better integrated (maybe shorter as well? there is enough to do outside the main plot...).

  • jamhead #9 1 year ago

    "(There are major spoilers coming, so if you haven’t played it you might want to click away now.)"

    Bah. I don't have this yet... was just looking for one more excuse to get it

    /looks guiltily at Black Ops, Halo Reach, Vanquish and Hot Pursuit all of which are yet to be completed..

  • dnd #10 1 year ago

    Think this is prolly my goty as well. And 8/10?!? :p

  • Chalee #11 1 year ago

    If none of you guys writes up Bayonetta and Mass Effect I'm going to be pissed off at you!

  • MrWonderstuff #12 1 year ago

    MY GOTY. A masterpiece...just going through Undead Nightmare and its great to be back. That DLC is amazing too...great to see old characters make an appearance and the humour is spot on.

  • Rodchenko #13 1 year ago

    My GOTY. Even better with the excellent Undead Nightmare pack. For someone who barely ever plays online Rockstar (alongside Naughty Dog) are giving me hope, that single player games (and the quest for good storytelling within them) will not succumb to identikit multiplayer offerings.

  • Adahn #14 1 year ago

    Good writeup, but I disagree with the tagline to the article - Gun was an amazing experience for it's time, and for me the 'road' to Red Dead Redemption was forged by first Gun, and then the first Call of Juarez. Both of these games reintroduced and revitalised the western setting in terms of gaming, and allowed Rockstar to explore the premise they tried to deliver on.

  • Antaios #15 1 year ago

    Brilliant game and my game of the year. And this article makes want to go and play it again, which is what I'm going to be doing this week, I think.

  • Kenshin001 #16 1 year ago

    Enjoyed the game and agree about the beautiful vistas but the storyline in Mexico was a mess and I couldn't take the game seriously after that. That and the floating NPCs and half buried galloping horses.

  • JahB #17 1 year ago

    i second all the GOTY votes. it may not have been technically perfect, but for what it was, it went well past any videogame i've played in recent years.

  • LordMorpeth #18 1 year ago

    My game of the year, no question, if only because it manages to include the line "do you happen to know the Spanish for c##t.". Brillant.
    Edited by LordMorpeth at 26/12/10 @ 11:19

  • mushroomyakuza #19 1 year ago

    RDR was a great game and had a great story. But, I definietly think it was one of the most overhyped games this year. I got about half way, kept thinking "When is this going to start living up to all the praise it' getting?" and shortly afterwards stopped. It just wasn't living up to expectations, and I hadn't even been looking forward to it much. Then I picked up again a few months later, finished the storyline and enjoy it much more. Nonetheless, I still think it was an overhyped game, and while excellently crafted, I feel like ME2 was robbed of its GOTY prize. Speaking of ME, where is the Games of the Year article for that Eurogamer?

  • ShiroBen #20 1 year ago

    Compass was a little bit ruined for me, because about twenty seconds into it a BLOODY cougar leapt at me from nowhere, killing both my horse and the song. I had to walk home.

    RDR the game ... beautiful, but just a little bit vapid. Dear goodness the mucking-about John Marston put up with--I lost count of how many times I yelled something like "WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING THINGS FOR THIS INSANE FOOL?" at a cutscene. Also far too long and the actual mechanics are too light and game-y, I would've preferred a heavier, more seamless interface (carry one pistol and one rifle at a time, put others on your horse or change at certain locations, decrease reloading speed etc). But anyway I played the whole thing and I had fun with it, and I still enjoy just riding around getting leapt at by cougars and having the willies scared out of me by those dang ol' pack hunting ninja bears. But I think the thing I liked most about it was that every amazing 'emergent' moment I experienced felt special--felt like it was just for me, that nobody else playing the game would experience what I was experiencing in quite the same way, whether it be taming a wild horse in the midst of a thunderstorm, riding through Mexican vistas as the sun rose, or slowly picking my way through an eerie swamp at night.
    Edited by ShiroBen at 26/12/10 @ 11:49

  • makeamazing #21 1 year ago

    Really loved the game, was a lot of fun and was the first game since Outlaws to make me interested in a game about cowboys... this is in my top 5 games for the year no doubt...

  • omraya #22 1 year ago

    "Red Dead trumps it with a straightforward but powerful promise: if you can see it you can go there."

    well, actually it should be: if you can see it you can go there, but the door won't always open, as the building sometimes exists only as decor and not a real place you can actually visit.

    ..or something like that

  • Ryuken #23 1 year ago

    Where's Outlaws 2?

  • polaris70 #24 1 year ago

    Just finished RDR. Greatest game I've played. I never knew anything about that song when I crossed into Mexico so it was a bit of a surprise - probably the best 5 minutes of gaming, in 20 years, I've ever had. I'm glad other people felt how powerful it was. The first time a game become something more for me.

    The sharp writing and characters are the new standard. They could've went down the cliche path with this game and I don't think anyone would've blamed them - but they didn't, the characters felt unique from other Western films and tv like Deadwood and some of the writing was intelligent but subtle. And thats why I'd place this game up there with the best Westerns made, regardless of the medium.

    Oh, and I forgot to say, it's a hugely fun game to play too :)

  • menage #25 1 year ago

    I'v actually completed it just a few weeks ago. I got kinda bored with it in the middle so shelved it, but now that I fully played through all of it I can honestly say it's a toss up between ME2 and this for GOTY.

    And the Compass song is probably the best use of a song I ever heard in a videogame. gave me chills all over after that climax. Incredible game.

  • FuzzyDuck #26 1 year ago

    Fantasticly realised game world, but the controls were just naff. Found the missions very repetitive too.

    Lost the urge to keep playing because despite John being a great character, the plot didn't fit his personality. Worth playing, but defo not my GOTY.

  • spekkeh #27 1 year ago

    Johnny's gaming highlight of the year was my gaming frustration of the year. I got off the boat in Mexico, and the music started playing, I leisurely guided my horse up the cliff, only for my horse to slip on an edge and fall down the cliff face. The music stopped ten seconds in and I woke up at the other side of Mexico, a place I had never visited. No music, no rain, and I couldn't get it back unless I'd redo the last thirty minutes, including the incredibly boring on-rails section leading up to there.

    That they didn't include an invisible player clipping wall along the cliff and this apparently went unplaytested was infuriating. Then I read about the developer abuse that had apparently been going on at Rockstar and I couldn't help but feel renewed wonder that they delivered such a good game in the first place. Because it was a great game.

    I'm probably on of the two or three people that was completely fed up with the GTA mechanics that have been copy pasted into every single Rockstar game for ten years, but I hardly noticed it in RDR, which is a remarkable achievement. Still, the game was heavily bogged down with filler material, the same ole same ole fetch quests and illogical assassination jobs, so it's not my GOTY. If this game would've been sleeker, lasting ten hours of only original content, it would have been serious competition for ME2, SMG2 and Bayonetta.

  • fatboy996 #28 1 year ago

    Certainly a great game, but how I wished it had the mass effect cut scenes and dialogue choices. i.e. your choices and dialogue affecting the action.

    Funny enough I did not put this in my top 5 games of 2010 and I think that was correct for me as by the end I was playing it to finish the game and was not enjoying it as much as I did at the start. The Mexico stuff was the highlight though.

  • dudefella #29 1 year ago

    Berating Alan Wake for clichés and praising RDR's writing? Pretentious tripe. RDR's characters are mostly caricatures with ridiculous dialogue. Irish, West Dickens, gravedigger dude, all incredibly lame 'characters'. Marston himself is portrayed so inconsistently as to lack much character, because it's an open-world game first and a story second, by a large margin. The handful of poignant moments in the game can't disguise that fact. Rockstar's storytelling is at odds with their creation of these open worlds where you can do anything and are forced to do missions that don't gel with the main character's supposed convictions at all.

  • TriggerHippie #30 1 year ago

    I wish I hadn't read the end of that article expecting to have skipped the spoilers.

  • menage #31 1 year ago

    It'[snothing like GTA, well, the structure is similar but GTA's world was pretty devoid of life even if it dd have a whole city build around it. RDR is one of the first open world games I actually had the feeling I was actually there, GTA just had mission with lot's of emty in between.

    I never finsihed a GTA in my life because I got bored by it's restarts and frankly dull driving form A to B after 20 hours of play. RDR only fails in it's oversteteched mid part (Mexico), which isn't bad, just more like filler. The end is down right incredible for me though and clearly shows how Rockstar can actually tell a great story without being juvenile.

  • randyronald #32 1 year ago

    I'm reading comments slating Marstone's character about how he gets frustrated serving crooks and murderers yet it's possible to rob and kill every NPC you come across. Isn't that just down to Marstone serving the biggest crook and murderer of all - the player? He is character only too eager to submit to servitude for the well being of his family, you can infer his death as being the ultimate escape from the player.

    Obviously I'm not saying the player is a murderer for controlling an avatar to slaughter fictitious characters, but in the context of immersing yourself into a fictional world the player is a sort of omnipotent murderer if slaughter is what's being exacted.

  • Hindle #33 1 year ago

    Post deleted at 23:04:43 04-04-2012

  • Scimarad #34 1 year ago

    Favourite Rockstar game by a long way.

  • joelstinton #35 1 year ago

    Great game all around, a true step forward for storytelling in games. rid of the cliche mess that games can't seem to away from, like a cormac macarthy novel, what is unsaid is has important as what is. The environment and atmosphere really made this game. And the best thing? this was brough to us by a company that is at the forefront of popular culture with the gta series. kudos to them. Bobby Kotick wouldn't allow this.

  • dbranchevans #36 1 year ago

    I liked Mass Effect 2's game mechanics but I have to say I thought it the story in RDR was superb, even better than Mass Effect which had the somewhat illogical crew and mining missions (surely if your working for a multi-trillion dollar corporation they could have lent you some gear!). RDR certainly has its share of ropy feeling tasks but really the only one that stands out in my mind is working for that dodgy wagon trader which did make me think 'hang on a sec, can't we just threaten the guy?' but more in hindsight than at the time.

    My game of the year for definite, I'd have to argue with Bayonetta which had a terrible story and was more of a very well excecuted and fun beat em up and I'd shove it with Black Ops and Bad Company which are the same (well executed and fun FPS), they're hardly epic in scope or vision which is something at least RDR and Mass Effect 2 strive for. F:NV would be up there if they'd released it in half decent state.

    Anyway great article,
    Edited by dbranchevans at 26/12/10 @ 14:40

  • onyxbox #37 1 year ago

    think I'm going to pick this up again (on 360 this time) and play it again... fantastic vistas :)

  • mashk #38 1 year ago

    Started this about a week ago, it is indeed a brilliant game and a technical marvel. Cheers for the spoilers btw : (

  • mashk #39 1 year ago

    Started this about a week ago, it is indeed a brilliant game and a technical marvel. Cheers for the spoilers btw : (

  • DjWhizzkidd #40 1 year ago

    Red Dead is on the the greatest games I have ever played.

  • M83J01P97 #41 1 year ago

    Eurogamer's 8/10 for RDR is probably one of the most curiously inappropriate scores this year. Sure there were some bugs in the game, but everything else about RDR just bleeds quality, from the atmosphere to the dialogue and story structure. Yet 8/10 (while not a bad mark) seems almost insulting to the sheer quality of RDR.

  • zeldasdad #42 1 year ago

    amazing game, don't agree with him being inconsistent in the story though, the reason he done all these things for stupid or evil characters in the game was because he wanted to see his family again, loved SMG2 and Mass Effect 2 but this is my game of the year too

  • shogo10 #43 1 year ago

    Considering some of the games that came out this year, RDR is still by far my GOTY. Its one of the few games this gen to actually deliver on the hype. I remember R* releasing the first video for RDR and I wasn't sure that they could deliver, but they definitely have. I don't think we'll something like this again for a while, or at least as complete as RDR.

    One of the things that made the game special was how great it felt in terms of its setting. I can think of all the western films I've seen and bits of all of those you can see within RDR. The first section of the game felt like a traditional western film, but as you progressed you can the spagetti western influence and the last third of the game felt to me like the later Clint Eastwood and Peckinpah westerns especially the ending.

  • benfresh76 #44 1 year ago

    I think this game is hugely overrated, the pacing is poor, mission structure lacks variety, the core mechanics are dated and woolly, the story lacks direction and the characterization is weak. If it wasn't as pretty as it is, the flaws would be far more painfully obvious.

  • smelly #45 1 year ago

    My experience playing it:

    1 hr in : This is the BEST game i've EVER played!
    4 hrs in : Man this is repetitive.. riding horses to checkpoints is not as much fun as driving cars
    6 hrs in : I fell asleep during a mission which required lots of horse riding, and ended up steering john into a lake and drowning him
    6.5hrs in : Man that sex scene was unecessary
    8 hrs in : Oh, i've finished it.. that was short

    PLEASE NOTE: I dont play games online - so i have no idea what its like for that.

  • Soton4084 #46 1 year ago

    A truely beautiful game in my opinion and one which strongly supports the argument that videogames can be an art form.

  • davidov92 #47 1 year ago

    Could we skip all this console-only hip-hip hooray BS ? We want the real games. *cough* Mass Effect 2, Bad Company 2 *cough*

  • Oh-Bollox #48 1 year ago

    The controls were pretty bad. Please explain to me why I cannot move, look, and change weapon at the same time. You have a pad that has 12 buttons, a D-pad, and two analog sticks. I can design a control system that lets you do that. I'm not even a game designer.

    Red Eye - slo-mo shooting mechanic that begins with a blinding flash. We can all see the turd on that lawn.

    You could easily put together a massive list of flaws for RDR, but it's still a good game. 8/10 is a pretty fair score, I think, and one of EG's better hype-bullet dodges.

  • BlinkeredAxis #49 1 year ago

    @Oh-Bollox

    I found that changing the horse view to camera-lead rather than horse-lead was much easier
    and more intuitive. It's in the options.

    After that, it was a joy riding my horsey everywhere...

  • Oh-Bollox #50 1 year ago

    But I never mentioned horses...?

  • metalangel #51 1 year ago

    (spoilers for several games ahead)

    The reason I said he's inconsistent in the story is the same problem with all games like this where you have free reign... EXCEPT during the cutscenes where your hero repeatedly makes stupid decisions or fails to seize on opportunities to get himself out of the mess he's in.

    Carl Johnson, for example, like I said before, could solve all his problems right at the very beginning by just fucking killing Tenpenny.

    Then we have Mark Hammond in The Getaway, who goes and slaughters half of London (and I'm complaining? I wish he'd go do the rest) to save his irritating brat of a son from an evil gangster. Except, every time he's near said gangster, he never takes the opportunity to shoot/torture/get revenge on him, and you're left watching him in cutscenes just talking to the guy while you shout 'KILL HIM, YOU IMBECILE' at the TV.

    Hell, I don't know why Luis Lopez hangs around with even half the characters in Gay Tony, since he keeps saying he's gone legit and knows full well everyone he keeps going to for work is a criminal.

    Which brings us back to Marston, who basically allows himself to be everyone's bitch and messenger boy despite the fact that we all know he's enough of a badass to just beat the information or assistance that he needs out of people.

    That's my problem. While I sympathize with Marston's predicament, I don't enjoy the missions because I don't see them as actually solving his problem in a productive way. Of course, it being a game, they're just pushing a little 'you are here' along a storyline.

    Consider, though, Mass Effect. The villain, when you do encounter him, quite rightly means a fight. The rest of the time you're tracking him down, unravelling his schemes, trying to catch up with him. Dragon Age, likewise. You know there's a baddy, but you can't face him yet, you have to rally support first. Could you imagine either game if you had to sit through linear cutscenes watching Shepard/The Grey Warden being tormented by Saren/Loghain face to face? When they just have their rifle/sword right there and could just blast/slice him up then and there?

    Hell, the only genuinely stupid 'jerk sends you off to do their work for them' quest in the main plotline of Fallout 3 was Threedog's quest, and when I returned from it I shot the smug bastard right between the eyes.

    Can you see what I'm saying? If I'm given an overall objective and have to work my way through it, I get into it, I enjoy it, I am suffering the same shit my character is and I grow more attached to them. When I have to watch my character repeatedly agree to do stupid stuff and then I'm given the controls back so I can get them out of yet another mess, I start to hate them.

    While I enjoyed RDR's overall story, and it definitely had some powerful moments, a lot of the specifics were really annoying. Yet another interminable ride with another bozo to yet another dull mission, but first here's five minutes of sleep-inducing dialogue in which Marston complains about the time being wasted but does nothing about it. Far too long spent in Mexico, and things suddenly pick up rather abruptly and before you know it... it's over.

  • Oh-Bollox #52 1 year ago

    I didn't mention horses, no idea what I did to deserve that neg. Thanks anyway.

    @metalangel: Spot on. Irrespective of how you play Marston, he has his own character in the cut scenes and the story, a fairly bad man trying reform and do good (or at least not do evil) and be reunited with his family as quickly as possible. This makes little sense in the context of the game, where he is just everybody's favourite attack dog and has no problem with it.

    "Yessuh, massuh, I kill those people for you reeeal good."

  • strelok #53 1 year ago

    Apparently noone else got massively annoyed with the random encounters. I tried really hard to ignore them but they are beyond redemption. Har har. Pun intended and all that.

  • Oh-Bollox #54 1 year ago

    I quite liked the random encounters. The lynching one was a decent challenge. I reached one of those going far too fast, swept through, turned round, shot the rope, and hit the lady's husband (who recruited me to save her) right in the head.

    Whoops.

    Tried rescuing a whore from being stabbed. Shot the knife out of the dastardly brigand's hand. He drew his revolver. I shot that out of his hand. His five best mates come out of the saloon and start shooting me. The moral of the story, I suppose, is...don't try and stop whores from getting stabbed?

    After I'd prevented someone being robbed (although they did get covered in the robber's brains) I shot the robber's horse, skinned it, and the victim promptly ran screaming to the law. I get a bounty on my head for killing a criminal's horse, but killing the criminal is okay?

    I rescued a man from a wolf pack and a bear. Yes, that's right. Not just a wolf pack, but a bear as well. Now, because it was a bit of a melee, with wolves swirling around and my horse rearing, some of my fire went a bit awry. And as I was using the Broom Of Death Which Sweeps All Before It (semi-automatic shotgun) some of that winged the chap in question. So, "Thanks for savin' mah life, mister!" and then off he goes to blab to the law. Approximately two millionths of a second later, the world's fastest posse turns up, and starts shooting. As I am fending off this new challenge, a bear comes along and claws me to death. I know life isn't fair, but Christ.

  • MiniAmin #55 1 year ago

    Great post metalangel. Completely encapsulated my thoughts. I became so agitated during the cutscenes watching Marston insult stupid characters, only to completely succumb to whatever dumb shit they'd stipulate. Eventually my affinity towards Marston disintegrated, the stupid man!

    Wish you'd stop hating London(ers) though. We're not all bad :(

  • RESIDENT_nEVILe #56 1 year ago

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rFoMvLmfFEY

    [link url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYdCvN-ukRY
    ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYdCvN-ukRY
    [/link]


    GOTY for the glitches alone.

  • mascus #57 1 year ago

    I too loved it. Despite the occasionally clunky controls. The vistas, the gun play, characters, just brilliant.

  • smelly #58 1 year ago

    >After that, it was a joy riding my horsey everywhere...


    Really? I genuinely found riding horses to be the biggest let down on this game. I *LOVED* the idea.. I got REALLY excited at the start, i squelled in delight when i tied up a woman, put her on the train tracks, had her run over and got an achievement for it!

    I was thankful for campfires getting me to the start of missions.

    BUT a lot of missions had "padding" which consisted of riding your horse for miles and miles and miles to get to a location, do something, then ride for miles and miles more. I dont mind that in gta, as cars are fast, and you can hit jumps, smash the car up, get a motorbike, zoom off down a side street, etc etc. Here I'm just looking at the horses arse for seemingly hours on end.

    I estimate that i spent 15% of the game actually PLAYING the game, the other 85% of the game time was spent looking at the horses arse hoping something will happen. (or if ive completed a mission and i'm returning home that something doesnt happen so i dont have to go thru it again).

    Dont get me wrong.. i thought the rest of the game was ace.. i completed it in a few nights BECAUSE i enjoyed it so much. BUT i thought riding a horse was a bit dull in comparision to cars. Then later in the game they dangled a car in front of me like a carrot - but i wasnt allowed to drive it (Bah).

    Oh, and yes - the sex/semi-rape scene was totally uneeded and seemed to be there just for shock value. I'm surprised no "daily mail" readers picked up on it, as it was far worse than anything in gta (imho).

    So im drawn.. on one hand i thought it was ace.. loved the story - ending took me by surprise. Loved the freedom. Didnt like all the boring riding, but i guess it was realisitc!

    My only disapointment was i returned the game after what i thought was the "ending" and then discovered by talking to other people that i missed the "real" ending.. bah.


    And as i said - cant comment on the online.

    Dont understand why when people give full explanations of what they like/didnt like with full reasoning and explanations why that gets negged by people.. It'd be a strange world if we all agreed on everything - and as i said i REALLY liked this game.. I prefered it to gta4 for definite...

  • smelly #59 1 year ago

    >If none of you guys writes up Bayonetta and Mass Effect

    I never tried bayonetta.. Mass effect i played first game for a few hours and got overwhelmed by all the options available to me, and i ran away scared of it - lol

    I still have the game disc for mass effect.. i really should try it again.. feelsl ike i need a LOT of free time to play it though... and im not sure i have...

  • AcidSnake #60 1 year ago

    I had the exact same reaction to the music...Slowing down for the first piece and riding like hell to see the family for the second...

    I regret taking the shortcut instead of the route on the map for the second one though as I never got to finish the song...

    Great game...

  • Badassbab #61 1 year ago

    Definately deserves GOTY imo. Never thought I could enjoy a Western anything. Fantastic characters, brilliant voice overs and a pretty good story.

  • Murbal #62 1 year ago

    Puntastic! Great tagline, would have been great if the game had been indefinitely delayed and almost cancelled at some point :-)

  • AgentCool #63 1 year ago

    I never got on with Rockstar's recent GTA titles but this was just astonishing. It's the sort of game I imagined might appear one day in the distant future when I was an eight-year old Mega Drive owner.

    Not only Game of the Year, but the best game of the past ten years for me since the last title that wowed me as much was Shenmue on the Dreamcast.