Red Dead: Redemption

As is often the case with this multiplayer style, more skilful players can snake across the map, while those of an irredeemably spawny nature will cower in a corner by a chest waiting to shoot someone in the head and claim the prize. Of all the matches I play, it's the most riotously fun as there's nothing to be gained from camping on rooftops, and even the deadest of eyes has to turn and run when there's a chest to reach.

The team-based version is an altogether different affair: two bases, a mile apart, just discernible from one to the other, with skyscraping rock formations towering above the desert, offering a ridge at midway point with a canon. This is classic capture the flag territory, with one bag in each base that must be swiped and returned with you, but which exploits the breathtaking scale of Rockstar's world.

During one round I spend a good 10 minutes on approach, first on horseback (up on the d-pad calls your steed), then creeping silently through the wilderness, circling back on the enemy base, clambering inch-by-inch up a rocky outcrop, drawing my sniper rifle to take aim. Then get shot in the face before I manage a single trigger-pull. Bastards.

Clearly, effective teamwork will help here, but there's not a great deal in evidence during this playtest. Nowhere better is this highlighted than towards the end of one round where, with no clear victor, the game reverts to death match. Which I mistake as 'free for all' rather than the team variety, and promptly shoot one of the Rockstar PR team in the back, his reward for a valiant and exhausting defence of our base. Never trust a journalist.

As a third-person multiplayer experience in the GTA mould, I feel a lot more comfortable shooting at distance than at close-quarters, which can get a little wonky and imprecise when targeting and shifting the camera around simultaneously. That said, it can work to the game's advantage on occasion, for example during the intensity of a shootout; more amusing experiences include chasing down another Rockstar PR rep with a knife, wildly slashing as they desperately remain just out of reach, and circling another with a horse and cart, desperately trying to run them down. Really, the only thing missing is Benny Hill music.

It's also still a little buggy in places, with occasional crashes, flying steeds and other random freak occurrences, though the game is now at the stage where these small creases will hopefully be smoothed out.

I doubt people will queue up in droves to buy Red Dead Redemption as a multiplayer experience in the same way they would for Call of Duty, say, but that's not the point. An enormous, evocative, provocative single-player adventure is the big draw here, as ever.

And that doesn't mean multiplayer is simply tacked on. Far from it, the scale and variety of Red Dead's environments and the sheer amount of cool stuff to do means Free Roam alone is likely to immerse groups of friends for long stretches. The core modes, while pretty standard fare, play well to Redemption's structural and thematic strengths and, over the course of half a day's play, are certainly never less than fun.

For a game tipped to be one of the single-player highlights of 2010, it can only add to the overall package. Worth taking a bullet for? We'll find out in just over a month.