XBOX 360 Review: Red Dead Redemption (2010)

 

I have always been a fan of the mythical Old West. As early as I can remember, my toy collection included the necessary little plastic "Cowboys and Indians." Certainly, many people shared my enthusiasm for the spirit and characters of this genre. Thus, it is quite a wonder why video games took so long to catch up with our boyhood fantasies and imaginations. Besides gems like the arcade game, Sunset Riders, or the click-and-shoot cinematic Mad Dog Mcree, I hadn't experienced many Westerns in the video game format. This is Wikipedia's list of what I've been missing. But without a doubt, Red Dead Redemption is by far the most engrossing, encapsulating, and thorough electronic Western experience that gaming has to offer. It is definitely more than just being "Grand Theft Horse", but it does offer the open world experience people expect from Rockstar. There is plenty to do, from hunting to card playing to breaking in horses to treasure hunting to playing horseshoes. It is amazing in how it transports players to a different time, when life was tougher but most people were friendlier due to their greater independence on each other for survival. (Of course, being a video game, not everyone is very friendly. But for an historical account of the real Old West, see The Not So Wild, Wild West.) I was impressed with how characters didn't simply act like people today transported to a by-gone era; rather, they seemed authentic. The main character, John Marston, is a person to whom one can easily become emotionally attached (a phenomenon demonstrated, for example, by ones who carry a sign that reads, "Frodo lives!" or wear a T-shirt with "Save Marla Singer" written with a Sharpie). He deserves to be in the cowboy hall of fame, perhaps under (but only just under) John Wayne, Clint Eastwood, and Steve McQueen. As fantastic as these movie stars were and charming as the films in which they appeared, Red Dead reminds us of why we find video games so appealing: they transport some place hard or impossible to get to and allow us to do things we cannot do in our physical coils. Need I say more? Red Dead is a jewel of a game and an indisputable must-have for fans of Westerns, adventure games, third-person shooters, and/or free roaming games who have access to hardware capable of running it.