I don't have a whole lot to say on Red Dead Redemption, as I myself am not playing it. Though I'm a bit embarrassed to admit, I haven't yet played many "sandbox" games, or enough Rockstar to offer a well-informed opinion. Things I have enjoyed watching Red Dead Redemption, though:
- The setting shows as much or
more love and research as any of Rockstar's previous games. I
remember wandering Liberty City with my Gamelab friends looking for our
respective apartments, and noting whose home blocks were or weren't on the
map. The attention to details was great enough to call out features
of individual and otherwise unremarkable buildings.
- In RDR, I can practically smell
the west. My family traveled a lot while I was in middle and high
school. We'd fly out to family in Denver, then take a few weeks of
summer to drive around -- a north loop one year, several south loops over
other years. We camped out under the stars with my aunt and
uncle. The depiction of the area between the Rockies and the Sierras
could hardly be more accurate or evocative. The flora changes as you
rise in elevation, in recognizable ways. The washes and arroyos are
clearly from very specific reference. When night falls and the moon
comes out, the high desert changes perfectly to show the sharp shadows and
frosty-looking sage.
- It's got honor, and fame, but
no clear game advantage depending on it. After a few recent
discussions (Ethics and Game Design and some GDC talks) I'm pleased to see that little
depends on your honor. You don't get easy
outs from being particularly honorable -- just easier access to
side missions, as far as I've seen.
- I'm not generally keen on
westerns, but something in RDR strikes me as pulling out the best of the
genre. The sense of freedom on the frontier, and the craziness and
loneliness that it could have taken to live there, comes through in a
sandbox game. What I've seen of the GTA games and their stories seem
driven of desperation or avarice, and the city seems like mostly a
distraction and a series of obstacles on your way to the goal. (Granted, I have not played them much.) In
RDR, the frontier feel seems appropriate. There's a lot you can do,
and you can just do things to get by. If you're going to succeed,
you'll have to decide that you're going to step up and go for it.
That seems very western-genre to me.
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