If you missed my first hands off impressions of Red Dead Redemption then you can find them here and here which you will need to know if you want to pick up the story of where we are in RDR.
This time around I was trusted enough to take control of Mr John Marston myself and guide him through 2 separate missions in the game, I’ll try go through both of those now and if I miss something that you want to know please feel free to leave a comment and I will answer anything I am allowed to.
Dead or Alive
You’ll remember that a big part of the story at the moment is that we are hunting a former associate, Bill Williamson, but in this episode we are trying to win over a local sheriff, Johnson, by helping him round up some local low level criminals.
You arrive at the villains location only to find him surrounded by his compadres and not so willing to give himself up and there begins the fun. I pull out my trusty six shooter and slide into the closest cover.
Cover System
The cover system is very intuitive, to head into cover you simply click LB and John will hide behind whatever he can at that time. If you are running at the time he will do an awesome Hollywood slide into the closest cover. To leave cover you simply need to point in the direction you want to go and tap LB again, for the smaller cover options this means that you can leap over whatever you are hiding behind or if you are on the side he will charge around it and begin running.
You can switch between two cover points if they are close enough and all the benefits of aiming from behind cover or pure blind fire is available as expected.
My experience of the cover system was good and I never found myself getting stuck or accidently being sucked into the wrong cover.
Weapons
So back to the story, once in cover I begin targeting the numerous villains and taking them out. The 6 shooter worked perfectly for the close up enemies but as soon as they were a little further back it became ineffectual. So I pulled up the weapon selection screen which allows for up to 6 weapons to be carried at a single time.
I swap out my six shooter for a petrol bomb (Molotov cocktail) and target that behind the rocks a little way up the hill, the bomb explodes covering 2 guys in flames. They instantly jumped up screaming which game me the opportunity to swap to my 6 shooter again, leap over the cover and take them out.
Once behind cover again I swapped to my rifle and finished the rest of them off, the sheriff (who I had forgotten was helping me) then yelled that we need to take the lead criminal alive if possible and at the same time he emerged from the building just ahead.
I pulled the left trigger to lock onto his chest and then used the free target ability to drag the cursor down to his leg and took my shot.
The mission was paced very much in the style of the GTAIV gang shootout styled missions and was hugely enjoyable.
For a full description of the weapons and targeting system check out this handy Red Dead Redemption trailer.
Last Updated: January 28, 2010
Flamebaitboy
January 28, 2010 at 23:07
Were you chained to a desk wit no water or food while playing the demo. Were you treated like shit, enough so that your wife would want to write a letter to the internet? :ninja:
LazySAGamer
January 28, 2010 at 23:18
If someone chained me to the desk and treated me like shit I highly doubt my wife would be complaining :tongue:
mitas
January 29, 2010 at 01:38
yeah right :w00t:
Nick de Bruyne
January 29, 2010 at 03:26
This game is actually looking pretty friggin awesome
easy
January 29, 2010 at 06:44
does it differentiate itself enough from being just cowboyified gta?
and was there any word on multiplayer?
LazySAGamer
January 29, 2010 at 07:22
No word on multiplayer but it will happen, but you can see in the game that it will happen. It lends itself to a cops and robbers styled MP perfectly.
It doesn’t feel like a cowboy GTA at all really and it’s a bit unfair to keep on comparing it to GTA but at the same time it’s hard not to.
It’s an open world Cowboy/Western game with more freedom than GTA but less happening on screen all at once.. Saying that it’s a truly Rockstar game and they are once again doing what they are really good at, open world freedom
Bobby "Marinated Chicken" Kotick
January 29, 2010 at 11:09
I’m sold.
I’ve never really been a fan of westerns (not really sure why, I reckon I was always destined to be a Space Marine), but there’s something about Red Dead Redemption that’s lighting a fire in my groin, and Daddy Kotick is liking it (maybe it’s the horses… cough Equus*) :heart:
chou
March 19, 2010 at 20:37
hey can you swim?
is there any point collecting money?
how long (estimate hours) do they say the storymode will be?
if you stelth, will you be detected easily, like the bad guys have eyes in their back?
Gavin Mannion
March 20, 2010 at 07:01
1. I haven’t seen any water yet
2. Yes you can buy the bounty off your head and purchase other goods.
3. No idea, long
4. So far the stealth has been good, no magical AI
chou
March 21, 2010 at 09:12
thanks for the respond, this game is starting to sound very nice. I have some more questions.
-How was handling john like, is he like the same as Niko who swave right and left as you run?
-is the cover system like gta4 cool or Gears of war cool?
-any automatic lock on?
-can you ride other animals to?
-will the random event repeats it self over and over, boring-like things to do over?
-can you go to any house in a town, or is there restricted houses and areas.
-does the weather system has a 4season system.
-hows the gameplay graphic, is it like gta4 or better, any game comparison?
Sorry to ask so many question, this was the first time some one would answer us, someone who has played the demo. me and my friends are just so pump up for this game. many of the questions are there’s not mine. We will be grateful if you would answer our question, thank you very much.
Gavin Mannion
March 21, 2010 at 11:20
No problem, let’s see if I can answer these as well.
1. Handling John was ery similar to Niko, just a little better.
2. Not quite Gears of War but that sort of system.
3. Yes there is an automatic lock and then freeroam system
4. Not that I know off… there are prostitutes though 😉
5. I haven’t played enough to see how many random events there are or if they repeat.
6. You can go to anything you can see… not sure you can go into everything though. They have been pretty restrictive on that access.
7. It has a full day/night cycle but not 4 seasons as far as I know
8. It’s different to GTA IV as it’s far less populated, but the animals look amazing as does the lighting. GTA IV is the cloests comparison I can think off though.
Kyle McMurry
April 17, 2010 at 01:19
@Gavin there is water such as rivers in the forested areas unknown if you can swim though :ninja: