After many valiant attempts, the one game genre that hasn't been mastered is the Western. We liked the first Red Dead game (out in 2004 for Xbox and PS2), but critics largely agreed that the game was ahead of its time. Now Rockstar revives its Western in an age where hardware can crank out movie-like graphics and, after the company's learned a few lessons from its flagship series, Grand Theft Auto.
There are quite a few activities in Red Dead Redemption's open-world, which takes place over three different territories: Mexico, Frontier (think Colorado) and the North (think Montana). John Marston, a "partially reformed" outlaw, will be the foil to the game's Wild West backdrop, filled with outlaws, animals and, we suspect, equally wild women.
Like Grand Theft Auto, the game will progress through a series of missions that Marsten must complete. The first mission requires Marston to rescue his friend Bonnie from outlaws who have hung her by a noose -- which means he only has a limited amount of time to save her. Another mission involves saving a snake-oil salesman from PO'd former customers, picking them off from the top of a moving stagecoach. In the demo's third mission, Marston powers up with the Mexican military and defends a mail train from outlaws ... that means perfecting your shot while on horseback. Don't worry, the game doesn't make you steer your steed and shoot at the same time.
In between missions, you can kick back and earn extra cash by gambling. Marston will be able to play poker in a saloon or play a game of Risk the western way, by playing Five Finger Fillet, which involves tapping a knife in between your fingers without stabbing your hand. If you've got the skills and the fingers, you should be able to pocket some decent cash fast.
En route to other towns, Marston will run across bandits robbing stagecoaches and other randomly generated events, that he can get involved in (which usually ends in collecting cash) or ignore. These events will most likely affect the reputation system built into the game, though we don't know many more details than that. Our hero can also hunt and skin animals and sell them for cash.
What's our cowboy going to do with all that change? He's going to buy ammo and more powerful weapons, such as rifles, sawed-off shotguns, sniper rifles, pistols, axes, knives, lassos. Marston will be able to equip four weapons at a time, and you'll be able to quickly switch among them.
Of course, this wouldn't be a Red Dead game without "Dead Eye" -- which lets Marston pick off enemies in glorious slo-mo. There are two levels of Dead Eye -- the first applies to all weapons, letting you shoot enemies while they move in slow motion, and the second lets you mark up to three targets with an X and take them out with a pistol or other one-handed firearms (the second level will only work on specific weapon). Yet, you have to earn the right to use the Dead Eye ability, by racking up kills first.
From what we heard so far, Red Dead Redemption will have great original score, much different from the banging soundtrack in Grand Theft Auto. When Marston roams the desert in between towns, the music goes almost silent, giving you the sense that you're really in the middle of nowhere. No word on whether legendary film composer Ennio Morricone will return to create the score for the new game.
Another random observation: horses will play a big role in the game. Marston will have his trusty steed (which followed him everywhere in the demo), and horses were often the key target in firefights, leaving riders (including Marsten) vulnerable. Yes, animal lovers, horses can die in the game. Fortunately, if Marston's dies in the middle of a long desert ride, we learned that he'll be able to jump on one of many wild horses roaming the wilderness.
One question still remains: will Red Dead Redemption be the playable spaghetti Western we've all been waiting for? We'll see when the game ships for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 later this year.
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