I hate westerns. I remember watching them as a child and my brains would ooze out of my ears because they were just so damn boring. Funny looking men who weren’t really funny at all shooting each other in the middle of nowhere, I’ve never understood them. Of course I’ve grown up since then, but I still don’t get them. Perhaps my generation isn’t supposed to like them, but we are constantly told that they are brilliant. Watch Deadwood, it’s amazing, they said. I felt genuinely stupid when I watched it and didn’t like it. To me it was just funny looking men who were kind of funny because say said “cock sucker” and “cunt” a lot, shooting each other in the middle of nowhere.
Westerns aren’t my thing. So it’s come as a complete surprise to me that I am hooked on Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar’s latest sandbox game. I had no interest in this game, I didn’t like GTA IV, and mixing the format with the wild west seemed as appealing as watching an episode of Hollyoaks, which isn’t.
Giving into peer pressure, I went on an epic journey to purchase this game (it being sold out in every shop on the weekend of it’s release). It felt like an achievement just buying the damn thing. After what is the now standard Rockstar opening 10 minutes of doing absolutely nothing, it was time to kick some western ass…well not quite. Storytelling has become much more important in today’s games, and as a result, more and more games have you playing out the exposition for the first few hours (or 20 if you’re Final Fantasy XIII). While this can make it much harder to get into a game, and can be very dull, usually it is worth it in the long run.
In RDR, after a confrontation gone wrong, you are saved by some pleasant farmers, and the first few missions have you doing menial farm jobs, like chasing rabbits, and herding in cows, while your character explains his past through dialogue, nicely cutting out a hundred cut scenes you would otherwise have to sit through. Shortly after these fairly dull farm jobs, you get into the real stuff, shooting people. After all these years Rockstar are still struggling with combat, or maybe it’s just time to admit that 3rd person shooters are never going to completely work. Even after several hours, I still find myself spinning around like an airplane during close combat, resulting in the word DEAD sprawled across the screen. The cover system is pretty terrible too, apart from sliding on the floor like you got served, it just doesn’t work as well as it could, and should. No one knew what a cover system was until a few years ago, it’s compulsory to have one in every game now, even you Cooking Mama, so lets get it right OK?
I should stop here, I said I was hooked on this game, and despite all it’s flaws (I forgot about the horse controls!), I am still having fun. The most significant difference to GTA IV is the setting. Yes, I don’t like westerns, but what they have created here is a true spectacle, and something you don’t see everyday, unless you live in a desert. While it is pretty void of, well anything, it’s much more fun to ride about than it is to drive about in GTA. If I want to drive in a city I can just get in my car and drive, I can’t get on my horse and ride into the sunset.
This is why I like the game so much, I’ve never been one to just explore in games, but I have spent hours riding about with no direction, just shooting animals. I like animals, but it’s ok, they’re only pixels. I like to think that this is a game that can prove all those squares wrong who think video games are a bad influence. Yes, this game is violent, but you’re kind of a good guy. In one mission, I picked flowers for a man to give to his wife, she was dead, but it was still a good deed. You are a service to the community in RDR, and it’s certainly refreshing to play someone who isn’t a total bastard (you can choose to be one if you so wish).
The upcoming DLC doesn’t look like it will be offering anything totally new other than a fistful (see what I did there?) missions, guns, and ooo different coloured horses, so it looks like we’ve had our fun in the wild west for this year.
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