Review by: William Abner

Red Dead Redemption relies on its setting perhaps more than any other game in recent memory. Westerns are a rare breed in the videogame industry – in fact you can name only a few big budget games until the well runs dry. Call of Juarez, Gun, the recently released Lead and Gold, and Rockstar’s own Red Dead Revolver round out the recent list. After that, there is very little to talk about unless you want to throw in Ubisoft’s stylistic ninja western Red Steel 2.

What’s interesting about this paltry list is that gamers love new gaming frontiers – especially those set in familiar territory. While a brand new world can sometimes intimidate there is an intimacy about the Old West to which American gamers can relate and although there are numerous World War II or save the galaxy from ruin games, there are few options for ‘High Noon’ showdowns or great train robberies. This makes the idea of an open world western from Rockstar Games extremely enticing.

At times, Red Dead Redemption lives up to its developer’s pedigree—this is most certainly an open world western complete with dry open spaces, saloons, the occasional duel, high stakes poker, banditos, horse thieves, and yes, the occasional pistol whipped prostitute.

The character you play in this western sandbox is John Marston, a former outlaw hired by government officials to chase down former members of his gang in order to earn his freedom so he can live out his days on his farm with his wife and son. Along the way John meets a wide assortment of colorful characters from the hard working female rancher, the tough sheriff, the drunk Irishman (named Irish), the tonic selling con man, and the grave robbing drug addled (arguably) necrophiliac named Seth – and that’s even before you head south of the border into Mexico where you meet up with a retired gunslinger, the Mexican army, and the rebels who plan to overthrow the government.

There’s the makings of a good story here and one that is not uncommon to the western genre (sans the necrophilia). The former bad guy chasing down his old companions who did him wrong can lead to a lot of interesting plot twists and the first few hours slowly build your character much like Rockstar has done in its past games, leading you to believe that an epic tale is about to be told.

Then it falls apart.