OXCGN’s Xbox OZ and GrathuisXR give their view on Rockstar’s new Western.

by XboxOZ360

©2009 Grant Smythe:

This is arguably the best sandbox game in the last decade, and the most involved storyline produced by Rockstar to-date. This is the game that the RAGE was built for. The engine was first considered for this game in the initial period of the 360/PS3′s life span.

• Red Dead: Redemption Review

Games such as Rockstar’s Table Tennis, GTA IV, and its following iterations, plus Midnight Club: Los Angeles were games used to basically test the game engine out, and fine tune it for the huge roll that lay ahead for Rockstar San Diego.

Red Dead Revolver was the game’s predecessor, and about the only thing that remotely connecting the two is the ‘Dead-Eye’-Targeting-System that will still be in use in the new game. Other than that, this game is completely new, from ground up.

It is not your everyday Western either. Most gamers think of Western games as something to simply pass the time away on in between ‘decent games’. Not this one. This one will take GTAIV and shift it 180 degrees to the right, and then proceed to roll it over on its head and spit it back out again.

• Red Dead: Redemption – 4 Min Story Intro Movie

Bold statements to be sure, but when you see the engine at work, even this far out from the game’s completion (April 30th 2010  Release Date), and the huge array of in-game possibilities, you will understand what Rockstar are saying when they state that this game will leave GTAIV for dead – Red Dead in fact.

This is a game about the Wild Wild West at the turn of the century, when times were tough for man, woman and child in the west of America. New laws were coming in, technology was advancing and the world was changing forever.

This game has no Russian brothers like Nico and co, or motorbike gangs, gay night club owners, helicopters, or bazookas, machine guns and the huge array of modern weaponry that you’ll find in GTAIV etc.

Just solid American Western living and dying at the turn of the 19th century, where a six-gun was your best friend, and a lasso was your sidekick, and a good horse was your only thing keeping you alive and away from the bad guys. Where huge open rolling plains with sun soaked sunsets and sunrises welcome you in each level.

• Red Dead: Redemption – The Wild West

Where the blue sky filled with true volumetric clouds change and tumble across the sky above you. With cold wind-swept snow fields and forests of the Rocky Mountains, huge grizzly bears meandering around, wild buffalo roam grazing on dancing grasslands, deer are pursued by the formidable pumas (or mountain lions to the non American’s reading this) as they search for food, and yes, you could be on the menu if you don’t watch out.

Animals that do their own thing, with you around or not. There is the fact that hundreds of NPCs go about their own business whether you become involved or not.

The whole thing is up to you. Seeing the sun sinking in the western sky or watching the shadows grow as dawn thaws the cold, frosty ground from the night before is awe-inspiring.

Rockstar certainly have a winner here, one that will redefine Western  games, and in my opinion, all sandbox games for some time to come.

However . . ahhhh yes, there is a however.

My only, and I might point out this is my only, main concern is about – ‘new gamers’!

I mainly mean the current two generation of gamers entering the gaming scene now, or who have entered it in the last few years since say 2005/6

Why? Well many gamers these days from those generations expect a certain level of foolishness in games, and even the ridiculous at times and shy away from something out of pace with the norm.

You know the ones who demand the ability to blow helicopters out of the sky in Liberty City, Race Motorbikes on one wheel down a main street, while wielding a sub-machine gun with blinding accuracy, or starting and running their very own whore pimping operation in downtown Liberty City. As well as many other  aspects of what they have become used to in games like GTAIV (and all its iterations) and games like Saints Row and its ilk.

The really worrying and big question is, will they take on the new level of finesse in a different genre like Rockstar are hoping they will, or will they simply see it as unexciting and pay no mind to it?

That is of course, until it’s too late, and the game has been released for awhile and then rush to buy the game once it’s too late to help the developers move forward with the series.

So many new IP’s have ended this way in the last few years, which is why large publishers are now backing away from new IP’s, which is a sad thing for all gamers, new and old alike.  Though not a new IP as such, it is a new approach and Rockstar will be hoping for big success early.

I love games like this, where you dictate what happens, yet are also involved even in little ways as to how the world unfolds around you.

I’m getting tired of games that have a linear path, with small ‘side missions’ that basically add very little to the limited illusion of an open world, and try to give a false sense of sandbox style to the game.

Red Dead: Redemption is NOT such a game. This game will have you spending many a late night, or even early morning wandering around the Wild West, being a cowboy through the eyes of John Marston chasing bad guys, fighting corrupt American officials, Outlaws and Mexican bandidos or helping would-be new El Presidente fight the Mexican Army, rescue farmers, passengers or the local townsfolk.

Or even robbing banks, in the name of good of course, chasing villains, saving damsels in distress (why thank you kind sir . .  as she bats her eyelids ever-so-gently) and doing everything every young man (or girl) once dreamed of when they were young and watching shows staring the likes of Davy Crockett, Daniel Boone, Jim Bowie, Gen. George A. Custer, Wild Bill Hickok, Buffalo Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, Bat Masterson, and outlaws such as the James Brothers, the original Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and Billy the Kid, in movies such as The Wild Wild West, The OK Coral, Fist Full Of Dollars, The Wild Bunch and many many more.

This game will take both young and old on a journey that will leave them spellbound for some time to come. You can bank on that. It will hopefully introduce the new gamers to the realm of yesteryear when men were men, and their lives depended on their instincts for survival, a dead-eye with the six-gun (revolver), and the trusty old  Lver Action Winchester 75, the primary rifle of the time.

Not to mention your hardened ability and skill with your trusty “Bowie” knife of the era. One of the most sought after and renowned knifes of the 18 and 19 hundreds.

Jim Bowie, while seriously injured with a gunshot was attacked by three men. He split the skull of one, almost decapitated another, and disemboweled the third.

This gained him much notoriety at the time, which he repeated some years later, when three assassin’s were sent to kill him, but ended up dead in the same manner. Let’s see if you can master the good old “Bowie Knife” as well as Jim did. Somehow I seriously doubt it.

The only “machine gun” that you’ll come close to using is the revolving rifle or otherwise known as a “Gatling Gun” which saw use around that time. Sticks of dynamite take the place of grenades, and of course, there will be the ability to launch everyone skywards with gunpowder kegs that will be laying about at strategic places – naturally.

Did you know the old six-gun only had an accuracy of around 12 – 30 feet, 3-7 meters, which is why so many miss-shots occur with the simple six-gun in quick draw events of the time?

And don’t be mislead by the name “six-gun” as some modern ‘six shooters’ have seven chambers, with some catering up to 10 chambers, with both early and modern models having swinging chambers or break-back loading systems. Just a little but of gun trivia for you.

Red Dead: Redemption looks to set the sandbox genre and western games on its proverbial head, and I’m here to say right now that if it doesn’t, then there’s something seriously wrong in the gaming world of today; the game is a knockout in every department.

Just hurry up guys-n-gals at the Sydney office and let me get my sweaty big hands on some playable code tout-suit – pretty PLEASE! OXCGN will be watching this game with bated breath, and doing a few OXCGN Features on it, you can be assured of that, so keep your eyes peeled for them.

©2009 Grant Smythe:

Now GrathisXR has his say.

by GrathiusXR

©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos

Seven months ago XboxOz360 and myself were invited to Rockstar’s newly formed PR office here in Sydney to be treated to a hefty session of a hands-off Red Dead: Redemption Demo using their Euphoria/R.A.G.E Engine.

Suffice to say XboxOz and myself were extremely pleased with what we saw in such an early build, despite of course the obvious unstable frame-rate present. Red Dead: Redemption was a sight to behold, even back then.

But now it is definitely a game to look out for in 2010.

Seven months on, and Rockstar San Diego have been quite busy with ensuring that their latest title takes full advantage of their RAGE engine, and boy does it take advantage.

The world is populated with more animals during the night, horses now look a lot more crisper in texture , they react much more realistically and the sunsets in this game are a reason alone to buy it.  Spectacular!

The main selling point back when we first saw the game was how the world would immerse the player in terms of events that were happening at random occasions no matter where you were or what you were doing.

People would horse-jack you, a packs of wild dogs would attack old ladies or even someone by themselves traveling on horseback. There would be people collapsing from sun-stroke, being robbed and a great deal more events too numerous to mention.

• Red Dead: Redemption – The story unfolds.

Now it seems they have added a plethora of new things that will further side-track you, and what’s amazing about it, is that these actually do encourage you to want to get involved. Our first encounter this time around was with a group of bandidos who were right in the middle of an execution.

Here you have a couple of choices: you can continue to promptly stride on by on your horse and move along allowing the execution to happen, or you can intervene and take out the henchmen who were only seconds away from executing their victim.

Alternatively, you could just take them all out, victim as well, and never speak of the moment again; no one would be the wiser.

What makes Red Dead: Redemption’s choices like this all the more enticing is the fact that the game features a good/bad notoriety system. Though this is much like many other games have featured in the past, in Red Dead: Redemption this can work to either hinder your progress or help it. In the end it is ultimately up to you as to how you wish things to go.

Become ‘Wanted’ and fellow outlaws may try to hunt you down for the bounty. In towns where you are Wanted the local sheriff may try to arrest you, and everywhere you go you’ll know you’re a Wanted Man (there will even be a poster around with you face and name on it) and until you do something to re-pay your debt to society these nuisances can hinder your progress.

Which makes the game all the more enjoyable and challenging.

It’s a GTA-cop-esque system that works and this time round isn’t as easy to simply hide in an alleyway and that’s it. It’s an open land where the only cover is rock, rock and more rock and perhaps some cliff and some bushes, but that’s it.

As we continued, protagonist John Marston was about to enter the town of Chuparosa when he was treated to the sight of a gaol (jail to you North Americans) stagecoach which had been brought down and two of its prisoners escaping, leaving a wounded soldier pleading for help.

Being the gentleman that John is, it was his duty to help out a fellow in need.

Again choice comes into play here, either take both prisoners out or you can shoot them in the leg and tie them up or just have some fun chasing them around for a bit then lassoing them when you feel the time is right.

The prisoner was also wounded, and easy to lasso, bring down, tie up and throw onto the back of our horse.

Either way you do this the reward will vary; you may be offered money, items, ammo or perhaps a treasure map which could lead you to buried gold!

What I found funny about the reward that John received this time was that after a thank you very much from the guard and re-assurance that the lone prisoner we caught would never see the light of day again …BAM! . . . . The prisoner was shot once in the head for his attempted escape.

The guard, obviously bitter, had shot him after you put the effort into catching, tying him and presenting him back to the law. Yes, it obviously seems rather harsh,  but that’s life and law in the wild west at the turn of the century.

At first I felt confused, but then a sense of joy. He may of not have been shot by the guard, if another path had been chosen- the possibilities are very exciting.

If John was either 5 or 10 minutes late, the prisoners would be long gone and that opportunity to make some quick money or build up my reputation would have been missed.

It’s the beauty of Red Dead: Redemption that any random occurrence can be missed If you’re a few minutes late or a bit to early. In 6 months Rockstar San Diego have managed to make an already impressive world even more impressive and immersive.

So moving on now to Chuparosa there’s plenty to do: play games at the bar, drink till you drop or take up bounty posters at the local sheriff’s office.

In Red Dead: Redemption there is plenty to do and though Rockstar’s other open-world game GTAIV, which took you around 20-30 hours to complete, Red Dead: Redemption looks to be longer than that, dare I say perhaps double the time?

Spanning across 3 locations, New Austin, Neuvo Parasio and West Elizabeth, as well as spanning a larger landscape than GTAIV, I wouldn’t be surprised if the game does indeed allow you rack up at least 50 hours to complete.

GTAIV featured an amazing High Definition Liberty City and was filled with so many things that up to this day it is still making gamers find new things.

With the size of Redemption, the weapons that are based on real life weapons from the past, an in-game animal eco-system which reacts the same as in real life, big hunts small, small hunts smaller and wild animals attack anything.

The Euphoria Engine also creates some amazing in-game death animations.  There’s nothing better than shooting a guy in the leg whilst he is on a roof only to see him come tumbling down then get back up to limp to safety.

Whilst Red Dead: Redemption may have been pushed back to next year, it seems that Rockstar San Diego is making as many improvements to the game as they can not only visually but in gameplay. I know once the game is released I’ll be happy just viewing the amazing sunset that RR: Redemption features, before riding off to create mayhem.

Nothing like heading out in the open desert, setting up a camp fire ( which can be upgraded via purchasing upgrade from town) and taking in the sights.

2010 looks to be a massive year in gaming for sequels and Red Dead: Redemption looks ready to become Open World King of The Mountain, and with what I’ve seen so far, it may just do it.

Bring out a Collector’s Edition and my money will be spent faster than John can sling his six-shooter.

©2009 Arthur Kotsopoulos