Red Dead Redemption Clearnet Games Preview

Recently I had a chance to see and play Red Dead Redemption, the latest game from Rockstar San Diego which releases later this week. My preview session consisted of an hour long hands off demo, and an hour hands on with another part of the game. There is a lot I have to talk about, and justifiably, there is a lot that I’m excited about with the game arriving on our shelves shortly.

Rockstar certainly want you to know how good this game is going to be, and they’re not afraid of showing it. Instead of the usual more secretive revealers combined with explosive trailers that GTA IV treated us to, R* have been slowly revealing all the good bits that make up Red Dead Redemption. Through generous trailer releases, engaging social media activity, motorway billboard advertising and plenty of sneak peak, R* want you to know that this is no second run cousin destined for the shadows, GTA series similarities considered.

So, with lessons learnt from its successor Red Dead Revolver (PS2, Xbox), while utilising the GTA IV Rage and Euphoria engines, RDR is lining up to be the developer’s biggest title until GTA 5. But when the release shootout begins, and the sun sets over the wild plains, will they have a winner on their hands?

A New World

Red Read Redemption will take us back to the early beginnings of the 20th century prior to the first world war when the west was in a state of change, as the new world expanded and brought new rules with it.

You’ll play as the character John Marston a Rockstar quintessential western hero/anti-hero, Marston is a partially reformed bad ass who is seeking to live a pretty relaxed non fussed sort of life for himself and his family, think of it as a man settling down after his wild days of youth. But that’s set to end when a secretive branch of the justice department tap Marston to bring his former gang to justice (and by tap I mean they kidnap his family and threaten to kill them unless he does what they say). So Marston finds himself on the trail again, living the life of the outlaw, trying to create a little bit of peace out of some chaos once again.

The GTA style sandbox world of RDR consists of New Austin, Nuevo Parasio, and West Elizabeth three separate, seamlessly loading areas that in total create a landscape larger than the one found in GTA IV. While travelling across these masses of land you literally see as far as the eye can see, albeit blurred off in the far distance, there is a draw distance for animate objects still of course, but the land itself and landmarks are visible far and wide, with good reason too.

Roaming the plains

You'll experience many other characters, wild-life and side events out on the wild plains. During my 2 hours with the game, I felt like I was witnessing a wild west safari, quite tranquil really, which is helped by the fact we’re now riding on horse back as opposed to screaming through peak hour traffic evading police at each corner. To fill out the vast spaces you’ll cover between towns and objectives, R* have introduced random events for the player to participate in, for better or worse dependant on your moral fibre count. Horse drawn wagons are held up by outlaws, travellers are chased by wild animals, convicts may be escaping from the law, and the occasional damsel will be in distress. These events will provide you with an opportunity to show your true colours, help some lawmen recapture the escaped criminals, or help the criminals escape by eliminating the lawmen, your choice.

The hands off demo started with Marston riding his horse along a dusty road, and ahead of us was a merchant’s wagon that had been run off the road by a group of bandits. Being the badass that John Marston is, he rode up on his trusty stead, triggered the engagement in the event by drawing his weapon, painted 6 targets with the Dead Eye targeting system (more on that shortly) and dispatched all looting bandits in a way that only a man with massively disfiguring facial scars could, that is, without emotion.

The player reward to these side events is that we had just encountered our first chance to earn honour, an environment affecting attribute which begins passively at the start of the game, and goes up and down dependant on your choices. By choosing to help this merchant, and not simply leave him to be (or even join in with the revellers), we had earned honour for Marston. All these side events provide these honour opportunities. This provides some real world affecting incentives to interact with all available side missions that one may have found in similar vein in previous GTA titles, but which only advanced a small side story or provided you some extra cash as a reward for your effort.

Just tagging along for the ride

Rockstar said, but was unable to display in this demo that people in a town will treat you differently dependant on your honour rating, some missions are available only to certain do-gooders, others only to the villains, and at times people may come to your aid if involved in a scuffle in town I was told. The other reward to saving this person in need was hearing him say "muchas gracias senor, take from my chest what you want, it is yours"... Not that a man like Marston needed his permission.

Gunslinger Game Play

The combat within RDR will be well familiar to any GTA IV player, with its smooth use of cover, generous auto targeting (which will be adjustable in Multiplayer lobbies), and real era based weaponry, think revolver pistols, carbines and sniper rifles, shotguns and more up close and personal items such as knives, axes and lassos. The difference between GTA and RDR shooting systems is the Dead Eye targeting mode which has a primary mode available with any weapon that slows down time allowing you to get off a crucial knee busting shot, perfect for slowing down a fleeing bounty before typing him up with your lasso.

The other available type of Dead Eye is unique to pistols or other one handed weapons (throwing knives possibly?) that lets you paint individual limbs on one or more targets by moving your crosshair over the enemy (I noted up to 6 painted targets at a time). Once you have painted everything you need to, you tap the fire button to unleash each shot in its respective spot quickly enough to be considered the quick out of “the quick and the dead”.

When you’re not using Dead Eye mode, popping out of cover will provide generous auto-targeting on a target, and by using sensitive adjustment you shouldn’t have too much trouble lining up a targets temple. For each enemy you dispatch in normal aim mode, you’ll build up your Dead Eye ability for reuse. I didn’t attempt any melee combat in game, but presumably it’s similar to what you’ll find in GTA IV, with a wider array of hand to hand weaponry. The only aspect of combat I didn’t see or try was the type of quick draw shootout synonymous with westerns that has been revealed to in the trailers.

Life in Little Mexico

After dealing with the scum of the plains, we arrive in the town of Chuparosa, a Mexican village of abject poverty, filled with people living in squalor, the feeling and fuel for an impending social revolution, built up by the experience the Mexican’s find themselves in. None the less, Chuparosa is buzzing with liveliness with its friendly vendors and compact layout. The Rockstar rep remarks above the buzz of the vendors "we just kicked a chicken" with a laugh, which snaps me back to reality from the convincing design and feel of this little township and its inhabitants.

There are certainly a few personalities within the crowds, some which look like they’ll have more of an impact on the games story than others, but one particularly exciting area of the market has an individual vendor where the player can purchase goods and items for his appearance or encampment. The player encampment which can be set up while roaming outside of main locations as a means to save the game shows Marston sitting by a campfire with a no frills tent.

Marston relaxing after a hard day of ass kicking

Sadly I didn't get a lot of info about the available items from vendors or learnt if the items purchased are purely cosmetic or had a statistical attribute to honour, fame or health (such as body armour if it's available in some kind of early design form) but it was exciting to see that Rockstar have incorporated a more expanded customisable clothing and item aspect to RDR than in the latest GTA's.

After exiting the market, a man approached the side of a building and nails up a poster, presumably not a two for one margarita’s promo at the saloon. Posters put up in towns will be relative to current events happening in the game world, but in this situation we won’t be reading the weekly news, but initiating a side quest for our first bounty, wanted dead or alive.

Bounty Man and Treasure Hunter

Once Marston initiated the bounty, the last known location of the target appeared on the mini-map as a red skull. The bounties can be taken dead or alive, which affects the final reward. Most excitedly, and in a move that I had to applaud, any side task or activity, such as this bounty can be completed concurrently, that is at any time once initiated and will stay visible on your mini-map until done presumably, so you’re not stuck travelling half way to New Austin just to pick up some scumbag, but can tackle the activity in your own time when Marston is “in the neighbourhood” so to speak.

Treasure maps also provide an alternative to the justice dishing of the main story, they can be found on bodies, in chests or even in merchant shops. A find could be money, guns, or items that contribute to other side tasks, this way you’re not forcing yourself to find treasure simply to complete the game when money may not be an object, but because it provides an exciting and alternating source of reward. Incredibly, the game will provide the player with more specific tasks (treasure hunting, or bounties) dependant on the players game style, so if you complete a lot of bounty posters, or treasure maps, you’ll subsequently find more of those.

The map I was shown was hastily drawn on a piece of brown stained paper and showed a landmark, with no further clues, or generous radar icons, meaning when it comes to finding treasure, you’re really going to have to keep your eye out for the reward.

Not one of the lucky ones you could say

Capturing a bounty will require certain finesse, as a wanted man was often accompanied by vigilant gang members on the lookout for law or vigilantes such as Marston. The R* rep executed this capture in style by sneaking up upon the bounties camp, dispatching any immediate threats, using Dead Eye to handicap our wanted man from escaping to his horse too quickly, before eliminating the rest of the gang, and then chasing down the bounty who was trying to escape on his horse. He targeted his leg with Dead Eye again to shoot him off his stead, before bringing him down like just another dead man in the dust in the wild west.

Wanted Man

Once Marston had returned proof of the bounty killing, the R* rep showed a more angry corner of Chuparosa where the revolution was being voiced, approaching law men seemed to want to quell the noise, but not before Marston put on a disguise and killed them before other witnesses. This triggered a red search radius on the mini map that Marston had to escape from, and the word “wanted” on screen with a bounty value relative to the crime committed. As expected, escaping the wanted area made the wanted indicator disappear, take off your disguise when out of sight and it disappears faster, but surprisingly the bounty value stayed, designed to rise with each additional crime committed.

I was told that over time, law men and other bounty hunters may recognise or hunt you as your bounty amount increases, prepare to pay for your crimes, either with your life, a pardon letter, or by literally paying off your bounty to the local sheriff. The most engaging of these, the pardon letter can be granted by assisting local law men with a task.

To showcase this, we approached a local Sheriff who requested that Marston help rescue one of his men from a nearby hideout, which was filled with a group of outlaws. Dead Eye proved its worth when people were throwing Molotovs all around, and hanging oil lamps provided environmental opportunities around the outpost. This non main story critical mission really gave an impressive look at the enemy AI and world physics, shoot an oil lamp hanging near the front door and expect the enemy to come out the side doors, hit an enemy in the knee and watch him crumple to the ground and shoot from his back. After eventually cleaning up, and seeing a fleeing bandit steal Marston’s not so loyal horse we were handed a pardon by the forgiving and appreciative sheriff.

Viva La Revolution!

Nearing the end of the hands off demo, Marston was asked by an acquaintance Senor Reyes to help the Mexican revolutionaries assault the military fort “El Presido”. Marston was tasked with riding a wagon filled with dynamite into the front gates, allowing the rest of the revolutionaries to stage their assault.

Expect the same standard of talented writing and voice acting we’ve been treated to from Rockstar titles, as the details of this explosive wagon weren’t lost on Marston for example, who was told with a maniacal laugh that the fuse is long enough for him to ride to the gates before it explodes… At least in theory.

It was probably a pleasant Sunday ride until Marston turned up

Marston ultimately has an ulterior motive for participating in the raid upon El Presido, finding his former gang member who is rumoured to be inside. Cover is in much demand, by enemy and friendly AI, we leave the main fight to clear a room of enemy soldiers while searching for targeted military cache, only to find our old friend and almost being treated to a spoiler-ific cut scene that we weren’t allowed to watch just yet.

After having taken over the fort, enemy reinforcements were on their way to retake the position, Marston found himself at the top of the fort manning a mounted cannon. His first shot results in what can only be described as “The flying Mexican army cadet in the night time sky” the next shot received by an incoming wagon, well, I’ll call that one “Once were wagons”.

Eventually having finished the last of the backup that made it through the gates, our hands off demo ended there, and my hands-on game time began. If you’re still reading this now, you’ll have noticed that a lot can happen within an hour of RDR, and we’re just getting started.

Getting my Hands Dirty

The more recent hands-on demo code moved our locality from the area of Chuparosa in Nuevo Parasio to the town of Armadillo in New Austin. Armadillo, another hand crafted town with a more traditional western design (think long street with businesses, saloons and a jail on either side).

I’m here to confide in Sheriff Johnson about my goal of capturing, or killing my old gang associate, Bill Williamson. The Sheriff expresses little desire to help me capture a mad outlaw and indicates that there is plenty of cleaning up to do in town that has priority. Marston in return offers to deal with some hoodlums in the local saloon for the Sheriff’s help with Williamson.

The quick and the dead.

Putting on my deputy badge for the day, we later approach Williamson’s hideout, making use and becoming familiar with the abundant cover, I’m told that shortly Williamson will burst out of his hut, and that I need to use Dead Eye to incapacitate, but not kill him. He surprises me ironically, and I fumble with the controls trying to initiate the time slow down, instead I shoot Williamson in the stomach and kill him. Not the outcome we were hoping for, but it is a dirty job done. R* indicate that by capturing Williamson alive, there would have been a more rewarding cut scene to follow that I had missed out on.

Shootout at Twin Rocks

While roaming the plains after my successful failure that was the Williamson mission, a farmer approached and pleaded for Marston’s help to free his captive daughter from a gang stationed out at Twin Rocks. This wasn’t a main story mission, but another form of side event that provides some welcome alternation to the main story, and most importantly an opportunity to loot the bodies for weapons and other illegitimately acquired items.

Approaching the hideout I had to dismount from my horse early, and use a sniper rifle to eliminate some spotters on top of the cliffs, the enemy was ruthless and innumerable, making my way into the home I cornered a gunman who was holding the daughter hostage, knowing what to expect, I made quick use of Dead Eye and rescued my new western groupie before the gang member could even mutter an insult. (Fastest hands in the preview group I was told, that’s how we roll).

Besides picking up the left over weapons, and having searched for treasure maps and financial reward, the side event provided another opportunity to receive honour for my good deeds, not bad for a few minutes work.

R&R for Outlaws

The lying remains of the Twin Rocks gang members created an opportune moment for the games wildlife to make itself present, in this case vultures started circling overhead. After sadistically deciding to practice my sharp shooting skills on one, a mini-game called Sharp Shooter Challenge was initiated that sets a target amount of wildlife to test your aim on. Finish one challenge and be issued with another, expect plenty of hunting to be done with this side activity, and usefully, skin the animals and sell their pelts, meat or hides to sell for cash in town and raise your hunting level at the same time.

Making your way back to Armadillo, you could kill time by participating in a game of poker, five finger fillet (the crazy knife stabbing between fingers game), blackjack, dice and more. As alluded to in the RDR Honour type quiz, when losing you “may” be able to try cheat in the game, or simply choose to shoot up your opponents if your mental stability is questionable enough. I didn’t see this in game, but I wouldn’t be surprised if R* were that extensive in their design.

Vultures for dinner in the Sharp Shooter challenge

If gambling isn't your sort of thing, you could simply get drunk at the saloon, or do good deeds by being the town's night watchmen with a town's guard dog in tow, tasked to investigate any disturbances and generally keep the peace.

Or, you could roll up your sleeves and help out tradesmen with their needs, delivery jobs, herding, or jobs for the local law men. R* haven't revealed all the types of activities possible in game, but they're definitely alluding to a more engaging, alternative world in RDR than any other title we've seen from them before.

Luck of the Irish

The very last mission of my hands-on session involved meeting another character named Irish, a drunkard who was said to have owed Marston some favours for saving his life earlier, and seemed to have no problem drinking to celebrate the fact he was still alive. Irish had told Marston the whereabouts of an incredible weapon (Gatling Gun), hidden down a mine shaft that would be helpful in attacking Fort Mercer.

Riding to the mine with Irish on horseback provided a look at the filling conversation pieces initiated between locations, conveniently, you can keep the same pace with your companion and be auto guided in a way. On a side note regarding the horses, they will interestingly have different loyalty to the player, and can stay by your side once dismounted or leave you for some horse play accordingly (sorry, couldn’t help myself). I was told that real horses were motion captured for the game to provide the most realistic muscular movements possible (this is what has been missing from games all these years!). While riding a horse, you’ll see a blue stamina bar that is used when spurring the horse to ride faster. Different breeds of horses will have varying speed and strength attributes and wild horses can be caught and tamed. I’m hoping to find a unicorn because they’re the best type of horses.

We soon reached the mine where which to no surprise Marston’s presence was not welcomed. Working my way down the mine shaft dispatching enemies, I was shot to pieces before finding the objective, with enemies hiding in crannies, behind pillars, and for good measure, taking cover behind boxes of TNT. With that death my time with the game had come to an end.

Closing Thoughts

My two hours of observation and hands-on time with RDR blew me away, I'd kept track of some of the trailers, and screenshots released here and there, but seeing the game in person and being engaged with the environment and incredible diversity of side tasks and activities that Marston can participate in was incredible. And for all the positive things I have to say about the game, all this is based on the single player experience alone. Not to forget the available at launch multiplayer capability with its "posse" of friends on horse back, or the announced free DLC that will release simultaneously on Xbox 360 and PS3 in June.

Days away from its release on May 21st, you’ll find it hard to miss any promotion of Red Dead Redemption from Rockstar, and while I hate to disagree with Public Enemy, I’m going to have to believe the hype and set the expectation that this is going to be an incredible, must have game for winter. Expect the wild west to be in fashion very shortly.

Pre order your copy now for $110 from a local retailer and we'll see you online when we're done with the single player, if that ever happens.

(Check out the Rockstar Honour Quiz to determine your Honour type before you play, as well as the Facebook Red Dead Redemption: Gunslingers app to get your fix until May 21st)