Review of the game Red Dead Redemption.

America. 1899 The era of the Wild West is coming to an end. Lawmen and bounty hunters are gradually eliminating the few remaining bandits terrorizing the inhabitants of the Frontier. The gang of charismatic anarchist Dutch van der Linde is going through hard times. During one of the robberies, everything does not go according to plan, as a result of which the criminals are left empty-handed, and even lose several comrades in the shootout. Now they are forced to hide from representatives of the law who are on their heels, constantly wandering from place to place and experiencing an acute shortage of food, medicine and ammunition. It is at this moment that the main story begins.

Dutch surrounded himself with loyal and very colorful people. Right hand The leader of the gang is the elderly consummate swindler Hosea Matthews. The always grumbling Miss Grimshaw is responsible for the household chores, and the delicious stew is prepared by the former sailor Pearson. The gang's books are kept by Austrian-born moneylender Leopold Strauss. We must not forget about the funny old man nicknamed “Uncle” - an alcoholic and parasite who maintains the necessary degree of fun in the camp. Indian Charles Smith is responsible for protecting the community. former soldier Bill Williamson and John Marston, well known to all of you, who is the protagonist of the previous game. It's important to remember that this is a prequel to Marston's story, set 12 years earlier.

The main character of the game this time is Arthur Morgan, who has been in a gang since an early age. He is experienced, smart, cold-blooded and, at first glance, ruthless, but deep down, Arthur is a kind and sympathetic person with his own code of honor. He will always come to the aid of those in need and will do everything for his loved ones. Dutch considers him and John Marston to be his sons. Over time, Arthur begins to notice oddities in his mentor's behavior. Life values the latter are collapsing in the light of a rapidly changing world, and the old school does not allow them to adapt to the new rules of the game. Increasingly, Dutch makes mistakes and does things that go against his moral principles, which puts the lives of the rest of the gang at risk.

The giant world can be explored for several months. And even after this time, it will not cease to amaze and pleasantly delight you with new discoveries. In addition to the gang's mobile camp, you will visit numerous settlements and busy cities. For example, the town of Valentine most closely resembles what we are accustomed to thanks to Westerns: wooden buildings, a smoky saloon full of poker players, drunks and prostitutes, and a modest office of the local sheriff. The industrial center of Saint-Denis is another matter: it smokes from the chimneys of factories, there is a tram service, and gentlemen in elegant tailcoats walk along the streets, you can visit an electric theater with moving pictures and a photo studio. The mining settlement of Annesberg, the abode of the Rhodes planters, as well as the swampy Lagrasse - all these cities are strikingly different from each other, so they should be visited without fail.

If you feel tired of the crowds, you can give up everything and go explore the forests, prairies, lakes, rivers and streams, snow-capped peaks and dark caves that occupy most of the world map. The developers have given nature a special place in their game. The diversity of flora and fauna is amazing. Just think about it: in RDR 2 you will meet about 200 species of animals, birds and fish. At the same time, the behavior of each living creature is controlled by artificial intelligence specially written for it and is inextricably linked with the world around it, which allows it to adequately respond to what is happening around it. Wolves drive their prey in packs, eagles swoop down from the sky to grab a mouse running in the grass, opossums play dead in case of danger, and the ubiquitous scavengers seek out and gnaw the corpses of animals that have been underfed by large predators.

You can spend hours observing the life of the local fauna from a secluded place and, without a doubt, you will discover a lot of new things. But, of course, hunting is of particular interest to most players. Hunting here is truly exciting. The main character has innate tracker skills and, having activated his talent with a special combination of buttons, he begins to see animal tracks in the grass, discover the slightest clues that allow him to track down predators, including by their smell. In some ways, this skill is reminiscent of “witcher sense.” Hunting is not only a source of food for the protagonist and the rest of the gang, but also allows you to get your hands on valuable resources such as skins, feathers, fangs and claws, from which you can later create unique items of clothing. It is important to remember that the choice of weapon for hunting is very important. A skin riddled with bullets is good for nothing, so you need to learn how to kill animals as cleanly as possible, and then skin them just as carefully.

I would also like to mention several legendary animals, tracking and hunting which is part of a unique quest. The fight with a giant grizzly bear looks no worse, and maybe even more spectacular, than a similar scene from the film "Survivor" (2015) with Leonardo DiCaprio. If you prefer quieter and safe ways pastime, you should pay attention to fishing. What could be better than carefully selecting bait, and then peacefully admiring the water surface of a forest lake with a float swaying on its surface? Different types of fish live in different bodies of water, so to become a professional fisherman in RDR 2 you will have to travel a lot and constantly hone your skills.

Whatever one may say, the most carefully designed animals in the game are horses, which is not at all surprising. The horse is the main character’s best friend and most faithful partner, because you will spend 80% of your time riding it. In total, there are 19 different breeds of horses, each with unique characteristics and behavior. You can purchase new horses in the stables, catch and tame wild stallions, or simply steal other people's horses and appropriate them for yourself. The harness can be selected and customized to your taste - if only you had the money. Stables offer wide choose saddles, horns, spurs, stirrups, saddle bags and other horse accessories. Each horse has health and stamina bars, just like the main character. Do not forget to tie the animal when you dismount, in this case it will recover its strength faster. Also, prevent your horse from being dirty; brush it regularly with a special brush or wash it in the river.

There is an invisible connection between you and the horse. The more time you spend together, the more often you look after her and feed her, the stronger this connection will become. Over time, the horse will become stronger, faster, more obedient, will learn new tricks and will no longer be afraid of shooting and predators. You can control it yourself or trust the autopilot by switching the camera to “Cinematic mode”. In this case, black bars will appear at the top and bottom of the screen, like in a movie, and the horse will gallop along a pre-planned route from point “A” to point “B”. All this is demonstrated from the most advantageous angles, which gives you the feeling that you are watching a real Hollywood Western. If you take control, be careful on the roads. There is a high probability of accidentally falling off a narrow mountain path or breaking your legs by tripping over a large stone. In cases of serious injuries, you can shoot the animal so that it does not suffer, or you can try to cure it with expensive medicine. In any case, the death of the horse RDR 2 is a real tragedy, so try to avoid it by any means available to you.

Rarely will a cowboy survive in the Wild West without a good revolver. RDR 2 offers players more than 50 types of weapons, including pistols, carbines, shotguns, sniper rifles, as well as bows and throwing knives. You are free to modify your arsenal both cosmetically, by choosing engravings on the metal, different handle materials or leather braid, and technically, by changing sights and lengthening the barrels. Not all types of weapons are available for purchase in stores from the very beginning of the game. Some of them will be unlocked as the story progresses. You can also find the legendary Frontier shooters, defeat them in a duel and take possession of their signature guns. However, powerful weapon can also be found hidden in numerous hiding places scattered throughout the game map. Carrying your entire arsenal with you will not work. Most of it is stored in the horse's saddle bags, so you will have to periodically return to it to change one weapon to another.

Dead Eye mode, where time slows down, allowing you to select multiple targets and then shoot them with bullets from your revolver, RDR 2 became even more spectacular. This skill improves as the character develops, gradually opening up new opportunities for the player. If you aim at first offhand, then later you get the opportunity to aim more accurately, and then even see vulnerable points on the bodies of your enemies in order to inflict maximum damage on them. Using Dead Eye consumes the energy scale of the same name, which can be restored by drinking a special tonic. In the same way, you can restore your stamina when you are exhausted, or restore your health after receiving a critical wound in a firefight.

The appearance of the main character is not only a reflection of your taste in clothing, but also a combination of numerous accompanying factors. Of course, you can choose different jackets, coats and trousers, creating a unique look for the protagonist. But don’t forget that in a thin shirt main character will simply freeze while traveling in the cold regions of the game world. If you lose your cowboy hat in battle, you will eventually notice that the main character's face is severely sunburned. Every detail is important in this game. For example, if you indulge in canned food and other foods too often, Arthur Morgan will gain significant weight, he will have a belly fat, and his stamina will be used up faster during physical activity. If you fast, Arthur will move faster, but will noticeably lose weight. During robberies, do not forget to cover your face with a bandana so that witnesses will not be able to identify you later, and the lawmen will not put a reward on your head. The main character's beard and mustache grow in real time, therefore, in order not to turn into a “scary porcupine” that makes passers-by shy away, it is periodically recommended to shave, get a haircut from a barber and pomade your hair.

If everything is very clear with the plot quests that develop the story of the main characters, then the secondary quests are worthy of special mention. These missions are in no way inferior in excitement to some of The Witcher 3, so any random encounter in the game can ultimately result in an unexpected adventure. You can hunt bandits who have a bounty on their head, you can collect debts from people who borrowed money from the moneylender Leopold Strauss, you can help travelers in trouble, look for treasures, take photographs of rare animals, help a writer finish a book about the legends of the Wild West, and much more. , much more. Even the smallest quest directly affects what will happen to you in the future. Sometimes the consequences of your choice overtake the protagonist after some time, when you have completely forgotten about what happened and did not expect echoes of the past. Therefore, be extremely reasonable and far-sighted when deciding exactly what to do in a given situation.

Of course, you can be either a good person or a bad person. If you don’t want to help a girl whose horse suddenly fell and died right in the middle of the forest, just ride past her, ignoring her pleas. Surely, a little later, the poor thing would be picked off by a bear, or some gang of bandits would frolic with her and then cut her throat. You have to live with it. You can rob banks, blow up bridges and pick the pockets of train passengers, steal cattle and sell them at auctions, steal other people's stagecoaches and clean out other people's houses while their owners sleep soundly in their beds. At the same time, your level of dignity will decrease, but if you have chosen exactly this model of behavior, then who cares about some kind of conventional scale? Although, if you behave like an outright scoundrel, people will become less willing to communicate with you, and sellers will begin to raise prices when they see you.

The staging in the game is beyond praise. The first drunken brawl in a saloon deserves the ceremony organizers The Game Awards nominated her for a nomination specially created for this occasion "Fight of the Year". Scenes of train robberies, bank robberies, numerous chases and shootouts, dramatic plot inserts, sparkling humor of the characters - all this was performed in an incredible way. gaming industry level. Still would. It took almost eight years to create. All this time, more than 3,000 people from dozens of countries worked tirelessly on the project. It wouldn’t be amiss to mention the game’s budget, which exceeds $300 million. Impressive, isn't it? But the result was definitely worth it. This is the best open-world Wild West simulator in the history of video games.

During the game, sometimes you pay attention to small details, such as the process of chopping wood by the main character. Usually in video games, a character takes a log from a certain conventional pile, which does not decrease at all in the process, and with equal blows chops the piece of wood into equal pieces. IN RDR 2 The animation of each blow is unique, and you have a finite amount of firewood. Sometimes the ax gets stuck in the wood, causing Arthur to hit 2-3 times to split the log. The developers probably spent several days of their time on this little detail, but their love for their work and similar details is truly impressive and evokes the deepest respect. It’s immediately clear that these guys work solely for their own pleasure and are not trying to be equal to anyone.

By modern standards, from a visual point of view, the game is almost flawless. An improved graphics engine was used Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, on the basis of which the well-known GTA V was created. At first it may seem that the graphics haven’t made much progress since the previous project. Rockstar Games, but gradually the eyes begin to notice striking differences in terms of visualization. First of all, an amazing job was done with the lighting. The lighting in this game is incredible. He competently emphasizes an already expressive picture, be it a soft dawn, twilight, sun rays breaking through the foliage, lantern light cutting through thick fog, or a fire blazing in the night, casting long shadows. What can we say about dynamically changing weather, when with high humidity after rain, a beautiful rainbow can randomly appear in the sky due to the refraction of light.

Secondly, the excellent simulation of snow, sand, mud and other road surfaces is very pleasing. It is unlikely that you will see such beautiful snowflakes shimmering in the moonlight anywhere else. Horses' hooves leave marks on sandy roads, and the wheels of carts and stagecoaches create furrows in the mud, with lumps of mud flying in different directions according to all the laws of physics. Thirdly, it is sincerely amazing that the skin of the characters, when illuminated by a bright light source, behaves as in reality. Imagine that the character stands with his back to the Sun, and his ears turn red, showing the player the blood vessels hidden in them. Fourthly, you are unlikely to find such a beautiful and detailed nature anywhere in another game, which we have already told you about above. To comfortably admire the picturesque views, we advise you to activate the first-person camera angle and disable the on-screen interface elements.

Attempts Rockstar Games do RDR 2 as realistic as possible, they strike the imagination. The corpses of the animals you kill are devoured by scavengers, and after some time only gnawed bones remain in their place. In the cold, steam rises from the horse’s hot body, and if we're talking about about the stallion, his testicles (pardon our French!) shrink. If someone hits the main character in the face during hand-to-hand combat, he will have to proudly wear a black eye under his eye for several days after this. During a thunderstorm, you can completely unexpectedly die from a lightning strike or be bitten poisonous snake, walking along an innocuous-looking edge of the forest. The weapon needs to be cleaned periodically, otherwise it may jam in the middle of a firefight, and then you will have a significantly lower chance of survival. This list can be continued almost endlessly, but it is best to discover such nuances of the game on your own.

There are not many options for peaceful negotiations in this menu.

Behind musical accompaniment composer Woody Jackson (L.A. Noire, RDR, GTA V) is responsible. Atmospheric compositions that dynamically adapt to what is happening on the screen maintain the intensity of passions and do not let the player get bored for a second. More than 110 musicians worked on the soundtrack under Jackson's direction. Tracks with vocal parts performed by world-famous stars sound especially impressive. I am glad that the official soundtrack of the video game will soon go on sale and anyone can purchase it. The voice acting is also very impressive. The casting is impeccable, and they give 100% of their work. Most of the dialogue between characters takes place while riding horses (as was the case with GTA V and car trips). If you move too far away from your interlocutor, he will begin to speak louder and louder, then start shouting, and then, realizing that you can no longer hear him, he will ask you to move closer to him. This means that almost all dialogues were recorded several times with different intonations and voice volumes. Titanic work. Needless to say, if your character is drunk, his speech will also begin to get confused and stumble?

The developers have made it so that the player will always have something to entertain himself with. Above we have already listed some ways to spend time in RDR 2, but here are some more options for you. The main character can invite one of his friends to the theater to watch a performance by stand-up comedians and amazing dancers, and in the meantime, unobtrusively put his arm around the young lady’s shoulder. You can develop Dutch's bandit camp: improve the homes of gang members, arrange a supply of food, ammunition and medicine from large cities, and so on. You can take yourself on a shopping tour, looking through chicly designed product catalogs and ending up buying a pack of cocaine gum or a brand new hat. For each story mission, you receive a medal, depending on whether you fulfill certain conditions (complete within the allotted time, kill a specified number of enemies with headshots, etc.). If you consider yourself a perfectionist, you can try to complete all missions with gold. If you want, you can even go on a UFO hunt. They say that unidentified flying objects are often spotted in these parts. But the most important thing is to be patient and wait for the service to start working. Red Dead Redemption Online allows you and a few friends to carry out carefully planned heists and raids. The service should be operational by the end of this month, so the wait is not long.

No matter how much we praise it, the game is not without certain disadvantages. Firstly, I would like to criticize the facial animation. No, it’s not as terrible as in Mass Effect: Andromeda, but it’s noticeably inferior to even the recent Spider-Man, and we still don’t remember the magnificent L.A. Noire, which uses an advanced method of capturing the facial expressions of live actors. It is not entirely clear whether the management of Rockstar Games decided to save money, or whether the scope of work was so huge that there would not be enough time for it, but in the end the animation was entrusted to the Indians. But even a lot of Indians (if you believe the final credits - there were hundreds of them!) could not cope with the task assigned to them. If the main characters are animated more or less decently, then most of the supporting characters look, to put it mildly, not so hot. Well, at least the animation of the bodies of people and animals does not cause such complaints.

Management raises certain questions. In particular, collecting items is carried out by holding the button for a long time, which noticeably slows down the pace of the otherwise fast-paced game. This is very annoying. Not all dialogues are displayed as subtitles, which may confuse some players who are not familiar with English (there is no Russian voice acting in the game - only texts). Russian localization is not always accurate when translating some phrases. If you know English, we recommend that you listen carefully to the dialogues; you may discover a lot of new things. Sometimes it happens that the game just freezes. It hangs tightly, which is why you have to force a reboot of the console. We will deliberately not mention minor bugs like feeding a rifle to your horse, since projects of this scale cannot do without such oddities.

Even despite the shortcomings listed above, it remains the main candidate for the title "Game of the Year". Therefore, if you are not yet the happy owner of this amazing western, we strongly recommend that you immediately correct this unfortunate misunderstanding. Considering that in the first three days of sales the game recouped its colossal budget twice, it is difficult to imagine how many copies RDR 2 will be sold in the next year or two. However, one thing is already clear: before us is one of the greatest creations of the gaming industry over the past few years, which, without a doubt, will take a well-deserved place in the “Hall of Fame” of video games.

An unshaven and not at all city-dressed man of about thirty-five named John Marston disembarks from the ship (from where a brand new, polished Ford is being unloaded by crane), he is accompanied by two strange guys in formal suits and bowler hats. He gets on the train, involuntarily overhears the comical conversations of passengers, gets bored, looks out the window. In the tavern at the station, an even stranger and bearded guy who looks like a homeless person is already waiting for him. Having exchanged several nothing meaningful phrases, these two head to the place of important negotiations, where Marston (that is, us) is greeted unkindly former colleagues With high road and shoot him in the side, leaving him to die in a pool of blood. What is this, new part Grand Theft Auto? Essentially, yes. It’s only 1911, the first Fords have only just managed to be put on the assembly line. But here, in the remote town of Armadillo, not far from the border with Mexico, everyone prefers to travel the old fashioned way, on horseback, and wear a bandolier on their belt. This is the Wild West, only without Morricone, spaghetti and Eastwood. IN Red Dead Redemption he's almost real.

Go West

If GTA 4 could to a certain extent be called a simulator of a modern metropolis, then Redemption claims to be something more. This the whole world, with cities, forests, canyons and prairies, a closed ecosystem that has not yet been spoiled by cars and civilization. Even the telegraph poles stuck in the middle of the steppes look alien here, and the newly imported telephone stubbornly refuses to work in the hands of the sheriff. But you can't hide Redemption's GTA roots. They can be seen not only in the fact that this world functions perfectly well without us - even while sitting around the clock playing poker, from the saloon window you can watch stray bandits rob a stagecoach, brave cowboys get drunk and fall asleep in a puddle of mud, and coyotes drag chickens out of the barn. The signature approach to organizing the game that the Californians Rockstar San Diego carefully adopted from senior colleagues from Rockstar North, is recognizable literally from the first minutes.

Awakened and bandaged, Marston discovers that he was rescued and picked up by local farmers, whose daughter, freckled blonde Bonnie (a bit like Joni Mitchell in her youth), single-handedly manages the entire household, takes the hero on horseback rides under the moon, and generally shows interest. To John’s confession that he recently robbed, killed and raped as part of a gang of the same scoundrels, and that he was also married, the blonde does not react and takes him to meet his parents.

Dead man

However, women are of little interest to the hero; his target is a former accomplice named Williamson, whose head the federal authorities are very interested in. The characters that you will meet on the way to this goal are certainly worthy of any part of GTA (despite the fact that the permanent Dan Houser was responsible for the script). A gray-haired charlatan in checkered pants, selling “magic” elixirs (a couple of times John will have to be his straw duck at the risk of his life), a crazy treasure hunter who loves to dig into graves, a small and fat Mexican General Allende, from all the methods of war with the rebels, recognizing only mass terror - it seems that just yesterday they all wore T-shirts and suits, lived in Algonquin, and now, for some official reason, they tried on hats and boots with spurs.

However, Rockstar is known not only for their ability to create brilliant characters, but also for how wastefully they use them. Before it even begins, one storyline suddenly ends mid-sentence, and its place is immediately taken by two new ones. There is not even the usual GTA division of heroes into plot-important and secondary ones: in order to advance through the plot, you need to complete all tasks from all characters. Therefore, do not be surprised if, in between shootouts, you have to herd cows on the farm or ride around wild horses.

At the same time, Red Dead Redemption suffers from a traditional Rockstar problem: the story campaign is interesting to watch only at the end and the beginning, and the entire many-hour interval between them is filled with standard “bring-take-kill-catch up” - as far as missions are concerned, Rockstar San Diego are still very far from their Scottish colleagues. For example, several times during the game the developers insert mandatory horse races into the game just because it seems interesting to them. Or they force you to defend the hated stagecoaches from the passenger seat many times, turning an initially good action game into a not-so-best virtual shooting gallery.

But, to be honest, we are not offended. It's hard to believe, but in Red Dead Redemption the story campaign with all its hat-wearing clowns is just a free addition to the beautifully crafted game world. You can feel whatever way you like about those eccentrics who, instead of going through the plot in GTA, carried passengers in taxis, but here the game itself in every possible way encourages you to abandon the next stagecoach defense mission and start exploring the world. During any journey on horseback between two control points, so many events happen before your eyes that it is enough for several story missions at once. You can shoot a deer crossing the road and sell the meat in a store, you can try to help a random passerby attacked by wolves, and before you have time to do this, remove the treasure map from his lifeless body and immediately gear up to search for them. You can catch and ride wild horses (this is done using a mini-game where you need to stay in the saddle until the horse calms down), you can hunt dangerous bandits, posters with whose faces are hung in every city. You can get drunk on whiskey and fight a duel right outside the saloon. You can go for a walk with your dog, protecting the farm from attacks by impudent coyotes, play horseshoes, knives, or simply put up a tent in any place you like along the road, build a fire and admire the sunset.

By the way, stopping for the night opens up an invaluable opportunity to instantly move to any point on the map (new areas traditionally open as you progress), saving time on endless horseback riding. The same can be done by simply taking a train or stagecoach, but you use this opportunity very rarely - traveling on a horse (which you can call to you at any time with a loud whistle) is also incredibly beautiful, because the picture that Rockstar San Diego squeezed out of its own engine Rage is an order of magnitude better than GTA 4. There are no annoying explosions every minute, the characters have become completely lifelike, and the local horses are generally the best of everything that has ever been invented on this topic in video games.

Arizona Dream

Throwing all their efforts into simulating life, which their colleagues could not succeed in any way, Rockstar San Diego created the best open-world in the world, and for this they are already entitled to a lifetime monument. Wild animals They're not just getting in the way - they're actually part of an ecosystem, with their own habitats and relationships (a pack of these beasts can scare your horse to death), and people react to Marston depending on his actions. Once, as a joke, I threw a lasso on a dog. The next minute, I not only had to run away from the angry dog ​​at full speed through the gardens, but also pay a fine for cruelty to animals. Of course, there was no Greenpeace in the days of the Wild West - for certain illegal actions a bounty is placed on your head, which grows over time, forcing you to look around more often and just grab your revolver. How many buffalo hunters, in pursuit of money, decide to put a bullet in your back and hand you over to the authorities? You can clear karma in two ways - by paying the entire amount at the telegraph office or by presenting a special letter of indulgence, which I once took out of the pocket of a killed bandit.

In terms of action, RDR and GTA 4 are identical, so you get used to it instantly - the controls and cover system are similar, as are the physics. Except that the auto-aim in the standard version is not so intrusive, and there is also a rapid speed, by turning it on you can kill several enemies at once, having previously marked where each bullet should go - the idea was borrowed by the developers from last year's western Call of Juarez: Bound in Blood. Yes, CoJ was more interesting to shoot, but where else, tell me, can you throw a lasso on a bandit and drag him through the desert after a horse straight to prison? That's it - nowhere.

* * *

Previous tentative attempts to place the action of a Western in open world ended, as a rule, in failure - not bad overall GUN, in order to avoid shame, he registered the failure of the mission as soon as he moved a couple of meters from the plot point. The excellent Call of Juarez stayed in the saddle until we happened to turn off the main street and noticed the wooden horses standing motionless outside the saloon. These were all good, but fake westerns about cowboys and Indians, as if filmed on a sound stage against the backdrop of cardboard sets.

In contrast, Red Dead Redemption has the main thing - a sense of a world that is not very pleasant to live in, but which is sad to part with. Somewhere there, on the other side of the river, captains who look like Al Pacino are carousing in taverns and drowning the next Mexican revolution in blood, a puffing steam locomotive brings a new batch of smartly dressed townspeople to the station, and a boy on the street sells newspapers with news from the big world. We were there and we know this for sure, but here, in the endless desert, it’s already getting dark, somewhere you can hear the howling of wolves, which means it’s time to tie up the horse and make a fire.

P.S. And don’t forget to look at our “” - there you will find a lot of interesting materials on the game.

Game formula: 50% + 50% Wild West

Outside the window, the year is 1899 and civilization is moving by leaps and bounds from east to west, crushing anyone who does not agree with the current way of life. Former criminals have no choice but to try to merge with the new society or go on the run. Dutch Van Der Linde's gang chose the second path, since for them murder and robbery are not just the only possible way to make money, but a philosophy of life. I wonder how you can resist Dutch’s sweet speeches and idealistic phrases like “We are not criminals, we are dreamers!” We are just trying to survive by taking money from the rich!”

It’s beautifully said, but when you see the chaos happening on the screen, you begin to think about the justice of such speeches. And one of the main victories of the writers is the characters of Red Dead Redemption 2, those same accomplices of Dutch, they, at the same time as the player, question their own ideals and draw logical conclusions from their actions. They really want to be believed, since we see not a gang of empty-headed fools, but clearly defined characters, with credible motivations, lively dialogues and developing characters. Each of them deserves to become the protagonist of another Rockstar game.

But the main star of Red Dead Redemption 2 is without a doubt Arthur Morgan. He perfectly plays the role of a village grunt and even his incoherent speech speaks of an incomplete secondary education. Does this make it worse? Absolutely not, on the contrary, the image of a simpleton contrasts perfectly with the pompous white collars that symbolize the civilized world, which creates a huge number of comic situations. And what can we say about Arthur’s sense of humor, just know that if in the 19th century there was the most popular stand-up comedian in the world, Arthur Morgan would definitely take his place.

True, you won’t be able to empathize with him in the first hours. As a character, Arthur will begin to develop only after a couple of dozen hours of play, and until that moment walkthrough Red Dead Redemption 2 is a sketch of the usual gangster everyday life. Where the main objective- to collect more money, and methods of achieving the goal are a secondary matter. However, if it seems to you that Dutch’s gang behaves like real scum, no one is stopping you from going even further in terms of misdeeds in the open world of the game, or, on the contrary, becoming a saint who only lacks a halo over his head from Fable. Freedom of choice is one of the main differences between RDR 2 and the GTA series.

The Witcher 4: Redemption

In almost every story quest you have small forks, which are often primitive, but add an extra reason to replay the game. At the same time, more global decisions also occur: who should be spared and who should be registered lethal dose lead to the head. And you can always count on seeing the consequences of your life-changing decisions. In this sense, the nonlinearity is genuine and allows you to once again believe in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2. At the same time, we should not forget the reputation system, which affects both the plot and the reaction of the world with which he meets Arthur.

True, story missions can often be frustrating due to the abundance of scripts. For example, you already know that in a minute there will be noise, screams and deafening gunfire mixed with brutal action, but if you have a clear task to kill a specific enemy secretly and you decide to start shooting a couple of moments before the moment specified by the script, then the game will count Game Over. Such situations are not ubiquitous, but their presence greatly affects the final impressions of story missions.

Another thing is additional quests, which can be divided into two categories: random encounters and large-scale tasks with cutscenes, which often result in an entire quest line. In random activities, you almost always have a choice of what to do, and if you don’t leave the stranger in trouble, then after 10 hours you can easily meet him in another corner of the map with a reward for the player or new problems.

Additional missions often provide less freedom of choice, but they are staged no worse than the quests in the main storyline. In this case, Rockstar truly kept their promise to blur the line between mainstream and additional tasks. In the first tens of hours in the game Red Dead Redemption 2, you catch yourself thinking that it’s true, if there were no divisions into yellow and white icons, you would hardly guess which quest is intended to advance the plot, and the other is just an additional method to entertain the player in the open world . Sometimes they may not be that large-scale, but they are often executed with creativity and offer completely unique game mechanics.

For example, it seems like a standard quest to take a photo of a famous bounty hunter. You come to his ranch, and he sets a condition: you, my friend, first remove the manure for the piglets in the pen, and then maybe I will fulfill your request. Since the game is extremely uncompromising, Arthur will actually have to clean up the manure after the animals. A more specific spectacle for AAA games is just washing urinals in Mafia 2. But Rockstar does not betray its ideals and throws in comedic trash to lighten the atmosphere: after 5 minutes, Arthur decides to spite the farmer to blow up the manure with dynamite and irrigate him with rain from selected... ahem, in general, you get the idea.

And this is the whole game of Red Dead Redemption 2 - you never know how the quest will develop and “Rockstars” successfully juggle not only game genres, but also scenario ones, offering in a couple of hours of gameplay to encounter real sadistic maniacs building sculptures from human remains, then chase a dwarf magician, and then fly over the clouds in a hot air balloon. The example with the ball is, of course, still a spoiler, but how else can you convince skeptics that RDR 2 offers much more different types of adventures than leisurely dialogues, hours of horse racing and heists familiar to the genre.

If the development of all, even additional quests, is compared with something, then only “The Witcher 3” comes to mind, except that in RDR 2 non-linearity was sacrificed for an expensive production.

Brave New World

But even with a colossal amount of hand-crafted creativity, a boring routine cannot be avoided, which can be a major disappointment for those who decided to buy or download Red Dead Redemption 2, expecting non-stop action. Rockstar took the unprecedented step of spending hundreds of millions of dollars on a game that was not created for a wide audience. The gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 is extremely leisurely and avoids a huge number of gaming conventions. Haven't eaten for a long time? Receive penalties to Arthur's stamina and survivability. Forgot to wear a warm coat in cold regions? How about frostbite? Did you leave the horse and run off on your own to meet adventures? Then don’t even whistle, the horse won’t hear you and won’t come to your rescue.

Moreover, any action is accompanied by long-lasting animations, detailed to the smallest detail, and at some moments, for example in the camp, Arthur moves exclusively slowly and even simply walks around several characters in an area of ​​20 sq.m. may take several minutes of real time. Not everyone will like this approach. The game is designed for those players who value regularity for the sake of showiness and can accept the costs of realism for the opportunity to live in a world full of possibilities.

There's no pressure to ride a horse and explore the open world of Red Dead Redemption 2. There's no grinding required - just follow the yellow markers on the map for 40 hours of story. But those who still decide to accept the inhospitable rules of the game and decide to study what some of the richest developers in the gaming industry have been poring over for 8 years will find the most visually impressive, rich and vibrant open world in history.

And we’re not just talking about a reliable simulation of the animal world or townspeople who lead a completely conscious life ( clear example), but about the total amount of content that is hidden in Red Dead Redemption 2. The game is constantly trying to surprise and you never know where you can get new quest. For example, I gave a coin to a random beggar and received a tip to rob an underground gaming club, and even such a small task is replete with unique animation, nonlinearity and dialogues. Or the game surprises in those cases when you don’t expect it at all - you decided to go to the play, and as a result you became the main star of the act, and the action does not develop in a cutscene, but offers live gameplay.

Or, while exploring the world, you might come across a family of maniacs offering to have a couple of drinks with them - nothing remarkable at first glance, but in the end, an ordinary get-together with a couple of freaks turns into almost the best quest in the entire game, and it’s not even highlighted on the map . The same goes for the smallest houses and abandoned huts scattered throughout the game world - almost all of them offer a mini story with notes and unique items.

And the last point - just by running along the same path again, you can encounter unique orchestrated situations after 100 hours of play. The gameplay of Red Dead Redemption 2 doesn't offer anything new, but the insane attention to detail and incredible amount of hand-crafted and expensively delivered content is undoubtedly, if not a breakthrough, then a new level for the entire gaming industry.

And as a bonus - excellent graphics with the most beautiful weather effects to date, clear textures, phenomenal draw distance, global illumination and next-gen animation. Red Dead Redemption 2 on PS4 makes The Witcher 3 look like a game from the previous generation of consoles (of course, we are talking about the version for PS4). And this is not a stone in the garden of the Poles at all, for 2015 The Witcher 3 was beyond competition, but what Rockstar managed to create on 5-year-old hardware cannot be called anything other than a technical miracle. However, there was a bloom that blurred the surroundings, masking rare flaws, but with a general assessment of the picture on this fact you can close your eyes.

A pan of tar in a barrel of honey

If you've read this far and are not yet tired of praising the merits of Red Dead Redemption 2, then you can move on to the disadvantages. For example, bugs - sometimes my trusty weapon disappeared without a trace, which I spent a lot of money on and decorated to my taste, but this is nothing compared to the case when several chapters (40 hours of game time) disappeared from the camp plot characters, and with them not only dialogues, but also unique tasks. Another point is that the game does not try to explain the numerous mechanics of the gameplay, or does this in the case when you have already played more than 60 hours, and still do not understand some of the basics of the same hunt.

No matter how much I praise the sophistication and detail of the animations, after many hours of gameplay they slowly but surely begin to irritate. And even given the content-rich world, you feel regret that the game does not have the usual fast travel system. Also the problem is economic system games. In one story mission in Red Dead Redemption 2, the developers pour such sums into the player’s account that there is simply nowhere to spend it, and the need to rob corpses, look for treasures and engage in robbery disappears by itself.

Random encounters are also a point that fails after a long playthrough of RDR 2. As the game progresses, some of them begin to repeat themselves and even different variations of the same event do not always help, since not only situations, but also dialogues are carbon copies. And with the plot, not everything is as simple as it seems at first glance.

Bottom line

In fact, trying to write a review of Red Dead Redemption 2 and take the game apart, you can make more than a dozen complaints about Rockstar’s western, and if you also don’t like leisurely adventures, then RDR 2 can become a choice punching bag for venting your anger. But at the same time, it’s a real crime not to notice how much hand-crafted creative content the developers have embodied in their game. This is simply a colossal amount of work and a real giant in the era of loot boxes, auto-generation of quests and locations, with which numerous developers are trying to disguise their own creative impotence and detain the player for a little more time.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game that, even after 100 hours and completion of the story, gives not only unique stories, but also opens up new gameplay mechanics and generously rewards gamers who decide to explore the open world. An unprecedented level of attention to detail, quality and quantity of absolutely any content. There is no guarantee that you will be delighted with RDR 2, but give it a try new project Rockstar follows even those for whom any mention of the Rockstar games makes them want to vomit, and the Western genre seems like a mistake of nature.

See also Red Dead Redemption 2 guide:, and.

Long before the game's release, various information leaks told us how wonderful and vibrant the open world in RDR2 is. And the events are all non-linear and varied, and even the physiology of animals reacts to the climate, and the graphics are simply fantastic. According to all preliminary data, the game was simply bound to become a hit and the main event of the decade in the gaming industry.

As for the open world, everything is really as they said. And the graphics didn’t disappoint either, nor did the animation. But it seems to us that the game still did not live up to the hit of “all times and peoples”. However, I would still like to start the review with positive aspects.

Advantages of Red Dead Redemption 2

First of all, RDR2 is incredibly beautiful. But this beauty is not “plastic”, as is often the case with Ubisoft. Each game character or animal is animated very believably - including various emergency situations, such as a horse colliding with a stone, fence or other pet.

All the random events in the game that happen while wandering through the impressive open world are, in fact, just embedded scripts. But unlike the same Ubisoft games they are not repeated a hundred times. They are not repeated at all! In any case, we didn't notice it.

The fictional region of the Wild West of the USA lives its own life here and does not try to entertain the main character, Arthur Morgan. How organically you “fit” into this life depends only on you, except that you need to be prepared for long rides on a horse during which nothing happens. That is, almost nothing: waterfalls make noise, trees and grass sway in the wind, here and there, various animals run, and occasionally travelers come across (including those who don’t want anything from you and don’t try to attract your attention). In general, a living open world or, as it is commonly called, a “sandbox”.

You can find many activities in this world. Fishing, hunting animals - both large and small. They can be skinned and the skin sold to a hunter, who will then make clothing from it; and cook the meat over a fire and eat it later to restore health and stamina. You can also take various story missions: steal and sell stagecoaches, collect debts, find and eliminate dangerous criminals (which is ironic - after all, your hero is also a bandit). You can even look for treasure!

But the main thing is not what you can do, but how it is implemented. The approach of “realism should be in moderation” is felt everywhere. That is, they didn’t go overboard with the naturalness of what was happening - this is still a video game, although, of course, the process of skinning animals could have been made less visual. In general, the “sandbox” here is definitely a success; in this parameter, RDR2 is really head and shoulders above the vast majority of games.

However, any sandbox still needs a good main game and an exciting story. And this is where the problems begin.

Disadvantages of the game

First of all, Red Dead Redemption 2 is the successor to all previous games from Rockstar, and in many ways it, unfortunately, is not far from them. Rockstar knows how to create a living and big world, write characters, dialogues, build a plot and drama - you can’t argue with that. However, the company is characterized by rather clumsy shootings and very formulaic story missions. For example, if at the end of GTA IV the game thinks that you need to chase the main villain for a long time before engaging in the final battle, then everything will be so, even if you bring a grenade launcher in advance and shower the enemy with a hail of rockets.

In RDR2, everything is about the same - the enormous freedom, richness and “liveness” of the game world turn out to be completely unnecessary and unused, as soon as you take on the next story mission. Most of these missions end in a banal shootout with an incredible number of enemies. At these moments, the game no longer seems so “alive” - it behaves like a typical action movie from the 80-90s - kill a hundred “dummies” without really straining.

For example, in our playthrough, the main character, Arthur Morgan, was once riding a horse (90% of the time you play through the game you will be riding somewhere...), crossing a bridge, and his path was blocked by a hostile gang of 5-6 people on a stagecoach . Our hero shot them all without even moving, continuing to sit high on his horse. When playing some Uncharted, in moments of mass shootings you really feel the dynamics of what is happening and feel the adrenaline rush. Here it is a very boring and sluggish process. However, it is quite easy to shoot 5-6 bandits, but in a typical mission there will be five times more of them.

Also, story missions practically do not use various activities like hunting. That is, as soon as we complete the “tutorial”, then all that remains for us to do according to the plot is to ride somewhere for a long time on a horse (alone or with companions) and kill crowds of enemies. These events do not even depend on the beginning of the mission. The heroes can agree to go fishing, but it will all end in another boring shootout. Or we’ll go look for a new place for camp, and run into more bandits. The main problem is not even the number of shootouts, but the fact that shooting here is boring and you don’t want to do it again. But, unfortunately, we are left with virtually no choice.

Additionally, for some reason they added an element of leveling up to the game. The more you, say, run, the higher your endurance. But we still don’t understand why this is needed. It’s good that the annoying “leveling up tree” is not here. This would be completely unnecessary.

Total

Despite all the disadvantages, it’s hard to call Red Dead Redemption 2 a bad game. This is definitely good game, especially against the backdrop of template stamps like last parts Assassin's Creed or Tomb Raider. However, Rockstar never overcame its main problems - the shooting remained boring and clumsy, and the missions remained the same type and too linear for such a living and wonderful world. It would be great to play something different in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 - at least the same Zelda: Breath Of The Wild or The Witcher 3. This would definitely be an all-time hit.

Graphic arts: 10/10

Control: 7/10

Gameplay: 8/10

Overall rating: 8/10

Westerns rarely attract creators computer games. People are already fed up with films with cowboys chasing redskins and vice versa. Therefore, video games with such plots are rarely released. As examples, we can cite the games Rockstar San Diego and Call of Juares. Gun has not yet been erased from the memory of fans of duels, super-sharp knights of the Colt and lasso. Some will also remember Red Dead Revolver with its exciting plot. The new game Red Dead Redemption became the heir to the above-mentioned creations. The criminality of the plot suggests comparison with Grand Theft Auto 4; there are quite a lot of similarities with it, but the quality level of Red Dead is much higher. The craftsmen who made this game took into account almost all the shortcomings of previous games, and the Wild West, perhaps, is beginning to take on a new life on gaming screens.

Cowboy John Marston is not just a “cow boy”, he is a superman who is ready to turn over the entire state of New Austin in search of sworn enemy. The places here are extremely dangerous, and to Mexico, which has always been a refuge for dashing people, just a stone's throw away. John finds the enemy in one of the forts and offers him a dignified surrender on acceptable terms. As a result of the negotiations, John Martson is seriously injured, and only with the help of peaceful farmers who accidentally discovered him does he climb back from the other world into a world full of dangers and cowboy adventures.

The hero, who has not yet fully recovered from his wounds, is again called upon by a sense of duty, and he equips himself for new battle with dishonor and injustice. The main plot and course of the game
For a real cowboy, there is nothing more exciting than a chase, and he persistently continues to pursue bandits who seem to have been driven into a corner, then disappeared again in the vastness of the state, or even evaporated in neighboring Mexico. As a result, sometimes John finds himself in situations where a resourceful opponent gains an undeniable advantage. In these situations, John Martson has to exert all his remarkable superman abilities, and he again slips out of the clutches of death. Sometimes the “bony one” is so close that the hero feels her icy breath on his back...

There is so much evil that John has to fight it tirelessly and his Colt. Sometimes it seems that the world surrounding John is pure and boundless evil, and he himself has to act by not entirely worthy methods. But looking at fearless John, we are imbued with confidence that good is stronger.
What stands in John’s way are not always honest government officials, women who look like Amazons, and the game is literally filled with bandits. Some heroes make you smile with their stupid behavior, some are calm as a sphinx, and some personalities inspire outright disgust. The cast looks like it could grace a mediocre Hollywood film. The roles are played and voiced so well and close to the life of the Wild West, which we know from the masterpieces of the genre, that from the first steps of the game you cannot get rid of the feeling of being in the thick of things. John Marston is especially good. The type of real cowboy who has tasted the bitterness of prison life and is trying to find his right place in a difficult world captured by money-grubbers and bandits. By drawing you into the game process, the creators of Red Dead Redemption give the hero the right to choose the path to find problems, without which John Marston will no longer be the real John Marston. And the very principle of the game does not allow John to become lazy and unsaddle his horse for a long time - the plot can develop only after the main character commits the next decisive actions.

The plot development line will not allow you and your John, who will undoubtedly become the favorite of anyone who decides to have fun with the game, to relax for a minute. Fascinating events are taking place surrounded by magnificent scenery, and you, that is, your incarnation John Marston, become the main character of a Hollywood film. What a movie! You become a participant in, well, events that are just a little short of reality!

John is not afraid of cowboy work, which is always full of dangers, surprises and adventures. During the course of the game, John is able not only to engage in routine cattle drives for wealthy farmers, but also to track down, catch and ride any, even the hottest, mustang. John copes with any work with honor and preserves the livestock entrusted to him.

The sheriff appears, and John has to forget about his work, which is starting to become boring. And again, chase after insolent bandits, meeting face to face with cunning and treacherous scoundrels. Fights, firing at numerous, seemingly indestructible, targets. Many adventures happen on railway, when John has to fight off attacks from “countless hordes” of bandits and robbers. John, of course, is not a coward, but sometimes he has to run and hide. The missions that John Marston performs are extremely diverse. Sometimes they develop into large and dangerous military clashes. The calm already rarely experienced by residents of the towns of the wild state is violated again and again. Sometimes obstacles to achieving a goal appear as if from underground: either John will run into an ambush, or livestock will be in the path of a madly rushing train. In the first case, you need to fight back, and in the second, you need to show composure and demonstrate a reaction.

There are two main types of combat in Red Dead Redemption. The most exciting "shooting games" take place in pursuits. When John Marston runs away from his bloodthirsty opponents at full speed, they can easily shoot the horse under him and capture the cowboy. Our hero has to guide his horse in such a way that the bandit's bullet does not hit him. At the same time, John himself tries to make super shots and disable his pursuers.

Another type of combat clashes takes place in the traditional form of shooters: cover, target, running from place to place. John’s enemies in Red Dead Redemption, to be honest, don’t have very many defections, which makes his task easier. Our superman can only take good aim at the enemy who carelessly leans out and thrust a piece of lead right between his eyes. Sometimes, for added variety, there are explosions in the game, but this is only sometimes, and the main weapons remain the cowboy classics - a shotgun and a pistol. There are no hand-to-hand combats here, and the main thing is to be the most accurate, which is not so easy for you and John Marston to prove during the game. Some people like pure shooting, but some players would like such episodes to be more contact-based. Perhaps this is the only drawback of the development. Otherwise, the creators of the game were on top. It’s great that John learned to self-medicate and get himself ready to complete his next missions. There is also a positive aspect in the fact that there are certain points to which the player returns in case of failure. These return points are far from the very beginning of the operation, and this innovation does not reduce the player’s focus on ultimate success. Another plus is better auto-guidance: the bullet is no longer stupid, and it hits where it’s supposed to go according to the laws of ballistics.

The greatest chic for a cowboy is to pull out his Colt when unexpectedly meeting an enemy and riddled him even before the opponent has groped for the handle of his revolver. Such duels are classics of the Western genre, and the creators of the game simply had no right to lose sight of them. If a worthy opponent is encountered, then it is not at all easy for John to deal with him. In the end, the one with the best reaction and the steadiest hand wins the duel.
For every strength, John always has a super-strength. This power is called Dead Eye, and in situations where our supercowboy is backed up against the wall, he pulls out his last “joker”, which helps John get out and at the same time stuff a whole “pack” of deadly enemies with lead. John Marton is ready to help anyone who asks him for help. The romantic and broad soul of the son of the prairies pushes him into the arms of danger again and again. These tasks boil down to what needs to be discovered in this place at a given time, the right person and deal with it according to conscience. And again shots are fired, and again there is a competition “who will be the first to grab the Colt”, and again the most unexpected events occur at the most crucial moment. The mini-plots of the mini-tasks are very diverse: either John has a dilemma to take money that does not belong to him or return it to the owner, or he has to decide what to do with a strange old man. Who are these sometimes eccentric, sometimes cunning and resourceful, and sometimes deadly characters in mini-problems? It's up to you to decide, follow through and take risks. virtual life- John Marton. And John Marton saddles his faithful horse, and rushes once again towards mortal danger.
As the game progresses, you will have to either raise your hero or allow him to do illegal things. You and John Marton can take the side of a defenseless person and perform noble deeds. If you believe that evil and unscrupulousness can be defeated with the help of cruelty and playing without rules - the flag is in your hands - John will follow this path. Just know that many characters will respond to a kind attitude with gratitude, but will look at the robber with caution, and sometimes with hatred.
Did you feel bored again and completing missions seemed figurative to you? Join the job search through advertisements. There are so many wanted bandits operating in the state of New Austin and in border Mexico, and John has so much unspent strength and opportunity. To infiltrate a gang of hardened thugs, our cowboy has to become a regular at saloons and show his remarkable talents in the field gambling. Some need to be beaten at cards, some at dice, and some of the bandits don’t mind competing with John as a heroic strength in his arms. Life in the game is in full swing, and, as they say, this “key” hits the mighty forehead of our hero. Some events occur completely independently of you and your hero: either a wild horde of bandits will rush through, then vile coyotes will howl, or the earth will hum under the hooves of wild horses. Sometimes John gets an urgent job when some robbed businessman runs to his aid with his eyes widened in horror.

It is very useful to be in the atmosphere hundred years ago, and plunge into the unique world of a hundred years ago. A world of saloons and endless prairies, a world of cruelty and a merciless struggle for a place in the sun, which is never enough for everyone anywhere. Little things sometimes poison a player’s life, but this does not apply to Red Dead Redemption. The creators of the game did everything to make you feel in the game as if you were in your own apartment. There is no need to adjust the speed of John’s movement to the speed of his fellow travelers - all he needs is to be close to him and he will not lag behind them. You can resume the game process exactly at the point where you stopped during the last download. There are quite a lot of such little things that, when taken into account, ultimately become the single biggest advantage of this game over others. Have we praised Red Dead Redemption? It's time to scold: monotonous instructions after a while somewhat undermine the roots of interest in the game. Bright special effects, beautiful scenery and excellent acting, unfortunately, cannot hide this flaw.

The first “half” of two, to put it in football terms, you play in one breath: the supply of new products is large, and you are constantly waiting for something new. In the second part, mother boredom begins to overwhelm us, yawning, you and John lay the next batch of corpses on the ground, catch up with the next enemy, who is heartburningly similar to many previous ones, and reluctantly defeat him. But that’s why there are disadvantages to take them into account! Most likely, Rockstar will do this, and the next version of the beloved game will put an end to the monotony.

Did we talk about football? Let's bring in figure skating too! John Marston's “mandatory program” in the form of tests that he must pass lasts one and a half dozen hours. “Free performances” in the form of additional options extend the pleasure a couple of times. But this is not the limit! There are also “demonstration performances” in the form of multiplayer!

This is where you can have a lot of fun! Participants in the action are placed in different “corners of the ring”, and they are given different powers. You can participate in team game, you can be lone wolves, you can besiege a fortress - the variety of original finds is truly amazing. The experience gained allows you to either prance on a magnificent horse, or trudge on a donkey with floppy ears. The “sandbox” created by Rockstar does not amaze with any special graphic delights: slightly blurry images of the characters, a somewhat simplified model design with sometimes unnecessary lines and angles. Although the opportunity to visit any building satisfies the player’s curiosity and expands his capabilities. But the authors coped with the animation task brilliantly: it’s as if you are seeing real people in a real film about the Wild and Harsh West, where life is devoted to dangerous art, the art of surviving and establishing yourself in this crazy world.
Oh, these designers. When designing Red Dead Redemption, they tried so hard that you just want to jump on a horse and ride across the vast prairies, hide in the cool canopy of a green oak grove, and climb a mountain path to an alluring peak. There is not a single identical house, ranch, or, especially, town in the game. By comparing the relatively rich American fictional state with the poverty and squalor of Mexican settlements, one can be convinced that even at that time the United States was much ahead of Mexico. Honor and praise to the designers, because they largely predetermined the success of the game.

The designers did their best, but Rockstar still added a few drops of tar to their barrel of honey. Optimization! The optimization came out God knows what, and it is difficult for the player’s eyes to adapt to some views and to the blurriness of some images. It really turned out a bit unclear... There will probably be an Xbox 360 version best choice for a more complete gaming experience. If you take the PS3 for comparison, the difference will not immediately catch your eye, but if you have the opportunity to compare, the first version will still take the lead. Although, the PS3 will undoubtedly bring joy to a true connoisseur
There are things that Rockstar does high level. Having been on the scene of events taking place in the wild prairies, and no less wild forests and mountains of the Mexican border, you want to call your hometown a stone bag and rush to the Wild West.
Automatic guidance, we repeat once again, top class, and if you don't hit the target, there's no point in blaming technical problems. You just need to train well and the glory of Hawkeye will be guaranteed to you. See for yourself. It’s a pity, of course, that the developers tried by all means to prolong communication with their favorite hero - they would have loved him even more if they had stopped in time. Multiplayer, after all, helped them a lot. With his help, they got out of it well and revived the game, which was starting to get boring. Still, we are for the fact that the advantages of the game outweigh its disadvantages. There is no doubt that Red Dead Redemption is much richer in content, much livelier in graphics and a hundred times more fun than Grand Theft Auto IV. After playing Red Dead Redemption, you just want to breathe in the unique spirit of freedom of the Wild, Free West.
Another look at the game

Without a doubt, the events of the Wild West have never been so well interpreted in any other video game. Red Dead Redemption proved that the Western style is something that sandbox creators should still turn to.

The game creators from Rockstar San Diego are far ahead of the developers of Grand Theft Auto in terms of design, quality, animation, and many other indicators. Without exception, all the forces of Rockstar San Diego were thrown into the development of Red Dead Redemption. There were rumors that fabulous amounts of money were spent - more than a hundred million dollars! And you readily believe in this after you plunge into the crazy, but so attractive world of the Wild West, a world described colorfully, juicy, authentically and excitingly. The almost endless credits, which list the names of people involved in the development, creation, video filming and dubbing of this game, once again prove that the funds were spent astronomically. The four dozen hours spent in total in the game are not at all tiring, and it seems that the game will continue for a long time. Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and we look at the game's credits with a slight sense of regret.
It would be good to know English for complete happiness, and then you would get much more out of the game. Having deciphered some slang expressions, you will delve even deeper into the mentality of the inhabitants of the Wild West. If you don’t know, it doesn’t matter, the plot flow can be understood without it, and the language of the Colt and the rifle is understandable to everyone.

The son of a bandit and a “moth”, John Marton learns a difficult life in early childhood. Finding himself in an orphanage, he learns what the struggle for survival is and, having mastered this difficult science, grows up to be a copy of his father. Violence becomes his main way of self-affirmation, and the thirst for money and the power that this money gives does not let him leave the bandit environment. And he meets his love, named Abigail, in the gang. The little son who will be born soon will most likely be raised in the same spirit.

After the betrayal of people whom John Marton trusted endlessly, but who abandoned him after another shootout of a seriously wounded man, he decides to retire from gangster affairs. His whole family moves to the ranch, and he plans to take up the life of a peaceful cowboy.
John showed up too much in his past life, and the state authorities decide to use John to get rid of the gang of which he was recently a member. They use a method as old as time and vile - their agents steal his wife and only offspring. The villains' goal is to force John to find the bandits with John's help. The plot is tied. The game takes place in one breath, and it ends in accordance with the laws of the genre - a happy ending.

More than fifty missions along the plot line, about 120 additional options - what else does a consumer of virtual adventures need to be happy? Almost all of these missions are different, what to achieve in such large-scale game oh, how difficult it is! Ambushes, exciting chases, competitions with enemies in accuracy (if I don’t tell you, then you mean me!) are made so exciting and beautiful that you have a hard time leaving the game. Side game miniatures associated with completing small assignments are not at all necessary, but they diversify the gameplay well. If completing the mission is more of your concern, you can simply ignore these additional options.

Once you finish the game, you can compete with your friends in the included multiplayer, but you will always be haunted by the feeling that you are still living in the game's story. You are either having fun with your hero in the saloon, beating the next victim in poker or dice, then you are wondering how to increase your already remarkable abilities using the Dead Eye option. Even the clothes you can win the right to wear have a special meaning in the game. The cooler your tuxedo, the better you can play cards.
There is one small disappointment - the PS3 version is not optimized, and is a little behind the X box360 in some components. However, the game process is so exciting that this difference becomes so insignificant that you simply don’t pay attention to the difference in loading speeds. If you really want to compare these versions, place two monitors side by side - and you will see two slightly different pictures, which, in our opinion, is not important.

There is a small oddity in the game - reindeer, soaring in the skies. If someone understood their purpose, then honor and praise to him. Maybe someone noticed the Santa Claus light in the sky? No matter how hard we looked, we didn’t see anyone except deer.
Multiplayer is a separate story, which we will tell you a little later. It has not yet been studied in detail.