I never cared for the GTA games, but Red Dead Redemption was a truly wonderful game from a developer who I have always been annoyed and fustrated by. annoyed by how often they seem to screw over the player in thier GTA games. Fustrated by how the GTA games are in general. But, here in RDR they have truly blown me away. this game is by far Rockstar's masterpiece. I was constantly enjoying myself with this game, never once did I get annoyed or fustrated with Red Dead Redemtion. The world is extremely rich, vibrant and teeming with life (as well as the amount of life breathed into it). There are not a whole lot of things to do in the games world, but where the game lacks the amount of content of, say, an Elder Scrolls it makes up for by making the few things you can do really really fun and completely enjoyable to come back too. Never did I get bored of beaking wild horses, playing a game of horse shoe (which takes some real skills to master) beating a gun slinger in a fateful duel, testing my luck at liars dice (by far one of my favorite passtimes in the whole game). And then there's five finger fillet, a truly nerve testing mini game where the player must beat the aponnets record time of high speed knife stabbing in between thier fingers, miss and you slice and dice, succeed and you can finally exhale from the pure tention. I also really enjoyed the frontier living lifestyle of the game, as well as, purchasing and owning as much property as you wish, hunting wild game, raiding bandit hideouts, purchasing guns and ammo, and changing your outfits (which are pretty snazzy if I might say so). Also, you truly do get the sense that you're in a living breathing wild west, and that every single NPS is a living person with a life and goals for the most part.
To top it all off, you have one heck of a thrilling, memorable and truly stunning story that features one of the most brillliantly realized final acts of all gaming history (I wont give away any spoilers, but I'll simply say that it blew me away, as did the whole game, and I'm not easily blown away).
Overall, Red Dead Redemtion is a remarkable, highly atmospheric game that is worth shouting about. Stunning. Original. Astonishing. The gaming industry finally has its western magnum opus... it's about time!
Verdict: 10/10