In a time in which the age of the wild west is dying out comes a man to try and bring it back for his loved ones...
In Red Dead Redemption you will interact with the environment and engage in combat with enemies, using various firearms. Different breeds of horses are the main forms of transportation, which come in a variety of quality. These horses must be tamed, however, in order to use them. Not only can you follow the main storyline you can also take part in random events that you encounter as you explore the West. These range from public hangings, ambushes, pleas for assistance, stranger encounters, ride-by shootings, and dangerous animal attacks. For example, if a group of people ride into town firing guns in the air, the player can kill them, and will receive a bonus of honor and fame. Players can also take part in optional side activities including duels, bounty hunting, herb collecting, gambling, and hunting animals for pelts, meat and other various items. Also you have to take into count the morality system where you have the ability to gain positive or negative 'honor'. Some of the ways to gain positive honor include taking an outlaw alive instead of killing him, or saving a kidnapped innocent. Negative honor can be gained for committing crimes including killing or robbing civilians. This works along with another system, 'fame', showing and governing how people react based on Marston's honor status. If Marston has negative honor, lawmen and civilians will usually say obscenities to Marston and feel insecure around him; lawmen will even threaten to kill him next time they see him. If he has positive honor, lawmen and civilians will usually greet him and feel safe around him.
The combat and the gunplay (of which is a huge part of the combat) are major parts of the game. Gunfights in Red Dead Redemption are conducted using a third-person system. The player can take cover, target a specific person, blindfire, and free aim. Individual body parts can also be targeted, in order to take targets down non-lethally, and capture them alive. When the player shoots an enemy, the game engine uniquely creates the AI reactions and movements. John Marston can choose from period-accurate weapons including revolvers, pistols, lever or bolt-action rifles, knives, explosives, lassos, mounted gatling guns, shotguns, sniper rifles and cannons.
To help the player along in the heat of battle there is the Dead-Eye targeting system. Dead-Eye is used in a bullet time-like manner, allowing the player to slow down time to place a precise shot or paint in multiple shots on the body parts of one or multiple enemies. When the targeting sequence ends, Marston will fire in extremely quick succession on targeted people and objects, displaying his impressive ability as a gunslinger. As with other open world games there is also a modified wanted system. When the player commits a crime such as killing people near witnesses, some will run to the nearest police station. The player can bribe them or kill them before they reach the station. If a crime is committed near a police officer, the wanted meter immediately appears along with a bounty count which increases with each crime committed. To evade law enforcement in pursuit, John Marston must escape a circular zone until the wanted meter disappears. It is also possible to kill all lawmen in a town to have the wanted meter disappear, but it is extremely difficult because their numbers allow them to take you down quickly. Despite the chase being aborted, a bounty is placed upon John which will cause bounty hunters to come after him in the wilderness. It is impossible to surrender to these bounty hunters by putting away Marston's weapon and standing still as they will kill him regardless. Only law enforcement in towns and posses will accept surrenders. The police will continue to chase Marston unless he pays his bounty at a telegraph station or presents a pardon letter. When arrested, Marston pays off his bounty and is then released. If the player does not have enough money to pay back the bounty, the police will assign bounty hunting activities.
Now with the main gameplay coverd it is time to look into the story/plot of Red Dead Redemption. The year is 1911 and you are John Marston, a retired outlaw formerly of a gang led by Dutch van der Linde. He is taken away from his wife Abigail and his son Jack by government agents. The agents tell Marston that he will be reunited with his family if he hunts down the remaining lead members of his former gang. Left with no choice, Marston travels to the territory of New Austin to capture or kill one of his old friends, Bill Williamson, who now runs his own gang of bandits out of Fort Mercer. Marston confronts Williamson, only to be shot and left for dead outside the fort. A rancher, Bonnie MacFarlane, finds him wounded, and brings him to a doctor to be treated. After recovering from his wounds several days later, Marston begins repaying the MacFarlanes for their help in the form of several jobs around their ranch. At the same time, he recruits help for a plan to attack Fort Mercer. Along with U.S. Marshal Leigh Johnson of Armadillo and his men, con man Nigel West Dickens, grave robber Seth Briars and drunken arms dealer Irish, Marston uses a Trojan Horse strategy to breach the fort. Marston and the Marshals breach the fort and massacre Williamson's gang, only to find that Williamson had already fled to Mexico to seek help from Javier Escuela, another member of Marston's old gang. Irish offers to take Marston into Mexico over the river border. Along the river, Irish and Marston encounter Mexican bandits. Marston and Irish take the bandits out, barely making it into the country.
In Mexico, Marston works with Mexican Army Colonel Agustin Allende and Captain Vicente de Santa, as well as the revolutionaries in the area led by Abraham Reyes. He also improves his gun skills under the tutelage of elder gunslinger and childhood inspiration Landon Ricketts. Allende promises to deliver Escuela and Williamson to Marston, but soon betrays him and has de Santa attempt to execute Marston for working with the revolutionaries and killing Allende's men with Ricketts. After escaping execution, Marston sides with the rebels who help kill de Santa and successfully get Marston to Escuela. Following Escuela's capture or death, Marston joins Reyes and his men for an assault on Allende's villa, not only culminating in the deaths of Allende and Williamson, but also Marston's rebel friend Luisa when she attempts to save Reyes. Reyes takes control of the surrounding Mexican counties, and vows to march onto the capital with his rebel army. Marston, meanwhile, returns to the city of Blackwater to meet with his government contact, Edgar Ross... This is the point of the story that i will let you the players get past...
Red Dead Redemption came out for the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360 in north america on May 18, 2010 in europe on May 21, 2010 in australia on May 21, 2010 and in japan on October 7, 2010.
Weather or not like like the ending may well be up in the air but realy i did enjoy playing this game as its been a fair amount of time since a game last made me feel like i was realy playing in the wild wild west.