The Conservative Cave
Interests => Games & Home Entertainment => Topic started by: SSG Snuggle Bunny on May 21, 2010, 11:31:32 AM
-
You are John Marston, a former outlaw whose wife and child are literally being held hostage by people holding federal badges in their pockets. Unless you are willing to break your former outlaw gang your family will suffer unimaginably at the hands of those professing to represent law and order.
There is no mistaking the fact this game comes from the people who brought you Grand Theft Auto. First of all the game engine is the same used in GTA IV and many of the in-game features such as the HUD, mission structure, side quests, tutorials etc will be immediately familiar.
However, this isn't just a re-skinned GTA.
The art direction in this game is breathtaking. As GTA is an "homage" to the grit and glitz of a major metropolis, RDR captures the barren scrub, green mountains, flashing summer lightining storms and rays of a dawning sun from which its inspiration is drawn: the vast open frontier.
And vast and open it is.
The game allows you to pitch camp and teleport to your desired location but who the hell wants to when riding a galloping steed can be so entertaining. Along the way there will be passersby to help...or hold-up, varmits to hunt and treasures to find. I've spent the last 2 nights herding cattle and breaking mustangs to such an extent the main storyline has sort of fallen by the wayside. You can also hunt bounties, pitch horseshoes, take in a silent movie, play texas Hold 'Em or Five Finger Fillet. Sometimes its enough just to do nothing more than stop on a ridgeline and watch the world pass you by.
When I have taken up the storyline missions they have proven to be standard Rockstar fair but they have a feel to them that validates the wild west motif.
There is plenty of racially-charged dialogue from the townsfolks. They alternate between bragging how they are bringing civilization to the frontier while boasting they carry nothing made by Jews. Anyone who has played GTA knows the people walking the streets of whatever city you are in will blurt out the most obscene or inappropriate lines. However, in RDR while many townsfolk continue this trend the ranchers and similar "people of the common clay" will wish you a good day. In other words: the writers appear to be drawing a serious question mark over that which we call society and they are willing to draw out this commentry over the span of multiple game franchises. It is the earth-scratchers who are more accepting and simply pleasant. The built area appears to have been founded upon and/or bringing out to worst in people. It's cringe-worthy in John Marston's wild west and it becomes all but unliveable in Nico Bellics modern urbania.
My only complaints are: the auto-targetting system left me unloading 2 barrels of buckshot on a hapless saloon girl when I really would have preferred to take out the 3 outlaws standing up to shoot me. Also many of the pop-up quests randomly encountered resolve too quickly. The homesteaders died before I could rein my charging stallion around to save them from the bandits and a horse thief rode off before I could move around the bunkhouse. But as my familiarity with the game improves these details diminish.
All in all this game is well-worth it's $60 price tag. There is simply too much to do and look at--if you're willing--to feel you aren't getting you money's worth.
-
I was wondering how open the interactivity was opposed to the first one, which was pretty linear. Thanks for the review.
-
Ya, but can you beat the snot out of the common folk with a crowbar and take their horse and carriage? Will the Sheriff's track you down?
:evillaugh:
-
I was wondering how open the interactivity was opposed to the first one, which was pretty linear. Thanks for the review.
Rockstar bought the IP from the original developer and incorporated their winning formula.
For a company so deeply mired in controversy there is no mistake their every effort receives astounding levels of attention to detail.
Ya, but can you beat the snot out of the common folk with a crowbar and take their horse and carriage? Will the Sheriff's track you down?
:evillaugh:
No blunt weapons but you do have a huge Bowie knife...and yes, I did have to outrun the sheriff and his posse after accidentally gunning-down the saloon girl. You can lasso someone and drag them behind your galloping horse and if you shoot someone at particularly close range the camera cuts to a new angle and gives you a cinematic-type shot.
I nailed a member of the local outlaw gang standing next to me and was treated to a shot of the character sliding the barrel under the outlaw's chin before peeling back the top of his skull.
-
Just got through killing many amigos in Mexico. :evillaugh: :hi5:
-
Ya, but can you beat the snot out of the common folk with a crowbar and take their horse and carriage? Will the Sheriff's track you down? :evillaugh:
Not sure about that but you can go "Snidley Whiplash" for an achievement....
[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OfzcTi52dvU[/youtube]
-
Nah. My Brother In Law says he is just waiting for 11.09.10. Call of Duty: Black Ops.
I am starting to learn how to play Modern Warfare 2. I have bad eyesight, so its not so easy.
-
No blunt weapons but you do have a huge Bowie knife...and yes, I did have to outrun the sheriff and his posse after accidentally gunning-down the saloon girl. You can lasso someone and drag them behind your galloping horse and if you shoot someone at particularly close range the camera cuts to a new angle and gives you a cinematic-type shot.
I nailed a member of the local outlaw gang standing next to me and was treated to a shot of the character sliding the barrel under the outlaw's chin before peeling back the top of his skull.
Sweet!
-
Nah. My Brother In Law says he is just waiting for 11.09.10. Call of Duty: Black Ops.
Same here, but I would be playing RDR if there was a version for the PC.
-
Just got through killing many amigos in Mexico. :evillaugh: :hi5:
My project for this weekend will be to earn the achievement for paying off a $5,000 bounty on yourself. I'm going to basically just raid into Mexico, shoot the place up (maybe work on the headshot and other achievements) then ride back north to re-arm etc. Once I get the $5,000 bounty on my head I'll just ride like hell to the nearest telegraph office with a pardon letter.
"That's right! I shot you up but now you can't do anything about it 'cuz I gots a pardon letter.
"Now go mow my lawn, bijjezz!"
Unfortunately Mexicans don't generate as high a bounty so it will take considerably longer.
-
Great Game! Been playing it since its release! made by Rockstar to me it's GTA in the old west. But I am really liking it hoping for a second installment.
-
Great Game! Been playing it since its release! made by Rockstar to me it's GTA in the old west. But I am really liking it hoping for a second installment.
I'm definitely looking forward to the co-op missions to be available soon.
-
My project for this weekend will be to earn the achievement for paying off a $5,000 bounty on yourself. I'm going to basically just raid into Mexico, shoot the place up (maybe work on the headshot and other achievements) then ride back north to re-arm etc. Once I get the $5,000 bounty on my head I'll just ride like hell to the nearest telegraph office with a pardon letter.
"That's right! I shot you up but now you can't do anything about it 'cuz I gots a pardon letter.
"Now go mow my lawn, bijjezz!"
Unfortunately Mexicans don't generate as high a bounty so it will take considerably longer.
I built up a 4k bounty without even trying in Mexico. I barricaded myself on the 3rd floor of a building that you had to climb a ladder to. I eventually got posses of about 10 at a time coming at me, and I'd just blow the tops of their heads off as they climbed the ladder.
The tricky part is escaping. I had to leap off the roof, and the damage it caused made it easy for them to gun me down before I could ride off.
You should also try something with hog tying people. I think Zathras linked it, but I can't see it so I'm not sure. Tie someone up and toss them on your horse. Take them to the train and toss them onto the track in front of it. It's quite an explosion. :evillaugh: