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Red Dead Redemption: Hands-On Preview

By Jason - January 28, 2010 - 18:00 UTC

Jason goes hands-on with John Marston.  Wait, what?

Every time I see Red Dead: Redemption, I’m a little more impressed.  I don’t know what it is exactly, whether it’s the big open world, the combat or the sheer amount of distractions there are to keep the player going.  It’s one hell of an ambitious project, I’ll admit, but…I think if anyone can pull it off, Rockstar can.  If you read my first preview, then you’ll know some back-story, and I won’t recap.  If you didn’t, it’s westerny and…just read the damned first preview, ok?

Ok, this hands-on was based around a few missions, the first of which was based around  a brown-noser called DeSanta.  Marston is helping out the Mexican Army by taking out some rebels, who are holding a Mexican fort high on some hills.  We’re briefly run through some weapons, a rolling block rifle (which has an awesome fishbowl-style lens), molotovs and some pistols, which are all shown off as the Euphoria engine does its job.  The AI seemed to work quite well, it would yell at us if we ran too far ahead, or lagged behind, and generally worked around us.  We practiced blind firing, firing from the hip, and firing from cover.  As we swarmed our way forward, taking out that rebel scum as we moved, we practiced a few close up ‘assassination’ style kills, blasting some poor sap in the spine.  The entire mission is an interesting look at the times, as it’s the army that is suppressing the rebel uprising, a very interesting viewpoint of social/political upheaval.

The next mission is based around the hunting down of Bill Williamson.  Walking around Armadillo, it’s interesting to look at the life of the town.  I whistle for my horse to jump on, but it apparently hates me and runs right past me.  I must have trained it sort-of well though, as it comes back after a few moments.  One awesome little thing is the fact that when you’re following the AI on a horse, if you hold down the A button your horse will follow the course of the AI, giving you a chance to look around and not run off like a clown.  Once we get to where we need to be, I quickly run to cover as I’m being shot at…a lot.  It’s only a very early mission, so it’s fairly straight forward.  In the homestead I am assaulting, there is a bounty target.  I choose to take him alive by shooting him in the legs: the sherriff is so kind as to hogtie him for me.

Now that I’ve got some free time on my hands, I have a little bit of an explore around the area.  I take down a bison or something, it’s big and bull-y with a single shot from my rifle from horseback, ’cause I am that damned good.  Before I can go investigate the corpse though, I’m assaulted by a few different ambient events that direct my attention away.  The first is a campsite under attack, between lawmen and criminals.  You can choose either side, but I have issues being the bad guy, so I side with the lawmen.  Secondly, a man runs up to me to tell me his wagon has been stolen and wanted me to go get it back.  Thirdly was a man who wanted a lift to town.  This won’t happen in the final game, only one will happen at a time, but it was fun to be completely molested by events.  I kill off the criminals, I return the wagon by throwing the thief out of it rather than killing him, and I completely ignore the man that needs help.

Next, Ol’ Johnny boy goes to investigate a big white structure not far from where I am.  Now, this isn’t an actual ‘mission’ so to speak, it’s a gang hideout.  These will be used mostly to get a quick top-up on all the things close to my heart; weapons, money, and some booty (treasure maps and the like, not women).  A farmer has asked me to save his daughter, whom some gangs have kidnapped and are holding hostage.  Like the nice man I am, I run in, all guns blazing; this does not go well.  As I make my way through around all of the gang members, shooting them down willy-nilly, the main gang member advises me to “play it smart”, which I do not.  The result is that the girl is shot and killed and the farmer grieves; I try and do the right thing by putting him out of his misery, but the game doesn’t let me kill a friendly.

Once I get out of the firefight, I am confronted by some terrible, terrible news.  My horse has died.  I rode it all the way up to the fight, and it stupidly stumbled into it and ate the dirt because of it.  He was a good horse, I called him George.  He was a friend and a comrade in arms, we had some good times and some bad times, we shared a laugh and occasionally some hay or whiskey.  God bless you George, you’ll be missed.  RIP 2010-2010.

The final mission we take a look at is based around Irish.  Well, I think it’s Irish, he keeps saying his name is Oireesh, and he’s a drunkard.  He was meant to give me a gattling gun but hasn’t provided it.  So in true spirit of being a pain-in-the-ass informant, I need to go get it myself.  I do a head-on assault on a mine, because apparently miners need a gattling gun to protect them against ore and whatnot.  As I make my way down the mine, I have some fun shooting out oil lamps to make fire spread over the ground, and TNT cases which make things go boom.  Thankfully the world isn’t destructible, so I don’t bring down the mine with my chronic stupidity.  When I get down to the minecart, my mission is to make my way back up the mine, pushing the minecart with one hand, shooting goons with the other.

And that’s the end of the mission!  I hope you enjoyed the preview, word on the street is that there will be another preview before the game comes out in late April.  What the hell are you waiting for?  Go pre-order it, fool!