Red Dead Redemption

Now I don't usually review games, nor will I make this a regular thing, but what Rockstar has done with Red Dead Redemption is just fantastic. They take every ounce of this game and make it fit the genre perfectly, make it incredibly polished, and even make it encompass complicated themes. It's taking storytelling in the medium to a different level, and I can saftely say that it's the best game I've ever played.

Red Dead is set in the early 1900's and follows John Marston. John is a former outlaw who attempts to go straight but the government threatens to kill his family unless he hunts down his old friends. Effectivly it's the plot of A History of Violence set in the west, but that's no bad thing. During this time John comes to terms with the bad things he's done, reflects on what kind of a person he really is, and debates on wheather or not a person can truly change. Just like Cronenberg it intelligently disscusses indentity in a moving way. Not only is John a total badass he's a fantastic and relatable character who I really grew attached to as the story progressed. In fact by the end of the game I really became attached to most of the characters John met, and unlike the somewhat jokey GTA series they approached the characters and relationships in a really honest way. The fact that they dedicated two hours at the end of the game to John spending time on his farm with his family is a sign of how they care more about the story than just shooting guys in the face.

However John's story also functions as a metaphor for the death of western culture. Due to the spread of trains things like the Model-T Ford and automatic weapons are begining to make appearences. What's so tragic about this though is that you spend the first fifteen minutes of the game out in nature. Rockstar obviously put a huge amount of work into the surroundings because this game is beautiful. Simply watching the sunset in this game is a treat. They even created a realistic ecosystem in this game, with animals that behave realistically and prey on each other. So when you finally arrive in Blackwater and it begins to looks like modern society it seems so ugly and brutish it compared to the beauty that surrounds it. And it's tragic because you know that soon everything will look just like that. But another thing that Rockstar does is they paint John's old comrades actions as if they are simply fighting to preserve their way of life. So it's very sad when you actually have to hunt them down (reminded me of Shadow of the Collosus). So John's actions and surroundings serve the overarching themes of the story, making the gameplay itself completly relevant. That's a brillant example of how games can approach storytelling because if that isn't art I don't know what is.

The final thing that I found impressive was how it completly captured the genre. After finishing Red Dead I watched Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid and I was awestruck. To the way all the plants looked, the mountains, the way people talked and dressed, even the way the trains looked it was dead on. The amount of detail put into this game is awestiking. You can enter every building in the game and all the interiors are detailed. The world itself is huge, covering miles and miles of terrain. It's like you stepped into the largest, most detailed Western ever, and you're the director.

This game conjured up more emotion in me than almost any film recently has, and if you have a Xbox 360 or a PS3 you have to get this game. It's evidence of how games are becoming a more sofisticated form of media and is maturing rapidly (other equally good examples include Mass Effect 2 and Heavy Rain). Even if you aren't a gamer this is a great time to start, because Red Dead is something everyone should experience.