Games of the Year Awards 2010 Day 7

Number 4 on my Games of the Year Awards 2010 goes to the wild west epic Red Dead Redemption

4:

Red Dead Redemption (PS3, 360):

Red Dead Redemption is awesome. There is no other way to describe this game. An epic sweeping drama of the wild west and the tale of a man's journey for redemption. The wild west has featured in games before but none have been ever this good. Red Dead Redemption smoked a lot of the competition in the action genre this year, even in the face of heavy hitters like God of War 3 and Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and Rockstar has once again proved that their GTA success wasn't a fluke!

Red Dead Redemption's main draw is exploring the wild west, and the game world is a huge, barren place to visit and reaching each and every new town and place was quite amazing. Travelling in the shade of the setting sun or under the eerie moonlight the game does quite a job in making a immersive experience in a meticulously crafted world. The plot of the game does a fantastic job in providing a believable and a well grounded narrative of the journey of John Marston (the protagonist) as he tries his best to wash his hands of his terrible past and start anew. Like many of Rockstar big games (i.e GTA games) the characters become show stoppers with wonderful personalities (good and totally outlandish) and they all lend into the whole wild west setting. But the main character, John Marston, has to be in my opinion one of the greatest game character of all times. His nuanced yet complex character makes the whole package and as much as I played the game, I always felt connected to his ordeals and the horrors of his past. Its not that he is running away from his past, rather he fully accepts it and tries to make amends. Such human traits are seldom seen in this medium.

If one really wants to nitpick (not that I am in any way), but the game play is basically a little identical to the GTA games where selecting mission requires you check the map regularly and going to different characters who provide the missions. But this is where the similarities ends as the game takes a very solid approach to the action sequences, gun slinging and horse riding. And such a route easily makes it a very different entity from GTA. Nay-sayers or GTA haters will need to shut it and actually play the game, and be amazed how awesome the whole thing is. The presentation of the game is top notch as well and it brings the wild west to life like never before. I mean the barren and hostile terrains look positively harsh and the accompanying sound track puts on a strong showing.

Red Dead Redemption is an easy game to recommend and placing it in among the top honors this year wasn't hard at all. Sandbox games have an inherent tendency of becoming a bit of a slog but this game simply doesn't. I mean who doesn't want to a desperado. Red Dead Redemption simply put is an outstanding achievement in gaming.