so i finished RDR1 and here’s my take on it

September 15, 2023

Western is a theme that is well-received and popularized in old school European comics; in Hollywood cinema until 1960s; and again in European cinema in the decade that follows. In the medium of video games, however, there have only been a few representatives of the thematic genre, such as Call of Juarez (FPS, 2006) and Desperados (one of the few examples of “Real Time Tactics” genre, 2001). So when Rockstar Games published Red Dead Redemption in 2010, it was already destined to be something unmatched in one way or another.

It was also one of the things I had in mind when I bought my second-hand XBOX 360 as a student in Italy: to play the game which was only released to the then-one-previous generation of consoles. As usual I couldn’t find the time to play it then and there. Later on, moving between 3 countries during and after the studies, not travelling for 2 years due to covid-19, taking the time to hone my “driving skills” which are still non-existent; it was only in January 2023 that I could drive back to Ravenna, where I left my XBOX four and half years ago and bring it back home with me. After spending 50+ hours and reaching to a 99.9% (unfortunately glitched) completion with it, this is me talking about how RDR1 feels 13 years after its release.

When I first played The Witcher (2007) after reading all the short stories and novels of the original author, in 2018, I was amazed by the feeling of physically being in the imaginary kingdom of Temeria, in the vicinity of its capital Vizima, experiencing the life in a village next to it, in a world that I had read about and already immersed myself in. When I first played World of Warcraft (2004) around the years it was first released and became the most successful MMORPG, I was amazed by the feeling of roaming the woods as an ordinary night elf in the continent of Kalimdor, in a world whose biggest events and wars I had watched as my brother played the Warcraft games from the isometric view of the strategy genre.

Although I’m a lover of classic Sergio Leone spaghetti westerns, I never really had any particular willingness of immersing in a wild west experience. Not giving a damn for what you previously willed or not though, Read Dead Redemption gives you the full western experience that you may never have wanted, but you absolutely love it and desperately want more.

Its landscape should never be compared to those of the worlds created by the same developer, namely the cities of GTA series created by Rockstar Games. Here in RDR, you are in the vast wilderness but every inch matters. In GTA, you drive by the same building dozens of times throughout your gameplay but you don’t even realize or recognize it because it’s just an empty shell of rectangular prism. You cannot enter it, you cannot interact with it. It’s there to fill the space between the streets which make up the main playable area.

Years ago, I tried to invest in and get familiar with the London of Assassin’s Creed: Syndicate by looking at the minimap as less as possible and trying to memorize the locations instead. At the end I was indeed able to navigate my way through some destinations. Probably it was one of the worst decisions I made in gaming: to invest this much of time and energy to such a mediocre game in the domain of AAA games. I don’t think any of the game developers showed this much interest in the very world they themselves created.

RDR is the game where such an investment would definitely pay off. Because none of the hills, canyons, valleys, lakes, riverbanks, plains or mountains make you feel like they are there as fillers. They are all unique in a certain way and their summation makes up to a vast landscape of beautiful scenery in any time of the day and any condition of the weather. It is a landscape of memorable stories that are experienced or to be experienced. So investing in getting to know this open-world by heart is not a discipline you’re forcing yourself into. In fact, any geeky and time consuming investment you did on this game is something you can proudly embrace cause whatever it is, it is good.

As you’re in MacFarlane’s Ranch, you can see the blacksmith leaving his grinding stone at dusk; after you hunt for a bounty and bring your proof of success to the Mexican town of Chuparosa at night, you see the numerous stars in the sky; or you ride after a horse thief in Escalera and see the sunrise on your way back (look at the gallery above). These are some of the magical sceneries that you casually come up to in Read Dead Redemption. You will be surprised (at least I was) by how many type and colour of desert, desert sand, rock and plantation there can be. As you think you have seen it all, you enter the lime sand region of Punta Orgullo and you have a snow-white carpet covering your screen. Not even mentioning the snowy landscape or the woods of Tall Trees; or the pale, barren Great Plains; which might be the favourite of many people. It is not enough to look at the screenshots. One has to be in these generated paintings, ride in them, interact in them, and hold the controller.

Looking from 2023, there are curious observations. Random events in the open world was something that was promoted as a strong suit of the game for Assassin’s Creed: Unity of 2014. They are the events when someone randomly generated appears on the corner of the street and says “Hey, somebody stole my bag, catch him!” and the game puts the generated culprit’s pin on your mini-map, for you to run after and catch him. These easily lead up to dozens of repetitions in a standard (half way between main story and completionist) game play time. (And of course I relentlessly completed the random interactions in AC:U because of the related achievements. Again, wrong game invested in.) No need to say, AC:U failed the random events mechanic. Now I realize that RDR, a game released 4 years before AC:U, although did not have such reception in the realm of PC gamers, actually had random open-world events as well and definitely succeeded with them. When somebody says “Hey Sir, they’re hanging my innocent wife over that tree!”, and you know the enemy will be challenging, you need to shoot the rope before it’s too late, there’s also this intriguing possibility that it’s a lie and an ambush for you, and there is enough variety in these random events that you don’t experience any of them too many times; you actually care and feel like riding after this stranger all of a sudden.

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Rockstar Games has recently joined the train of companies failing gamers. After the release of horribly-received and technically problematic “remasters” of GTA 3, San Andreas and Vice City along with the removal of their well-working original versions from the online stores; they also announced a RDR1 release, which is then understood to only be a port. Not a remaster, not a remake. So even 13 years after its release, I have not lost anything by playing this game in its original platform and generation (which is not something good for us gamers). I feel like stating it here: Though people are getting hyped for the leaked GTA 6 and the hinted confirmation of an RDR3, I think it is wise to approach anything from Rockstar Games with caution from this point on.

Back to the game at hand, I think RDR1 is still worth playing on whatever platform it’s available. It’d be sincerely sad if I’d missed this atmospheric piece of art. I’m not getting paid for writing this and it’s not 2010, so I don’t feel like getting into all the other aspects I haven’t even mentioned: story, graphics quality, sound, shooter mechanics, side missions and open world activities etc. Whatever positive feeling I stated above can be extrapolated to all these. Long story in short, some of the best hours spent on anything.