RED & DEAD

INTERVAL HAS HAD AN EXCLUSIVE HANDS-ON LOOK AT ROCKSTAR GAMES’ UPCOMING BLOCKBUSTER TITLE, RED DEAD REDEMPTION, WHICH SETS ITS SCENE IN THE WILD WEST. EMBARGO HERE’S DANIEL CRICHTON-ROUSE’s FIRST IMPRESSIONS.

The difference between a Rockstar junkie and the casual fan is the person that can name more than one video game by the publishers. Yes, they’ve brought to the world Grand Theft Auto, and the larger gaming community is thankful for that, but their other games haven’t quite achieved that mass cult following – yet – even though they’re better than most of the other titles on the market.
That’s probably all about to change, however, with the release of their modern take on the classic western, Red Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Redemption (henceforth referred to as RDR) is the follow-up to the 2004 title Red Dead Revolver, which brought living room gamers to the wild west, the vast frontiers of the United States, the unruly and lawless land of Brimstone. (And the awesome Dead Eye scenario – whereby you went into a Wes Anderson-esque slow motion sequence, selected your targets, hit the button and BAM!, BAM!, BAM!. Headshots all round.)
Playing cowboys is always great fun, but pillaging the streets of New York City until this stage has always been better, and that’s probably a lot to do with the whole ‘sandbox’ thing – the first Red Dead wasn’t sandbox – which is something we’ve come to expect from the best-of-the-best games of the past five years.
Redemption is, as you’d probably figured out, a sandbox title. But not only that, it is the first game to fully flesh out the Rockstar Advanced Game Engine, the company’s own engine for developing games – so if you thought Grand Theft Auto IV looked amazing, consider this: it was the trial leading up to RDR.
The first thing noticeable is the game feels like you’re immersed in cinéma vérité. Everything looks photographic, cinematic, and, well, real. Compared to RDR, Grand Theft Auto is a cartoon. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that.) The graphics are impressive – you can see the stress lines and age on lead character John Marston, buildings look like they’ve seen the worst side of century-old wars, people grunt, moan, and sweat, whiskey is swilled, trees lilt in the wind like segue shots in Twin Peaks, and the sun shines – oh, how it shines. The changing of daylight into dusk into night is absolutely stunning.
But let’s be honest, you want the western equivalent of nailing random pedestrians with an AK-47 and stealing sweet rides, right? So does RDR meet such high culture expectations? Well yes, of course it does. But in a rural location. With horses instead of cars. Who doesn’t want to shoot an enemy’s steed in the head? It’s like the ultimate murder; you cull a man’s transport. Suddenly he’s surrounded by the endless kilometres of the desert and you. With a gun. So you shoot him between the eyes. Turns out he was a pretty bad guy – now you’re a hero.
And what a mighty landscape these deserts are to explore. Head to the mountains and the vista you’re rewarded with is extensive – you feel you could just stare into the wilderness forever, beyond the horizon and into the unknown.

HIGHLIGHTS?
1. Skinning a cougar. (No, that’s not a euphemism.) If you encounter a mighty four-legged beast you shall not panic, no, for beast goes down with only a few bullets to the torso. And, for extra cash, you can skin the animal. It’s pretty gruesome, but in a Hitchcockian way (you don’t see the dead – although you do hear it).
2. Coming around a corner to find an execution in progress, jumping off your horse, grabbing your gun, making a mad dash for the nearest rock, and shooting the executioner in the ear. It’s justifying, especially when it happens all in the space of two seconds.
3. Of the missions we played, infiltrating the mine shaft – which included lots of TNT boxes being blown up – was tense; the return ride through the shaft on the back of a cart a pretty sweet ride.

Red Dead Redemption is already immense, and we’ve only seen a small fraction – an atom – of the finished product. As Rockstar junkies, we can safely say that the company is at its most exciting right now, from GTA IV to Red Dead to the enigmatic L.A. Noire, and what’s even more exciting is that things are only going to get better.
Keep checking back to these pages for more updates.
WHAT: Red Dead Redemption for Xbox 360/PS3
WHEN: Tuesday 27 April