Red dead Redemption-The Ultimate Review

Warning-Spoilers ahead.

Red dead redemption-

A game that was a generation ahead of its time.

"Some trees flourish, others die. Some cattle grow strong, others are taken by wolves.
 Some men are born rich enough and dumb enough to enjoy their lives. Ain't nothing fair. You know that." - John marston.

"Nothing is fair" is the constant theme of The Red dead redemption's world as well as in John marston's life throughout the span of 30-40 hours campaign of Red dead redemption.

It is a story of love,betrayal, family and change.
Change as in advancement of technologies,the age of machines taking over as wild west is nearly over.

John Marston our protagonist is a former outlaw and now a family man,trying to escape his past with his wife Abigail marston and his adolescent son Jack marston.

Of course one  never  can escape their past as crooked federal agents kidnaps John's wife and his son in exchange of the lives of his former gang members as John is forced to work as an Outlaw yet again.

I played Red dead redepmtion for the first time back in 2013 on my playstation 3.
Needless to say,I was too young and naive to understand its politically intertwined heart breaking story then.
But as of now I have watched countless wild west movies like-
"The good,the bad and the ugly", "Unforgiven" and as well the most recent classic
 "The django unchained."
And after playing the game yet again from start to finish in 2018, I can happily say its the best wild west adventure to be had in this industry till date whether it be movies or video games.

Red dead redemption smartly captures the nostalgic moments of classic western movies and takes it a step further in telling its masterpiece of a story  through its distinctive yet rich characters.

John Marston is a very likeable protagonist and yes, playing it in 2018 I think he's my favourite video game character as of now.
He's very relatable as he is not a perfect man like all of us,but trying his best to  move on from his mistakes and be a better man for himself and his family.

You  will care about his tale,its hard not to,And you will play through that ending mission multiple times wishing it would end differently but it doesn't.
You will be irritated at first by meeting characters like West Dickens or Abraham reyes,but eventually you'll end up liking them as you understand their vision and the role in the world you live in.

You will at first glance like people as Captain Vincente De santa,but later on will want to put bullets through their head as they turn out to be traitors who would sell of their own country.

And then there are strong independent women  whom you'll take an immediate liking such as
 Bonnie Macfarlane who runs her own farm and doesn't need anybody's help or Luisa Fortuna who (actually reminded me a little of Penelope cruz's stunning debut role as Silvia in
Jamón Jamón)  was ready to scarifice her own life for the freedom of her country-Mexico.
Landon Ricketts-once a famous gunslinger now a retired and unofficial lawman or vigilante of the Chuparosa town ,
now sits around and plays poker with local peasants  as he tells the stories of his adventures before wild was tamed.
You will love or hate the company of these interesting and diversified set of characters and remember them for the time to come.

Then their will be iconic moments that will forever be vivid in your memory such as when  John finally gets to see  his family and as snow falls and a soothing score plays in the background -
"Now I know the only compass that I need is the one that leads back to you" will send shivers down your neck,knowing how many obstacles you had to cross for such an iconic moment to occur.

Red dead redemption is a marvel of presentation.
Keeping aside the key story cut scenes,which are amazing on their own,the random events that occur throughout the journey is equally great and astonishing when it comes to quality and a sense of realism.
Riding across the countryside of Rockstar's re-imagined version of 1914  America and mexico is a joy,an experience like nothing else.
An experience you could only have or expect from a Rockstar game.

The world is a character of its own.
The staggering amount of detail in every little thing from puddles forming up during rain,or an enemy's hat flowing off when the bullet nearly misses them and the way they react when they can't find their
hat on the top of their head had me awestruck every single time.
I have seen smarter NPC's  and AI in video games  before and still do but never to such an extent.
The way they behave,the things they speak  and the clothes they wear-I believe every one of them has a different layer of clothing  is jarring to say the least.

There are no fetch quests,at least not without an interesting story behind.
For example-a person might send you to collect different stuffs to complete the design of what seem like an early model aircraft,
Not just John marston but you as a person would be curious to find out how it turns out when you get that person the parts he  need.
Or stuffs like giving a ride to a lady to the nearest town as her transportation is broken while bandits try to kill both of you,never gets old and actually adds to the realism that you are a gunslinger
 present to help the citizens of the nation.
You can play as bounty hunters any time you want to as there are always criminals to be caught and punished.

Every stranger and freaks mission   like solving a murder mystery or helping a prostitute buy her freedom is interesting and unique on its own and I always wished that there were more of them.
On top of everything,I was constantly wondering how Rockstar games managed to make this game on last generation of consoles.

The game even by 2018's standard looks breath-takingly beautiful.
When the red sun sets into the horizon,the sight is almost surreal.
I have only seen such  amazing draw distances  in two other games,

possibly Elder scrolls 5 Skyrim and Rockstar game's own Grand theft auto 5.
No other current generation game  comes close to creating such artistic and beautiful draw distances not even the Witcher 3 wild hunt or Horizon zero dawn-
which otherwise are some of the best looking games of this generation.
When thunderstorm occurs and it starts to get dark while riding on your horse,It almost feels like watching a 1970's classic movie.

As of now,In the age of micro transcations,loot boxes and a fatigue in the open world genre filled with repetitive side quests and live events,
playing through Red dead redemption was a breathe of fresh air.
It made me realize how important as a platform for story telling and immersion video games are.

I believe I had almost forgotten the excitement of coming back home and spending hours playing video games even though your body tells otherwise.
Red dead redemption 2 launches on 26th october,2018.
And as I write this,with  the main track of the first game  playing in the background,I am counting  off days to the next game in the series.

Its no doubt that  Rockstar games are here again to set another benchmark in the history of video games just like they do with their every title especially the one that came 8 years ago.