4.5/5 ★ – sheldoman's review of Red Dead Redemption.

I was kind of worried that this one wouldn't hold up after playing the sequel, but replaying it now I actually think I like it more than I did when I first played it in 2011. This game has a great story with some great characters. I really like John Marston as the lead and love the theme of him trying to seek redemption for his outlaw past. This is done slightly better in the second one, but I feel like John is a better main character than Arthur. The side characters are pretty good and entertaining and none of them really overstay their welcome. The dialogue is often pretty funny and it has a more subdued version of the classic Rockstar humour. The gameplay is so solid. Really holds up. Shooting feels natural. Riding is fun. I like hunting and looking for bounties and that kind of stuff. I don't really care too much about the gambling or the side games but I don't hate that they're included or whatever. All of the different costumes have different little side goals to achieve to unlock and that gives a bit of motivation to experiment with the side content. I have a couple of minor problems. I found myself getting pretty frustrated by a couple of random things I'd come across between missions. Stuff like cougars that kept spawning right beside me or random bandits rolling up and killing me instantly. Also my horse not coming to me when I was trying to get on frustrated me. And as someone who likes going for trophies, I hate that a lot of the trophies in this are available in online multiplayer only. One of the bigger problems with this game is the whole sequence of Mexico. Every mission is kind of the same and it's always some jerk lying to you about being able to help you, if you help them first... even though its very obvious they are lying to you. They keep giving you the run-around and it makes the whole sequence kind of frustrating. My first time playing I really hated this part and this time around it wasn't as bad because I really hammered through the missions as fast as I could. I have to say that coming back to this game after the second is really cool. Suddenly characters like Bill Williamson, Javier, Dutch, Uncle, Abigail, and Jack all feel like more rounded characters and it makes them more interesting knowing the canon of what happened before. Dutch is a great villain in this game, and he's even more interesting after playing RDR2. I'd totally recommend replaying this after playing RDR2. I wouldn't say this is a perfect game (though I might say that about the sequel) but it is a very good game. I really hope Rockstar releases a remastered version at some point.