The analysis of Red Dead Redemption
This article will be critically and thoroughly dissecting and trawling through everything that Red dead redemption has to offer as a game.
Analysis
The first thing we can look at is the cosmetics of the game starting off with the graphics.
Graphics
For the time of release red dead's graphics where exceptionally beautiful and where definitely something to boast about, with hundreds of beautiful remote desert locations with the off chance of finding a small cluster of settlements or maybe a small town filled with beautiful buildings and scenery surrounding it all. the art style for this game is obviously very realistic with everything looking so incredible and vast blending everything so well together. Obviously as time goes by games eventually end up ageing, some more than others, but i find that with red dead the graphics still definitely stand up to there age considering that the game is already seven years old! Finding a game that old with this good graphics even to this day is incredibly hard.
Sound
The sounds of Red dead Redemption are very fitting to everything they are attributed to, all of the sounds of the guns for example sound how i imagine a lot of old timey guns would of sounded back then with most of them sounding not very good or not very loud fitting with the not very good/working guns they had at the time. another example would be with the horses in the game which you use to ride and get about from place to place, mounting a horse will make it neigh or hitting it to make it go faster will also make it neigh, along with the sounds of the hooves on different kind of terrains, a louder clop on hardened pavements and a lesser thud when galloping on dry desert floor. leaving a horse stationary or tying it up will make it casually release air through it's nose as a sign of relief after a hefty journey.
Another very important thing to mention when talking about sound in a game is obviously the music in it. and when it comes to the music in red dead it's outstanding. Different places in the world having different soundtracks like roaming through the desert to some soft calming ballad or walking into a tavern only to be overcome by people talking and a person on the piano belting out a upbeat tune. similarly getting into a sudden fight you may have come across while randomly roaming or going to collect a bounty and a fast paced epic tune comes on while you engage in the shootout of a life time. everything in terms of music flows so well together to make an epic tapestry of sound.
Construction of Content
What exactly is Red dead Redemption then? It's an open world sandbox game which consists of a main over arching story with little side missions and story's that lead off of the main plot or even have nothing to do with the main story but are there for some extra fun. The time of the game is set is in the 1911 mid western era with cowboys and bandits running wild. you take control of John Marsten a vigilante cowboy seeking revenge on an old gang that left him for dead. this consists of doing missions and objectives all over the world containing endless different things to do for people. mainly killing rival gangs/people to obtain something someone wants, collecting more weapons to add to your arsenal for more future fights with people. aside from the main campaign there is an online feature to that comes with the game, this consists of different game modes like death match or capture the flag, being pitted against another team fighting for the win.
Codes and Conventions
Comparing Red dead Redemption to a lot of other games in its genre there is quite a lot of similarities and differences, the big difference being the time period in which it is set. pretty much the only game in the sandbox genre to attempt this feet, with maybe crackdown being a close rival but crackdown is set in the future instead of the past like red dead is. i wouldn't say red dead pioneer anything for the third person sandbox genre or even the action adventure one, but it definitely shook things up in terms of sandbox games setting. even incorporating things typically not used within the sandbox genre, for instance the bullet time mechanic of slowing down time and being able to line up a good shot certainly isn't unique (Fallout 3) but was very good to mix in this with jut normal gun fighting and a cover system for picking off enemies one at a time. another comparison with most sandbox games, especially Rockstars other work like GTA for example Red dead includes a health regeneration system where whenever the player is injured by something like a bullet hiding away from enemies and not getting damaged for a certain amount of time slowly gains back all of your health creating a need for the cover and bullet time mechanics within the game itself
Narrative structure
Red dead redemption is set in the mid 1911's western world, with technological advances like automobiles and high powered pistols mixing with the horses and Winchesters is a brilliant mix of post and pre-technological boom of the industrial era. this is a very common theme throughout the whole story of Red dead mixing the old with the new. taking control of John Marsten you are picked up by the local FBI type individuals who task John to hunt down and kill all the members of his former gang, if achieving this John will be granted diplomatic immunity and will be allowed to live out his life normally. John then sets out to find the first person he can think of, Bill Williamson, upon arriving at Williamson's hideout John is then shot and left for dead just outside of Bills hideout. he is then found by Bonnie Mcfarlane a local rancher from a nearby village and takes john back to help him heal up and get his strength back. Once John is awake and well you set out on your adventure to kill his old gang members.
John has his life and all of his family's lives at stake with bargaining with the law, if john doesn't catch and kill all of his old gang members he will be locked up and may never see his family ever again, never being able to achieve his dream of living his life with his family out in the middle of nowhere living of the land. While john is on his adventure he comes across a lot of various funny and profound characters from all around america. One of his ex gang members is actually hiding out in mexico so, with the help from a few others travels to mexico to find him. Towards the end of the film John is faced with one of the officers of the FBI type people, he warns John that even though he is fine now with the FBI they will just find a new monster to hunt down after he's done with his ex gang members, this is foreboding towards the end of the story.
The outcome of all of this is John is actually successful in hunting down all his ex gang members, John returns to his farm with his family to seemingly live out his whole life there. One day all of Johns family are going about there business when a whole gang of government lawmen come racing towards Johns house. A massive shootout ensues with the result of Johns uncle being killed in the gunfire. John and his family run and take refuge in a nearby barn, John then tells his family to go without him and leave them all for John to handle, he then proceeds to open the barn doors where the player is able to enter dead eye mode and try and kill as many officers as possible, but it turns out there are way to many people for John to handle and ends up getting killed by them. It then skips to 1914 and you see Johns son Jack standing over his dads and now mothers grave.
Obviously this leaves a giant impact on Jacks life with his mother dying of old age and his dad getting gunned down by the people he was helping. Jack is filled with revenge, an optional side quest allows you to hunt down Edger Ross the man who led the cavalry of men to Johns house and killing him. the official ending of the game is when Jack finds Ross fishing out in the middle of nowhere and challenges him to a quick draw battle, if Jack wins the credits roll revealing the actual ending to the game.
The outcome of all of this is John is actually successful in hunting down all his ex gang members, John returns to his farm with his family to seemingly live out his whole life there. One day all of Johns family are going about there business when a whole gang of government lawmen come racing towards Johns house. A massive shootout ensues with the result of Johns uncle being killed in the gunfire. John and his family run and take refuge in a nearby barn, John then tells his family to go without him and leave them all for John to handle, he then proceeds to open the barn doors where the player is able to enter dead eye mode and try and kill as many officers as possible, but it turns out there are way to many people for John to handle and ends up getting killed by them. It then skips to 1914 and you see Johns son Jack standing over his dads and now mothers grave.
Obviously this leaves a giant impact on Jacks life with his mother dying of old age and his dad getting gunned down by the people he was helping. Jack is filled with revenge, an optional side quest allows you to hunt down Edger Ross the man who led the cavalry of men to Johns house and killing him. the official ending of the game is when Jack finds Ross fishing out in the middle of nowhere and challenges him to a quick draw battle, if Jack wins the credits roll revealing the actual ending to the game.
Representation of character
The way John is presented in the game is very stereotypical of an average protagonist in a spaghetti western film, especially his story of being an ex gang member and having to hunt down and kill each one of them. although John describes his old gang as being very nefarious with killings and robberies being frequent practice for them, Despite this John is made to be a bad guy gone good, proving this more by killing his old gang members, wanting so desperately to return to his family and live out the rest of his life a good man. You can really relate to Johns struggle with him doing the right thing the whole game, just to eventually be gunned down by the same people you where supposedly helping.
Johns son Jack is portrayed as loyal son who helps around the farm and house while John is away. When Jack becomes an adult i think the player is personified through Jack, a good man with a hate-filled revenge for the man who killed his dad. Obviously this is extremely relate-able for the player because you have played Johns story the whole time up until the bitter end, making you want to also take revenge on Ross. When Jack becomes an adult he pretty much becomes John in a way, meaning that he also becomes a stereotypical over the top spaghetti western type character in his own way.
Next would be Bonnie Macfarlane, The women who helps John recover from his near death experience. Unlike John and Jack, Bonnie isn't a very stereo-typical character as she is the one that is helping John, not the other way around. She defeats the generic video game stereotype of a damsel in distress as she can hold her own fairly well against everyone. Especially when gun fighting with criminals alongside John himself. Obviously it goes without saying but Bonnies character is most definitely a good person first for obviously helping john but also for being a hard working normal citizen throughout the village she lives in.
The age rating on Red Dead Redemption is in fact mature, this means that the game is only suitable for 18 years and older.
Johns son Jack is portrayed as loyal son who helps around the farm and house while John is away. When Jack becomes an adult i think the player is personified through Jack, a good man with a hate-filled revenge for the man who killed his dad. Obviously this is extremely relate-able for the player because you have played Johns story the whole time up until the bitter end, making you want to also take revenge on Ross. When Jack becomes an adult he pretty much becomes John in a way, meaning that he also becomes a stereotypical over the top spaghetti western type character in his own way.
Next would be Bonnie Macfarlane, The women who helps John recover from his near death experience. Unlike John and Jack, Bonnie isn't a very stereo-typical character as she is the one that is helping John, not the other way around. She defeats the generic video game stereotype of a damsel in distress as she can hold her own fairly well against everyone. Especially when gun fighting with criminals alongside John himself. Obviously it goes without saying but Bonnies character is most definitely a good person first for obviously helping john but also for being a hard working normal citizen throughout the village she lives in.