This was an absolutely amazing game although admittedly it did lose me temporarily just after Mexico. I have done a lot of stranger quests 11 or 12 and found that they had plenty of variety and quite a few had very solid minor storylines that they were always worth seeking out, I still have a few to do although the only active one is Deadulus and sons flying machine, which I have been too lazy to fetch quest to see if he will die or live.

The first act (Armadillo) was a lot of fun and really let you get used to the world and how you travel and how things will happen. It also felt really old west which was good because that's what was advertised and the rest of the game is quite different. The only thing that disappointed me was that I killed the old man in the deed sidequest and his son who supposedly lived in blackwater never tried to find and kill me which was unforunate. All of the main missions were building to a great climatic battle which quite frankly was a fully complete story in itself that felt a little artificially extended by Bill bailing to Mexico but either way.

The music as you enter Mexico is the one of the only time music has had any effect on my feelings about a game. It was absolutely brilliant

The second Act, it was a little more convoluted story wise although very well written in regards to the motivations of all the characters and described the type of zeal that revolutionary leaders created in their soldiers. The best mission was definitely the pseudo mission where you play the poker game with the German.The whole Colonel vs Abraham thing was good but the Colonel betraying you was so obvious that I personally knew the first time I met him. It's sad really cause the only character I actually liked in Mexico was Landon Ricketts and the fat Captain who you have to kill because he finds out you're working for both sides. To be honest I wish I could've killed all of the leaders in Mexico, it would've been much more satisfying as Abraham was clearly just a power hungry aristocrat taking advantage of poor people that wanted a better life. Whether they ever got one we don't know but I seriously doubt it.

The third act was very short, which was unfortunate because at this point you finally get to the civilized world and get to check out all that Blackwater has to offer. It's a really cool difference as you cross over from thieves landing and out of the acrid desert into a nice forested and meadow combination that provides a lot of variety from the rather desolate atmosphere of the early parts of the game. This section of the game then leads to by far the best character in the game, Macdougall who is a very eccentric coked out former Yale professor who absolutely fits the superior white scientist mold of that time period. In this section you come back to kill Dutch who has snuck back into the country and has created a gang out of a native tribe and some others. His suicide at the end of the section is indicative of what's to come in the fourth act, talking about how there is no way out.

The fourth act is mundane but perfectly designed to set up the rest of the game. You teach your son Jack all the important aspects of ranch life as well as how to shoot. The whole bonnie love interest thing was well known from the start, They obviously brought it up again to note that fact although why it was important when they do nothing else with it I do not know. This all culuminates with a great battle where you walk out into hundreds of troops and fire a bunch of shots then die.

The end mission where you find Edgar Ross and kill him is a spectular finale especially as they don't just make it a mission and you have to do some snooping of your own to find it. Getting revenge is sweet for everything John had to do however it would've been nice if you also had the opportunity to kill Archer.

Overall it's a great story with a solid cast of characters and what really sets it apart from most games, even other rockstar titles is the very solid cast of stranger characters and background characters that make the world feel a lot more real.

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http://www.twitter.com/Coramoor_

I agree with mostly everything said here, an absolutely superb game and definitely one of my favorite this generation. It really felt like the Old West, While Armadillo certainly did a great job of introducing you to the world, I found it to be a bit slow pace wise.

When you step back and examine it, Read Dead is a very depressing game in its essence, thing's never seem to go your way, and people are either constantly screwing you over or using you for something. And I totally agree about Mexico, when you are riding there it just felt very much like you were entering a new, unfamiliar land, with no friends along for the ride. I found the character development in RDR to be fantastic, John Marston was a really intriguing character, and it was sad to see him die at the end.

Getting revenge was sweet, although I thought that would be something explored in a possible Read Dead 3(I say that because there was Revolver before this) but doing the secret mission closed up that bit.

Overall though, amazing game, definitely my game of the year so far.

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GamingUnion.net Member Awards 2009 Results

Darryl Wrote:[b]King/Queen of the Chatbox: Caleb (9 Votes)

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