Finished Red Dead Redemption.
I'm glad I played it. There's enough to enjoy, even if those moments don't arise because of any particular gameplay system. Parts like the first ride into Mexico as Jose Gonzales plays are brilliantly executed yet those moments aren't enough to really carry the whole experience. Very little skill is required - just pump enough time into any aspect of the game and you'll be successful.
There were two events in the game that arose as a result of the procedural systems present in the game that were great:
1) In the first of the many random encounters with a 'damsel in distress' on the highway that is actually an ambush, I disposed of all the bandits and went to chase down the woman as she was running away. I was about the lasso her as she was pleading for forgiveness, claiming that she'd been unwillingly coerced into the dupe by the bandits. Just as she was pleading for her life, a cougar jumped out of a nearby bush and mauled her to death. Fucking hilarious.
2) In the 'escapee running from two lawmen' random encounter, I shot the escapee as he ran towards me. The two lawmen mosey up to the dead body to thank me for my assistance and just as they arrive at the scene, a wolf charges in from nowhere and I shoot it in Deadeye mode, inches away from the sherrif. The lawmen thanked me for my last minute save and I felt like the fucking champ!
Those two moments, lasting about 5 minutes in total, were the most fun I had in the >20 hour chunk of time I put into Red Dead.
Apart from that, the game relies too much on staged sequences to deliver both the atmosphere and the story. I remember walking through the woods and coming across a man crying over the body of his dead wife. He couldn't be spoken to but once Marston walks away, a gunshot is heard and upon returning to the scene his body is lying next to that of his wife. Embellishments like that are cleverly implemented but from a gameplay perspective they don't really engage the player, rather just add another layer of paint to the tapestry. That is Red Dead Redemption's central flaw - it isn't so much a game as it is a very finely crafted world with minimal interaction. Sandbox games are at their best when there is a high level of interactivity with infinite outcomes depending on the players input - games like Crackdown and Just Cause 2 are the best examples. Red Dead instead relies on puppet strings behind the scenes to deliver the key moments of the whole experience and asks little of the player.
As silly as it sounds, the gameplay-heavy parts that require a high level of player input stand in stark contrast to the dusty plodding atmosphere of the game. Yes, realism in games should rarely be a key design goal, but with a billion turret sequences and encounters when Marston takes out 20 dudes in 10 seconds, the accurately recreated western frontier quickly falls apart and it turns into a circus show.
I stand by my case that is a oft-boring game with exceptionally high production values. It did a poor job of stressing the key beats of Marston's story and I was very rarely sure of the significance of certain characters or events. The majority of the game is spent in transit, and unlike GTA, a horse-riding mechanic just doesn't provide an on-the-moment sense of enjoyment like hurtling around in a car does. I guess they make up for that by peppering the highways and game trails with random stranger quests, but once you've completed enough of each individual quest type they all get pretty stale.
The game shines when it captures the spirit of the west, even if that mythology is intrinsically slow-paced and plodding. Sunsets and sweeping vistas are nice and all but cannot themselves make for a good game.
Overall, I did sorta have fun but I won't play a sequel. Considering how low the enjoyment:time investment ratio is in these new grittier style games from Rockstar, I will be very hesitant with the inevitable GTAV.
)