10 Things I've Learnt From Playing Red Dead Redemption

Here's a list of ten things I learnt whilst playing Red Dead Redemption

1. Strangers Are Crazy

Well most of them seem to be. If it's not some crazed religious woman trying to find god in the middle of a wasteland it's some old man living in a swamp with his wife's corpse still sat in her old rocking chair. Must be something in the water.


2. I Like Liars Dice

It's nice Rockstar threw in Poker and Blackjack and a few other little mini-games the the player to gamble on. It allowed me to discover a game called Liars Dice which I'd never even heard of before. Turns out I'm quite good at it and I really enjoy playing it.


3. John Marston is a Terrible Cheater

Whilst wearing the Elegant Suit you gain the ability to cheat at Poker. When you serve the cards you can slip a card from the bottom and hide it up your sleeve. When you get your two proper cards you can then swap out one of the cards for the one you have tucked away. When you make this swap John cleary tucks both his hands under the table to make the swap. People will only notice you cheating if you fail a little quick time event. If I was playing cards with someone and they tucked their arms under the table I'd be yelling bullshit straight away, not checking to see if they can keep a little arrow in the middle of a bar.


4. Bears are Ninjas

It's a fact, everyone knows ninjas evolved from bears. Many a men have gone walking in a mountain wood and have turned a corner only for a bear to appear out of nowhere and claw their face clean off.


5. Trust No One


Oh look, a lady of the night has somehow gotten lost in the wilderness. She begs me for help, I slow my horse to let her get on. She drags me off my horse, jumps on and rides away, calling me names as she goes. A quick bullet to the back stops her. I don't slow down to help anyone who looks lost again.


6. Glitches are Funny

If you've not seen the Donkey Lady or the Coyote Gunslinger or any of the other funny graphical glitches then you need to look them up. Glitches that make a game unbeatable are frustrating, glitches that allow you to ride a woman round like a horse is easily forgiven.


7. Horses are Annoying

I get off my horse to do skin some animals I've just killed or to hogtie a bounty and it pisses off somewhere. I need you horse. I've just heard a cougar growl or some bandits are trying to rescue their friend before I put him in jail. I need to be saddling up and vacating the area asap. You walking away to smell some flowers or some shit doesn't help. Stand when I dismounted you and stay there until I say otherwise. Stupid animal.


8. People Online are Jackasses

You get 10exp for killing another player online. You can also kill anyone, there are no safe zones. This turns everyone into complete and utter arseholes. Trying to go anywhere or do anything is hindered by some arse shooting at you. Fact: People suck.


9. Rockstar Know How to Make a Single Player Game

GTA IV was bad. I don't care what people say, it was bad. It took a silly, over the top franchise and made it overly gritty. You had everyone you had a phone number for calling you up every two second to ask you if you wanted to go bowling or some shit and the movement controls were awful. This made me very dubious of getting RDR but I'm glad I did.

The story was good, gritty but not over the top so. The controls were good, the length was decent and there was alot to do. You had your missions to do but you could also complete challenges, do tasks for strangers, do jobs, gamble on a number of minigames and more. The story was well done and had an ending that left me speechless. Red Deads single player was great and it's shown that GTA IV might have just been a bad one off.


10. Rockstar Can't Do Multiplayer

All the great fun stuff you could do in the single player is gone. What's left is a load of different challenges which are nowhere near as good as the single players and gang hideouts. There's also various pvp types but that's expected. The multiplayer has a levels/exp system which unlocks new mounts, weapons and characters to play as. The system doesn't really work that well as it takes ages to build up your level and the rewards aren't really worth the effort. The system turn the multiplayer into a very weak mmorpg where the only thing to do is grind.

It really doesn't help that the game respawns you about two feet away from where you just died. I ran into a group of four guys who killed me. I respawned right next to them and before I could get take two paces I was shot dead again. This happened a few times before I managed to take three of them down. Guess what. They respawned near me and killed me again. This isn't fun. It manages to make a bad multiplayer experience worse. THe multiplayer as a whole is a pathetic add on to an otherwise great game. For shame Rockstar, for shame.