A wild ride with Red Dead Redemption

Rockstar Games takes you to the Wild West with its open world adventure, Red Dead Redemption. Saddle up for the ride of your life.

There's a posse back in town, and they're coming out guns blazing. Rockstar Games has strolled on to the videogames scene once more with a new title which is bound to get you rootin', tootin' and shootin'. Red Dead Redemption is all about hitting the Wild West with both guns drawn. And once you're done, things will never be the same again...

A blast from the past

Set as the sequel to the popular Red Dead Revolver, Redemption throws itself into the early 20th century where the old West is starting to change its spurs. The lawless and chaotic badlands are giving way to the expanding reach of government and the spread of the Industrial Age. This isn't to say things still aren't Wild. In the large open world of Red Dead Redemption, there's ample violence and brutality.

John Marston's trying to put that behind him, though. The former outlaw - and protagonist of the game - is leading a life of relative peace before he's dragged back into the realm of bloodshed through a horrific ultimatum which fires the story into action. Which is where you come in.

As Marston, you'll be riding through frontier towns and dusky landscapes, taking part in and defending train robberies, blasting your way through tense shoot-outs, fending off wild animal attacks, trying to stay alive from ambushes, saving people from hangings, and all the things you've ever seen in Wild West movies, brought right into your home and in your hands.

Dance, boy, dance

Rockstar wants its open world action adventure to envelop you with its scope. Offering a cinematic experience, Red Dead Redemption has three massive areas to travel across as the story takes you into The Frontier, Mexico and the Great Plains, each with their own distinctive look, feel, environment, inhabitants and style.

One thing which will remain persistent across all these badlands is a high level of detail and the dangers you'll face. There's a whole world of things happening around you, whether you decide to involve yourself or not. Trains run to timetables, random gunfights start up, posses will tie up their foes and savagely drag them through the dust by rope and horses, and people go about their daily jobs and lives throughout the day and eventually, night - whether that's bar tending, piano playing, trading animal skins, gambling...

There is even a huge ecology system in place for the animals (which includes vultures, wolves, coyotes, bears, rabbits, cougars, snakes and deer), creating an environment where life - and death - lurks everywhere regardless of your actions. Even horses have their own traits and wild ones have to be tamed before you can ride them.

Are ya... yellow?

Should you find yourself in a tight spot, you can defend yourself with any number of the 25 and more weapons at hand, such as pistols, shotguns, rifles, axes and even dynamite. And then there's the return of the Dead-Eye aiming system, which helped make Red Dead Revolver so popular. Marston has the ability to slow down time and target specific points on the body of your foes. When time returns to normal, a rapid succession of lead is fired off at the areas you selected.

Add all of that to a system where you can fire blind if you don't have time to aim, take cover behind objects (and dead animals which may have got in the way - beware the scavengers looking for a cheap meal afterwards), and other little quirks, and you have the set-up for some exciting gameplay scenarios, as hats fly off, bleeding victims tumble down from rooftops and Mexican stand-offs are all part of the show.

Rockstar Games is looking to make sure you get entirely lost within the vista heavy, tumbleweed laden, rough and tumble, morally grey dust of Red Dead Redemption. Make sure your aim is true and locked on au.playstation.com when more information comes into the saloon, soon.