Miracle's Whip - RED DEAD REDEMPTION

[Riobux]

I completely agree with you with the most part, but I also do recall one or two moments that I could help but think "wow, that was predictable".

Spoiler

When you had to go get "Jeb's Girl", I said at the time out loud "I bet it'll be his horse or his cattle", reminding myself of Jade Empire. Well what do you know, I was right...

I also found that some of the characters felt like they were there and acted the way they did, just to poke fun or to fill a hole in the game. Like when Reyes started acting no better than the current ruler, I felt "so, is this meant to be just confirming what that guy said earlier about only the names change?". Some of the characters were interesting, I will admit (e.g. Irish, as stereotypical as he was, did seem fun) , but others just felt like they were just there to fill a hole (e.g. Bonnie reminded me way too much of the female ranch owner from Red Dead Revolver).

 

[MiracleOfSound]

I like this review a lot, and it has made me wanna get this game more than before. It's very well-written, and in my opinion, 100,000x better and unbiased than anything the "professional reviewers" can conjure up. (cue ZP animation and dialect) I swear, when Rockstar releases a game, "professional reviewers" tend to rip their spines out and shove their heads so far up their asses they can sustain themselves by eating their own shit.

Thanks a lot buddy, nice comments. I agree, there's asomething about Rockstar that seems to put a a cloud of bias over critics' eyes, not sure what it could be but it can be very frustrating to see GTA4 topping 'best 360 ever' lists when I myself found it pretty lacking.

 

[Insanum]

My friend has just got this game and has been flowing with praise for it, But he's only had it 2 days...So im going to hold out buying it. Those niggles are the kinda things that annoy me to the point that i stop playing. Camera issues are to me what a lit match is to gunpowder.

Very well written review though, Im envious of your abilities!

 

[King of the Sandbox]

I love this game with a passion. GOTY, definately. I've been playing since launch (on 360), and I've encountered bugs only in multiplayer, which were corrected in an almost immediate patch.

I will agree that the honor system is a good idea, just not quite as well implemented or impactful on your game as it could have been.

As for your indication that you find the missions repetitive, I disagree. While yes, there are generic types of missions, the originality of the missions comes from the mission settings themselves and the free-roaming granted by a sandbox game.

Example,

Spoiler: very minor spoiler

When you're asked to sneak onto a train, steal it, and then use the gatling gun on it to kill all the Mexican soldiers in the camp, I decided to do it a different way. I snuck in, killing the guards on the train, then as the game prompted me to use the gatling gun, I instead tossed a stick of dynamite into the middle of the sleepy camp, demolishing nearly everyone in it, laughing with maniacal glee.

So yeah, that jumpy gatling gun? Leave it and switch to your rifle or something. I did. It worked marvelously and the game doesn't fail you for doing so. After some practice, I got better with it, and it is excellent for cutting horses out from under pursuers.

Anyways, it's all about freedom, and I see this problem in many sandbox games, where people have no imagination or simply aren't used to being able to do what you want, instead of what the game tells you to. Having an imagination and being creative can lead to so-called repetitive missions being new and fresh each time, ie., see a guy stealing a horse? Drag his ass off with the lasso and skid his happy behind you, across the plains, leaving him in cougar country as punishment for horse thievery. The next time it happens, kill the horse, ride up to him and laugh like Nelson Muntz. Third time? Try shooting him off the horse without killing him, then trample him to death for poetic justice.

And yeah, you do know that you can save anytime with your campsite kit, right? So, yeah, that checkpoint thing's a moot point.

As for the 'only 3 save slots' thing, how many do you need, man? Geez. I've been playing since launch and I'm only on one. I mean, I guess if you have multiple people wanting to play it on a single console, but that's the only valid reason this could be a true complaint that I can see.

I digress, decent review, perhaps a bit rushed, but I can tell effort was put in, so credit where it's due, y'know?

And yeah, I said it, GOTY. I've already braced for all the 'the year's not over' and 'ME2' hate, so fire away if you must.

All fair points there, and like I said in the review it was all minor niggles. There was nothing in the game I felt was really bad.

The repetitive missions I had a problem with weren't the free-form ones, they were the ones where you ride and ride and ride and then shoot. I know it's the core of the game but still felt they could have added a little more variety. Were you not just a little bit disappointed when the mine cart escape stopped after about ten seconds? I was hoping for an awesome resident Evil 4 style section!

I did not know you could save during missions, thanks for pointing that out. That's a new addition for a Rockstar game and a well needed one too.

I know I pointed out a lot of bad things but believe me, I loved the game and thought it was better than GTA4 in every conceivable way.

Ah. I see. Well, the long rides between story missions are there for just that, the story. As you ride with someone to a mission, they'll expound on the situation by talking with you about what's going on in the game.

But, assuming you don't want to listen to it, and don't enjoy long rides, you can skip to the destination with a press of a button if you're riding shotgun on a cart or stagecoach. As there are only a couple of missions that ask you to go super far on horseback, I didn't find it that irritating, but I'm the guy who likes the story element most, so I enjoy hearing the dialogue.

Well, it's a new mine, so it wouldn't have been very deep yet. But yeah, it left me wanting another mission similar, because riding the cart is unexplainable fun. ^_^

And I'm glad you like the game, and can still notice the imperfections. It's a great skill for a reviewer.

Not only that, but your responses to any criticisms have been more than admirable. Kudos. ^_^

 

[MiracleOfSound]

[
Ah. I see. Well, the long rides between story missions are there for just that, the story. As you ride with someone to a mission, they'll expound on the situation by talking with you about what's going on in the game.

But, assuming you don't want to listen to it, and don't enjoy long rides, you can skip to the destination with a press of a button if you're riding shotgun on a cart or stagecoach. As there are only a couple of missions that ask you to go super far on horseback, I didn't find it that irritating, but I'm the guy who likes the story element most, so I enjoy hearing the dialogue.

Well, it's a new mine, so it wouldn't have been very deep yet. But yeah, it left me wanting another mission similar, because riding the cart is unexplainable fun. ^_^

And I'm glad you like the game, and can still notice the imperfections. It's a great skill for a reviewer.

Not only that, but your responses to any criticisms have been more than admirable. Kudos. ^_^

Ah, sure we only learn through advice and criticism as long as it's constructive I'll always listen!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

My friend has just got this game and has been flowing with praise for it, But he's only had it 2 days...So im going to hold out buying it. Those niggles are the kinda things that annoy me to the point that i stop playing. Camera issues are to me what a lit match is to gunpowder.

Very well written review though, Im envious of your abilities!

The camera issues are very rare, it only happened in small buildings. Though sometimes the sticky aim can screw you too because the camera will be tracking a wolf that's attacking your horse and you end up shooting the horse...

Thanks for the kind words too.

 

[la-le-lu-li-lo]

Great review buddy!

I'm in love with this game right now, but I think you were fair about the flaws. I probably would have ignored them to babble on about how awesome my horses were. That is one thing I'd add, something about the Tier System for the horses... Otherwise awesome, awesome review.

Yay for RDR!

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Great review buddy!

I'm in love with this game right now, but I think you were fair about the flaws. I probably would have ignored them to babble on about how awesome my horses were. That is one thing I'd add, something about the Tier System for the horses... Otherwise awesome, awesome review.

Yay for RDR!

Why thanks, partner!

Speaking of the horses, I'm doing a second playthrough and have just unlocked the Hungarian Half Bred... what a beauty!

Also: fuck wolves.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

Bumped because I have been playing a little of the multiplayer and wanted you guys to know I won't be doing a review on it as there isn't much to say.

It's standard stuff, good fun with friends but there's a lot of campy play, it's a bit buggy in spots and people with higher level have a huge advantage.

Free roam is a disaster because random people attack you all the time, they should have have made it so that PvP must be agreed on by both players.

Maybe it's just me but it also feels like the games take forever to start.

So yeah, the multi is fun but nothing special. My advice is get it for the single player which is still entertaining me after 35 hours of playtime.

 

[Enigmers]

This is a good review, I think. What I like is that you went over the flaws, which I've never seen any other review do. I now see that there aren't really any flaws that'd turn me off the game, so I'll probably buy it.

Run on sentence, plus a lack of originality and seriousness....

I have no idea what 'Run on sentence' means, as somewhat ironically your grammar seems to be kind of all over the place.

A run-on sentence is one that crams multiple trains of thought into one sentence kind of like this one where at any moment I could tell you a story about this one time my friend Keith tried to deep-fry a chicken and he had third-degree burns on 90% of his body by the way have you noticed this is all one sentence that's what a run-on sentence is.