Onto the nearby town, and Rockstar officials were keen to show off the bustling nature of a daytime Wild West market, where each NPC has their own schedule and where I saw the Sheriff paste up a Wanted poster. In ripping the poster off the wall, you accept the optional mission and get a marker on your map declaring the outlaw’s last known location. You can catch criminals with your lasso and carry them back to the town to claim your reward, and the action set piece is all a bit
The Good, Bad and the Ugly.
Your map also comes in handy with regard to Treasure maps, which you can find on dead guys or get handed as rewards for Wanted missions. Rather than a classic ‘X Marks The Spot’ deal, these maps provide specific visual clues to the treasure by featuring images of peculiar landmarks or actions you need to perform. In a 3D game, these sorts of bonus maps work out a hell of a lot better than your 2D ones.
Back in the market town I’m told - although not shown - that there are other areas that Marston can go to which can pass the time, with activities such as rounds of Poker and Blackjack in the Cantina or protecting ladies from leery old men at a knees-up party. At times, you’ll see protests taking place by revolutionists, which are quickly dealt with by law officers. I saw Marston put on a bandana and back up the public protest by killing the local enforcement, which gave him a pretty hefty Wanted bounty.
When you’re a Wanted man you’ll see your bounty in the corner of the screen, and the longer you escape capture or do even more outrageous things, the higher it will go and the more difficult your life will be. Hold-ups and draw challenges will be more common and word will start to spread about your required capture.
To escape this fate, you need to either pay off your bounty by wiring money to the town, or obtain a pardon somehow. Marston came across an outlaw’s hideout, the inhabitants of which had kidnapped a number of officers and Marston was asked to help out. Once he busted in and took out all manner of dirty yellow-bellied devils, a pardon was granted by one of the surviving lawmen.
During this sequence, I saw the revamped Dead Eye mode in action. Dead Eye mode was a function where you could slow down time and pinpoint targets more accurately. In
Redemption this has been improved to accommodate different uses for different weapons, as well as to be more efficient in its execution. When an outlaw has a law officer at gunpoint, you can use the Dead Eye mode to take him out without hitting the hostage.
Once the day was done and Marston set up a new campsite to rest, I was quickly shown one of the major missions in the game’s story, where your bad Wild West self gets down with a chap called Abraham Reyes. He’s the leader of all of these rebellions that are happening in the country, and his scheme involves capturing a fort and securing it. You know, for the revolution!
It was a great showcase of the madcap action to be found in
Red Dead Redemption, with tens of armed lawmakers gunning at you as you try to breach the top of the fort, with shrapnel flying everywhere and gunpowder barrels making enemies fly all over the place.
I came away with a good impression of where Rockstar wants to take this game - it’s had its fun in humouring the Wild West in
Red Dead Revolver, and now it wants to make a definitive, playable Spaghetti Western of its own. If the studio can keep the same level of action consistent throughout the game world and storyline, we could be in for another open-world hit in 2010.
