Coming back to this game after so many years was a nostalgic treat and I was surprised how well certain aspects of this game still held up very well, from the visuals to the gameplay and even to the open world itself, it's definitely one of the better games from the 7th generation and a great "remaster" of a timeless classic. However, there were some drawbacks...
Structurally, Red Dead Redemption falls victim to the age old Rockstar syndrome of occasional repetitive mission/story structure pertaining to doing chores endlessly for different characters. Although not as tedious as certain predecessors such as Bully or the classic GTA trilogy, the age still slightly shows in the game design. As to be expected with a 2010 game, too, there were still a bit of jankiness in some of the gameplay control/mechanics. While the horse mechanics are honestly better and more arcadey than Red Dead Redemption II, there was also a sense of tediousness as well, or maybe just RDR2 spoiling me on the responsiveness specifically of being able to u-turn on horseback without my horse constantly heading straightforward and not even slowing down. But, making up for it is the gunplay, which utilised dead eye a little bit more than the sequel in the sense that it almost feels like an absolute necessity in pretty much every gunfight encounter you'll have, which really was a good thing. A nice, fresh, innovative approach to third person shooters, which felt like it took some inspiration from the Max Payne series.
Narratively, first time around, it's really great. The approach of not knowing anything about John Marston or his past or even the general world really sold the story, it kept things mysterious and often the repetitive mission structure reaped rewards of pieces of knowledge you really wanted to get your hands on to better understand John as a character. First playthroughs without any knowledge of the series prior would really make this game and it really did back when it was fresh. Unfortunately for me, I've already played this game and in specific, I've played the sequel at least three times over. The sense of mystery as you can imagine isn't there for me anymore, I'm not really as awestruck about the story as I used to be, it felt a little bit more hollow than anything. I feel like if you played this series in chronological order, went from RDR2 to RDR1, you probably would not enjoy this game as much. The answers would already be there, so a lot of the twists in the story would have zero weight to them so I really beg anyone NOT to play the sequel first because it will most definitely ruin the experience a little. In any case, there were still some really cool moments and some really funny ones too. John Marston is still a great protagonist and a complete badass, I really enjoyed being able to play as him again.
But, what I loved about this game the most wasn't it's gameplay or the narrative but rather the atmosphere and the world in general. For a 7th generation title, I was surprised just how well the open world still holds up. NPCs reacting to things was something I had become so accustomed to with PS4-PS5 titles that I completely forgot that RDR1 was one of the first games to implement this kind of thing. It feels just like real life, it's really immersive. One moment that really got me was not long after I had cheated and been caught in a poker game, I dueled the guy that caught me and won. Few days later, some random NPC said to me "Good to see you're still in one piece after that poker game" and I was really surprised the NPCs were even able to remember what had happened. I also thought in the right light, the game looks visually stunning for it's time, unless I'm mistaking some remaster magic happening.
Red Dead Redemption is still a solid 7th generation game and I think it'll still hold up well for a few more years to come as it does now. Extremely well aged, especially for first timers to the series and it's really interesting seeing how different certain aspects of both games in the series are and how far it has come since 2010. Definitely play this one first.
Structurally, Red Dead Redemption falls victim to the age old Rockstar syndrome of occasional repetitive mission/story structure pertaining to doing chores endlessly for different characters. Although not as tedious as certain predecessors such as Bully or the classic GTA trilogy, the age still slightly shows in the game design. As to be expected with a 2010 game, too, there were still a bit of jankiness in some of the gameplay control/mechanics. While the horse mechanics are honestly better and more arcadey than Red Dead Redemption II, there was also a sense of tediousness as well, or maybe just RDR2 spoiling me on the responsiveness specifically of being able to u-turn on horseback without my horse constantly heading straightforward and not even slowing down. But, making up for it is the gunplay, which utilised dead eye a little bit more than the sequel in the sense that it almost feels like an absolute necessity in pretty much every gunfight encounter you'll have, which really was a good thing. A nice, fresh, innovative approach to third person shooters, which felt like it took some inspiration from the Max Payne series.
Narratively, first time around, it's really great. The approach of not knowing anything about John Marston or his past or even the general world really sold the story, it kept things mysterious and often the repetitive mission structure reaped rewards of pieces of knowledge you really wanted to get your hands on to better understand John as a character. First playthroughs without any knowledge of the series prior would really make this game and it really did back when it was fresh. Unfortunately for me, I've already played this game and in specific, I've played the sequel at least three times over. The sense of mystery as you can imagine isn't there for me anymore, I'm not really as awestruck about the story as I used to be, it felt a little bit more hollow than anything. I feel like if you played this series in chronological order, went from RDR2 to RDR1, you probably would not enjoy this game as much. The answers would already be there, so a lot of the twists in the story would have zero weight to them so I really beg anyone NOT to play the sequel first because it will most definitely ruin the experience a little. In any case, there were still some really cool moments and some really funny ones too. John Marston is still a great protagonist and a complete badass, I really enjoyed being able to play as him again.
But, what I loved about this game the most wasn't it's gameplay or the narrative but rather the atmosphere and the world in general. For a 7th generation title, I was surprised just how well the open world still holds up. NPCs reacting to things was something I had become so accustomed to with PS4-PS5 titles that I completely forgot that RDR1 was one of the first games to implement this kind of thing. It feels just like real life, it's really immersive. One moment that really got me was not long after I had cheated and been caught in a poker game, I dueled the guy that caught me and won. Few days later, some random NPC said to me "Good to see you're still in one piece after that poker game" and I was really surprised the NPCs were even able to remember what had happened. I also thought in the right light, the game looks visually stunning for it's time, unless I'm mistaking some remaster magic happening.
Red Dead Redemption is still a solid 7th generation game and I think it'll still hold up well for a few more years to come as it does now. Extremely well aged, especially for first timers to the series and it's really interesting seeing how different certain aspects of both games in the series are and how far it has come since 2010. Definitely play this one first.