Personal Rating: 9.5/10
Price: Released as $60 USD. May change over time
ESRB: Rated M for Mature (Blood, Intense Violence, Nudity, Strong Language, Strong Sexual Content, and Use of Drugs).
Genre: Third person action/shooter
Availability: Xbox360 and PS3
I have been waiting for a good western game for quite some time. This is it.
I played Red Dead Revolver, and loved it, so when this game was announced I was really happy. There have been major changes since the first game, and they are positive.
First of all, you do not need to play the first game to know anything about the second. It's a new character (although they look similar). His name is John Marston and he is a former outlaw looking to make his life better. He was shot and left to die by his gang, and that's when he leaves. Through the whole game you help the law (and many others) to get clues on where Williamson, Escuella, and Dutch (all former gang members) are at to put them away. For the sake of not spoiling anything, I will not be telling you what happens in each search of those characters.
The game starts and you are going to talk to Bill Williamson. You try to talk to him to stop running from the law, he gets upset, and you get shot. A nice lady, Bonnie MacFarlane finds you, and fixes you up. The starting missions are at here ranch herding, and doing other typical rancher activities. This gives you a feel for the game and really sets up the story.
Let's move on past the story and on to, what I think is, the more exciting features.
I will start with first-player. Hunting, robbing, riding, skinning, and gambling. That list is about 1/10 of what you can do for fun in the game. The hunting system was pulled off. You can kill anything that breathes, and then skin it later for profit. Riding is referring to riding on your horse through the plains. It is really fun to explore every area. Gambling is referring to poker, liars dice, and blackjack. There are plenty of games you can play for money.
There are also 'Random Events'. These events come up...well...randomly. If you are not in a mission, but are riding through a area, people will ask you for help because of stolen horses, thieves, challenges, and all sorts of fun things. This effects your fame and honor (see next paragraph for the fame and honor information). You get small amounts of money, but honestly, it's for the fame and honor.
Honor/Fame system: Really cool to be honest. I will start with the fame system. As you do missions and random events your fame will go up (it can not go down). This will make you more recognizable and people will ask you for help more often. The honor system starts in the middle and go up or down. It is kind of like karma. You do good, it goes up, you do bad, it goes down. This is your choice throughout the game. The combination of fame and honor can make you less watched by the law, and give you discounts in stores.
There is too much to say for the single player portion. Several unlockables are available that would take too much time to go through. I will wrap this section up by saying that there are plenty of weapons, missions (57), people to meet, and locations to keep you occupied.
Now for the online play.
I was slightly disappointed. This is the only reason the game didn't score a 10.
It is basically half free-roam and half games (free for all, forms of death match, etc). The free-roam is kind of the main chat room, but there is plenty to do. You can shoot up towns, hunt, or take out gangs in their hideouts. If you get bored then you can start playing in a game mode like free for all. It's fun after you beat the campaign. The reason I was disappointed was the lack of co-op activities. I wanted to see some sort of mission system, but there was none. They have announced a co-op pack DLC so I will review that when it comes out as well.
Overall: Great game, I personally recommend it. It is NOT GTA in the West as some people claim. There are plenty of features that are different to make it a new game.
Thanks for reading another review,
Frank
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