Hold your horses, folks! For the longest time, one of Rockstar Games’ finest (which is saying a lot given how they’re basically one of the most untouchable in gaming), Red Dead Redemption has been stuck to only being playable on the Xbox 360 and PS3. At long last, we get to experience John Marston’s story in increased FPS and resolution, 14 years after its release. It’s a game that has a well-known and storied reputation already. This Red Dead Redemption PC review is merely just a formality. One of the best games from the 7th generation of consoles still holds up in majestic form today.
This is the type of game that even more than a decade after its release, is still being talked about. Its sequel, and prequel story, Red Dead Redemption 2 is definitively one of the best and most impressive games ever made. Now, PC players can revisit the continuation of Rockstar Games’ magnificent world in a brand-new polished light while at the same time, a whole new generation is being introduced to the title that started it all.
Don’t worry, this is not whatever mess the GTA Definitive Trilogy was a few years ago. Double Eleven did a fantastic job in bringing the masterpiece in a platform that has long deserved it.
Get on, cowboy. We goin’ outlaw-ing
Red Dead Redemption is the ultimate Wild West experience. Before the technical marvel that was the sequel, I was booting up the dusty ol’ Xbox 360 and hopping on my horse, running around in North America in a time when the age of outlaws and gunslingers were coming to an end. The world that Rockstar has managed to create back then was truly something else.
If by some miracle, you haven’t heard about John Marston’s story or how it plays out, consider yourself one of the luckiest players in the world. This is one of the best narrative experiences you can have in gaming. The mysterious beginning of being tasked to hunt down your former brother-in-arms, the gradual revelation of motivations and the discovery of new allies, and the character development of not only the protagonist but everyone else around him is truly world-class.
I owe it to you to not mention anything more beyond that. Say what you will about Red Dead Redemption, but you will never convince me that this is not a story that is worth experiencing from start to end.
Everything you know and love about the Wild West is here. The main missions still have the special Rockstar Games touch to them wherein you can do the most mundane of acts such as herding cows or riding with someone to pick up a package but what elevates it is the phenomenal writing and development that is being done in tandem. The script of Red Dead Redemption does not waste any of its words and pages. There’s always something interesting to pick up whether it be a main dialogue in a cutscene or a random NPC having a conversation about what’s going on in the world.
Fourteen years later, the details still beat out a lot of what modern open-world games attempt to do today. The lively wildlife, the numerous interiors such as shops and saloons you can enter, and the random encounters you can stumble upon such as people in need of help or drunken gunslingers who want to challenge you to a duel. Pick your favorite cowboy story or movie and chances are, you’ll find bits and pieces of them integrated into the experience of Red Dead Redemption.
The gameplay is basically the same as before. The way horses are animated and controlled is the second best in gaming history, only being beaten out by Red Dead Redemption 2. Combat is your standard sticky cover shooter. And John Marston’s movement physics still holds the signature Rockstar Games realistic weight to a human that I believe no other developer has ever achieved with a 3rd person game.
What’s interesting about this version in particular is in how it controls in mouse and keyboard. While standard movement and combat feels fantastic, as one would expect with aiming with a mouse, I can’t say the same with how horses are controlled. They feel a bit stiff and awkward when using a keyboard, especially in missions where it requires you to have little to no mistakes in terms of your speed or following the trail. I never really got used to it so at some point, I just went back to using a controller full-time.
And just to add a cherry on top, the package also comes with one of the best alternative reality DLCs in gaming, Undead Nightmare. This is what I consider to be the perfect palette cleanser after completing the main game.
Red Dead Redemption PC Review Final Verdict – 9/10
There’s just something so special about seeing Red Dead Redemption run in more than 30 FPS and up to native 4K resolution. Given how much success Red Dead Redemption 2 has found on the PC platform, it was a no brainer that the original had to make its way here.
It’s just unfortunate that it didn’t receive the Naughty Dog treatment of bringing the original game into the latest engine. I can’t imagine what it would be like to experience the first Red Dead Redemption with 2’s visuals. But as it stands right now, even though it’s just a simple port, I’ll take all that I can get.
The game runs buttery smooth on Ultra settings. Red Dead Redemption on PC feels like its exactly where it was meant to be all along.
This review was made using a game code for the PC provided by the publisher.