Drop Red Dead Gorgeous
Every Grand Theft Auto protagonist wants something, which gives the game a reason to exist. They want something they can’t really achieve on their own, which gives them a reason to do favors (“missions”) for other characters. And they have a background that perfectly balances likability with a willingness to totally shoot people who sorta have it coming.
While I was playing Red Dead Redemption, which is a Grand Theft Auto game, the functional nature of the protagonist started to really stick out. We’re told that John Marston is a former outlaw trying to leave his violent past behind, not at all like Niko Bellick from GTA4. The government has kidnapped his family, and to get them back he has to hunt down some of his former G’s. Then he spends the entire game doing gun-oriented favors for whoever asks.
It starts to get a little weird that Marston not only doesn’t work alone but has almost no power in his interactions. He sometimes yells at people who let him down, but he still has to do whatever they say or he can’t accomplish his goals. He knows it, they know it, the game writers know it, and you the player know it. It’s interestingly meta, I guess, but it strains the story/game connection that GTA games try to establish.
There are some other aspects of the game that are starting to feel a bit vestigial. You can buy houses in various towns throughout the game world, and the primary benefit is that you can save your game there. However, the game saves automatically after you do anything significant, so save points aren’t much of a reward. RDR is a bit light on rewards, though — despite my side-mission-completing instinct, I eventually decided it wasn’t worth it to spend time picking flowers. (Which gives you points on the Fame meter. Really? “Did you hear about John Marston? He picked some desert sage. Five pieces, they say.”)
So RDR feels a bit padded, but honestly, it gets some of the basics very right. Riding a horse is fun, and I often rode to destinations when I could’ve gone to a stagecoach or camp and just hit a button to skip right there. It’s fun to shoot dudes, and some of the game missions have really exciting set pieces and tense shootouts. The story may hold the game back in some ways, but it also has a point beyond just giving you guys to shoot. The GTA formula has always been flawed in a lot of ways, but every time they iterate on it, it gets noticeably better. Also, in this one you can play poker.
