High Noon: Red Dead Redemption PAX Demo

Rockstar Games seemed pretty busy this weekend presenting their new Beaterator game as well as Chinatown Wars for PSP and the Ballad of Gay Tony for consoles. But, unbeknownst to most PAX-goers, the folks at Rockstar held a top-secret demo of their new grand Western title, Red Dead Redemption. Scheduled for release (hopefully) in 2010, the game has been touted as Grand Theft Auto in the Old West; surprisingly, that might not be giving Redemption quite the credit it deserves.

Filing into the dark interior of the booth, we sat down and enjoyed a glimpse at an early build of the game, or more specifically a hostage hand-off mission that was sure to go horribly awry. The first thing I noticed was just how detailed the game was, from the shiny pistol at the protagonist’s side to the desert cliff walls looming overhead. John Marston’s clothing and equipment will be customizable, reflecting whatever strengths the player decides to play to. More importantly, what you see is what you get as Marston will pull weapons and ammo from his character model as opposed to out of thin air.

As your sizeable posse entered town, gunshots rang out (Ambush!) and the staffer playing the demo triggered Redemption’s bullet time mechanic, washing the scenery in a white hue and allowing the player to take stock of the situation and target enemies accordingly. After taking out two pistol wielding enemies, the effect wore off and things started moving at breakneck pace as Marston slid into cover and pulled out his rifle. It was time to get all Clint Eastwood on these back country losers.

Sighting on an enemy sniper in the bell tower, the Rockstar staffer fired off a few shots, nicking the target’s knees before scoring a chest shot. Now that the way into town was clear, the former outlaw began carefully making his way down Main Street, taking out bandits in the saloon and sighting on the next big issue; an innocent female hostage about to be hung from gallows. As she was sent dangling, NPC’s started scrambling to rescue her, while Marston calmly took aim and blew the remaining guards away before taking out a bowie knife and cutting the damsel down (which resulted in a jarring yet humorous glitch. Hurray for early builds!).

Now it was time for everyone to take a collective breath, as a development team member explained Redemption’s amazing environmental system. Already, vultures had started circling overhead and a couple were descending to pick away at the dead. The game will have a living breathing ecosystem, with larger animals feeding off smaller prey and forming a pretty convincing (not to mention randomized) circle of life. You slaughter a town, you’ll see flocks of carrions picking apart the dead until only bones remain. With his bloody work done, Marston whistled for his horse, and we began the “driving” section of the game, and got our first look at just how large the world of Redemption really is.

At the top of the hill we could see high mountains sizzling in the distance, while sand blasted plateaus lay on the horizon. We were told that the world of Redemption was roughly twice as big as San Andreas, and that you could go pretty much anywhere utilizing horses or the long distance rail system. Encounters over the plains are randomly generated, as evidenced by our unfortunate hit and run with a rogue wolf and a slew of bandits trying to shake us down for money. You can choose to react to situations in different ways, robbing stagecoaches or saving young virgins from the clutches of outlaws. Then again, you can always kill the bandits and just steal her stuff, that’s the dark beauty of a Rockstar game.

Our demo ended with Martson riding into a small non-descript town, and the Rockstar boys demonstrated the Wanted system in Redemption. Shooting down an NPC who for some reason was standing on the roof of the jail, a wanted poster flashed on the screen alerting players that Marston was wanted for murder and should be brought in Dead or Alive for around $100. Soon women and children ran inside their homes as the men of the town came out toting six-shooters. A gun battle ensued, and Martson was unfortunately overwhelmed by superior numbers, even though he took down a couple of settlers with him.

As a fan of Western’s I cannot wait for this title to come out. As a fan of awesome video games I can’t wait for this title to come out. This was one of the prettiest games on the floor at PAX and its gun-fighting mechanics look like they play in true spaghetti western style. I can’t wait to put myself in Martson’s intimidating cowboy boots and make my way through the Old West, but whether I’m a saint or a sinner I’m sure it will be one hell of a ride.