Red Dead Redemption has been out long enough now that I don’t think a full review is needed. Everyone should have heard by now that RDR is a great game.  I’ve never played a GTA game so I’m not use to Rockstar’s open world game play but I am generally familiar with them given their general popularity. That said the sheer size and scope of RDR caught me be surprised.  There are literally dozens of things to do and see in the game. I think my saved game by the time I was done was around 35 hours. That is RPG length for a game where you don’t do much leveling or upgrades.  Yes, there are a few things you level up like your dead eye (aka. bullet time) and some better weapons to buy, but mostly you can do everything after you make it through the the beginning tutorial missions. I really liked this format because I was never punished for going to areas of the world that the main story mission had not gotten to yet.

The main story was a lot of fun to play through even though the character did not always make the exact same choices I would have in the things that were said and done, but given the situation the main character was in nothing actually felt out of place.  I liked how the main story progressed and the overall length of it.  However, it is the side missions that can suck your time. I would start off heading towards a main story mission and get side tracked by hunting doing side missions.  In some games there kinds of distractions would have been frustrating but I always enjoyed my time playing RDR.  Even when I was just riding around hunting or goofing off. The single player has been an absolute blast and I look forward to any single player DLC (or a sequel).

I have not played much multiplayer in RDR but I have played through the co-op missions with some friends and had a blast with them. We finished all 6 of them in one sitting on the normal difficulty and then wrapped up advanced mode the next time we played. So, not a lot of length in them but they were a fun few hours.

Overall I would recommend playing RDR. I had a lot of fun with and I don’t know anyone who has played it that did not like it.  Just be prepared for a lengthy single player campaign.