Awesome moments in Red Dead Redemption

For those of you who have been sitting under a rock (or those non-gamers, if those people even EXIST!), Red Dead Redemption is a wonderful video game that takes place in the Old West. The gameplay is riveting, tweaking the Grand Theft Auto style just enough to completely enhance the graphics and add a bunch of little touches that make the game that much more enjoyable (and this is coming from a big Grand Theft fan).

One of the things I love about Red Dead, as well as the Grand Theft series, is the little touches that Rockstar puts into the game. Little bits of atmosphere that indicate that anything can happen in this world. Sometimes it's just something in the background, cool enough that you just stop playing and let it all wash over you. Other times, something happens during an action sequence that just makes you laugh.

I've been playing this game a grand total of about 11 hours now, and I've still only completed about 33% of it. So a lot more things can happen as well.

But here are the best so far:

1) My Randy Johnson Moment

Going on a bounty hunt, I had just captured one of the worst outlaws in all of the West (aren't they all, or at least don't they think they are?). I had him on the back of my horse and was riding frantically toward the town of Armadillo to collect my reward, but the guy's fellow gang members were chasing me. I turned around in my saddle, targeted the first guy who was right on my horse's butt, and pulled the trigger.

Unfortunately, a bird flew right between us and it splattered into a red mist with feathers.

I had to do a double-take before shooting the guy again, and I almost burst out laughing.

I did successfully get to Armadillo, thank you very much.

2) The "Dastardly" Achievement

All Xbox 360 games have "achievements" that you can unlock for gamerscore points. (You can see my current gamerscore here)





Some games have secret achievements, either because publicizing them would be story spoilers or just because they want you to be able to stumble onto them.

I saw a video on the Xbox 360 dashboard that described this achievement, so I thought I'd try it out. Hey, it's an easy 5 points!

SPOILERS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW ABOUT ANY SECRET ACHIEVEMENTS.


Basically, you get this achievement by hogtying a woman with your lasso, carrying her to a train track, and letting her get obliterated by a train. The train is moving around the gameworld, so you may have to wait a bit. When the train comes, SPLAT! And you get the 5 points.

Yes, in the real world that's not funny at all, but it's a nice homage to those old Dudley Do-Rite cartoons or other old movies where the woman gets tied to the train tracks and our intrepid hero whisks in to save her at the last minute.

Red Dead Redemption turns that on its ear. What's even funnier is that I did it right at the train station in Armadillo. Townspeople were just wandering around, completely ignoring this hogtied woman who is lying on the railroad tracks. I had upped my "Honor" level to the point where the Law wasn't going to come after me for anything short of shooting an innocent, so I guess they might not be so understanding if you haven't achieved that level yet.

What's even more intriguing is that, since this is a "secret" achievement, you would just have to stumble upon this by doing something really dastardly just for the purpose of doing it.

Now *that's* sick.

END OF SPOILERS FOR SECRET ACHIEVEMENT


3) Horse Thief!

If you ride around the countryside, you will stumble upon random events like somebody asking you to save their wrongfully-accused wife from a hanging or a lawman who has allowed two felons to escape.

Another one is a guy who will ask you for a ride. If you just trot up next to him, he'll pull you off your horse, jump on it, and take off. If you get down to talk to him, he'll jump up on your horse and take off. Usually you just line him up and shoot him. Maybe you get a little bit of fame or something? I don't remember.

Anyway, now you know that whenever any guy in the wilderness asks you for a ride, it's going to end like this. So I've taken to just shooting him as soon as he asks. The game obviously knows he's a bad dude, so you don't get any murder charges against you for shooting him, even though he hasn't technically done anything yet.

4) Playing Poker, Liar's Dice, Blackjack or Horseshoes

In what other game could you spend hours doing nothing that will advance the game at all? Yeah, you can make money on these games, which will help you get through the world, but doing missions and other tasks will net you lots of money, so you don't *have* to play these games. Yet I sit there for hours playing them. They're really a lot of fun, though the "table talk" amongst all of the players gets old after a while, as there isn't that much variety.

5) Missing a Horse? Just Give a Whistle

When the game was first announced, many people called it "Grand Theft Horse" because of its lineage, and you can just choose a horse and mount up (though if you do it in the wrong place, its owner *will* shoot at you). However, there's no need to steal a horse in this game. All you have to do is whistle and your faithful steed will appear in the distance and come galloping to you. Lose your horse to one of those damned cougars? (Seriously, I'm getting sick of cougars) Just wait a bit and give a whistle. Another one appears!

Of course, this is just a basic horse, and if you managed to get a better one, then make sure it stays alive. It's almost heart-breaking when the horse you've spent so much time with gets felled. And its replacement will be just a basic one.

6) Funny character actions

I was storming a gang hideout in Tumbleweed with one the Marshal in Armadillo. I got behind the same cover he did and moved to peek out from cover and shoot. Somehow, I didn't get out far enough and shot him in the hat (not the head). He just turned and stared at me for the longest time, not even bothering to shoot at the bad guys. I don't think he ended up doing anything until I had run forward to other cover. I thought he was going to shoot *me* for a moment!

I'm sure there's lots more to experience, and the rest of the game is very cool too. There's way too much to include all the great stuff, so I wanted to include some stuff that other people don't always talk about.

These are just some of the little things about Red Dead Redemption that make a very good game even greater.