Red Dead Redemption

Red Dead Redemption. Ridiculously overpriced at full price; though on sale the price is a bit more digestable. I played and finished Red Dead Redemption 2 (RDR2) before beginning RDR. I mean, I knew RDR's basic ending. And I knew the characters. But I owned RDR on PS3, and I couldn't deal with the horrible loading times and thus I lost interest. Playing it again after all these years reminds me of why I lost interest. RDR is essence is a beautiful albeit barebones game. Yes, there is an open world - and it is beautiful. But there is little incentive to explore here: the sidequests are basic, there's no tangible reward to the mini-games, and there's no reason to go visit any shop and buy gear. RDR doesn't play like an RPG. You don't need to get better weapons to kill things faster. You can practically finish the game with your starting equipment. And that's fine. I'm not expecting it to play like an RPG. But compare this with RDR2's open world - where there's always something to explore, and money was an actual concern, and there's always gear to buy and equip (even if it's just dressing Arthur in different colours and styles). And yes, RDR2 had the benefit of better technology. And I know it isn't a fair comparison. I'm just tempering the expectations here. Think of RDR1's world as...closer to GTA San Andreas. Or perhaps Bully. I certainly feel like GTAIV's world had more stuff to do in it. But y'know. Rose-tinted glasses and all. Now, there is one thing that RDR lands. It's the main narrative. The dialogue here is abit...amatuer-ish, but RDR's main storyline is fantastic. It's enough to forgive the emptiness of the world; all that extra content is fluff anyway as I'm rushing from one mission to the next to unfurl this story. Don't expect the missions to be anything more interesting than drive here and shoot/do something, but honestly it's the context in which these things occur that make it worth my while. I do like this game. Is it better than RDR2? Not by a long shot. RDR2 blows everything here out of the water IMO, and its the story feels closer to a prestige limited series. It is a meandering, melancholic affair. This is a much more direct story, closer to a Western Movie. It's also a bit cynical, I feel like at the end of the day I just shoot my way out of things despite the story being about good and evil and trying to be better. John being a man unable to escape his violent ways and all. Well whatever. With a runtime of 40 hours to complete the main story, well I'm certain to be entertained a bit more.