Since Gun and Call of Juarez, there isn't any good western-theme adventure/action games that derives from broken gameplay and bad handling on controls. Games like Call of Juarez had proven to be quite unique due to its dueling feature and a first person view that feels fitting for my tastes towards this genre. When Rockstarannounced Red Dead Redemption - like other Rockstar games, everyone is always hyped for it and pumped because its potential for being the best western-game yet, and the best game of this year. To me, I avoided the trailers, previews and livestreams so I would not be spoiled or derived from anybody's opinions on this game and just wanted to try to play it blind unlike other games. Unfortunately I never preorder games so I ended up with the regular edition and the map of the game - as
 The Intro should be like this!
 The Intro should be like this!
this game's world seems to be the largest seen in a Rockstar game. It's surprising actually to see the open-wordiness of this world and how fun or boring this game could be if you are traveling across this world map. 
 
 
When I boot up the game and downloaded the update, the introduction of this game seems to be a bit boring - at first I thought it would be something awesome like Tombstone or the Good, Bad and the Ugly but you are a lone outlaw, John Marston who's sent to capture or kill former gang members of the government. First, I was met up with a old led at a saloon who asked me to follow him to their hideout by horseback. Now this is where it starts to get ugly or the learning curve is just difficult, the controls for your movement on foot and on horseback seems frustrating, its quite similar to GTA4 and quite annoying because it utilizes those controls that I hated in that game though I hated it more in this game due to the mechanics of keeping the stamina of your horse stable, holding the A button when you're prompted to follow someone or maintain a certain speed. Despite the controls, the handling of the shooting and recycled mechanics like the cover system is quite good, though the reticule of your sights seems too small to see and there isn't a lock-on feature like GTA 4 which makes it a pain to shoot down people on horseback, though when you aim at them, it somewhat follows the target. 
 
 
Back to the story - as you followed the old crook to your objective, he tells you that they are hiding in an abandoned fort that they claimed as their own stronghold and was outnumbered and shot until someone saves you. You then wake up in the town where Bonnie MacFarlane (the person responsible that save you from death) shows you around town and then makes you do night errands - tutorials on shooting on horseback then racing her in a race which has proven to be tedious to me
due to the fact of falling off my horse and the controls. After you can finally roam through New Austin, though Bonnie wants you to travel to Armadillo to buy medicine and to visit Leigh Johnson, the Sheriff on that town as you and her travel on a horse carriage to its destination. Like GTA 4, you get those quirky conversations that Dan Houser is famous for with a western flair to it. Arriving at Armadillo and receiving free medicine from a doctor that had save you, Bonnie left you so that you could talk to the Sheriff and do other activities like bounty hunting, watching movies to buying stuff. I didn't hesitate to start the Sheriff quest as the first mission is to kill or capture some convict that rides to his hideout - arriving there and utilizing the cover mechanics and popping everyone, I succeeded on capturing him and getting some notoriety. Yeah, this game has a moral system, like any other games today, I won't go into detail. 
 
 
After that, I decided to do some roaming in The Frontier - killing bandits ambushing me, raiding and looting them and the hides of animals (ewwww) to doing side missions that linger upon this part of the world. My first one was to rescue someone's daughter in Cholla Springs where bandits had taken hostage of her and it is up to the rancher's father and me to save her. Minutes later with shooting them off the cliffs and using my slow-motion, I managed to save the daughter and was received more good notoriety. Through the course of traveling, I leveled up my survival to level 2, picking up flowers/herbs that heal diseases, starting on a stranger
quest where I need to find a mother's missing son, finishing a bounty to kill someone and having wave after wave of bandits harassing and finding a treasure map that I wish it will point out where the treasure is - there is alot of things that I maybe to invested to for a while. Regardless, I managed to do another Sheriff quest where he and the rest of the deputies got a led on a gang and we had to take them out. The ironic thing is I ventured through that place when it's empty, looting the chests and such and I had to go there again but this time with an army of outlaws against a group of four as we branched off from a fork into their hideout, we managed to finish the mission. I went back to Bonnie's town and save and saw a poker icon where I decided to play. Now, this mini-game is Texas Hold-em and I had never played this game therefore I keep on losing - though I had researched this game and it says that its a game about surviving in a suitable amount of chips and playing it sort of like Big 2. My game with the fine gents of the poker table took about two days, game time - seeing that morning to night transition - and had eliminated two of them but the other two is too hard for me so I decided to quit. 
 
And so after that I traveled a bit, shooting down bandits that raided Armadillo and knifed a dirty bandit that was sexually harassing a prostitute near a saloon.... then saved and stopped playing.