We turned the corner only to find 6 guys coming towards us, queue the moment to engage the classic Red Dead bullet time which slows time down (not stops it) and gives you the time to mark a couple of guys to take down as you exit bullet time.

We take down a couple more guys including a bad priest and then it’s all over. The law is so happy that we are granted a pardon which we then need to take over to the telegraph office to get our wanted level sorted out… but why not rather just hang onto it until our level is really high instead?

To end the preview we get to partake in a real story mission where our job is to join forces with the local militia to take over a fort and destroy it’s ammo cache the only problem being that it’s fortified so we load up our trusty cart with explosives and head off down the hill to pay our respects.

Just before we reach the gates we dive out of the cart and watch the gates disintegrate with the power of TNT before dusting ourselves off and storming the fortress with the rest of the militia. What follows next is some awesome crammed fighting with a few pot shots and the obligatory piles of ammo lying around livening things up.

We race up the rickety staircase to get the higher ground advantage and start picking people off. Next we peel off into a side room and a cut scene begins. Unfortunately the scene was cut short to avoid any spoilers but the graphics in those few seconds was breathtaking, I cannot wait to see some longer scenes to see if the quality carries through.

After that we destroy the rest of the ammo cache and are then told to defend the door against the oncoming horde of soldiers, we race up the stairs to a turreted cannon. As the soldiers round the corner we start taking them out, the easiest way to stop the carriages piled full of soldiers is to take the horses out first and then pick off the stragglers as they gather themselves. It may not be PETA endorsed but it’s mighty effective.

A couple more shots and the carriage is blown into teeny tiny toothpicks and the majority of soldiers are taken care off… we wander down to the centre of the fort to clean up the rest of the mess and complete the mission.

Summary

Every 5 page epic needs a summary and here is ours,

if you are a GTA fan you have to buy this game, there were some concerns that you will get bored wandering around a vast empty desert but in reality it’s action packed at virtually every turn and the gameplay mechanic and quality is true GTA’esque… that’s a word isn’t it?

The graphics appear to be better than GTA, the range of weapons appear healthy, the honour and fame system is a unique inclusion that could be great if executed well.

We are going to be experiencing true day/night cycles along with variable weather and random exciting situations and let’s not forget that there appears to be a brothel in every town which will allow us to partake in drinking games and (I am presuming) some under the cover action.

Red Dead Redemption ticks all the boxes and I for one am very interested in seeing how it progresses.