Difficulty:

Just Right

Time Spent:

20 to 40 Hours

The Bottom Line:

"Immersive"

A rich, enjoyable free roam action adventure, with a tense and very satisfactory story. As John Maston, a former outlaw, you are sent by the Government to hunt down and kill your former gang members. It is set during the start of the industrial age for the Western Border, 1911. This adventure leads you from New Austin, the wild west of America, to Mexico, to the Great Plains and snowy mountains. Marston is a gunslinger, so when you're not travelling on your horse, you will be popping in and out from cover shooting bandits, wanted gangs, and many enemies that cross your path. This is definitely action and adventure at it's finest.

As you progress in the game you gain new weapons and access to new territories. Marston starts out in New Austin, where it will feel comfortably like a cIassic western, he will be greeted by the southern accents, the dry grass and the saloons. When you leave for Mexico, it feels like a different game, the landscape is different, with potholes and canyons all over the state, and almost everyone speaks with a Spanish accent, if they speak English at all.

Throughout the game you will need to journey with Marshalls, Bandits, Rebels, The Mexican and American Army – you name it. There is an abundance of objectives to do, or so it will seem when you start out in New Austin. The player can choose to do main missions, which helps Marston progress in the story and will take you to new places. They can choose to help out strangers who will ask you to do a side quest for them, or to simply protect them from bandits. The player can opt to guard ranches and settlements as a night watcher, go hunting animals, duel other gunslingers, take up bounties and track down wanted criminals. You can even clear out gang hideouts and complete challenges involving picking flowers or shooting birds out of the sky.

Most of the amusement of the side quests wear off after a less considerable amount of hours, and the player will be more inclined to complete the story, unless they want to unlock many of the outfits Marston is presented.

There are thirteen outfits offered on both consoles, a fourteenth is accessible if you create a Rockstar Account and join the Social Club, a fifteenth if you bought the game on the Playstation 3 System, and a sixteenth if you pre-ordered the game. Some outfits grant Marston special abilities or let local bandits or the law treat you as one of your own, until you turn aggressive. Each outfit requires you to complete a task, or multiple tasks. Gang outfits will require the player to find around six different scraps. They are located or found, even sometimes without notice, by clearing gang hideouts, completing mini-games in a certain location, bringing back a bounty alive, and so on. Some outfits require you finishing a certain main mission or are simply given to you as a souvenir.

Each objective, ranging from minor to major, will grant you money, fame and honour. With money you will be able to purchase weapons, houses, ammo, and will also be able to bribe law officials, pay off a bounty on your head, or have a stage coach driver take you somewhere in the land. As Marston gains more fame, strangers will intercept you more often, and ask for help. The law will be more lenient to your crimes if you are well-known amongst the people. The NPCs will also react with you more, calling you by your name, even if you haven't met them before. Honour will increase or decrease, depending on what the player's actions are. If Marston is given the choice of killing and robbing an innocent beggar or giving them some money, the honour will rise or fall accordingly. If you are well known for being evil, prices will be lower in stores because the owners fear you, but if you are well known for being good, prices will be lower still, but only because they believe you are a great man.

Being dishonourable and honourable will change a few in-game elements, but nothing in the story will change. As a wild gunslinger, doing all of these objectives, the player has the advantage over enemy NPCs by using Dead Eye. This is triggered by pushing in the right analogue stick, and slows down time and enables the player to choose who to shoot during this short burst, which can help strongly help if Marston is in a tight situation. There are three levels to dead eye, which are unlocked the further you progress in the story, and are a crucial component if you are being gunned down by a group of enemies. The second and third stages of Dead Eye will allow Marston to pain targets on the enemies, giving him the opportunity to shoot down multiple enemies.

There is a vast array of weapons to use, ranging from fire bottles and dynamite, to pistols and revolvers, to sniper rifles and repeaters, to shotguns, knives and even a lasso. Each weapon has its strength and weakness, both of which are represented by a chart that is accessed in the menu.

Throughout many missions you will be shooting away at enemies and hiding behind cover. If Marston is hit, a short time beneath cover will get him back up to speed. Moving in between cover feels smooth, and you can always count on it. There are different difficulties for aiming, ranging from casual which will lock onto a target, to expert, which will force the player to aim themself. If there isn't a gunfight, Marston is on his horse, riding from destination to destination. Of course there are other alternatives to travel, including coaches and trains, but riding horseback is by far the most enjoyable.

The controls of the horse will feel very unresponsive at first, which requires the player to get used to them, but after a few hours of playing it will feel familiar and is easy to get the hang of. If you are being chased on a horse you can draw your weapon and shoot just as easy as on foot.

The atmosphere of the overall game is breathtaking and the landscape is beautiful. The buildings are authentic and the whole world's visuals are spectacular. The character models themselves can be good at times, but there is also a high chance of there being an almost-broken visual, which might include a jittery character in the background or an indefinite pop-up in the landscape. Despite these visual bugs, there is nothing completely broken about them, given this is a massively open free roam adventure with no loading times between areas, unless you are starting a mission. There will also be the occasional freeze, and a few frame rate issues if there is a lot going on, but give it time and it will fix itself. No bug in this game is game-ruining, unless there is dust in the console.

Autosave is enabled, but if you want to save it manually, houses are available to rest in, and will also put the in-game clock 6 hours forward. The game itself has a full 24-hour cycle, complete with rain and sunshine.

The sounds are tremendously good, from the animals to the characters, the voice work is superb and the characters are very easy to grow attached to. The game is emotional at times, but overall it's an action packed experience that will leave you wanting more.

This desire for more will lead you into the multiplayer, which hasn't been fully developed in the sense that it doesn't have an emotional narrative, such as the single player, and it is quite empty after all is said and done. The multiplayer will put you straight into free roam where you can clear gang hideouts or do challenges, similar to the ones in single player. Everything you do will give you experience points which will level up the player's character and will earn them new weapons, mounts and skins. You can jump into a match, such as Hold Your Own, Capture the Bag, and various shootouts at any time. Join a posse in free roam and tackle anything you want with up to eight other players. There is also a co-op mode that was delivered in a free DLC pack that includes six missions ripped from the single player, playable with up to four players. This co-op mode, while short and small, gives a tactical element because of the cIass specific abilities, of which you chose before you start the mission. The multiplayer should be more fleshed out after the new DLC packs are out.

Overall this is a very enjoyable game with a well presented and very emotional narrative and wholesome gameplay that will keep someone going for more than twenty hours, at least, in the single player alone, and a few more in online multiplayer. It has its glitches and bugs, but considering the vast open world and variety in mission structure and objectives, then all is forgiven. Here lays a pure experience that is sure to entertain hardcore and casual gamers alike, and has the elements and potential to be the game of the year.

I haven't covered everything in this review, because there is just so much more to the story, and you will need to experience it yourself if you want to understand.

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Story: 5/5

Presentation: 5/5

Gameplay: 5/5

Multiplayer: 3/5

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Overall: 9.5/10 (Not an average)