For a non-western fan, I simply love it, why? For everything you can possibly imagine!!! Simply superb.
The time period seemed uninteresting and full of outlaws and simple sheriff on bandit slaughter wars. How wrong I was.
Red dead: Redemption is without a doubt, one of the top 10 games that will be released in 2010. I cannot begin to emphasise how amazing and involving it actually is.
For a start, the characters. There are some really amusing, brutal and loving characters in this game, some you want to save, some you get annoyed with and want to kill, and some who just seem too cool to even be mentioned in such a way. The Welshman, The Frenchman and The Irishman are a great start. They are highly laughable and well, maybe show their countries off in a negative manner, but we love it all the same! The sheriff is what you would call "badass" and the Mexicans have some pretty decent looks and armoury is all I can say.
The combat is involving and fast-paced and as I found out the hard way, you can die a lot if you are not careful and decide to be an outlaw. Mounted combat is also a big advantage and using your environment as a shield while you move out when necessary to shoot your foes is rather fun. Dead Aim is also another nifty feature, slowing down time, with a X appearing to different parts of the body as you move the cross eye, then releasing an array of bullets and possibly blowing their head off is always satisfying after a long fight.
The Multiplayer aspect is a bit linear, but you can get fun out of it by doing missions or by attacking all the dots that are your foes on the map. You can collect a lot of costumes or "characters" skins as they are called. You can also gain access to more weapons as you level up, this also applies to mounts.
The graphics and the music are extraordinary and are simply eye candy, but we all love some eye candy on top of the rest.
As well as story missions, you may also find some side missions as you ride over the barren deserts, icy forests and red canyons. People begging for help or asking for a favour in exchange for heavy bags of gold. This will extend your playtime I can tell you. Also, I find if you stay on the main road, and have a load of bullets, it is nice to stay for a minute, and wait for wagons and riders to pass and kill them in any fun way you can, you can stack up heavy corpse piles and block the road. It makes an alternative to questing constantly. Be warned though, in certain areas a sheriff may make you WANTED after doing this.
As always, cowboy, I would recommend a rental before a purchase. It is definitely Grand Theft Auto (playing the good guy though) in a western setting. if you do not like it after rental, do not buy it. If you love it, keep it. As a non-western fan, I have enjoyed it a lot.