If you want a great story, great characters, and some fun open world shooting this is your game.
I will start things off by saying the John Marston is one of the best characters in recent gaming history. He starts off acting real edgy with a massive chip on his shoulder. Then after he is gunned down just shortly into the beginning of the game his true character really comes out. He is a man that has done plenty wrong in his past. And he feels great regret for it. Despite all of his outlawing and wrong doing from his past he shows good manners toward people that he meets on this journey to redemption. He may have a bit of a short temper with certain "unsavory" characters along the way but he always helps out as best as he can. And all for the sake of getting his family back and living a rancher's life. John Marston is like that guy you might know that has been in prison several times before for many bad things that he has done. But, in realizing his sins he is just trying to be a decent person now as best as he knows how. But for a man like John Marston, troubles from the past almost can't go away without God himself intervening and removing them from him entirely.
So the story just builds off of John's character and his goal. Throughout the game your forced into situation after situation to get favors done for other well remembered characters usually to get a favor back. Everything thing is paced nicely and you feel like your becoming well renown whether you're choosing to be a hero or an outlaw.
I want to go ahead and warn you also about one scene that takes place in Mexico. It's a rather graphic... for lack of a better term, "screw" scene. You can skip this scene, but I just wanted to warn anyone who doesn't like this junk in their games. As far as I can remember this was the only scene in the game like this.
The story is not all that there is to do in Red Dead Redemption also. There are plenty of things to do on the side. I found myself playing poker quit often. And I didn't even know how to play prior to this game. There are bounties to collect and games to be played. There are horses to be broken in and night watch jobs to take on. Usually you are rewarded with cash for completing most of these things. Under certain conditions alternate costumes can be unlocked for Marston to wear.
The game looks great too. Graphics are real sharp and consistent. And the framerate holds up also despite what may be going on in the world at any given time.
The online play of RDR and UN are a lot of fun. RDR does have a leg up over UN because it had the free roam style that became popular with GTAIV. Basically you and some friends, or even random people, can just run around causing havoc around or at each other. You can also select different game modes from within the world here. UN doesn't have a free roam zombie mode, which it needed so desperately, but the endless waves of zombies and multiple game mode help over look this, what should have been an obvious game mode.
Just putting it as a gamer this game is amazing. Hands down one of my all time favorites. I never liked western games, and I never got the chance to play Red Dead Revolver, but this game made me reconsider my opinion. This is an amazing game that, if you haven't played, you must play. And the GOTY edition is the best one to get because it has ALL of the previously released DLC for the original RDR (even the stuff that released like 3 weeks ago) and RDR:UN. For $50 it's a sweet deal for an awesome, awesome game!
The following are my complaints about the game:
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Sometimes my horse disappears after I skin something or pick some flowers.
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I wish the ending had turned out a little different. Despite being an amazing ending as is.
Kudos to Rockstar for making an amazing game that wasn't entirely about sex, drugs, vulgarity, or the theft of personal property. It was about an rather honorable character out for an honorable goal. I loved it @9.5/10!