A game that rightfully deserves its "Game of the Year" title.
-Genuinely funny dialogue, and characters with amusing and unique personalities
-Top notch Rockstar voice acting and facial animation
-Engaging, emotional story with numerous climaxes and an amazing ending
-Realistic and immersive environmental detail (from old Western towns, to the smallest hoof prints on horse trails, to random dialogue from surrounding characters)
-Realistic character and animal actions (e.g. dogs coming to sit next to you and wanting to be petted, people slapping mosquitoes off their neck, etc.)
-Intuitive controls that are easy to learn
-Great variety of satisfying weapons, with great shooting mechanics
-Overall fun achievements
-Numerous fun mini-games (e.g. five finger filet, blackjack, poker, horseshoes, duels, etc.)
-Extremely lengthy campaign, tons of interesting side missions, and many types of random encounters
-Besides the mini-games, many fun types of things to do for excitement (e.g. lassoing/breaking in horses, bounty hunting and hogtying outlaws, etc.)
-Numerous fun challenges (e.g. hunting, sharpshooting, treasure hunting, etc.) to unlock different outfits, each with their own useful benefits
-A lot of mission variety (e.g. from stealth missions with throwing knives, to shootouts and standoffs, to full out assaults with machine guns and trains)
-Once all of the map is unlocked, many different types of environments that add a great change of scenery (barren deserts in the south, grasslands and forests in the east, snowy and mountainous terrain in the north, etc.)
-Great variety of wildlife makes hunting exciting and satisfying
-Numerous types of horse breeds with their unique benefits
-Wildlife sounds and behaviors are extremely realistic, adding to the immersiveness
-Dead eye adds excitement when shooting just about anything that moves
-Some free DLC
Bad:
-Movement is sometimes awkward or difficult in certain situations
-Turning horses around can be cumbersome (but realistic, I suppose)
-Other minor horse annoyances (after a cut-scene, they spawn the wrong way; when whistling and running toward them, they run past you or away from you; sometimes they get stuck in water; sometimes they randomly drop dead; etc.)
-Some long loading times (but expected, due to the current hardware's age in consoles)
-Player character takes too much fall damage
-Some unclear mission objectives in random encounters/stranger missions
-Some cheap deaths (e.g. walking into knee deep water, because you can't swim)
-Some rare, but noticeable technical glitches/bugs (e.g. enemies glitched into rocks, your character getting stuck after certain cut-scenes, bodies disappearing in cut-scenes, etc.)
-Too many packs of wolves that spawn in the wilderness
-Tendency to fail missions objectives when staying behind to loot dead enemies
-Some story-gameplay discontinuities (e.g. clearing a hideout with allies you just defeated in a story mission)
Overall:
Red Dead Redemption, quite simply, is an outstanding game. I knew I was going to enjoy it, due to its favorable reviews, and my attraction to Rockstar games. Not surprisingly, it was everything I expected it to be. Engaging gameplay, an emotional story, unique characters, and an immersive environment definitely earned this game its Game of the Year title. With so much to do, there's really no place to start describing what the game has to offer. The story and characters were intriguing, entertaining, and memorable, and their funny dialogue made me actually laugh out loud countless times. The gameplay was fun and enjoyable with varied missions that never got old. Everything outside the main story missions (challenged, side quests, random encounters, mini-games, etc.) were just as enjoyable, and left me with a sense of accomplishment. The realistic wildlife and varied environments only immersed me more into the game. All of this combined resulted in a magnificent gameplay experience. There were some technical bugs and glitches, as well as some minor annoyances, but none of this drew away too much from the great experience I had playing this game. I would recommend this game to anyone that enjoys a great story, fun gameplay, memorable characters with unique personalities, and tons of things to do after you have played through the main story.
Multiplayer:
-Many types of game modes
-Poor matchmaking (probably because of so little people playing nowadays)
-Kind of campy, slow paced gameplay
-Too many pre-match countdowns and lobbies to wait through
-A lot of spawn killing
-Steep learning curve
-Kind of like Gears of War multiplayer, only with bolt action rifles and revolvers
To be honest, I only played the multiplayer for the achievements. There are a lot of different game types such as free-for-alls (free roam), co-op missions, and team based objective games (gang matches). The free roaming got old quite quick, since it's the same map as the single player, except you're playing with other people. The gang matches reminded me of Gears of War multiplayer, which I don't really enjoy: wall bouncing and rolling on the ground. Also, not many people play anymore (you won't have any trouble finding a lobby), but you'll probably be matched up against veterans or put into a lobby with other, more experienced players. Still, some multiplayer is better than none, it just didn't interest me.