Though not feeling like game of the year material in the beginning, stick with it, and you'll get a memorable climax.
Story
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Lame review prologue aside, RDR takes place in 1911. John Marston, former gang member, travels New Austin. Having his wife and son being taken away by the government, Marston is forced to find his former gang member Bill Williamson & former gang leader Dutch van der Linder, and either capture, or execute them, in order to get his wife and son back.
The story has its issues. Things starts off very slow, but get's better around half way through the game, and the pacing can be a bit weird at times. But the major problem, is the disconnect between the story and gameplay. Marston is painted as a family man, and a bad guy who turned good, but the game itself lets Marston rob innocent people, and get the cops after him. But despite all this, it is a good story. Marston is likeable and the story gets pretty good around half way in, not to mention it's got one of the most memorable and surprising moment, ever graced in a video game.
9.0
Gameplay
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RDR plays pretty much like Grand Theft Auto, except with cars replaced by horses, and cities replaced by villages. Beyond that though, the frame work is pretty much similar to GTA. You go to the location of a marker, on your map, watch a cut-scene, and are basically told where to go and what to do, which either involves getting a certain item, help herding the cattle's, or shoot a bunch of bad guys. The game doesn't really try to change the frame work (which is ok, since it's still working really well), but they suffer from the same issue as the story. The first half of the missions can be a bit stale and boring, with herding the cattle's, being the worst mission type of them all, but half way though and the missions does get very epic.
Besides the story missions, Marston can also do various side activities, like gambling, like Poker & Blackjack, etc. Or, you can storm into forts, help strangers (which shows that the world of RDR is both amazing... and creepy), or hunt animals for pelts, meat and even gather flowers. Beyond that, there's also multiplayer for up to 16 players. There are your standard capture the flag, and deathmatch variants. Each of the game modes are fun, and they all start with a Mexican standoff, which keeps the multiplayer true to the wild west theme, and it's also really awesome. Besides that, you'll also have your standard Call of Duty-like leveling up system and challenges. Though there's also a free roam mode, so you and your friends can go hunting forts and animals and whatever you want too.
Let's go down to the gameplay mechanics. The controls are mostly good, but they take a long time to get used too. Controlling Marston is as clunky, as in GTA4, and it's disappointing that the developers didn't try to fix the issue, at all, as its way too easy to go to places where you wouldn't want too. But when adjusted too, it does work pretty well, though I'd still like it to be fixed. Thankfully, riding horses is actually pretty easy to get used too, and while it's a little annoying, that you have to keep mashing the X button to sprint with your horse, you can thankfully just hold it to match the speed of your friends. To help Marston fend off the bad guys and gang members, he has the Deadeye ability, which slows down time, and lets you mark several targets. It works well, without being over-powered or over-used.
The game has some issues, besides the controls taking some time getting used to. Marston can't swim, which might be annoying for one or two missions, though it's a minor fault. The cover system works for the most part, though it does have it's share of issues, such as when taking cover inside houses, Marston is particular bad of popping up and being able to shoot out the window, though this also applies to other surfaces you can take cover behind. Some of the side activities are a bit dull, like Blackjack, and though there is a dueling system in the game, it's hardly used, and it's way too easy to use.
The biggest problem though, are a surprisingly lack of polish. Sure in open world games, it's really hard to nail down all bugs, but RDR has a few serious ones. The game had trouble loading up a cut-scene, which had me, my mate just standing, impossible to move, while a horse carriage just kept moving slowly, and in another mission, it didn't load up instructions or events, forcing to restart the mission. Multiplayer is fun, but it lacks balance, as some people can literally snipe people from distances, without being punished or being wanted by the cops. The game also had issues loading up matches, refusing to get past the loading screen.
But for its issues and surprisingly lack of polish in some places, RDR is actually a lot of fun, and though needs adjusting; the controls are actually pretty good. There's a lot to do in the game, with the story easily taking 15-20 hours to finish, and the multiplayer is fun, so there's a lot to see and do in the game.
9.0
Graphics
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Though a few graphical bugs may happen, Red Dead Redemption is insanely beautiful. The characters look amazing, and the animation itself, is almost like it's a real person, which by itself is incredible. But the world of RDR itself is amazing. This is one of the most beautiful free-roaming worlds I've ever seen in a video game, and you'll find yourself just avoiding the missions, to go and explore the country, it's that amazing.
10
Sound
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The voice acting, is pretty good too, especially for Marston, and the dialogue lives up to the usual Rockstar quality, and the ambience in the world, is pretty good as well. The music however, sounds like someone who desperately tries to make western inspired music, by pulling in lots of guitars and basically emulating Ennio Morricone, it doesn't work well. Thankfully, both the PS3 and Xbox 360 version supports custom soundtrack.
8.5
Overall
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When I started playing the game, it didn't really seem like it was one of 2010's best, as I were told by several people, however I actually had a lot of fun with the game, and half way through, the epic and memorable moments, right up till the surprising ending, just kept on coming. Red Dead Redemption might not refine or perfect the frame work from GTA4, but it is, one of this year's best.