Red Dead Redemption Game Of The Year Edition [J...

Red Dead Redemption is a 2010 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. A spiritual successor to 2004's Red Dead Revolver, it is the second game in the Red Dead series. Red Dead Redemption is set during the decline of the American frontier in the year 1911 and follows John Marston, a former outlaw whose wife and son are taken hostage by the government in ransom for his services as a hired gun. Having no other choice, Marston sets out to bring three members of his former gang to justice.

Red Dead Redemption Game of The Year Edition [J...

The game's development lasted over five years, and it became one of the most expensive video games ever made. Rockstar improved its proprietary game engine to increase its technological capabilities. The development team conducted extensive research, including field trips to Washington, D.C. and analyzing classic Western films, to achieve realism while creating the game. The team hired professional actors to perform the body movements through motion capture. Red Dead Redemption features an original score composed by Bill Elm and Woody Jackson. The game's development received controversy following accusations of unethical working practices. The working hours and managerial style of the studio was met with public complaints from staff members.

Red Dead Redemption was released for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in May 2010. It received critical acclaim for its visuals, music, performances, gameplay, and narrative. It won several year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications, and is considered by critics as one of the best video games ever made. It had shipped around 23 million copies by 2021, making it one of the best-selling video games. After the game's release, several downloadable content additions were released; Undead Nightmare, later released as a standalone game, added a new single-player campaign in which Marston searches for a cure for an infectious zombie plague. A prequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, was released in October 2018.

Red Dead Redemption explores themes of the cycle of violence,[17] faith,[19] governmental control,[20] the loss of innocence and freedom,[21] manifest destiny,[22] masculinity,[23] social change,[24] and redemption;[25] it also received commentary for its representation of Native Americans[26] and violence.[27] IGN's Erik Brudvig considered it a commentary on modern political issues such as racism and immigration;[28] writer Dan Houser said that the story was not intended as a satire of contemporary America, but that parallels were inevitable due to the similarities of the time period.[21] Some scholars identified that the game conforms to neoliberal values,[29][30] particularly in its depoliticizing of the sufferers of corporate greed,[31] though one scholar conversely felt that it ridicules the selfishness of neoliberals.[32][33] Matt Margini described the narrative as a tragedy, citing Aristotle's proposal that the hero is neither good nor evil and that "tragic heroes are tragic because they bring about their own fall, despite having good intentions".[34]

Several scholars noted that, despite the use of the word "redemption" in the game's title, such a feat was impossible for John;[19][25] Reid McCarter of Bullet Points Monthly described the use of the word as "bitterly ironic" due to the inability of reinvention for both the characters and the country.[25] Margini wrote that the final chapter allowed the player to feel that they had achieved the promised redemption,[35] only for it to be taken away by the story's end.[36] Conversely, Kotaku's Heather Alexandra felt that John achieved his redemption upon sacrificing himself to save his family.[37] Benjamin J. Triana found that, while John's death "implies transcendence", it is not overtly sacrificial, nor does it represent John as a hero.[38] Gamasutra's Richard Clark considered the depiction of redemption to be "cynical and overly simple".[19] Red Dead Redemption also explores the impacts of the cycle of violence,[17] most notably represented through Jack's continuation of his father's failures by adopting the outlaw status.[18][39][40] NPR's Jason Sheehan considered the game a tale of "the senselessness of violence used to solve violence begetting only more violence".[41] M. Melissa Elston found that, like other modern media, it attempts to "reframe the violence and simplistic moral dualism of previous pop-cultural representations of the Old West".[42] The game drew some commentary for its depiction of violence; Margini considered it justifiable since "violence means something".[43] Timothy J. Welsh felt similarly, adding that it is "just a game", but recognized the worrisome nihilism it could perpetuate if generalized.[44] Christopher Bartel rebutted this sentiment, expressing hesitancy at the moral justification of virtual murder and noting that "even hard-core gamers might balk at virtual sadism".[45]

The game presents the ethos of the American Dream in its formation, in contrast with the modern-day representation in Grand Theft Auto IV (2008).[46] While John's violent past rendered him unable to achieve redemption, it also impacted his son's own ability to achieve the American Dream as he becomes an outlaw like his father.[25] The game also features commentary on freedom and control,[41] and the manner in which societal change acts as a catalyst for losing one's control and compromising their morality.[47] The journey from the open fields to the city of Blackwater represents civilization's control over the natural world, though the player lacks control during the opening sequence in which John leaves Blackwater, only gaining it when reentering the city later in the game.[20] While Red Dead Redemption grants the player freedom, they ultimately lack control over the narrative as "being free to do things is not the same as being able to change things", an ideology that is directly reflected in John's inability to prevent his own death.[48] Triana felt that the ending allowed the player to properly understand John's rejection of a developing society and institutions due to the misery endured from the government.[49] The game also demonstrates the disparities of economic inequality;[50] Sara Humphreys identified a connection between MacFarlane's Ranch and the class conflict of Johnson County, Wyoming in the late nineteenth century.[51]

After the May 2004 release of Red Dead Revolver, publisher Rockstar Games wanted to create its own Western video game from scratch;[66] it had acquired Revolver from Capcom in 2003 after years of development and completed development within nine months.[67] Early development began in 2005, and full development commenced in 2006, following the formation of a core development team.[68] Rockstar San Diego's 180-person team co-opted Rockstar's Leeds, New England, North, and Toronto studios to facilitate development between a full team of over 1,000.[66][69][70][71][72] Having exhausted the use of previous hardware on other projects, Rockstar felt inspired after realizing the potential power of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.[66] Analyst estimations place the game's combined development and marketing budget between US$80 million and US$100 million, which would make it one of the most expensive video games to develop.[73] The game's development received controversy following accusations of unethical working practices at Rockstar San Diego, including twelve-hour workdays and six-day weeks, with a lower-than-the-industry-average salary increase.[74][75]

Red Dead Redemption's 1,500-page script was written in two years.[76] Taking inspiration from films like The Wild Bunch (1969), High Plains Drifter (1973), Unforgiven (1992), and The Proposition (2005), the team felt that most Western fiction takes place between 1840 and 1880, and that Red Dead Redemption's setting in 1911 allowed a more intriguing analysis of the transformation from "the old West" into the modern world.[77] Regarding the game's depiction of violence, the team wanted it to "feel slightly raw and unpleasant", attempting realism without exaggeration.[78] The open world was created to represent iconic features of the American frontier. The team organized field trips to Washington, D.C.,[66] visiting the Library of Congress and the National Archives Building, captured a multitude of photographs, and analyzed various classic Western films, television shows, and novels.[79][80] The team considered creating the open world one of the most technically demanding aspect of the game's production, in terms of filling the world with enough content to interest players.[66]

Downloadable content (DLC) for the game was released following its launch,[109] with focus on maps and game types suggested by the community.[110] Outlaws to the End, released on June 22, 2010, added six cooperative side missions for multiplayer. Legends and Killers was released on August 10, 2010, and added multiplayer characters from Red Dead Revolver, as well as new map locations and a Tomahawk weapon. On September 21, 2010, Liars and Cheats added competitive multiplayer modes, minigames, characters, and a weapon.[111] Hunting and Trading, released on October 12, 2010, added a jackalope to the game's world, and some additional outfits.[112] Undead Nightmare adds a single-player campaign, set in a non-canonical, zombie apocalypse-themed alternate reality with ghost towns and cemeteries full of zombies, wherein John searches for a cure to the zombie outbreak.[113] It was released on October 26, 2010, as DLC and in late November as a standalone expansion pack.[114] Myths and Maverick released for free on September 13, 2011, adding additional characters and locations to the multiplayer.[115] A Game of the Year Edition containing all downloadable content was released for both PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on October 11, 2011, in North America and on October 14, 2011, internationally.[116] 041b061a72