Friday 23 June 2017

Unit 6 - Assignment 2 - Task 2, Analysis of a computer game.

A Critical Analysis Of Red Dead Redemption 

Red Dead Redemption is an third person, open world, action-adventure game that was released in May 2010 and was developed by Rockstar, the makers of Grand Theft Auto. The games setting is a wild west, cowboy-gunslinger game inspired heavily by movies such as The Good The Bad And The Ugly.

Analysis of the game

Graphics
The game runs on the RAGE engine, Rockstars powerful in house engine, this makes the graphical quality of the game very appealing at the time of it's release, providing superior graphical fidelity to other games released at around the same time such as Dark Souls. The environments and textures were outstanding and still today 7 years on it still looks fairly good as shown in the picture below, though parts of the character models look polygonal and blocky such as the hands and some facial features.


Sound
The sound design in Red Dead Redemption is incredibly detailed and layered which gives depth and density to the game environment. In the main menu there is no music, there is just a section of the world displayed on screen with only the various sounds you would expect to find in that area such as crickets, trees rustling, wildlife such as horses running about and the sound of rivers flowing with the occasional gunshot in the distance to give an authentic western feel. In the game the sound does a massive part in getting you immersed. This is done by blending obvious sound effects such as gunshots and horses hooves with not so obvious effects such as the little clicks of the gun when reloading, the jangling of spurs, links on saddles and trees moving in the wind.

Content and construction of content
The game world itself has a variety of content, these include things like wildlife (horses, cougars, buffaloes, etc), quests such as main quests and optional quests


The content of the world/quests/How you progress in the game
The game world is open meaning you can go wherever you like at any time and take part in various side missions known as "strangers", play in mini games for money such as "Five Finger Fillet" or "Horseshoe" and also go and hunt animals for pelts or break horses to get a new horse. Mainly there are main quests in the game dotted over the game world that unlock more as you progress through them, an open world with linear quests. these quests are how you progress the game forward and also unlock different guns and outfits for the main character John Marston to use in the game.

Codes and conventions.
This game uses some codes and conventions that can typically be found in other games. these include mechanics such as health regeneration, money, ammo, a familiar gun feel and even the 3rd person aspect popular among Rockstar games such as GTA with the over the shoulder firing.



Narrative Structure
The game is Set in the late 1800's America and follows the story of outlaw turned bounty hunter John Marston. He has been forced by government officials to hunt down the members of his former gang and either arrest or kill them in order to be absolved of his past crimes and get his wife and son back who have also been kidnapped by the government. The games story is very strong and interesting, there are barely any points in the game where you will get bored or lose interest, every character is intriguing and the missions are fun and challenging while also providing great story.



Representation of characters
The main character of the game is John Marston, who is portrayed as ruthless, cold, and short tempered, nut as the story goes on you learn he is actually a good man who has had a very difficult life to lead him to where he is now. At the start of the game he is just your stereotypical cowboy-gunslinger but quickly develops his own unique character.



Audience
The game is aimed at generally adult males who like action games such as GTA where there is a long campaign and a free open world to explore. It's generally meant to be played by men above 18 but has become popular with other ages and girls also because of its fun story and satisfying game-play.



Genre
The game is a Story-Driven, Open World, Action Adventure game. From games from this particular genre we expect a good, interesting story with a long campaign and a big open world to explore. Red Dead Redemption definitely delivers in both of these areas, making it widely regarded as one of the greatest games ever made. The genre has changed a lot over the years but has at its core remained virtually the same with a good story and and open world, what has changed is the detail in the worlds and the things we can do in them such as interact with NPC's and do side quests. largely pioneered by Rockstar, the company that made this game and the hugely popular iterations of the Grand Theft Auto franchise.

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