It's 1910. For the most part, the lawlessness of the "Wild West" is a thing of the past thanks to the invention of the telegram, which makes being a criminal much, much more difficult. John Marston saw this coming, and left while the getting was good. Since then, he has been approached by the United States government, who wants his help to find his old partners in order to root out the last instances of crime in the area. He agrees, not that they give him much of a choice, and begins to hunt down his old friends in the only way he knows how. This is the setting for Rockstar's biggest game yet: Red Dead Redemption, which is due for release in 2010.

At PAX this year I was invited to sit in on a demonstration for the title, which has recently been pushed back from its 2009 release date. As I said before, Rockstar is promising that Redemption is their biggest title to date, with a landscape that dwarfs even San Andreas. Marston's journey will take him through three large sections of land, each modeled after real locations in the American west. The Frontier, or Texas, will represent the more stereotypical Wild West locations, while the North will mirror Colorado, and the South will dip into Mexico. It's all part of one large open world, as Rockstar is known for delivering, without any loading times past the initial boot.

As John traveled the world, it became abundantly clear that the Redemption is anything but empty. Sure, from the top of a mountain it might look like nothing but rabbits (which can be shot, killed, skinned, and sold) and sand, but there's much more than that. Random events are scattered throughout the world, giving Marston opportunities choose sides in different situations. He might come across a train robbery, a duel, a group of men dragging another man by a horse, or simply a shootout between a group of criminals and lawmen. At any of these instances he can choose to either help one side in order to earn Honor or Notoriety, or to simply ignore it, continuing on his own journey.

All manner of life exists in Rockstar's Old West - it's a very, very dangerous place. Thankfully, combat looks like it has been greatly improved since Grand Theft Auto IV, and the six-shooters and rifles of Red Dead Redemption appear to be very responsive. The inclusion of a "Dead Eye" mechanic, which allows for Marston to slow down time and choose his shots precisely, should make the Old West trigger finger even happier. During the demonstration, the player used this mechanic to take down both large groups of enemies and to assure that one specific foe died quickly.



The game itself is running on Rockstar's proprietary RAGE engine and sporting the same euphoria physics of Grand Theft Auto IV. Characters move in the same, realistic way they did in Liberty City, sliding into cover and reacting to gunshots with staggers. It all looks fantastic, with horses, in particular, being the stand-out, with muscles moving under sleek skin exactly like they do in the real world. Particle effects, too, have been given a once over, and display dramatic improvement over GTA's engine. A few texture pops from time to time helped to remind everyone in the room that the game wasn't ready for release, as did the occasional missing voice track. By the end of the demonstration it was very clear that there was no way this game was going to have been ready in 2009, and we will be lucky if we get it in the first half of 2010.

As is usually the case, Rockstar representatives were tight-lipped on divulging more information on Red Dead Redemption. They were running through the same area of the game over and over again for the three days of the convention - anything else would have to wait. That said, Redemption wanted to speak, and whispered hints of other elements that have as of yet not been discussed much. The main title screen, before it was quickly whisked away in favor of gameplay, showed that there would be some sort of multiplayer and built in Social Club features. Neither of these come as a shock, but it's still good to see that Rockstar isn't abandoning these moving forward this generation. Also, a message that an "elegant suit scrap" had been collected at one point flashed up on the screen. Random collectible? Maybe. Part of a much larger aspect of the game? Possibly.



Every moment that I was in the same room as a playable build of Red Dead Redemption was a moment I considered rushing the man with the controller and grabbing it, hoping to get a few seconds of gameplay in before being tackled by security guards. If that isn't a testament to how good the game looks, I don't know what is. If the build shown was one of the latest then we still have a good amount of time to wait, but from what I saw the wait will be absolutely worth it.