Red Dead Vigilante
by Samuel
Red Dead Redemption has as one of its main selling points the fact that its single player open world has an ecology and life of its own, that goes on regardless of whether you decide to react to it or just plough on with the main campaign. If you’re the kind of person who mostly plays online with your mates, you’ll probably not have noticed this, or really give much of a damn, as it is toned down to the point of being almost non-existent in online modes. But if you are, like me, someone who prefers to play offline and explore a game world at your leisure in search of the smaller details, then it is entirely possible for this feature to just devour all of the time you spend playing Red Dead beyond a certain point.
Now, having animals and events out in the field is hardly a new thing, but normally they’re entirely randomly generated, or limited in being scripted to happen only once at a certain time. In Red Dead the difference is that there are persistent patterns. Herds of grazing animals or packs of predators move about within a territory of their own, and the number of individual animals depends on their interactions with the player or other animals and hunters. If you do completely wipe out a group, another one appears, but not straight away and it takes time to grow in numbers and strength again.
The predators hunt the herbivores, they don’t just appear at different times, and it is entirely possible for your own hunting session to be interrupted by clashing with the hunt of a pack of wolves or coyotes, intent on nabbing a deer before you do, or changing their mind and making a run at your horse if you seem more vulnerable than the original quarry. In turn, the herds move about areas in a constant trek for fresh vegetation and water. If you actually make a kill, flocks of vultures and other carrion eating birds, as well as opportunistic scavengers like jackals and coyotes appear to try and claim what you leave behind, or even steal the corpse out from under you. The rest of the animals in the herd the dead one belonged to scatter and run in all directions, but they do not simply vanish into the draw distance. If you’re quick enough, you can go after them and find them again.
John + Cougar != Mellencamp
The wildlife isn’t averse to interfering with your attempts at completing a mission or side-quest either. I’ve been ambushed by wolves whilst approaching an enemy stronghold, only for my opponents’ men to be alerted to my coming by the gunfire necessary to deal with my unwelcome playmates. I’ve also dragged lassoed captives behind my horse, and felt the rope go slack as the luckless bastard has been pinched by some opportunistic predator on the way back to town. On one occasion I’ve even had a hog-tied bounty head stolen from the back of my horse as I was riding along by a cougar… the Wild West is nothing if not unpredictably authentic. It adds to the things to consider as you plan your next move, and sometimes there is no way of anticipating or safeguarding against something going wrong.
"Who are yoooou?"... "I'm the Barman"
However, the animal life is but a part of this game design philosophy. More pertinently to my own style of play, there are conmen and bandit gangs aplenty in the world of Red Dead Redemption, and just as many victims in the form of regular stagecoaches and wagon trains, steam locomotives that follow the same schedule depending on the time and day within the game’s internal calendar, and outlying farms and settlements… even just unlucky travellers trying to reach the next town to go to market. Your own susceptibility to attempts against you, and how you are treated by inhabitants within each region or town depends on two symbiotic measurements of your reputation and fame.
Initially, this being a Rockstar game and therefore most of the good stuff being locked until at least a certain number of variables are met, I occupied myself with tackling the main story and John Marston’s fight against his former compatriots, moving steadily and efficiently through the motions to unlock new weapons types and areas, until I finally crossed the border into Mexico. Now, there’s still a long way to go in the lengthy and sprawling plot, and a Northern region to unlock as well, but more and more I started to get distracted by helping strangers and seeking out the various people being persecuted and trying to help them out. After all, even two of the three major regions in the game is a lot of land to cover, and I do have at least a basic version of every weapon class now… surely there’s some room to explore and play the wandering cowboy? This is how I started to run into trouble.
I find myself now unable to pass by when I hear someone crying for help, chased by wild predators or bandits. I have to give chase and rescue them. If someone has their horse or cart stolen, I invariably wind up retrieving them, with the thief tied up on the back of my horse. The same applies to rogues who burgle houses and hold up shops and saloons. Men kidnapping women and trying to flee with them on their shoulder don’t get very far if I’m around. And chasing a prostitute out of a bar with a large knife is right out.
Even when I know it’s a trap, and that the woman calling for help is luring me into stopping and dismounting my horse so that the bandit gang hiding behind her apparently broken down or crashed coach can surround me and try to take my money off me, I stop. And I make damned sure that those cheeky swine can’t try it on with anyone else. Also those would-be horse thieves who claim to need a ride and then push me off my horse. And I’ve lost count of the number of would-be impromptu lynching mobs I’ve crashed.
As a result of this obsession with virtual justice, I now ride around Red Dead Redemption with the highest level of fame, but also with the highest possible reputation for virtue. And the more it continues, the more this seems to be bizarre. Because what started out as a noble and ultimately futile quest tilting at windmills has started to turn ugly, and the white knight has gotten irreparably dark in carrying out these acts of beneficent vigilantism.
In this next scene, Mr Marston, we want you to attempt to re-enact the chariot scene from Ben-Hur. Should be a breeze.
When I come across a gang ambush posing as a damaged coach, I wipe out not just all of the bandits; I also kill the woman they used as bait, and all of their horses. Each body is then stripped of valuables or skinned for their very hide and flesh. When I rescue someone being pursued by a pack of predators, I don’t stop when the animals scatter after the first few of them are taken down. I chase after every member of the pack and slaughter them, and again, they get skinned and left for the birds to pick over. Horse thieves and burglars, kidnappers and whore-killers are lassoed and taken back to their victims, rather than summarily shot, but when the wronged party has finished kicking the criminal about for a bit and their rage has subsided, I drag the still hog-tied villain out into the main road of a town, and calmly shoot them in the back of the head.
Even as I seek out these altercations and crimes, the injustice of them fills me with a cold indignant hatred. And systematically and methodically I brutalise those who had sought to try and harm me or the other innocents roaming the West, ultimately killing them without mercy and leaving their stripped and humiliated remains laying in as public a place as is readily available. My methods are getting more creative too… the “dastardly” achievement on my gamertag came not from capturing some innocent and luckless lass and depositing her on a train track for kicks, but rather from having maimed each member of a bandit ambush rather than killing them outright, lassoing them, and then laying them all out neatly side by side along a stretch of track for execution by steam engine. One of them of course was the woman who lured me into the trap. So *plink*; achievement unlocked.
It is said that the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and also that vigilantism is never justified under any civilised society and legal system. I’m starting to see the truth in that, and it’s probably for the best that my efforts remain inside the game and not out in the real world.
But it remains very satisfying. And that worries me a little.
Last five articles by Samuel
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I thought this was a superb and quite fascinating article. I haven’t yet fired up RDR, so have no real idea, outside of reviews, what to expect, especially in the minutae which make up the world. I have to take my hat off to the game’s programmers and designers if this is the level of depth that they have gone to in order to flesh out a highly realistic sounding game world.
As far as the bad boy stuff goes…good on you. I think vigilantism has a place and where better than to live it than the Ole West. To be honest, you’re not alone and when I get around to firing this one up, I can completely see myself doing everything you’ve mentioned and more. When the law is inadequate and justice fails, in the game world at least, we can do something about it…and who hasn’t wanted to twirl their moustache after tying someone to a railway line.
its like your the batman of xboxlive
it’s the beard right? chicks dig the beard?
Heh… thanks guys. Appreciate it. I had no idea my article was up today, so it’s a nice surprise. Red Dead is a surprisingly deep game, when you think about the kind of things Rockstar have done in the past. GTA is hugely influential, but rarely as emotionally moving or subtly detailed to the extent that Red Dead is. This game really does surpass GTA is every possible way. I didn’t think Mass Effect 2 could be beaten this year, but if you asked me to choose between it and RDR now… I’m not sure I could.
I always wanted to be Batman, Lee. Well. I’d have settled for Iron Man too. But Batman never killed anyone, not deliberately, so there is an element of guilt after one of my crusades.
God I wish chicks dug the beard. If they do, please… speak up, ladies. I’m a lonesome cowpoke.
I found your vigilantism an interesting read. I think it shows the strong immersive qualities of this title in full effect – there aren’t many games up there with RDR in that respect.
I’ve found the natural world of RDR a little less impressive maybe. It isn’t persistent, and is an all-to-clear abstraction at times, e.g. when the cougars seemingly mass out of thin air. It can still stand at the top of the class with respect to how real that world feels on the surface though, as what game of this scope can offer a truly persistent and authentic world right now?
Personally though, and as a big Grand Theft Auto fan and veteran of many “sandbox” titles, RDR simply hasn’t engaged me in single player. Now, this may be due in great extent to how much of the world I’ve seen in 30 hours or so of multiplayer roaming, but I don’t think it is. I think it’s more that I’ve grown fatigued of the format these games take on. I’ve been marooned in the opening 2 hours of RDR for weeks now, feeling no drive to pick it up and continue. I’ve played the introductory missions in these games too many times now maybe, and it seems to be boring me.
I hold my hands up as perhaps an exception, and I am making good provision to recognise the strong virtues of RDR as I’ve seen them I think. I have to objectively look at what I’ve seen, and what I’ve heard from others, and objectively say that this is clearly a very strong game. But, for me, under the surface, I haven’t felt the magic yet.
You sound a little burnt out dude. Maybe time to try something else, come back to it later? I have to say, I’ve never seen more than one cougar at a time, and they don’t appear that often, though more so in the mountainous areas. It could be a glitch that’s swamping you with the buggers. There are some… interesting… bugs that crop up from time to time. People who can fly, a donkey lady, a talking jackal… raining cougars would be relatively benign.
I’m with Cuddles (It’d make a good T-shirt), the Eco-system in place in RDR doesn’t do much for me. It’s just a list of objectives for me, things I need to kill and skin. It’s not that often that I have any interaction with the game that doesn’t involve me senselessly killing everything in sight, so the wolf that was chasing the rabbit didn’t get a look in in the first place. It’s a novel feature but RDR pretty much nailed the world in it’s design, having a few roaming bands of creatures is a nice asthetic touch but doesn’t really add anything to the experience for me.
I do love the random events though, the first time you encounter each one it’s a real treat to see what the game throws at you. Obviously after that, you’ve twigged on as to what you can expect and so it quickly lost its magic for me and If I came across a Bandit in a town itching for a duel, well to fuckity with the honor system, I have a full dead eye meter, a 22 round repeater and no problems whatsoever with making the most of the two of them on his face.
It’s a nice addition to break up the game, especially when your making long trips, gives you something to do. The Ambushes can be a little harsh and I’ll admit to feeling guilty (for a microt of a second) whenever a Hooker tries to pinch my horse and I promptly blast her away with a well placed revolver shot. I think ‘Well that wasn’t fair, she didn’t have a gun (I have no problem whatsoever if they HAVE a gun but don’t get chance to use it)’ but thats soon replaced with, she tried to steal Bryan, Bitch.
Nice to see some creativity in your justice though Preach. Still makes you need to question, is the game good for letting you do these things or is it pretty weak for giving you nothing better to do?
They shouldn’t mess with Bryan.
I’m with Cuddles and Adam completely. We should form a club.
Or a posse, that would be more relevant.
We did form a posse, the two of you spent the whole time throwing knives at each other whilst I went off and actually killed baddies leaving you two to sponge all the XP!
I need some ranking up, we should totally do that again ;D x
Hey, look I was ready and waiting to kick anus. I was using Kat to warm up. Like a punching bag. Filled with fwuffy gothic (argh) bunnies.
John Marston’s story is crucial to pushing the game forward, but the game does a great job of reminding you he’s not the only person living in the state. The frequent distractions really do help bring the world to life.
As your self prescribed doses of justice became more and more warped, the following quote popped into my noggin. I’m not sure if it’s relevant, or what it’s even from. I hope it’s nothing embaressing!
“You either die a hero, or live long enough to see yourself become the villain.”
Sounds like a nice fit anyway.
Great read Reverend!
Harvey Dent in the Dark Knight. Dignity remains intact!
“If you’re the kind of person who mostly plays online with your mates, you’ll probably not have noticed this, or really give much of a damn, as it is toned down to the point of being almost non-existent in online modes. But if you are, like me, someone who prefers to play offline and explore a game world at your leisure in search of the smaller details, then it is entirely possible for this feature to just devour all of the time you spend playing Red Dead beyond a certain point.”
I think this section, from the beginning of the article, sums up my answer to your question Adam. You suggest that the game is weak for giving me nothing better to do than play vigilante, whilst clearly enjoying the multiplayer side of the game. So you’ve already kind of contradicted yourself in that you must find the multiplayer personally better than the random events in the single player game world. If you really thought that the game offered nothing better than the game world, you’d either not play the game or be doing the same thing I am for want of something better. And I’ve already pointed out that I quite like deviating from the beaten track to find my own entertainment in the process of immersing myself in the setting and design philosophy of a game.
You don’t need a pre-defined set of objectives to be occupied. You don’t need constant action to be gripped. You don’t always need other people to liven up a game. Some of us are more than happy to wander these amazing settings at our own pace, making our own stories, and discovering all the little details.
I think this goes back to your article the other day. Despite being an action-orientated game, Red Dead is much deeper than that. If you’re just looking for explosions and quick thrills then other titles will probably move at a more palatable pace for you. If you’re looking for a story, or more, a world filled with hundreds of unconnected stories and stories the developer maybe didn’t plan on telling, then Red Dead is a fascinating experience.
I think we’re just fundamentally different gamers, in our approach towards games, and what we look for within them. That’s not a criticism necessarily. But I think I’ll continue to play my way, and leave you to play yours. If you still feel the need to question what I get out of it, I’ll just have to offer a small, wry smile, shake my head, and shrug my shoulders, because you’re probably never going to quite understand. The way I see it, the question never needed to be asked.
Heh, you ninja’d me M@thew. Thanks, and the quote is indeed very salient to what I was trying to say. Anyone who can quote Batman in normal conversation, even if they don’t realise it at first, earns kudos in my view.
@kat, cuddles & adam
I seem to remember Adam being the only one to walk away with the achievement we was trying to get. Adam you owe me 10Gs and £45 and where the frack has my fable 2 gone?
Bit late to the party thanks to a rather busy day, apologies for my tardiness!
I can totally side with Preacher’s predicament with regards to making up his own rules to suit his particular style of gameplay and to take whatever he can from the game. It is, after all, the point in us all being different – it’s not for us to question how someone else plays the same game as us or find it odd when they get more, or less, from the game than we do. The point is to understand that it’s just their way, and what they took from it but neither is right or wrong.
As I’d said to Kat and Lee during my first week of playing RDR, I found myself doing nothing more than skinning and shooting people in the head regardless of who they were. I wasn’t killing and skinning to pick up money, I had no need thanks to may sheer awesomeness at repeatedly winning five finger fillet with $100 stakes, but I just enjoyed doing it. I suppose the main reason was that I got to SEE the skinning process after the kill, rather than just wandering over to a dead animal and find “Wolf Skin” listed in the inventory of the carcass. This was JUST a dead wolf, with no inventory whatsoever and I had to skin it… complete with rather nifty blood spattering on the camera as Marston finished the process.
Sure, I had bounties to take care of, “strangers” to deal with and I eventually found out how to progress through the game (thanks to Lee telling me to pay attention to my map!) but I enjoyed the wilderness survivor aspect of the game much more than I’ve enjoyed the actual game. That’s not because the game itself is flawed, it’s just because that’s how I choose to play it. I want to indulge in the aspect of gameplay that was never afforded to me by another other game to date and, as much as I love doing nothing but tearing around Paradise City in KITT as fast as I can, I adore galloping across the plains on my horse “Evo-Stick” with nothing to do other than just take in the atmosphere. Even those times that I’ve boot up the game to continue the missions, I’ve ended up just doing my own thing, being a law unto myself and generally just arsing around.
The game might be great, but I’ve just to immerse myself enough to find out. Just as I tend to build tracks on Trials HD rather than play pre-existing tracks, I choose to do my own thing in RDR. If that opportunity is there within the game mechanics, then who are we to ignore it and follow the story to the letter?
I find the game boring while others find it fantastic, but that could just be that I’ve not allowed myself to be drawn in to the story long enough. I’m still essentially at the start of the game, haven’t done much in terms of the main quest but completed a shitload of bounties and stranger side quests. I just keep getting caught up in what others see as the mundane – five finger fillet, riding around aimlessly, roping and breaking wild horses, shooting more birds than the other guy to steal his money… that kinda thing. It’s just me though, it’s what I chose to do with this particular game.
@Preach
I was genuinely just posing the question as something for everyone to think about, wasn’t directed at you bud
Chillax!
@Lee
Its not my fault you kept screwing up! I was doing just fine. And I has it. I also have my friend Dan’s copy which is the GOTY edition which kinda makes having taken yours pretty irrelevant. Unless I could find a way of multiboxing with one pad, that would be awesome (not that I can think how, it would just be impressive to watch done).
@Mark
Do you not find that blood from skinning a little much at times? I think I was skinning a rabbit once and for absolutely no plausaible reason there was a gratituious amount of blood and squelching and the whole screen went red. Ewww. I’m also glad you named your horse, Kat told me off for having named mine anything other than Horsey.
Did I not find the blood a little much at times? Um… no. Never. You’re asking the wrong guy dood, sorry
It disappoints me that I’ve not had a nose bleed since I was 17 as I miss the warm iron taste, and rejoice whenever I cut myself and get to watch my life flowing down my fingers like a river of red gold. We each have our own foibles and, I’m afraid, a strong stomach and twisted mind is mine 
Oh no I’m all for blood but there was more Ketchup in this one Rabbit than a whole Afternoons worth of Hammer Horror. It just seems quite out of place, as if in the marketing meeting they said that they couldn’t have any serious amount of blood and gore in the campaign with shot off limbs and bleeding trails, so they hid it all in a rabbit just to make up.
If the gores right for the game then I don’t notice it so much. It’s pretty natrual in games like Gears but when it’s not prevelant and then comes on pretty strong? Catches me off guard!
@Preach I think to be fair Adam was throwing that question out into the GL wind for the rest of us readers to consider to kinda back up your points and not aimed so much at you as you’d covered it in your article. Having played a decent amount of RDR with him he equally seems to enjoy the little things. Although killing me repeatedly in a variety of ways is also popular -_-
@Cuddles Me? A warm up? Pfft. I’ll warm YOU up. Or something…
@Lee I want that damned achievement! >.< We shall get it!
@Adam No, Bryan is a lovely name. I'm honoured you were willing to change his name from his previous incarnation of "Steve"
@Mark I'd heard about how gory the skinning was, braced myself and was like, "oh, is that it?!"
See, I knew nothing about the skinning at all Kat, so I was like “oooh this is nice!!” but was disappointed that A) every animal took the same length of time to skin, whether it was a skunk or a bloody horse and B) I wanted to see more gods dammit!!
See for all the gambling mini-games, maybe they just missed a trick there. A little bit of an ‘Operation’ style sub-game where you can harvest specific parts from a corpse for use at retail or maybe just to jazz Marston up.
A nice Horse Mane hairdo. Some Feathers to sell to the completely missing Red Indians (I suppose it was kinda late in the period but still -Whats a western without a few Indians). Various animals testicles to sell to drunk people?
Missed a trick Rockstar, Missed a trick…
This was brilliant!
Well done, Preacher, an amazing read
@Adam, Kat – Fair enough, I thought it was directed at me, but I’m all for debate. Maybe take it over to the forums and have a proper argument? Heh.
@Mark, Ed – Thanks guys, appreciate the kind words. Though Mark, there’s a definite length difference between skinning a rabbit or a skunk and a horse or a bear… at least I thought there was. Hmm. I need to go and check now, make sure I wasn’t imagining it.
The paragraph where you talk about the wildlife is highly exaggerated. You’re giving the wildlife AI way too much credit for what is most on the time scripted events.
Predators certainly DON’T hunt the herbivores – each species of animal in the game has a set of behaviours that are relative to the player only: Bears will attack you on sight and flee when injured etc. They NEVER hunt or fight each other in any dynamic fashion in-game whatsoever. Nor do vultures circle or wait for you to leave a carcass after one or several kills (human or otherwise) in the area. If a cougar appears it’s because there happened to be one in the area and they are programmed to attack on sight – not because it smelt blood hundreds of yards away and is programmed to seek out your location.
Herds of animals DON’T move about areas in a constant trek for fresh vegetation and water – they are simply not programmed in that fashion. Perhaps the game gives the illusion that they are looking for vegetation and water. Vegetation and water are not variables (visible or otherwise) in this game and have no bearing whatsoever on the movements of a herd. Similarly you mentioned that if you wipe out on area of animals then it takes time for their number to rebuild – This is also incorrect as I’ve farmed wolf pelts in one area of Mexico by simple leaving the areas and returning back almost immediately only to have the wolf packs respawn. Herd territory isn’t particularly impressive – is simply a set of invisible barriers that certain animals will not cross (bears will never leave Tall Trees, buffalo/great plains)
It’s a great game, but lets not build up the wildlife AI to something it’s not.
Jimmy, if the wildlife AI is time-scripted events, then it’s remarkably convincing, and prone to coincidence. For one thing, I am pretty sure I’ve seen the predatory animals appear to attack the herd ones.
To be honest, if I have been taken in by the game, and the article generally is about becoming immersed in the world the game creates, then at least the illusion is a satisfying one for me personally. It’s good enough to have made me think it was doing something it was not, assuming you are correct in your assertions, and that’s still one hell of an achievement.
I think its a sort of behavoural script whereby some creatures are told to to attack the lesser ones should they happen to be in close proximity. You get in WoW around Elwyn Forest where level 4-7 Wolves bounce away from where they’re skulking to eat a poor bunny critter. It makes a nice asthetic touch and it sure makes you chuckle too (Poor Bunny) but it’s quite see through on WoW that it’s of course just there for that one effect.
I have seen Vultures ‘spawn’ when I’ve killed a load of things and just start cicling, though they never dive. Literally the sky has been clear and then bam, they’re there. Again, nice touch. And I have witnessed Coyotes strip off from the pack to go eat an armadillo I may or may not have ran over just a few moments ago to get to some flower picking spot. It was one of those, oh crap, hurry up and pick flowers damn you! moments, only for it to scream past and nom on the dead armadillo.
But yeah, as Jimmy pointed out, there’s no migration patterns, it’s whatever the Aurora engine is told to spawn up in certain areas and as with GTA IV, you can enter one particular region and ALL that the game will spawn is 1, maybe 2 types of animal when you know for a fact that several more species spawn here too. The only way to change that spawn table is to leave the zone or force some form of refresh (Camp site save) to the zone.
It would be cool seeing Bears in Mexico though! Man Bears know how to party