Finally the game has been announced! Back in December 2007, I had an opportunity of a lifetime. I had a phone interview with the guys at Rockstar San Diego and they invited me to their studio in San Diego for a full interview. I was so stoked! I was just 2 months out of game school so I was pretty shocked that I got an interview so quickly. And Rockstar of all companies! Yeeaa! Well, the interview went great. It lasted about 4 hours. I met with the team and the art directors, they took me out to an awesome lunch down the street. I really thought I had the position in the bag. Keyword being, thought. But no such luck. However, they did take me around the studio for a tour and I got to see some early development on Rockstar San Diego’s newly announced game, Red Dead Redemption. I assume since the game has been announced now, the NDA I signed is no longer valid and I can talk about what I saw. I doubt I will be saying anything that you can’t find out on your own anyway. Now, bare with me here as this was well over a year ago and my memory is shitty so I’ll try to describe what I saw.
The artists I talked to described the game as an open world type game kind of like Grand Theft Auto IV. So they started calling it Grand Theft Horse (I was hoping they would stick with that name) but it looks like they settled on Red Dead Redemption instead to coincide with the prior Red Dead Revolver game. Anyway, like I said before, I saw an early version of the game so as they were doing a walkthrough of what they wanted to show me, I saw gaps in the terrain, tumble weeds floating in the air, people and horses walking into walls etc. Very glitchy so, early Alpha stage.. if that. But there were some things I found very cool.
Obviously, since this is the old west, you’ll be traveling mostly by horse. As you do, there are many animals that cross your path, in between creosote bushes, cacti and the normal desert flora and fauna. I remember seeing rabbits and snakes crossing in front as well as more tumble weeds and dust devils which help bring this HUGE open desert landscape come to life. There was a specific part of the game the developer wanted to show me and it kind of took a while to get there. I really can’t say the word HUGE enough times. The mountains, the canyons as far as your eye could see.. it was just immense. He wanted to show me what one of the towns look like so I can see all the people, the saloons, where you “park” your horse, the hookers (OK I don’t remember the hookers but I bet they’re in there somewhere). But as we were coming up on the town, the most magnificent steam train I had ever seen in a game was passing right through the town. Huge smoke stacks rising off it. I wish I was good at explaining the visual that I have of this old school train but I’m not so, you’ll have to imagine what it looks like. Think of the train in “Back to the Future III” and you should be good. But it doesn’t fly or anything, so not that part. Let’s just say it was impressive. Anyway, you can hop on the train and let that be your transportation if you don’t want to ride your horse anymore. So you’ll use the train like the subway train in GTA IV, to get to one place to another which will be much faster than trotting on your horse the whole time. And I think it may be a no brainer that you will likely encounter some outlaws trying to rob the train you’re on somewhere in the game.
I was hoping I’d remember a lot more but I don’t. I’m sure we’ll be hearing plenty more from Rockstar in the coming months as the hype machine builds. I only rented Red Dead Revolver but I remember it being a lot of fun. Now that they have incorporated the sequel in an open world setting, I’m looking forward to seeing what this new western open world can offer. The game is being developed on the RAGE engine (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine; same engine as GTA IV) and since the RAGE engine developers are located at the San Diego location I think they will be able to push the engine even further than they did with Rockstar North’s GTA IV.
The game should be arriving in Fall 2009 but don’t hold your breath. These guys are trying to push the envelope with this one and no one should be surprised to see it delayed. Gamers are getting quite used to that though and it’s totally fine by me that a developer or publisher wants to see their game polished until perfection. Take all the time you need Rockstar. Make this one a must have.
The Gamer Report 
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