Bury My Heart In New Austin

I'm sitting in front of my computer at work, but I'm not really there.  My mind is out wandering the wilderness of New Austin.  I'm waiting to get back out there and explore the vast expanse.  Maybe I'll go track down some treasure.  Maybe I'll go find that snake oil merchant that's gone missing.  Maybe I'll go help out Miss MacFarlane on the ranch.  Or maybe I'll go check out that movie house to see a silent film.  There's nothing but freedom of choice out there for me.  Me and my horse.  My warhorse, which was day one DLC, that I guess is supposed to be better than any other horse.  So I won't go buying any other horses, I guess.  Look, what I'm trying to say is that Red Dead Redemption is awesome. 
 
I wasn't sure how Redemption was going to turn out when it was in development.  I never played Red Dead Revolver, so I didn't have any fond or bitter memories to form any expectations.  The trailers looked promising, but when has a Rockstar trailer not looked promising?  It wasn't until the reviews started coming out being almost unanimously glowing that I decided I needed to own it.  And when I was able to start wandering around an authentic looking ranch community while the fiddle heavy soundtrack played, I knew the game had me hooked.  It's the atmosphere that nails it for me.  There's a wide open expanse with only pockets of humanity within it, and it's teeming with wildlife.  The voice acting is terrific, with the dialogue sounding authentic for the period.  Or at least I assume.  I wasn't around back then, so I'm not exactly an expert.  The treasure maps are purposefully limited, forcing you to have to pay attention to your surroundings if you actually want to get your hands on some treasure.  And I am way too addicted to playing poker in the game.  I may have a problem.  Basically, it feels like the developers really wanted to nail down the feel of being a part of the Old West.   I could see myself getting lost in this world for quite some time.
 
My biggest concern is also one of the game's greatest strengths: it's a lot like GTA IV.  That's awesome, because that engine allowed you to explore a huge place with a lot of people in it, and do a large variety of things.  And I loved GTA IV.  Up until I got about 2/3 of the way through it.  That's when the little issues I had with the game blew up into huge flaws.  If you died during a mission, you were screwed.  Yeah, a text message would pop up letting you jump right back into the mission, but it was the beginning of the mission.  The very beginning.  Which meant you had to drive ALL THE WAY BACK to where the mission actually started.  And when you died at the end of a mission because you just couldn't ditch the cops, well that was frustrating beyond belief.  I remember playing the freighter mission near the end of the game, and dying real close to the end.  That was a long mission, and dying at that point made me clench my jaw and fists as a reflex.  I had to turn off the XBox because I just couldn't bear the thought of doing that all over again right then.  And there were just other minor rough spots with some of the controls and the cover system that just nagged enough to become real annoyances late in the game.  It really kind of soured me on the GTA IV experience as a whole, enough so that I grimaced each time it won a Game of the Year award (even though it probably deserved them).     
 
I'm hoping some of those annoyances are addressed in Red Dead Redemption.  I'm still early on and haven't died yet, but I'm guessing my time will come.  Let's hope they've got some better checkpoint system in place.  I'm really enjoying the game, and want to keep enjoying it without technical issues getting in the way.  I want to experience John Marston's story and see what it has to tell.  And I hope that I love the game as much at the end of it as I do here at the start.