Red Dead Redemption returns not as a remake or remaster, but a divisive port

Divisive, it most certainly is, but whether or not this is a move that pays off for Rockstar Games remains to be seen. (Image: Rockstar Games)

Thirteen years and three months ago, Red Dead Redemption emerged as a follow-up to 2004’s Red Dead Revolver, and was transformative. In terms of how we perceived open-world titles, games set in the Wild West, mission structures and plot, it was nothing short of a jolt to the senses. A Metacritic score of 95 goes some way in quantifying the paeans written and spoken about the game, nay, the experience.

But that was 2010, and this is 2023.

Gameplay, graphics plot, mission structure and indeed open-worlds have evolved since then. We’ve graduated two console generations since then. Hell, we’ve gone from the iPhone 4 to the iPhone 14 (with the 15th iteration approaching soon) since then. The point of this extended ramble is that it’s hard to understand why Rockstar Games is releasing a port of a 2010 game at this point. That is to say, a version of a two-generation-old game that has been converted to run on last-generation consoles (the PlayStation 4 and its variants) and the Nintendo Switch.

Screen grab from Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 5. (Image: Rockstar Games)

Background

To bring the uninitiated up to speed, in the past 21 months, Rockstar has released Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition (remasters of the PS2 trilogy of GTA III, GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas) and remasters of GTA V for the PS5 and Xbox Series X|S. One of these was released with better graphics and performance, and made the most of what the latest consoles had under their respective hoods. The other was… a disaster, for want of a better word.

The merit of the remastered trilogy was that it was the first time a GTA game would be playable on the Switch. The tragedy was that it was buggy, suffered from major framerate drops and featured gameplay that was in a few ways inferior to that found in the original games that were released between 2001 and 2004.

Take the example of The Last of Us Part I was a 2022 PS5 remake of the game that was originally released a month after Red Dead Redemption. It’s the second revision of the game (the first was made for PS4), but that’s a different story. Closer to home and within the Take-Two Interactive stable, the 2002 game Mafia was re-released as a glorious ground-up remake 18 years later. And a bit of additional trivia: It retailed at $40, as opposed to the $50 price tag slapped on the PS4 port of Red Dead Redemption that was released on 17 August. So why a port and why now?

Screen grab from Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 5. (Image: Rockstar Games)

A reunion with John Marston

My first brush with Red Dead Redemption came at a time when I simply couldn’t fathom spending hours and hours on an open-world game. Furthermore, I did not have a PlayStation 3 at the time, and only sampled bite-sized chunks of the game at a friend’s place — a far from ideal way to experience this title. This is why I was thoroughly looking forward to trying my hand at the game again, only this time I’d have acres of time to explore those acres of varied terrain Red Dead Redemption had to offer.

So far, I’ve spent 12 thoroughly enjoyable hours in the boots of protagonist John Marston, and I plan to put in a few dozen more. The premise, in case you’ve yet to encounter this game, is simple: In 1911, a former outlaw with skeletons in his closet arrives at a frontier town on a mission of his own, but ends up befriending and helping a whole host of locals. And the premise remains unchanged, because unlike Mafia: Definitive Edition that was alluded to earlier and underwent a few narrative changes, Red Dead Redemption of August 2023 is simply a port.

The game has admittedly been given a few licks of paint in the form of 4K resolution (if you happen to be on the PS4 Pro or PS5) and some better-rendered shadows. The Western Border States are as enjoyable to explore as ever. Irish, Bonnie MacFarlane, Nigel West Dickens and the other characters remain as fascinating and well-voiced as ever. But one look at their faces, the clouds, some of the lighting effects, a tonne of textures, and a handful of bushes makes it abundantly clear that Red Dead Redemption has definitely aged visually.

And nowhere is this more apparent than the menu screens where some of the fonts are nigh-on unreadable after being scaled up to 4K. Furthermore, all the action is locked to a steady 30 fps. While this doesn’t render the game unplayable, it is a jarring shift when switching from a contemporary game to this one.

Gameplay-wise, things are fairly solid. However, horseback riding, getting in and out of cover while shooting, and the transition from walking to running and back can be quite clunky at times. This is particularly so when you compare it with how modern games handle these mechanics. The inability to reassign controller buttons also adds to the impression that you are playing an old game. Amidst all this, it bears noting that the background score is timeless and incredibly cinematic.

Screen grab from Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 5. (Image: Rockstar Games)

So what’s the problem?

It was around the time that I saw a revolver sticking inelegantly through Marston’s coat in an incredible act of defiance towards physics that I got thinking. After all, it occurred only moments after I’d seen an entire section of landscape suddenly emerge on the horizon. Over the next 15 or 20 minutes, I was closely monitoring Marston’s surroundings and sure enough, spotted more scenery that was affected by some form of pop-in textures or another.

One of the first images of the PS5 devkit was leaked in November 2019 — which means at least some developers have had access to PS5 hardware for nearly four years. The PS5 launched in November 2020, which means it’s been around for nearly three years (major shortage of stock in the first year or so notwithstanding). The PS4 launched in November 2013 and the Pro variant dropped exactly three years later. What, you may well be asking at this point, is the purpose of furnishing all these dates?

It seems more than a little peculiar that Rockstar would opt to put out the port of a 13-year-old game for a 10-year-old console. Even more so when you consider 2018’s Red Dead Redemption 2 — alongside God of War and perhaps Uncharted 4: A Thief’s End, the pinnacle of what was possible on the PS4 — and how it looked, played and felt. That a decision was taken, consciously or unconsciously, not to bring Red Dead Redemption on par with the nearly five-year-old Red Dead Redemption 2 seems like a real missed opportunity.

A more cynical take is that this port is no more than a cash-in to keep the balance sheet on the up and up during a time when the company hasn’t put out a new game in almost five years. After all, and as per reports, Rockstar has been working on Grand Theft Auto VI since 2015 and is still hard at work.

Screen grab from Red Dead Redemption on PlayStation 5. (Image: Rockstar Games)

The silver lining

It’s easy to sit in judgment and cast aspersions on the intent and motive behind the actions of major league game developers and publishers. However, by focusing solely on what a particular move means for one set of gamers, it’s entirely possible to ignore the impact on a whole other cross-section of gamers.

Late last year, Nintendo published a set of findings on its demographics, in which it was revealed that a majority of Switch users are in the 20- to 30-year age bracket. Within this group, players aged between 20 and 25 years form the majority. While the Switch may initially have been targeted at younger audiences, there seems to be a conscious realization that the console has a wider appeal and that players who were minors when they first got the Switch, are now old enough to play more mature games.

By most accounts, the Switch port of Red Dead Redemption is performing just fine, and doing a fabulous job in introducing a whole new generation of gamers to John Marston, his friends and foes. Additionally, it appears to be facing none of the issues that plagued Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition on the console.

So where does all this leave us? Red Dead Redemption is an excellent game that, 13 years on, does stand up to scrutiny in some ways and fails in others. It retails at a rather high price point considering the multiplayer section has been lopped off, but if you factor in the presence of Undead Nightmare (a full-length open-world horror expansion to the game that I have not yet tried), it makes a tiny bit more sense. Only a tiny bit, mind you.

Ultimately, it’s best seen as a way for a new generation to try out a game, but unlike most remasters/remakes, the title is of little value to players who’ve already completed the game. It’s the same game (if slightly prettier) it was back in the day — which is a good and bad thing. Divisive, it most certainly is, but whether or not this is a move that pays off for Rockstar Games remains to be seen.

Game reviewed on PlayStation 5. Review code provided by publisher.