Red dead

The actions of the Red Dead series of games take place in the last years of the American Old West ( 1834 - 1920 ). All games are a third-person shooter , but there are key differences.

A distinctive gameplay feature of the entire series is the ability of the protagonist, called "Dead Eye" ( rus. "Accurate eye" , ext. Transl. From English. - Dead eye ) - when aiming, the camera focuses on the enemy, and time slows down for a while (like with the “ Bullet Time ” effect), this allows the player to select places on the enemy and mark them there in order to hit him more precisely. After returning time to the normal course, the protagonist releases a flurry of bullets from the weapon into the enemy, in those places and in the order in which the markers were placed.

The protagonist of the first game, Red Harlow ( English Red Harlow ), is a combined image of various characters from the classic spaghetti western films. In particular, the character known as “A Man Without a Name”, played by actor Clint Eastwood in the spaghetti western series of films known as “The Trilogy of Dollars ” directed by Sergio Leone, “ For a Fistful of Dollars ”, made a big impact in creating the image of the main character. ( 1964 ), “ A Few Dollars More ” ( 1965 ), “ Good, Bad, Evil ” ( 1966 ). Also, the developers were inspired by the main character in the 1976 film “ Josie Wales - A Man Outlawed ”. In addition to the external similarities between Red and Eastwood's characters, they are similar in character - throughout the game, Red speaks very rarely, only when it is absolutely necessary and always in a few words. Red Dead Revolver is a fairly linear storytelling game . To add authenticity to the game, the effects of “ graininess ” and “ old film ” are used, and the soundtrack consists of many musical compositions of spaghetti western films of the 60s – 70s , including several compositions written by the famous Italian composer Ennio Morricone .

The second game, Red Dead Redemption , boasts a large, elaborate open world consisting of three large territories, which are a combined image of various regions of the southwestern United States and the North of Mexico , as well as differing in their unique geographical and climatic conditions. In addition to the main storyline and secondary missions, the player has the opportunity to do other things, such as hunting for wild animals, cleaning up gangster shelters, searching for treasures or simply exploring the world of the game.

Red Dead Redemption uses a moral system, from which players can receive a positive or negative level of “honor”. The player has several ways to increase the “honor” in a positive way, for example, to help strangers met or deliver to the sheriff alive the criminals whose heads have been awarded a reward. Bad fame will be obtained for committing all kinds of crimes, including for the murder and robbery of civilians. This system determines how people around you will respond to the main character.

The combat system and gunfights are an integral part of the games in the series. Players can hide behind cover, and use the auto sight or free scope when shooting. There is a variety of firearms, represented mainly by revolvers , rifles and shotguns of that era.

Red Dead Revolver

The first game in the series was released on May 3, 2004 on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox ^[3] . Red Dead Revolver is a linear adventure shooter in which the player progresses gradually along the storyline.

The plot covers the period from 1876 to 1885 and tells about Red Harlow, the son of a cowboy, a gold prospector and an Indian mother. The Red family was brutally murdered as a result of the betrayal of his father's partner, Griff, who later became Governor Griffon. Years after the death of his parents, Red matures and becomes a bounty hunter ; wandering around the neighborhood, he is looking for Griffon and the killers of his parents in order to take revenge.

It was originally developed by Capcom ^[9] , and the main elements were borrowed from the 1985 game - Gun.Smoke ^[10] . After having difficulties with the development of ^{[11], the} rights to the game passed to Rockstar Games ^{[12] [13] [14]} .

Red Dead Redemption

The second game in the series was released May 18, 2010 on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 ^[4] . In Red Dead Redemption , unlike the previous main game of the series, the narrative takes place in an open world with which the player can interact in every way and explore it. Most of the gameplay focuses on using the Dead Eye skill, which first appeared in Red Dead Revolver , but has been significantly improved and refined.

The game takes place at the very sunset of the era of the Wild West , in 1911 - 1914 . Protagonist John Marston, a former bloodthirsty thug, is forced to work for government agents to kill or capture his former accomplices, including his "old friend" Bill Williamson. If Marston does not, then his family will suffer. The hero is destined to overcome a huge distance from the western borders of the United States , where chaos reigns and unprincipled corrupt officials rule, and ordinary settlers wage an endless struggle for survival, visit Mexico , which is on the verge of a civil war , and get to civilized cities northeast of the great plains .

After the release of the game until the middle of 2014 was supported by Rockstar Games . Several add-ons were released, including the independent story-based addition Undead Nightmare in the fall of 2010 ^{[15] [16]} .

On October 11th in North America, October 14th in Europe and Australia ^{[17] [18]} and November 7th, 2011 in Russia ^[19] Red Dead Redemption: Game of the Year Edition , which includes the original game, Undead Nightmare , and also all previously released add-ons and bonuses, available only for pre-order the original game.

Gunslingers

A browser game for the social network Facebook , released in April 2010 during a marketing campaign, before the main game of the Red Dead Redemption series in May of that year ^{[20] [21] [22] [23] [24]} . Gunslingers is a duel game with RPG elements in which players compete face to face to gain experience points and unlock various achievements ^{[25] [26]} . Due to too large changes to the platform of the site in early 2012, the game became unavailable ^{[20] [27]} .

Undead Nightmare

Undead Nightmare is a standalone story add-on for Red Dead Redemption , which tells about the protagonist John Marston, who is looking for a cure for the zombie virus epidemic that swept through the American Wild West . The plot is not canonical, the action takes place in an alternative universe of the original game.

The add-on was released on October 26, 2010 on the PlayStation Store and the Xbox Live Marketplace and became available as a downloadable add-on for Red Dead Redemption ^[15] . November 23 in North America, November 26 in Europe and December 3 in Russia ^{[28] was} released on disk in the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare Collection ^[16] , which, in addition to Undead Nightmare , which does not require the main game, included a small Outlaws add-on to the End Co-Op Mission Pack , Legends and Killers Pack and Liars and Cheats Pack ^[15] .

Red Dead Redemption 2

The third main game of the Red Dead series. It was announced on October 18, 2016 , and was released on October 26, 2018 ^{[8] [29]} .

"Red Dead Redemption: The Man from Blackwater" ( Rus. Man from Blackwater ) - a half-hour short animated film directed by John Hillcote ^[30] , based on the game Red Dead Redemption and created on its game engine RAGE . It was originally shown on May 29, 2010 at 12:00 PST (20:00 UTC ) on the FOX channel. Later, on June 7, an expanded version of the movie, 1.2 Gigabytes in size, became available for download from the Rockstar Games official site ^[31] .

The games of the Red Dead series were well received by critics, especially the second part - Red Dead Redemption , which received a large number of high ratings and together has about 95% on the Metacritic and GameRankings sites, which makes it one of the highest rated games for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 . She has won many awards, including Game of the Year according to GameSpot and GameSpy . Reviewers praised the visual component, music, acting, the open world, the gameplay, and the plot of the game.

Sales

Sales of Red Dead Revolver as of July 2010 , according to Joystiq , in North America alone are 920,000 copies ^[48] , and about 1.5 million copies of the game have been sold worldwide, according to the publisher and distributor of Take-Two Interactive from March 12, 2008 ^{[49] [50] [51]} . According to VG Chartz website as of April 2016, exactly 2 million copies of the game were sold ^[52] .

Sales of Red Dead Redemption immediately after the release amounted to 5 million copies of the game ^[53] . In September 2011, already reached 12.5 million copies ^[54] , and already in August 2015 exceeded more than 14 million copies worldwide ^[55] . According to VG Chartz, as of April 2016, a little over 15 million copies of the game were sold, including Game of the Year Edition and Undead Nightmare Collection ^[56] .