Red Dead Redemption

I don't even remember how long it has been since I posted something... normal! I deleted the latest two entries as they didn't serve the purpose anymore (I hoped I could simply hide them but Blogger doesn't allow such option) and it's high time to come back to this blog with something fresh. I wish I could update more often and I miss drawing immensely, yet my studies eat up most of my time now. This semester isn't going to be easy but I think I'll be able to pull through.

Anyway, if you don't care about Red Dead Redemption, you probably won't like this post! And if you don't know the game, you definitely shouldn't read it - 'cause spoilers! But I wanted to talk about it for a while now, so let's make that happen.

Red Dead Redemption is by far my most favourite game. Nothing comes close to it! It has absolutely everything I ever wanted to play through - and much, much more, including the hilarious glitches. I learned about it in Fall 2015, when one of my best friends, Sarah, started talking about it on her Twitter. No matter what I say, I'll never be able to thank her enough for that! This post may prove it why, hopefully. I also recall seeing this in Jim's gallery, guess I never read the description, though. Besides, RDR came out in a period when I didn't pay much attention to video games. I'm still not a gamer by any means - there are very few titles I'm interested to play. Also, RDR never received a Polish translation, which might explain why it was never very well known in Poland. I'm actually thankful for this because the western slang wouldn't have sounded well in my language and the atmosphere would have suffered from that.

Red Dead Redemption has had a vast emotional impact on me, and for those who played it, I probably don't have to explain why. The story is so sad and gripping, the ending is phenomenal, the main hero is excellent in terms of character development, the other characters are unique and memorable, the open world is immersive and full of life... I could go on and on, haha. I enjoy both the main campaign and the stranger missions so much! To me, all of the side quests add a lot to the atmosphere of the main story, which alone is very eerie. I love them all but my top favourites include Flowers for a Lady, American Apetites and California. I remember how shocked I was when I completed them for the first time. They were a perfect introduction to the Red Dead universe, which includes a lot more situations like that!

And the music? I freakin' adore it, every single track. Here are some examples of what I like in particular:

I could show you a lot more but I don't want this post to turn infinite, haha. I'm impressed how much work the developers put into the musical score - it was absolutely worth it. This may sound a bit odd but playing Red Dead Redemption has a soothing effect on me. It works like a therapy! All the beautiful music combined with western landscapes help me to relieve stress and make me genuinely happy. Sometimes I catch myself wandering aimlessly on my horse, just to be able to listen to the soundtrack and admire the view. This reminds me, however, that I didn't like the West Elizabeth music at first - I felt like it was too tense and it freaked me out! But it grew on me after a while and I have to admit it fits the atmosphere of the last chapter perfectly.

It's also worth mentioning that I bought RDR with NO intention to complete a single mission! Prior to that, the only thing I ever did in Rockstar games was goofing around - setting everything and everyone on fire in particular (my favourite pastime in games, you know). When me and my little brother installed Red Dead Redemption, he started completing the main campaign and I just watched him play. He often skipped the cutscenes, so I didn't really know much about the story. Whenever it was my turn to play, I usually took care of gathering resources. I remember when we accidentally killed our horse. The first time is always the worst! It was the stallion from Bonnie MacFarlane and I was SO devastated because I thought we would never be able to get that horse breed again, haha. My little brother finished the first chapter and then came back to GTA V, his fav game.

That's when I took over! We Shall Be Together in Paradise was the first mission I ever completed in this game. It was also the first time I got interested in console gaming - something I had very little experience in before. I was absolutely terrible at it back then (I still am, kind of!) and died like 20 times but felt extremely proud when the mission was done, hahah. I quickly moved on to further missions and that's when I fell in love with RDR. My entire family left for 3 days and I was home alone - having not much else to do, I took the chance and enjoyed the game to the fullest. Whenever I picked up the gaming pad, Marcel would come to me, jump on the couch and sleep behind my back. He was alive back then! You see, one of the main reasons why I'm so fond of Red Dead Redemption is that I have amazing memories associated with it. It takes me back to those times... Me and Marcel spent the last month of his life closer to each other thanks to this game - because normally he didn't sleep next to me, he had his own favourite spots. I love and miss Marcel so much.

I finished the last mission soon before my family returned. Told my little brother what happened to John Marston and we were both extremely sad about it. Then I started playing as Jack Marston... and you know what? I like this character. There's lots and lots of people who hate him - and I can see where this comes from, his voice and quotes are so much different than John's. But once I got past the "Work, ya damn nag!!!", I was able to relate to him and understand why he is the way he is. He's a very believable character and Rockstar did a good job on him in my opinion! My favourite character is undeniably John but Jack is totally okay too. And what is my favourite chapter? There's no doubt they're all very good; at first I thought Mexico but now I'd probably pick New Austin. I beat the game twice but, as I mentioned earlier, I started from the second chapter when I played it for the first time. Out of three chapters, New Austin is the most 'friendly'! I like the supporting characters a lot (some of my faves include Seth Briars, Nigel West Dickens and Leigh Johnson), I like the variety of missions, I like the environment and background music. But as I said above, all chapters are very good and each one of them is unique.

Similarly to the fact that I had no plans of completing missions in RDR, I wasn't interested in playing through Undead Nightmare at first. I thought it wasn't going to work - cowboys and zombies seemed like a ridiculous combo for me. Boy, was I wrong! I beat it twice as well and I adore it nearly as much as the base game. My favourite things about it are the chance of another redemption for John, the apocalyptic atmosphere and, of course, the music. I was quite surprised that UN has its own, unique musical score. Only few tracks from the original game have been reused as far as I can tell. What I like is that many of them sound similar, yet in UN they were turned into somewhat sadder/scarier tunes. Awesome! I tend to be a bit of a coward sometimes, so this game gave me actual nightmares, haha. And you know what? I say bring them on. I feel the need to come back to Undead Nightmare once in a while, so there definitely will be more. I played it during the Winter holidays for the first time - the best Winter holidays in my life so far, thus I'm very fond of the memories I have with this game! 

If I wanted to show you my top favourite tracks from UN, I'd probably have to paste at least 20 videos here, so I'll limit myself to just one this time:

My little bro never beat Red Dead Redemption because he's a dedicated fan of GTA V - but he likes and appreciates it a lot too. We both agreed that it was the key factor to strengthening our friendship! We started spending a lot more time together since we got RDR, not just playing it, but in general. We talk much more often than we used to and I'm happy to know that he trusts me enough to tell me his biggest secrets. Whenever I get the chance to be at home, we are practically inseparable. It turns out we have a lot more in common than I previously thought. And my brother often tells me "You need to thank Sarah and Jim for all of this" and I say "I will". Thank you!! Now you know why I keep repeating that, haha!

Red Dead Redemption has also led me... to The Sims 4! Here's what happened: I was watching a RDR funny moments video on YouTube - I have to admit that particular one was quite obnoxious - but the person who made it had other series too. One of them was TS4 let's play and I enjoyed it a lot, enough to want the game for myself. It was (and still is) rather expensive, though, so I asked my dad to buy it as a late birthday gift for me. I didn't expect him to actually do it. He hates video games! And he almost never buys me any gifts, so receiving The Sims 4 from him was like a small miracle for me, haha. It's still one of my and my little brother's top favourite games, and definitely the most hilarious one. Whenever we play it, we never follow the classic Sims' scheme: finding girlfriends/boyfriends or having kids don't interest us at all. Instead, we do the most ridiculous things that come to our minds, including (what else!) setting everything and everyone on fire. Even though TS4 has many negative reviews, I still love it and it played a big role in my current life - once again, bringing me and my bro closer together. I have tons of great memories with it, too. All of this wouldn't have happened without Red Dead Redemption, though.

I tried to draw John Marston but, unsurprisingly, the result wasn't good! I might try it again someday. In the meantime, I brought some of the characters and buildings into the world of The Sims 4:

Beecher's Hope:

Church inspired by Coot's Chapel:

 

John Marston:

Abigail Marston:

Jack Marston (with pizzah!):

Seth Briars (I'm actually proud of how he came out!):

And José Rodríguez, my Multiplayer skin:

There will be more, I just don't have enough time to play these days. Those were so fun to do! I will also make a Photobucket/Dropbox folder with my best TS4 screenshots. I have a huge collection of them and each one reminds me of something different. Still, I have 3 more things to share with you:

If you keep track of my Photobucket or Twitter, this one probably reminds you of something I've already drawn. And if you don't, check out this and that! The truth is, this post was supposed to happen in Spring but I ran out of time and couldn't finish those. After a while (well, several months) I decided to draw them again, so here they are. I struggle with original RDR characters, so I figured out I can send my own to the Red Dead universe. I imagine boatswain would be one of those treasure hunters you bump into once in a while. Poor hygiene, obsession with gold, mischievous behaviour... sounds like boatswain indeed!

Captain would be a Mexican bandito, a member of a gang drawing inspiration from Robin Hood. Needles to say, he'd be a pain in the neck for all of them! I guess the only thing stopping the gang from kicking him out would be his pure heart.

Admiral would be an unpopular authority figure - so basically the same person he is in his own universe, haha. By the way, he doesn't have moustache anymore, I got rid of it a while back. It bugged me for years because I don't want him to look like a French stereotype, it doesn't even make sense since he is so Polonized. At this point he's anything but a French stereotype!

The way I gushed about Red Dead Redemption in this post is probably awful already but I want to talk about one more thing before I finish: Red Dead Redemption 2. Ay Dios mio, words can't describe how excited I am for it! Before it was officially announced, I had been checking the News section in Google almost every single day. It won't come out for another year, yet judging from the teaser it's going to be worth waiting for. It's a Rockstar game, after all! And looks like we will receive another vast, beautiful world, atmospheric music and serious storyline. I personally hope RDR2 won't be too similar to GTA V - I'd rather see the main focus on the Singleplayer campaign and only one playable character. Or maybe two but only if one of them is a Native American, I think that would be amazing! And even though I hope the plot to be serious, it would be great to see a small joke/laugh here and there. The first RDR has a perfect balance between these two, hopefully they'll stick to it.

This post was originally going to be much longer but enough is enough. I'll shut up now, it's time to go to bed! Thank you if you made it to the end!