Over Too Soon *RDR Spoilers Alert*

I am gonna be talking about Red Dead Redemption - if you haven't finished it yet - DO NOT LET YOUR EYES WANDER BEYOND THIS POINT!!!

This is a SEVERE SPOILER WARNING ALERT...in the event of an emergency....run away, hide your face in a pillow (preferably one that still lets you breath) and chant "I will not peek, I will not peek, I will not peek" until the emergency has passed and...you can safely return to your game, which in my opinion is where you should have been in the first place.

For those of you who have finished....read-on at your own risk (cause you know I am wackily opinionated and if you don't...you'll see *insert evil giggle here*).

So...off we go....I played single player....

The one thing that Rockstar's GTA 4 taught me - Crime doesn't pay. (Like in that, it will cost you more than you will ever gain)

Live By The Gun, Die By the Gun

Is the word "redemption" in a the title really a misnomer? Hell yeah! Okay...at least in my opinion. This should be called Red Dead Atonement or Red Dead Revenge....but "redemption"? I am thinking uh-ah, no.

A funny thing happened...screw it....a very WEIRD thing happened after Dutch:

I couldn't believe that Dutch simply stepped off a ledge and that was it.  I thought as he backed up that he was going fake it...he is sneaky prick after all....but....he didn't and that left me kinda just sitting there, character staring over the edge, for a few seconds. After all the chasing and the running he decided better to die a free (falling) man then swinging at the end of a rope stretching his neck. And I thought "dang, its over" but....it wasn't. That is where things went a bit weird...for me. John goes home. I had actually saved him some money thinking it might end with him purchasing cattle from Bonnie. I had also deliberately played John as a relatively peace abiding man. How else does a badass gain his redemption if not through greater acts? When John rides home to Abigail and Jack I figure "oh, now its over" but...it wasn't. We have to settle John back to domestic life.

Huh?

So that is where things fell apart for me. My John Marsten returns home with over $3000 in his pocket and I hadn't cashed in any of the gold bars yet either. Pretty rich. Apparently not. He was cheap bastard and for the remainder of his life in game I periodically listen to John bitch about how poor he is. While I am looking at what would have been a fortune - back in the day - in his pocket. So I am confused. If Rockstar can do wonderful little details like moths flitting around a lantern in Thieves Landing why can't they engineer that John ain't poor? He can read - just can't count? Just sat kind of odd on me.

Then you have to work at his relationship with his son Jack. And that wound up sitting poorly with me too. Yeah, Dad teaches him to hunt and then the foolish boy is off after a grizzly. Kids!!! But....he never takes his boy to Blackwater for a book or a movie. Never takes the boy for a stagecoach ride or a train ride into the big wide world he should be preparing the kid for. The only place he takes the kid to is to Bonnie's to get some cows. Are you yawning? You should be. So, yeah the redeeming of Daddy was a bit flat for me. The defending the silo from crows....oh my word....this is normalcy, this is what John is reduced to? I wanted to shoot him to end the pain. A brave new world is being born with carriageless horses, flight on it threshold and while John has had a taste of it...he is picking off crows to protect his corn? If I want a boring life I can turn off my 360 and get on with reality. Thanks Rockstar!

And then there is Uncle. I kinda liked my John but I couldn't control what he was saying to Uncle. He was mean and nasty, constantly badgering at the old man, he shamed me and I wanted to slap him. I started to not like John. He was cheap - he had money. He was a bad Dad - not preparing his boy for the ways of a new world but holding the kid in the old world because...I dunno, he was cheap? He was a bully. Who was he, a former outlaw married to a former whore to cast the stones at Uncle? As for his wife - he never bought her a hat or a bolt of fabric to make a pretty dress like a husband seeking forgiveness for what she'd been through might have, never did anything for her by even helping by fetching a pail of water for her. He insulted her food but I guess that was cute couple teasing. He handled the situation over Bonnie pretty good. Which brings me to the unrequited love - I kinda liked that little bit of regret on Bonnie's part as father and son ride off. I never really liked Abigail...and I had thought maybe she'd be killed and father and son would be left to fix all that was wrong in the world and father would have to stop son from riding after Abigail's murderers. So the violence would finally end. And Bonnie would come into play again and some of his other associates from the game as he went after his boy to stop him. Ah. No.

Anyway - when John dies in a hail of bullets - I am not sure I cared about him as much as I had and it didn't seem so sad. Thanks Rockstar!!! And I realized in his mode of death - you live by the gun, you die by the gun. I also realized - there is no redemption here. John never found the peace he sought. He never developed his ranch, never completely healed his relationship with his son. Got back his wife and son, maybe for awhile.

Failure. While people in Blackwater seem to think highly enough of him, he hadn't escaped like he had so desired. At least that is the shadow over him. He had changed for nothing, there is no reward or turning back for the wicked. Angels will not abide with those who have ever sinned. Unforgiven is not just a Clint Eastwood movie it is the reality of the Wild West. Oh....and crime does not pay. Ah-huh! Rockstar is developing a theme. If John had never lived the youthful life of crime....his ending might have been different as there was no past to be held over his head, no life of crime to atone for. Is Rockstar trying to prevent youth from embarking onto a life of crime by showing them that it has nothing to be gained but so much to be lost? Oh wow! Someone get on the line to Hilary Clinton that games might not be evil - they might be advocates against criminal activity by showing the youth the reality of how much it sucks.  

So, John lying in a pool of blood I think "dang, finally over" but...no. Seems you are now responsible for Jack (or John Jr.) and you can go after the government man who was responsible for Pa's death...and killing him. And its a strange process. You buried Ma, got to Blackwater, then to see the guy's wife, his brother and then finally to see him, it all takes awhile. Now are you bored? I am. Jack mentions a letter - which s-t-o-o-p-i-d me takes to mean a posthumous parden for his father - the holy-grail-redemption his father had sought. No. Just to kill him and when he does - Red Dead Redemption flashes across the screen. Huh? The act was revenge - not redemption. No one was redeemed in the killing, er, murder. Does it imply that Jack must now begin a path of redemption? What? Is this an advertisement, a built-in commercial for Red Dead Redemption ll??? I am confused!?!

I loved the outlaw John Marsten part of Red Dead Redemption. I was unimpressed and left flat by the domestic John Marsten and couldn't have cared less about murderer, Jack. It wasn't exactly a jumping of the shark kinda thingy - just like the fizz had gone out of my pop and it no longer tickled my nose. On the whole - I had fun. The ending? I will quote Marge Simpson. "Hmmmm" in that annoyed way she reserves for Homer because of my unsurety about the end.

If you liked my review....and you would like to read more....you can send me money....cause I'll write for money....promise.

Oh...hey up....did you notice how Rufus would bark continuously AFTER you'd left the hunt and were going home? How many of you, put up your hands, thought and perhaps shouted out loud "Shut the fuck up, Rufus!!!"? I am counting hands and yeah, I thought so. I wasn't the only one. Damn dog. And helloooo, a Golden Lab is usually a retriever not a tracker....now, give me a Blood Hound and yer talking and having a baying Blood Hound would have been different.

Is there different endings for RDR? I am gonna snoop the forum to find out....see yah.

And if you read this AFTER all my warnings....and it spoiled the game for youself.....don't be giving me the evil eye....cause.....jeez, you're kinda the dumb-dum.