Red Dead Redemption brings players to early 1900s America, where the line between civilization and a lawless country is a blurry tale of violence and friendship. Between exploring the vastness of New Austin on your horse and walking through the streets tipping your hat to fellow citizens, there’s a lot the game has to offer.
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It’s daunting to step into such a vibrant world without knowing where to go first or what to aim for during the early stages of the game. Fortunately, Red Dead Redemption offers you a lot of freedom, making the gameplay experience flexible and unique for each playthrough.
Explore The Wild West
It’s an open-world game set in the Wild West era. Of course, you’re going to do everything and go anywhere you wish to. However, it’s easy to lose yourself in Red Dead Redemption’s narrative and only focus on main quests. Avoid going for main quests even if you’re curious about what happens next in the game’s story.
The more you explore the game’s vast map, the more likely you are to cross paths with strangers, items, and elements of the wilderness that are waiting to be interacted with. If you’re having a tough time deciding where to go, simply get on your horse and ride in a single direction. Usually, you’ll encounter something interesting within a minute or so. Main quests are usually marked with a single letter (such as “B”). Even after the game ends, there’s a lot you can do, thanks to mods on PC.
Master The Basics Of Combat
There are three main components that make up Red Dead Redemption’s slick combat system. First, the Dead Eye targeting mode, which allows you to slow down time and accurately take out enemies. Second, using cover adequately, since being exposed can quickly lead to your demise. Third, switching between weapons to get a better idea of your play style. Each weapon has a distinct range, accuracy, and time to reload.
Furthermore, when aiming at an enemy, try to flick your mouse/analog stick a little upwards. This will ensure that you hit headshots more often, resulting in instant kills. If it’s a bounty you’re looking to gain without killing someone, simply shoot at their leg(s) and make sure you’re not too rough with them.
Go Hunting More
Hunting is a big part of Red Dead Redemption’s core gameplay loop. Whether it’s resources you’re looking for or simply honing your ability to be stealthy and get a kill, hunting encourages you to be a sharpshooter in the wilderness. Sometimes, you may even save a poor soul’s life from the clutches of wild animals by being at the right time at the right spot. This leads to an increase in fame and money.
You can hunt and skin animals, which allows you to sell items to a nearby merchant. Additionally, as you progress through the game, you may come across varying types of animals, and hunting one of every species will earn you the Unnatural Selection achievement in the game.
Looks Matter
Unlocking new outfits can keep you busy for a long, long time. Not only is it fun to get new clothes for John Marston (for vanity’s sake), it also boosts his stats in different ways. Simply pause the game for a bit and check which outfits you can unlock and how. Red Dead Redemption is straightforward with this, but you’ll only be able to unlock certain outfits after playing the game for a bit.
We recommend unlocking the Deadly Assassin outfit as early as possible, as it helps you regenerate your Dead Eye meter twice as fast. This will be exceedingly helpful in combat situations when you come across tougher enemies/situations once the game progresses.
Be Honorable
Being a trigger-happy outlaw who’s excited to shoot everyone and everything for no reason can be fun… but only for a while. After all, this affects your honor system, which is a way Red Dead Redemption judges your morality, and consequences follow accordingly. Staying on the right side of the law, being nice to people (and not hitting/shooting them for fun), helping strangers, and similar activities can help you boost your honor.
But, if you fall to the other end of things where the world is grim and full of crime, people won’t be so nice to you anymore. The police will hunt you down often, people will perceive you negatively, shopkeepers will raise their prices, and you’ll come across more bounty hunters who are after you.
Check Out The Challenges
Challenges are an integral part of the Red Dead Redemption experience, even though the game may not persuade you enough to do them. Simply head to your journal and check out all the challenges you can complete. These will range from Sharpshooter and Survivalist to Master Hunter and Treasure Hunter.
Completing these will reward you with minor to major upgrades like a better satchel, dead eye regeneration, new healing items and more. Since you don’t need to trigger world events all the time for these challenges, doing them at your own pace is the best way to go. This will allow you to freely explore the world while also having things to do.
Set Up Camp To Fast Travel
Since we’ve established how essential it is to explore Red Dead Redemption’s world, it’s also not a privilege to have all the time in the world to do the same. More often than not, you’ll want to travel to locations faster than usual. Thankfully, this is easier than going to a particular spot every time.
Simply open your inventory and make use of your camps. Sitting at camp will grant you the option of fast-traveling to a town you’ve visited earlier in the game.
Save The Game Often
There are going to be many situations in the game that’ll give you a choice. Given how morally ambitious John Marston’s journey can be, there’s a chance you may want to see how a story/quest ends in multiple ways. Or, maybe you made the wrong choice and now want to go back in time.
Well, saving the game is the answer to all such worries. You can rest at your campsite (or a bed that’s available) and save your progress. Then, return to it whenever you’d like to by loading the save file (you can do so from the pause menu). Making a habit of this can save you the pain of several emotions—especially the regret and guilt of experiencing Red Dead Redemption only once in your life.
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