I’ve completed the main storyline of Red Dead Redemption.

First, a caveat. As a lover of both spaghetti westerns, and The Dark Tower series by Stephen King, I’m predisposed to enjoying nearly anything that involves a gunslinger. I really feel, however, that this game overshadowed that predisposition with its inherent awesomeness.

The landscape is wonderful, and it goes on forever. Everything that you can do is a game unto its own. There’s hunting. There’s gambling. There’s horse breaking. There’s ranching, bounty hunting, flower picking, train jumping, cadaver dragging, animal husbandry (not really), and the list goes on. I’ve spent at least 3 hours just playing poker because I like the thrill of cheating at cards without getting caught, especially when a gunfight is the “punishment” for failure.

Sure, many of the missions are variations of staple classics. DeadEye (read: BulletTime) makes it all better. Lining up 22 separate rifle shots in slow motion and then giving your character the go ahead to unleash hell as you watch rustlers turned out of saddle, thieves flung over balconies, and murderers dropped into the dirt makes the task of, “Go here, kill these” much more entertaining than it should be.

Lassoing and hogtying people? So much fun. Placing their hogtied body on the train tracks and watching the results. Interesting.

This game is both THE sandbox game and THE “western” game. If you have an interest in either and haven’t played this yet, you’re missing out.