Red Dead Redemption Free Roam Not What It Should Be

Action games have been incorporating RPG and MMO elements into their games with mixed success for several years now.  And, the practice of doing so has been relatively well-received by gamers near and far.  No surprise then when Rockstar announced Red Dead Redemption's "Free Roam" gameplay, which puts players in the single-player's game world and lets them wander about.  Unfortunately, much of what was promised originally never made it into the Free Roam gameplay, and that's why it just doesn't deliver the solid punch it would have otherwise.

At the core of this failure is the lack of an economy.  Free Roam doesn't allow players to collect money like in single player.  Instead, the only thing players accumulate is XP, which then allows them to unlock better mounts, titles, and weapons.  The biggest problem with this move is that it limits the replayability.  If players simply have to reach the level cap to get access to the best weapons, outfits, mounts, and titles, then there is no reason to keep playing after you max out your experience points, at least not from a character progression standpoint.

Free Roam also lacks much of the depth the single-player world has.  For example, there are no trains to hijack, rob, or save.  Killing animals can still be done but you cannot skin their hides and sell them for money.  There is an apparent lack of NPCs and so towns like Armadillo feel empty and barren.  Essentially, there is just less of everything--a watered-down version.

This doesn't mean it isn't fun though.  There are a number of "gang hideouts" placed throughout the map that you can take on with your friends, but once you've completed them, they are the same over and over.  And, if you do find an innocent NPC to kill, doing so usually means having lawmen NPCs come after you, which can be entertaining for a while, but you and friends can only hold them off for so long before getting bored and letting them kill you so your wanted level goes away.

In the end, free roam is a great step in the right direction, but a very small one.  It definitely proves that gamers are ready for this style of gameplay.  Frankly, I'd love to see them develop on it using DLC.  Time will tell.