Red Dead Redemption reviewed on Xbox 360 by Harry Neary. Game supplied for review by Rockstar Games

We cut Rockstar Games a lot of slack for the first outing of its open world series on the current gen of consoles. Grand Theft Auto IV was very good - much better than many other games on the market. But it was a little dour, lacked the sparkle and fun of previous games in the series and had us going bowling with our deadbeat cousin way too much.

Thankfully the DLC that followed improved things immeasurably. The Ballad of Gay Tony saw Rockstar return to form and provided that GTA silliness we know and love. How has Rockstar followed that fabulous release, is Red Dead Redemption merely just GTA on horseback, a collection of cowboy cliches and an open world that feels like a very empty one?

Not at all. Red Dead Redemption doesn't go the GTA route of being a parody and often just a ripoff of famous cinematic moments. Instead the tale of John Marston carves out a legend of its own, a tale worth telling wrapped up with beautiful cinematography.

Yes the GTA elements are there - you can tie a woman up and leave her on the railroad tracks if you like. Yes you can shoot everyone you meet even though in the next cut-scene Marston will be playing his friendly old self once again. However few movies are this well acted and plotted, let alone videogames.

Marston isn't your miserable GTA style hoodlum. He's actually a surprisingly warm man. A former outlaw sure, but he's made a new life for himself with his wife and child. But now the federal government, something many of the characters in the frontier state of New Austin fear, is making moves westward. Marston's family are being held ransom - the price, he must track down and bring to justice members of his former gang.

The story is suffused with interesting themes, from the nature of freedom and the encroachment west of big government. From how we can be free of our past, and can we redeem ourselves. Faith and redemption plays a big part in the game. Some of the strangers that Marston meets and you can choose to help or hinder ask big questions of who Marston is, what choices he makes and what effects these will have.

But some of you are probably more interested in how the shooting works, whether you can go on a bloody rampage and the like. Well the shooting works very well indeed, the cover system seems well suited to the slightly slower pace of western gunfights compared to the urban uzi conflicts of GTA. The Dead Eye system, which increases in complexity throughout the game offers players a chance to carry out those fabled gunslinger moves, slowing down time so you can kill six men with a loaded revolver or shoot a gun from someone's hand.

There's a broad variety of missions, from simple matters of violence, some are oddly moving and require no gunplay, others are unsettling and border on something from a horror movie. Using the lasso is great fun - there's nothing like dragging a bounty target back to justice, hog-tied and ready for the judge. Across the board the acting is excellent, as is much of the writing, with only a few missteps along the way.

The game is split into three areas, the frontier towns of New Austin is where your adventure begins, followed by Mexico and finally the plains and cities of The North. The latter is somewhat small compared to the other two - but manages to pack in more eye candy so the balance doesn't seem too unequal. The whole world is a very beautiful one, it's one which you'll enjoy exploring, looking for treasure while bathed in a glorious sunset. Or you may be caught in a nighttime thunderstorm while fighting off a pack of wolves. As in 2009's big cinema hit Avatar we're presented with an amazing world we're sad to leave. I've never wanted to spend a real minute of my life in Liberty City, but I'd happily spend time on the McFarlane's ranch.

Multiplayer is a lot of fun, though I think the method of starting it up is a mistake. You must connect to a public free roam game before making any choices. If there's a connection issue you're dumped back into the loading screen and from that point I've never seen the game make a successful re-connection. This is a strange choice of starting point given you can enter such a free roam session then change it to a private one. Wouldn't it have been better to let us start a private game then choose how we want to connect to the world?

>

Connection issues aside Red Dead Redemption is a massively fun game that offers plenty to think about along with plenty to do. I've spent hours playing poker in the game's saloons for example, enjoying this small part of RDR much better than any of the specialist poker games I've ever had to review. I've spent time picking flowers to give to an old woman. I've scrambled around looking for treasure. I've herded stampeding cattle in a thunderstorm. I've fought quickdraw gunfights with famous gunslingers. I've fired a massive Gatling gun from the back of a coach. I've had an immense amount of fun.

Red Dead Redemption is one of those rare games that really does live up to the hype. This is a beautiful, fun, funny, exciting, deep, long-lived, moving, violent, thrilling western adventure that I hope will be with us for a long time. I'm hoping we'll get some episodes from the frontier to enjoy in the year ahead. For now I'm happy to have played, and now replaying, what is likely to be 2010's best game.

Buy Red Dead Redemption from Amazon