In honor of the first Red Dead Redemption coming to PS5 it's free to play on Playstation Plus Extra.
John Marston is a wannabe farmer, who has done some terrible things in his past (see Red Dead Redemption 2), while being a member of Dutch's gang of outlaws. Now his past has caught him, and he's forced to track down some old buddies. And of course to kill lots of people in the process. And unfortunately innocent animals too, especially horses and cows.
This game is not suitable for animal lovers. Right at the start of the game you have to kill some bunnies. And this theme goes on through the game.
In fact many of the trophies/achievements require killing animals. Kill one of each animal type, kill all the buffalos until they go extinct, kill 18 bears and so on. This was my second playthrough of the game, and this time I refused to do any of that...
Not to mention the still present trophy which requires killing a woman by placing her on the train tracks... But don't worry, this woman was evil! (as are all the scantily clad women in this game, who are asking for help on the roadside, so beware of them!)
Horses
There are lot of animals in Red Dead Redemption. There are almost no cars, so riding a horse to everywhere is a must. It gets really annoying really fast when you have to ride to same locations over and over. Thumb hurts from pressing X. And when you die you don't only have to do the mission again. You have to ride to its location again. Long, long ways.
Your horse can die from the bullets of your enemies, and unlike in Red Dead Redemption 2, there is no horse reviver. When the horse dies, it's gone forever, with no way to save it. In terms of gameplay this means nothing, because you can whistle for another horse straightaway.
And unlike in RDR2, you can't take care of your horse either. No grooming, no feeding, no patting. No nothing!
Cows
There are some missions about herding cows. But in two of them you have to try to stop them from committing suicide. If you fail, they will jump down from a cliff or run in front of a train. So if you don't want to see animals die, don't play this game.
Dogs
You can do some nightwatch missions with dogs in three different towns.
And then there's the Marston family dog, Rufus, who helps you in some missions.
Is Rufus a good boy? Probably, but John Marston surely isn't.
Chicken
There are chicken on farms. It's easy to run them over with your horse, so be careful. Sometimes dogs kill them... I was playing the horseshoe minigame, and when I finished it I found two dead chickens...
Water Allergy Is Real
Be afraid of water. Be very, very afraid of water. John Marston is infamously allergic to water. If he even touches water he will instantly die.
One time I was almost done with a gang hideout, all enemies were dead but I still needed to burn a couple of boats. I looted a box on a pier, and fell into water. Mission fail, and I spawned in a town long away. I was a bit pissed...
Luckily Jack Marston doesn't suffer from the same problem.
Bugs
Red Dead Redemption on PS5 is still a buggy game, as these pictures prove:
And taking the coach ride can lead to some dangerous driving...
Red Dead Redemption gameplay (PS5)
