Skip to content


Red Dead Redemption Day#5: The Wide Open Western Skies

Day 5 is a lot of side quests mixed in with main plot. The main plot this time is building up nicely, and the side quests are a mix of mundane, stupid, and really interestingly mysterious. The characters are pretty good overall. But the real winner this is the landscape art. It is just pure beauty. Nothing better represents the old west spirit than the night sky and the twilight colors, and riding through the plains is maybe the most emotionally effective open-world experience I have ever had.  Spoilers within.

Today’s session starts with a rousing round of poker, which I suppose goes to show how much I want to be playing poker right now. I lose some but not much, and then I go to Bonnie for a new chapter: A Tempest Looms. We begin with a CS of Bonnie getting horses secure from a storm. A hand says that there’s a herd of cattle still out in the storm.  Bonnie needs the herd brought in to save the farm, so I have to round up the herd and gather the stranglers back. It’s another ride behind the cattle thing, although this time cows will wander off and I have to push them back to the group. I do so, but the count of the herd saved doesn’t seem to replenish when I add a cow back to the herd. I get the herd to a checkpoint, but then the storm spooks them and the cattle start running for a cliff. I stop most of them and lose one. I then lead them back, rounding up stragglers, to the farm. It’s a little annoying because Bonnie keeps yelling at me to do something even though I’m helping her out. Once the cattle are safe,  in CS she tells me I’ll be a good rancher someday.

I immediately choose to do another Bonnie mission: The Burning. In CS she tells me her father’s missing.  John agrees to look, I get control and follow her on my horse. She tells me her brothers all died but for one who became a banker and in her mind gave up his soul. She’s worried about her pa. We ride off road and see a CS of some dead people with a guy studying the carnage in the middle. It’s her dad, and he tells us rustlers killed some people.  Bonnie needs to get a wagon and I have to guard her on the way back to the ranch. I get control back and follow her. When we ride back, the barn is on fire. I immediately ride into it and get a failed screen for terrorizing the townsfolk by riding into them.  FUCK YOU GAME . Isn’t the fire terrorizing these people? I get to the barns successfully from restart and get off my horse to help this time. The CS shows that the barn is locked from the inside. I have to climb around outside up boxes and across balconies to get in.  The wonky cameras and controls make this painful but I do get in the barn. I open door with a triangle press and in CS Bonnie tries to go in but chokes on the smoke. I go back in and slap two horses to scare them out, and then clumsily ride the last one to safety.  In CS, Bonnie thanks me for saving the ranch. John says they owe him nothing since they already saved his life.

I leave for Armadillo as I have no Bonnie missions left. Boy, the twilight sky on the plains is gorgeous. On my ride, I see a stranger mission off the road. I approach and it’s a guy in a top hat overlooking a cliff. He knows me and knows the girl who got shot when I got shot; John doesn’t remember any of this. He wants John to advice a friend of his not to be unfaithful at Thieves Landing. It’s a little creepy but what the hell — it’s a new place to check out. I decide to ride there instead.  Wow, the stars actually twinkle at night. It’s crazy how pretty the landscape is. I find another stranger. He’s gathering flowers for his wife, and John agrees to help him find some. I finally get to Thieves Landing, and I see a guy talking to a prostitute. I approach and I have a choice to either encourage and discourage him. I choose to discourage him. John approaches and reminds him of his wife, and the guy agrees not to do it and walks away from the prostitute. I go inside and try my hand at liar’s dice, the game where you roll some dice in secret and then take turns betting how many of a number there are in all of the players’ dice. I win — it’s genuine but boring. I walk outside, and I save a kidnapping victim by punching a guy but then he blindingly fast shoots me.  I die and respawn all the way back at the farm. Damn it.

I leave my house and start riding. In the ranch, there’s a guy with a mission, but I accidentally run him over and lose it.  Oh well. Not feeling like riding, I take stage to Thieves Landing. I buy a quite expensive place to stay there and head out. I decide I’m going to try to solve some other stranger mission; they show up purple on my map. I go first to the solution for American something-or-other, but I can’t wayfind to the location. It’s in a chasm and I can’t seem to navigate out of it to the spot I’m looking for. I save a random treasure hunter during my search and then give up. I head back to Armadillo and watch a movie. It’s a cartoon about a remedy huckster getting into all sorts of trouble, sponsored by the Temperance Movement. I then go to do a Marshal mission. It is scarily called Hanging Bonnie McFarlane. In CS, I see her dad yelling at the Marshal that Bonnie’s missing.  Someone is calling the Marshal from outside. It’s a member of Bill’s gang. They have Bonnie and want to ransom her for Norman Deek, the guy we captured in the last Marshal mission. The guy rides off,  and John says they should make the trade.

I get control and follow the Marshal. On the ride, the Marshal again accuses John of being part of the government and John again claims he’s not and that he hates the government. They discuss justice – John believes in law with reason, while the Marshal believes in using raw force to create civilization, In CS, we get to the meeting place at Tumbleweed.  I’m to do the trade in the middle of the town. I get control and walk Norman to the center on the road to the gang. They of course don’t have Bonnie here and a fight breaks out. I die in the fight first time, but then kill these guys and head into the town looking for Bonnie. The gang hangs her as I enter, and I have to shoot the rope to get Bonnie down before she dies. I die once more entering the town and then shoot the rope and untie her. Some gang members are running away, but that’s the end of the mission.

I ride to a new place. I encounter a random wagon theft. I try to rescue the wagon and manage to get the wagon back but it flips over as I’m driving it back so I fail.  CHEAP. I find a grave of Pete Turner which ends the old woman’s request, although I really thought I would need to go back to her first. I get to the dowser’s mission’s house. In CS,  I approach the owner, but he pulls a gun on me.  I talk him down and he offers to sell the house for $200.  I don’t have that so I leave to get it. I go back to Armadillo, but there’s no poker right now so I save and that’s all for day 5.

Posted in Hardcore.

Tagged with .


0 Responses

Stay in touch with the conversation, subscribe to the RSS feed for comments on this post.



Some HTML is OK

or, reply to this post via trackback.