20 Best Video Game Storylines Of The Decade (So Far)
9. Red Dead Redemption
It would have been easy for Rockstar, going into Red Dead Redemption, to give players an over-the-top spaghetti western that wouldn't have looked out of place alongside old John Wayne and Clint Eastwood movies. After all, the game's predecessor Red Dead Revolver was just that. Yet with the sequel, Rockstar instead attempted to craft an unconventionally serious experience that defied the clichés of the genre.
As a result, there's a real sense of variety to the story that you don't normally see in the genre, and the narrative deals with everything from your standard grave-robbing bandits to the supernatural phenomena present in the best Old West tales. Sure, there's still the classic rootin' tootin' cowboy antics, but they're treated with a seriousness and love for the genre that keeps the tone mature throughout.
What you're left with is one of the most definitive Western stories to grace any medium, never mind video games. With characters that have real emotional weight behind them, a great assortment of complex bad guys that you love to hate and, yeah, one of the most heartbreaking video game deaths this side of Final Fantasy VII, it's no wonder fans are waiting with baited breath for a sequel.