2. The Characters
GTA V took a brave decision when it decided to have three protagonists in its new game. But it was one that paid off in spades. We got to experience the world of San Andreas through the fresh eyes of the up and coming kid (Franklin), got to suffer family life and the trials and tribulations of middle-age with a GTA character who "won" (Michael), and - and this is a stroke of genius on Rockstar's controversy-courting part - we got to live out all our sickest fantasies through the psychopathic eyes of someone who was probably insane (Trevor). But no matter how great each of these characters are, the fact remains that in the paragraph above I was able to describe them all to a tee in less then a hundred words. In Red Dead Redemption, you play as one guy: John Marston. He has a dark past, has committed terrible acts of theft and murder, but he's trying to be good. He's walking the straight and narrow for a wife he loves and a child who he wants to grow up to be everything he isn't. Now, when the game takes place, his family are taken from him and he's forced back into the life. It's a grudging thing at first - he swore to leave it all behind, to make good with his remaining years, but does he not laugh as he kills? Does he not cry for his love? Is he not as quick to hurt as he is to heal, as fast to shoot as he is to offer his time and help? I suppose I can describe John Marston perfectly in a few words: he is a man. A fully formed, completely three-dimensional man, and through him we see both the blinding acts of love and sacrifice, and the darkest blacks of selfishness and violence, that we're all inherently capable of committing.