Ever since it entered the 3D realm, the GTA series has focused on comedy, satire and parody. This has helped it create some memorable characters over the years, and yet the greatest ones are arguably from the older games. Lance Vance, Tenpenny, Ken Rosenberg, CJ and Tommy Vercetti are icons of the series, while the recent games have lost some of that old magic. The writing and humour of GTA is as great as ever in the fifth entry, but the characters - even the protagonists - are all superficial and dislikable. The Red Dead Redemption cast weren't as garish, colourful or comical as the GTA lot, but man, were they a fascinating bunch - all with some dark, usually tragic, story to tell. From the no-nonsense, 'I just want a simple life' protagonist John Marston, to the archaic Marshall Johnson, right through to the 'lighter' characters in travelling salesman Nigel West-Dickens and Gollum-like graverobber Seth Briars, the frontier-folk have a world-view that's starkly in contrast to our own. Death hangs over everyone and everything in the old west, and conniving and deceit are crucial survival tools, rather than a way to get rich quick - which is the ever-present theme running throughout GTA. Characters in Red Dead Redemption were dirty, brutal, yet somehow dignified. They make most of GTA's characters look vapid by comparison, and we want to see more of them. Maybe Rockstar can then take inspiration from them to make the GTA VI cast more intriguing.
Gamer, Researcher of strange things.
I'm a writer-editor hybrid whose writings on video games, technology and movies can be found across the internet. I've even ventured into the realm of current affairs on occasion but, unable to face reality, have retreated into expatiating on things on screens instead.
