Was the wait worth it? Let's see...
The premise
In RDR you take on the role of John Marston, an ex-outlaw now working for the federal government mostly against his will. His job is to capture his old partner in crime so he can resume his life with his wife and child (so no Hot Coffee for Mr. Marston). From this premise starts his quest for justice or revenge - depending on which way you want to look at it, or play it.
Marston can be a nice guy, helping people along, or he can be total bastard and outlaw who robs banks, trains and kills people. Of course the latter will incur a bounty sum on your head (unless you use certain helpers like, err, a bandanna).
Keeping on the right side of the law is up to the player, though it's easy to slip by mistake; sometimes telling a lawman from a bandit in the heat of a gunfight can be hard - and accidentally shooting a deputy will instantly make you a wanted man and get a $20 bounty on you. Killing an innocent will make this bigger. The only way to get rid of this is to visit the rail station and pay off the bounty with either money or a letter of pardon.
The game
RDR looks great and plays well (with or without auto aiming). With the game installed on the hard drive, there are only occasional hiccups when you ride blazingly fast from one place to another. Out of the two versions of the game, the Xbox 360 one looks better. Again. I wonder if the developers / converters will ever get the hang of PS3, or indeed quit taking shortcuts in the development.
As for the game itself; along with the around 20 hour main storyline you have an open world the like of which only Rockstar can provide. You can hunt, collect herbs, play poker / blackjack, throw horseshoes, tame horses, slice your fingers in a game of five finger filet, rob banks / trains, steal horses, bounty hunt, etc. There are tons of side quests, strangers to help, etc. Towns are full of people acting like you'd expect people to act in 1908 west - along with whores, drunkards, fights and even the occasional rape or murder you can prevent if you're so inclined. Though I suggest you lay off the booze if you want to be of any use; it'll just corrupt any man who touches it... ;)
You can fist fight, knife people, use your pistols and rifles, lasso horses or people, etc. The only thing you can't do is swim. Don't try it (though getting killed isn't much of a deterrent - there's not much of a death penalty in RDR).
The game is, in essence, Grand Theft Auto in the Wild West. All this coupled with great voice acting, a good musical score and an interesting storyline makes for of the best games of 2010 (I'd have this contending for the Game of the Year with Mass Effect 2 if there aren't any more surprises this year). R* delivers, again.
Limited Edition differences:
In Europe, well most of scandinavia anyway, nearly everyone preordering got a "Limited Edition" instead of the normal one. What's the difference? A cartboard slide-in cover for the normal DVD box and a code that you can download a few extras with: the war horse (faster, more stamina), golden guns (extra fame) and an deadly assassin outfit that you can get after completing half a dozen or so missions in game.
After the code is used, you're left with the cartboard covers, so there's zero extra resell value for the LE version. Currently the extras are not available for the regular version owners, but there's a rumor they might be available for purchase later.
Score: 9/10
