14 DAY TRIAL // Red Dead Redemption is a huge game. Just try to ride from one end of the map to the other some time. It's a long trek even if you never stop to help a stranger on the side of the road and even if you ignore all the small cities that pop up on the map with their important citizens ready to ask for a favor or send you on a mission.
And there are lots of things you can do, from hearing cattle to shooting hangman's nooses and playing cards. I'm certain that only the most hardcore of gamers will be able to finish the hunting challenges, collect all the weapons or get all the outfits. It's just that big a world and there's constant pressure of pushing the story forward.
But the developers at Rockstar can very easily make sure players see everything that the Red Dead Revolver world has to offer: deliver specialized bits in small packages for a lower price.
One can easily imagine a game, modeled after the GTA concept but more restricted in its geography, called Red Dead: Trapper, which deals with the life of a man whose main interest is in getting as many animals skinned in order to get their precious furs to traders. Of course, shooting bad guys can easily be included, with thieves threatening the camp or attacking shipments. But the focus would be on tracking animals, lying in wait and getting their coats.
The possibilities are extremely varied. There can be Red Dead: Card Player, where blackjack, poker and five-finger fillet, alongside other games of chance, become the center focus, with firefights built around duels and bar fights. Rockstar could also create Red Dead: Lawman, building a more narrative-driven experience around the quest of a man to make one town secure for its citizens.
It would take effort to create self-contained worlds and some players might prefer the bigger world of Red Dead Redemption but it would be a waste not to fully explore the Western world that Rockstar made successful with the current game.