Misfortune abounds, as the dastardly hurtles of man's frail body trip us up on our journey. This is Bryan here, and my partner now lies dead. It was lynchotis, I think, but his body is so eaten up by the darned maggots that it's hard to tell at this point. No, really, Stephen has run into a recurring medical issue that makes him both distracted and grouchy, (it's annoying, you see, as it impairs his hearing) so we've been forced to delay our escapade into the riveting realm of Red Dead Redemption. Our travels did extend somewhat since we last wrote into this journeybook, however, so I shall relate what happened last evening to the best of my ability. (Or at least somewhere in that area.)
Marley was dead. Dead as a doornail. This was the west, though, so it didn't much bother us. We didn't even know who Marley was. Instead, we were strolling into the Marshall's office to find ourselves some work. When the custcene started playing, however, we had to take a brief break, so we paused the unfolding events (a wonderful and all-too-uncommon feature Red Dead has), leaving a striking scene suspended in motion. The actual activity was pretty mundane, just a couple of deputies striding into the office, but something about the detail of the scene looked almost exactly like a movie if you squinted a bit. We marvelled at the detail for quite some time, as it looked considerably better than the rest of what we'd seen. But when the time came to resume, the magic disappeared with the press of a button, never to be seen again. What it was about that one moment, be it the play of the lighting, the angle of the camera, or the subtle placing of the objects, I don't know, but it conveyed a sense of subtle, movie-like realism that transcended the surrounding world. In a word: weird.
But we had a job to do, and gazing at picturesque scenes of western life wasn't part of it. There were rustlers, see, and they were killing people left and right; it was our job to ride with a posse and put an end to the shenanigans. After finding several camps full of dead folks we came to a seemingly abandoned farm. A bit of searching dispelled that myth, however, as we came upon a barn filled with bloodied corpses, complete with one hanging via a noose from the rafters. Things were looking grim indeed, and soon gunfire exploded from the nearby manor, prompting us to charge the ruffians and take the house by storm. Most of this was easy work, except for the final part, where we burst into a room and fired off a shotgun at the final offender. The problem was, he was holding a hostage in front of him at the time, and the shotgun really wasn't the best choice of weapons. Starting over, we charged the house again, this time aiming to shoot the gun out of the varmint's hand. He didn't seem to care, and proceeded to shoot the hostage. Once more, we took it to the villains and burst into the room a third time, succeeding this time and shooting our target dead and saving the lady from his foul clutches.
Things weren't over yet, and after taking a verbal thrashing from the survivors (they were none too happy about what the law was allowing around these parts) we rode off to chase down Bill and his gang, who were apparently behind it all. One thing led to another, and soon we were involved in a massive shootout. This led to a really fun use of the Dead Eye target-painting mechanic, as we were taking men off their horses one after the other. So far combat hasn't presented much of a challenge, but it's the type of game where that's okay. While we're hoping to see more of it as time goes on, that shouldn't be a concern, as the game has been steadily increasing the doses since the start.
Our duty was done, and we even got a hostage out of the whole thing. The day was growing late, and we decided to take a quick rest in our prized house, which was only a short bit away. After this we rode off to the east, stopping to help a few lawmen capture a bandit roaming our property. We came pretty close to shooting the lawmen too, but figured they could go as long as they made haste. After this we rode into Armadillo, finding a man wailing about his lost wife. Always ready to help out those in need (providing they're not on our property at the time) we took the task upon ourselves, galloping off into the deserts to locate the woman. All we succeeded in finding was a pile of blood, a shoe, and what looked like a strange arm. We came to a startling conclusion when we combined this with two other parts related to this side quest.
1. The quest had included finding somebody's son as well, and we had found the same remains.
2. The quest was called "American Appetite".
I then floated the idea that something, or someone, was eating these people. Stephen then suggested that it was a group of wild cannibalistic Indians... not "American Appetite"... "Native American Appetite". With this chilling fact firmly in mind, we rode out of the creepy wilderness and back onto the road. By this point we were nearing the man who wanted to search for water on our property. It was at his prompting that we bought the land in the first place, and we figured if somehow he merely wanted to use the property for a water spring, and not take it from us or anything, it should be okay. With caution, we approached his campsite. To our utter horror, however, we handed the deed over via a cutscene, and got in return no more (or little more) than we'd paid for the property in the first place. In a fit of rage I lassoed the dastardly man to the guy and let off three rounds into his gut, and, victorious, looted the deed back from his now-dead body. But Stephen objected to this, saying that killing a man for the property would only make it haunted... or something. After a good bit of bickering we at last came to the agreement that neither of us would have agreed to approach the camp if we'd known we'd be forced to give the deed up, so we reloaded in old save, forcing us to do a bit of stuff over again, but keeping our conscience clear of any cold, intentional murders... for now, anyway.
During our travels we also met a lady next to a burned down building who wanted us to find "her Peter", who was in a bar in Thieves' Landing, a town we have yet to visit. She seemed... rather confused. She was elderly and in a white dress, insisting that we needed to find Peter for her to have her "perfect day". My theory is she's been waiting for this wedding for decades at this point, and Peter has never shown up, so we'll go into town to find out Peter has actually been dead for some time. Maybe she's even a ghost or something, and cannot find rest until we kill the necromancer who has Peter's soul trapped within a magical lantern, named the Vial of Nagranth. But this is all pure speculation, of course.
Though it took some time, we came to the old farm at last, and helped the locals out by saving their horses from a burning barn, after which we engaged in a pretty dull game of horseshoes. With the stakes only at $1, there wasn't much keeping us invested in the game, and we soon quit, deciding instead to hit the hay (figuratively, even though the literal form would be possible in this environment) and call it a day. (In the real world.) After saving, however, we did what is proper in any game that gives you this choice. We went on a murderous rampage through the farm, sending the populace fleeing in panic. We were quite impressed at how the farm had completely cleared out before we nearly had a chance to actually kill every one, as opposed to most games were civilians will run haplessly about in circles just waiting to get slaughtered. We proclaimed ourselves the "Knife Rider", perched atop our horse with keen blade in hand. Our night came to its end when, in a search for something to kill, we came upon the man who wanted our property (who was alive in this save file) and murdered him. The Knife Rider's work was done; justice had been served.
But for now, our journeys have come to a halt. Hopefully they can resume in the near future, as neither of us have an inkling of a desire to stop playing through this extraordinary game. We'll just have to hope for the best. G'bye.
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