The Digest: What could have been the package that extremely improved online play for Red Dead Redemption, has instead fallen way beyond its expectations and let down its audience. There are no legends here, just a killer opportunity wasted.

THE FACT SHEET

RELEASE DATE: August 10th, 2010
PUBLISHER: Rockstar Games
DEVELOPER: Rockstar Games
GENRE: Sandbox, Action-Adventure
ESRB RATING: “M” for Mature
PRICE: 800 MS Points

PRODUCT OVERVIEW:

• New Achievements
• Nine New Competitive Multiplayer map locations
• Brand New projectile weapon: The Tomahawk, with corresponding Challenges for Single Player and Multiplayer
• Eight New Multiplayer characters from Red Dead Revolver featuring Red Harlow, Annie Stoakes, Mr. Kelley, Jack Swift, Buffalo Soldier, Shadow Wolf, Pig Josh and Ugly Chris

Rockstar’s hugely anticipated “Legends and Killers” package has finally arrived, adding various new additions to the western sandbox; however it’s not as enchanting as you might have been lead to believe. Before I say anymore, it would be better if I picked this package apart piece by piece, so you yourself can evaluate if it’s worth spending your Microsoft points on it. The first and most interesting aspect about this DLC pack when announced was the chance to encounter nine new locations. What the charming chaps at Rockstar didn’t tell us till a week before it came out was that these maps are for the competitive modes and not free-roam. While I am not a huge fan of the competitive modes on Red Dead Redemption; I willingly dove in to see what Rockstar had added.

The maps featured are taken from the Single Player and Free-roam locations set in Blackwater, Tall Trees, Thieves Landing, Fort Mercer, Punto Orgullo, Escalera, Rio Bravo and Manzanita Post; so nothing new in theory. While they do add a fresh look to such games as Grab the Bag and Capture the Gold, this is all they do for most of the maps. Tall Trees is one of the larger maps, meaning the unholy act of spawn camping is unlikely to happen to you. Although I am a really big fan of this location in single player, the concept of using it in a competitive modes felt really out of place and almost randomly placed into the selection. Escalera on the other hand is a fine example of a well picked location, thanks to its ever changing environment. One minute, you and your team could be held up in the general store shooting off the other gang and the next; you can be climbing up the hill and shooting at an emery team fleeing from the bar exit.

Thieves Landing is a rather grim and dark location; allowing sneaky players like myself to slowly target their foe and then unload on them when they least expect it. However the map itself is very cramped and tight, meaning that if playing in a team based event; you can become spawn trapped and take a lot of shotgun rounds to face. Fort Mercer I found to be an incredibly enjoyable map for team based events, but is truly unforgiving in single player events. If there is a map which determines what sort of player you are in the future, Fort Mercer will unfortunately become the breeding ground for spawn campers.

Rio Bravo, Hennigan’s Stead and Punto Orgullo are complete and utter torture to play on, since you spend more time trying to climb up the steep locations than you do killing someone. Whistling for a horse quickly blows your cover unless and you can expect to see more than one person of the enemy team coming along to claim a kill. Once you are finally in a spot which you can benefit from, you will have to then search for people to kill since the maps are enormously open spaced. Blackwater is differently a hit and miss map, since everyone literally races to the top of the buildings, because whoever gets the best riffle location has pretty much won the game for their team. Since you spawn with limited items; you become poorly covered targets.

Finally we have Manzanita Post, possibly the most well thought-out map featured in the package since both stealth and rushing can be achieved based upon who you play and what game mode. The cabins are completely unguarded unlike the maps in Armadillo, meaning people won’t have a chance to spawn trap (A common and reappearing feature in this review). Along with this, Gatling guns and watchtowers have been added to small area; allowing even more chaos and intense action to take place. If there is one map to play on, it is this one and certainly the map to prove yourself online and with expert settings on. With this said however, the maps haven’t really changed the way I look at these game modes. Spawn trapping and rage quitting still happens a great amount of the time I played and yet you are not rewarded for staying in the game while the quitters and cheats get away with it. Hopefully Rockstar makes a future update to fix the rather poor spawn system they have in place as well, because I am getting tried of earning a large kill streak then allowing enemies to get a rather easy pop at my head from behind.

Also featured in this DLC pack is the newest weapon; the Tomahawk. While it was rumored from day one that the Tomahawk was meant to have been in the game, it’s nice to see it finally makes an appearance and certainly looks good up-close and in someone else’s face. The weapon itself comes with its own set of challenges, including a rather unique achievement which requires you to aim carefully and kill someone from 35 yards out; plus it’s also usable in Single player. While it is fun to use on posse member’s horses and to get wedged into your leg during a large shoot out, my only real drawback with it is that it’s basically a re-skinned throwing knife. Because of that, it has no real tactical advantages compared to it unlike switching between a pistol and a revolver.

Finally we have the brand new character skins, taken from the previous gen title: Red Dead Revolver. While it’s not well known among a large selection of the current Red Dead audience; the package features such names as Red Harlow, Annie Stoakes, Jack Swift and Ugly Chris. It’s somewhat disheartening to write that the character skins are the true selling point behind this package and not the maps, since they are incredibly detailed and look immensely better than the unlockable “Legends” on Free-roam. There is one flaw with them at the moment, (which I really do hope Rockstar fixes) and that is people who don’t own the DLC cannot see them. So for hours I was spent running around as Jack Swift; a extremely stereotypical English character only for people to see a generic cowboy which you get from the early levels.

Conclusion:

The “Legends and Killers” package is something which baffles me as both a gamer and reviewer. I am a huge fan of this game and it upsets me to know that what clearly could have been a fantastic update for the Western Sandbox has instead drawn to slow and felt every bullet from my reviewing revolver. Unless you are a dedicated fan, often play competitive modes and have a lot of points to spare, depart with your cash and download this package and enjoy the new features until the next update. However if you enjoy the free-roam aspect more than the competitive, I would advise you to save your Microsoft points and wait for the upcoming Liars and Cheats DLC.

Want to read the original review? Check it out here. Special thanks to Rockstar for providing us with a copy of the DLC for review.