When Red Dead Redemption was released in 2010, it was met with passionate acclaim from critics and players alike. It’s not hard to see why. It offered a narrative leaden with grit and humanity; a powerful score; and an expansive, picturesque open world. It put you in the cowboy boots of one of gaming’s most compelling anti-heroes. The gameplay was engaging and you were presented with more than enough mini-games and side quests to keep you sinking hours into it.
13 years and one stunning sequel later, Red Dead Redemption has yet to receive a remaster, remake, or even a PC port. This is a gap you’d expect to be filled far before ever considering the possibility of the game releasing on the Switch. But say what you will, its arrival on Nintendo’s highly portable handheld console means you can now feasibly play Red Dead Redemption while actually on horseback. What a world we live in.
Red Dead Redemption for the Switch is an entirely adequate port. Sure, that might sound underwhelming. But to understand how important that achievement truly is, it’s worth reflecting on the effects of an underperforming port. Issues like frame lag, texture issues, and lengthy loading screens could totally compromise this cinematic gaming experience. It’s something that subtly sours the impressions of an otherwise excellent game for new and legacy players alike.
Thankfully, none of this is the case for Red Dead Redemption. Given that the game was created for seventh-generation consoles like the Xbox 360, the hardware of the Switch is never outpaced by the game’s graphical requirements. The framerate is smooth and consistent, even during encounters with a high volume of enemies. As games like Breath of the Wild have shown, the system can handle a relatively large open world and the plains of New Austin present it little challenge.
Visually, Red Dead holds up a lot better than expected. There’s a good sense of space and detail in landscapes. Residential areas feel decently well-populated, providing a strong enough facsimile of a living, breathing Western town to maintain a player’s immersion. Of course, character models do lean more cartoonish than we’ve come to expect from recent Rockstar titles. There’s also the occasional jagged low-polygon look on cloth or shadows. None of it feels especially unpolished per se. It’s just polished to a 2010s standard.
While comparing footage of the PS3/X360 original, there does seem to be some changes to the colour grading. Washed-out dusty hues are replaced with noticeably stronger contrast and heightened saturation. This addition is particularly noticeable on the screen of the OLED model, and some screens look positively painterly. While displaying at 1080p docked, things do look slightly worse for wear in comparison.
Red Dead Redemption’s controls translate well to the Switch, even in the absence of a Pro Controller. There is an irritating and really unergonomic ‘mash B to run/sprint’ element to the control scheme that can’t be remapped, which is unfortunate. While the problem is not unique to this port, borrowing RDR2’s accessibility feature to toggle the run button seems like such an easy fix.
Surprisingly, there’s no implementation of gyro controls. Although gimmicky, it feels like an adjustment that would make playing RDR on the Switch a more unique experience. While motion controls don’t mesh particularly well with on-the-fly gunplay, it feels like a natural fit for Dead Eye targeting. In the absence of these kinds of features, it seems this version’s portability is the main thing that sets it apart. Well, that and the unfortunate exclusion of multiplayer.
The core question remains: was a straight port of this 13-year-old classic really the right decision? More crucially, is said port worth $50/£39.99? Even with the inclusion of the Undead Nightmare DLC, the price tag on this combo has many fans baulking.
The issue of cost in reference to game criticism is always an incredibly complicated one. Sure, a game’s cost sets a player’s expectations but the quality of a game doesn’t correlate with how much of a good deal it is. That said, as solid a port as this is, it’s clouded by the shadow of a lost opportunity. An opportunity for a remaster/remake of John Marston’s story brought to PC and current-gen consoles with even a fraction of the refinement and mastery found in its modern sequel.
Any debate about the port’s redundancy aside, Red Dead Redemption on the Switch remains a superb game. Its graphics may have aged but the impact of its storytelling is truly timeless, and the gameplay remains satisfying. The soundtrack is still just as deeply atmospheric and affecting. This version may be missing any significant novelties but everything that was worth loving about the original is still present.
A Switch key was provided by PR for the purposes of this review.
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