Redemption

  I'm still feeling the need to write a lot about stuff. I have no idea if this is ever going to end and I know my posts come across as confused, rambling long winded affairs but this is how my mind works. For this post I want to talk about another videogame that had an interesting and unique way of telling it's story and how the theme of the game relates to what is on my mind.

  The game this time is another very good game from last year Red Dead Redemption, a game set in the wild west. Not the usual wild west you see but this time at the end of that era. The year is 1911 and you start out the game as John Marsten, an ex outlaw who is being forced by federal marshals to track down and kill the members of the gang he was in. As you get to know the main character you realise he is a man who has accepted that he did bad things in his life and is trying to be a better man. However since the US marshals are keeping his wife and son hostage he reluctantly does the marshal's bidding to eliminate the other members of his gang. I'm going to talk about how this game ends story wise so if you care about spoilers just jump to the last paragraph of this post.

  As you slowly find and kill the other members of the gang you get to see they are all still still very much bad people and John has to do some things he finds pretty offensive in order to track them down. He does these things though since all along his only intentions are to get back to his family and live a simple life on the small ranch they have. As with most games the final member of the gang you track down is the "leader" of the gang. However it is at this point that the game diverts from the usual videogame storytelling method. Rather than having an end game "boss fight" and finishing you don't actually fight the leader of the gang, you track him down to his encampment in the mountains, chase him down and he jumps off the mountain to his death before you can shoot him. This is the point in most games where the end comes up, roll credits and go back to the title screen. Not in this game however.

  What happens next is actually very different. The main character John gets to go home. His family are released and they all go to live on the farm they have. After spending something like 20 to 30 hours at a minimum on the game you now get to spend a few hours playing as John with his family on the farm doing simple things. You get to round up some cattle, scare crows away from the grain tower, take your teenage son out and teach him to hunt. Very simple mundane things that show John is getting what he always wanted. There is even one great scene where John and his wife go to a neighbouring ranch that is run by a middle aged spinster that helped John out at the very beginning of the game. As John introduces his wife to this woman you get to see how wistful this other woman is at not having someone like John in her life. The conversation between the three characters really works and the final part of that scene where  the woman watches John and his wife ride away in their wagon is perfectly done.

  Anyway, on to how the game now progresses. Once you have gotten used to these simple life John now leads you awake one night to find your ranch under attack. You flee with your family to the barn to get to the horses to escape. As you get your wife and son safely out of the back of the barn on a horse John turns and opens up the door to the front of the barn. He walks out to the US marshals surrounding the bar, there are at least a couple of dozen of them and he is gunned down as he makes one last stand to try and give his family time to escape. Obviously at this point the main character of the game is now dead and you would think this is where the game ends, it does not.

  The game then moves on a few years. It opens with a scene with John's son burying his mother next to John's grave at the edge of the ranch. He is now grown up and the date is around 1914/15 or thereabouts. At this point in the game you can carry on just messing around doing side missions since there seems to be nothing to do, but wait, where were the end credits. As you explore you come across one side mission where a man in one of the main towns happens to talk about the marshal kill John. His son asks  about him and finds the marshal has now retired to a cabin by a lake nearby with his wife. You then go visit that cabin, find just the wife there and politely ask where the marshal is. You find the marshal is on a fishing trip with his friend so you set off to go find them. While with the wife you do actually have the choice to gun her down or leave her be, personally I left her alone but it is that kind of game. Anyway, once you find the fishing camp you only find the marshal's friend and inquire as to where the marshal is. Apparently he is a little bit downstream fishing and again here you have the option to move on or gun down the friend. Then finally you come across the marshal and a classic high noon showdown occurs and playing as the son you have to gun down the marshal. It is at this point that the game finally rolls credits and ends.

  I just thought that this whole method of story telling, especially the end part of it was refreshingly unique in the videogame world and was very well done. The whole nature versus nurture thing comes up with how it ends, the seeming futility of trying to look for redemption and the amazing change of pace that the last few hours of the game take.

  How does this all relate to my thoughts at the moment? Simple, I need to seek redemption for what I have done but I know I will never be able to make up for what I have done. I know I will not be forgiven for my transgressions and I don't deserve to be. I know the world does not deserve to have the things I have done being done to it, most importantly my wife did not deserve those things. Still, despite all that, I can't just give up and stay a horrible person. I need to try and be the man I want to be and not fall back in to my broken bad ways. Redemption is not something that can ever be achieved but that doesn't mean I should stop trying to get it. That is half of the point of me writing all this stuff, I'm putting it all down out there so I can't hide from it, I can't ignore it and I can't go back to doing some of the things I did.