Back In the Saddle

This week I decided to revisit Red Dead Redemption, mostly because I like to wander around in the environment and not have to worry about story elements sucking away all my precious time. When I first fired it up I was reminded about the one thing I didn't like -- I finished the story mode.

***SPOILER ALERT***

This means I was stuck playing as Jack. I don't like Jack. His voice and repeated phrases annoy me.

*** END SPOILER ALERT ***

Thanks to an update that brought in two new outfits to acquire, I also remembered I had a few outstanding trophies to try to claim. The first one I went for seemed easy. Manifest Destiny: Kill all the buffalo in the game on Single Player. I'd already shot one for the other trophy where you need to shoot one of every species, and though I felt bad about it I finally gave in to the fact that it's only a game. I got out my trusty Buffalo Rifle and went looking for the herd. No sooner did I resolve to accomplish this task that I ran into them. Every remaining buffalo stood before me. I raise the rifle and took aim. As I let one shot ring out, instantly killing the animal, I went into Dead Eye and took out another. The group started to scatter so I threw it into Dead Eye as fast as I could and took out another five. Since the Buffalo Rifle is a single shot weapon, the game drops you out of Dead Eye after every kill. I managed to get ten total from this initial run-in, and I made sure to skin each one.

The next half hour I spent looking for the rest of the herd. In this time I decided to terrorize Blackwater citizens a bit in hopes of raising my bounty amount. For one of the trophies you have to use a pardon letter to remove a $5,000 bounty. Having completed the game, this is difficult since all crimes are reduced by half. Shooting a lawman, for example, will only add about $50 to my bounty. I rode up to a heavily populated area and tossed a Molotov cocktail into the crowd. This not only set a dozen people on fire but caused the cops to take notice rather fast. I rode hard and fast away from town and waited for them to catch up, Buffalo Rifile in hand. If a gun can kill a 3,000 pound animal in one shot, just imagine what it'll do to a 180 pound man riding a horse. Distance helped a bit to knock a few off their mounts before they got anywhere near me, but then the posse was rounded up and started to close in from all sides. I took out my trusty High Powered Pistol and went to town.

Another of the trophies involves getting something like 1,000 kills with one weapon. Any weapon will do, but you need all the kills to come from using the same one. Seems I already have about 300 kills with the HPP, so I use it as much as I can now in an effort to speed that up. Its name is appropriate - one to two shots per target. By the end of the night I racked up $1,200 on my wanted poster. Things were going great as far as the trophies were concerned - I found the rest of the buffalo and sadly earned that one. I had amassed a bounty that I could easy triple the next night if I devoted myself to it. It was late and I was tired, so that's the only excuse I have for what happened next.

I was headed back home, riding along at a slow pace, taking in the scenery and planning my steps for the next session, when out of nowhere I was being chased by the law. Someone on the road recognized me? I have no idea - I think that's what happened... All I know is I was being chased. I shot up some deputies, took out some horses just to keep them at bay when I was hit with an ambush. A few appeared in front of my path and blasted away. I had no chance to react because I had the camera swung around behind me. 

DEAD.

My bounty was reset as the game loaded. I was pissed but vowed that the next night I'd start it again, only this time I'd wreak havoc on Mexico.