Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption has finally been released on PC after a port from British studio Double Eleven – but has it been worth the 14 year wait? We’ve tested the game extensively to find out, looking at how RDR improves on the original console release and even how it plays on retro PC hardware.
Given how much time has passed since the original release, a big aspect of this PC version is preservation. After all, PC is a forever platform where games can live on for eternity, but first impressions of this port aren’t great. There are multiple layers of DRM here, requiring both a Steam login and a login on Rockstar’s own launcher, a weird requirement when the port doesn’t include the original multiplayer on any platform. I have confidence that Steam will persist well into the future, but the Rockstar launcher? I’m not so certain, and that complicates the legacy of the game.
Beyond this complaint, the game’s technical execution is on point. There are a good range of graphical options and a very quick shader precompilation step – yup, this is a DirectX 12 release. I think DX12 is perhaps excessive for a game originally built for DX9, but there aren’t shader compilation hiccups during gameplay and the game normally runs smoothly.
The mouse and keyboard controls here are also generally fine, though the game is set up to require rapid taps of the sprint button to speed up on foot or on horseback. That sprint button is shift by default, so your first time playing the game is likely to summon the ancient sticky keys popup – and I feel that rebinding the key or setting it to work when held instead of tapped would have made sense here. You’re free to rebind the key yourself or disable the sticky keys feature in Windows, but it’s still a weird decision. Mouse aiming is at least significantly better than the console equivalent, and I found it easy to aim and land shots that I would have struggled with on a controller.