This stunning Wild West epic raises the bar for open world action games, and stakes its claim as one of the most engaging games this year. John Marston is a partly reformed outlaw in America in the year 1911. When federal agents threaten his family, Marston is sent across the American frontier to help bring the rule of law. He must kill or capture his former gang members, including his old 'friend' and gang leader Bill Williamson or his family will pay the ultimate price.

Red Dead Redemption gives the player a large, open world environment allowing the player to move freely. Players on foot can walk, talk, shoot, kill, ride, run, interact with the environment, and combat enemies with firearms. Different breeds of horses are the main forms of transportation. Swimming is not an option, as the protagonist John Marston cannot swim and will drown if the player ventures too far into a body of water (though he is able to wade where the water is shallow enough).

The open world environment allows players to choose how they want to play. Storyline missions are for progress. Along with the main storyline, players can take part in random events they encounter as they explore the West. These include public hangings, ambushes, pleas for assistance, and dangerous animal attacks. Players can also take part in optional side activities ranging from standoffs, gambling, and hunting animals for pelts and meat.

Red Dead Redemption makes use of a morality system where players have the ability to gain positive or negative 'honor'. Some of the ways to gain positive honor include taking an outlaw alive instead of killing him, or saving a kidnapped innocent. Negative honor can be attained for committing crimes including killing and/or robbing civilians. This works along with another system, 'fame,' showing and governing how people react based on Marston's honor status.
Red Dead Redemption's world is a far easier one to get sidetracked in than most. That's because in addition to the dozens of excellent and varied story missions, there are countless optional undertakings to enjoy--most of which offer some tangible reward in the form of money, weapons, or reputation. While you're in town, you might choose to gamble at card and dice tables or tear a wanted poster from the wall and do some bounty hunting, for example. And when you're in the middle of nowhere, opportunities for gunfights and the like have a habit of presenting themselves or even forcing themselves upon you.

Random strangers in need of help can show up at any time, and while it's a little jarring to find two or three strangers in the same predicament back-to-back, most of their requests are varied and fun for the short time that they take to complete. You might be called upon to retrieve a stolen wagon, to collect herbs, or even to rescue someone being hanged from a tree. There's no penalty for ignoring strangers, but when you help them you collect a small reward and become a little more famous in the process. 

Combat and gunplay are major parts of the game. Gunfights in Red Dead Redemption are conducted using a third-person system. The player can take cover, target a specific person, blindfire, and free aim. Individual body parts can also be targeted, as to take targets down non-lethally. When the player shoots an enemy, the game engine uniquely creates the AI reactions and movements. John Marston has an arsenal of period-accurate weapons to choose from; these include revolvers, lever or bolt-action rifles, knives, explosives, lassos, mounted gatling guns, shotguns, and cannons.

A combat feature that Marston can utilize is the "Dead-Eye" targeting system. "Dead-Eye" is used in a bullet time-like manner, allowing the player to slow down the world to place a precise shot or paint in multiple shots on the body parts of one or multiple enemies. When the targeting sequence ends, Marston will fire in extremely quick succession on targeted people.

Red Dead Redemption will include online multiplayer with a maximum of 16 players per session.

Every multiplayer game, both free-for-all and team based, will begin with a Mexican standoff. Survivors of the standoff will be able to move to any part of the battlefield in preparation for respawning enemies. Crates in the environment will contain extra weapons, ammo, as well as recharge Dead-Eye powers, which has all the features of the single player version except for slow motion.

Players can level up and complete weapon challenges giving rewards such as new character models, golden weapon skins, and new mount breeds.

Both regular and team versions of Shootout mode follows a traditional deathmatch scenario where players or teams must accumulate the most kills. Many Capture the Flag variants are also available. Hold Your Own is a traditional capture the flag, where each team has their own bag of gold to defend from the enemy team. Grab The Bag has one team attacking and the other team defending; the attackers goal is to grab the bag and return to base, while the defenders must stop them in the act. Gold Rush is a free-for-all variant, trying to grab and keep as many bags, spawned all across the map, as possible.

Like Grand Theft Auto IV's free mode, Red Dead Redemption has its own free roaming mode. All players in the server can form and join player parties, named "posses", of up to eight players and taking part in activities such as attacking computer-controlled gang hideouts or other player posses, go hunting, and create in-server matches.

Other multiplayer gamemodes in Red Dead Redemption feature up to 16 players in one game.