Red Dead Redemption is amazing. A compelling a gripping single player with superb voice acting, action and gameplay.
The controls are tight and fluid, cutscenes are incredible and couldn't be done without great characters and extroadinary voice acting (I cannot emphasize that enough), lots to do all round from breaking horses, gang hideouts, hunting animals, etc.
Now my only complaint is one of the things you mentioned, online. My gripe was that I could never find people online when I entered the Multiplayer world. If only RDR had a Matchmaking system, it would've been quite possibly the most enjoyable game of last year, possibly ahead of my GOTY 2010, AC Brotherhood. But because I couldn't find any, I couldn't enjoy any of the multiplayer. However if you have friends on your friend's list and are willing to play together in co-op for example, then it becomes a blast. I just couldn't experience it myself. So find friends, posse up and then you'll have an amazing online experience with RDR.
This is all coming from a guy who never liked GTA games or Rockstar games in general and didn't like Western (as in Western Cowboy) settings and didn't know the game even existed until a month before launch. Red Dead Redemption is that amazing to convert a guy like me.
