Red Dead Revolver

Moby ID: 13322
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Orphaned by bandits and left for dead on the frontier, Red Harlow grew up with a scar burned into his hand and the lust for revenge burned into his heart. Surviving as a bounty hunter in the rough-and-tumble Old West, Red stays ever watchful for some clue that could lead him to the men who murdered his father and mother -- and then one day, that clue appears. Step into Red's spurred boots, and take up his mission of revenge.

Red Dead Revolver features environments and artistry inspired by the classic spaghetti westerns films, mixed with third-person shooter gameplay similar to that of Max Payne. The gameplay and story proceed linearly through stages, including several levels in which you play as different characters (a British trick shooter, a female rancher, a renegade Mexican general, a stealthy native warrior, and a Buffalo Soldier). Each character has his own signature move: for instance, Red's "Dead-Eye" slows down time and allows you to set up targets for a rapid "fan fire" takedown, while General Diego's flare rifle lets you specify a target for bombardment by Diego's cannons.

Beating each level will earn you reward money (and chaining together many limb shots and multiple kills will earn you bonus money). You can spend your cash on unlockable characters (for the multiplayer game), journal entries that offer backstory and character info, or an array of canonical Old West weaponry, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns of many varieties, as well as knives, molotovs, poison and dynamite.

The game features pistol dueling with certain boss characters, as a mini-game mechanic in which you time your draw to an opportune moment and prepare targets as you raise your gun. There is also a multiplayer game (split-screen only, not networked), which you can play with friends and/or AI bots. Multiplayer incorporates a wide array of powerups, an alternative dueling showdown mode, and two kinds of optional poker sub-games (based on stud or Texas Hold 'Em) that mix some strategy into the action.

Spellings

  • ăƒŹăƒƒăƒ‰ăƒ»ăƒ‡ăƒƒăƒ‰ăƒ»ăƒȘăƒœăƒ«ăƒăƒŒ - Japanese spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

266 People (252 developers, 14 thanks) · View all

Lead Designer
Designers
Additional Tuning
Technical Director/Lead Programmer
Programmer Audio/Front End
Programmers
Programmer: Creature Animation/Special Effects
Programmer: Particle/Special Effects
Programmer: Special Effets/Gameplay
Programmer: Creature/Camera
Programmer: AI
Additional Programming
Programmer: Initial AI
Lead Programmer: Prototype
Art Director
Lead Artists
Graphic Designer 2D/3D Artist
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 71% (based on 37 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.4 out of 5 (based on 52 ratings with 3 reviews)

It’s good, it’s bad but it ain’t ugly

The Good
Perhaps it’s not every kids dream, but I always dreamed of being Clint Eastwood. To be more specific, the spaghetti Western Clint Eastwood.

If I was only a bit taller, a lot cooler and could convincingly wear a poncho in public I’d make my dream a reality. Distraught I had resigned myself to wait until the fashion world discovered the retro qualities of mid 19th century clothing
 until I stumbled upon this game.

The action in the game comes fast. After a brief tutorial level you’ll find yourself getting into the thick of it. When it comes to the later levels however the real challenge begins as you will be facing insurmountable odds in order to survive. All in a days work for a gun slinging bounty hunter I suppose


In all honestly though the gameplay, while action filled and enjoyable can be said to be highly repetitive. You start the new level/setting, walk forward kill the enemies that appear until you end up at the level boss character, Repeat this 10 times and you’re finished the game practically.

The “Dead Eye” ability while initially difficult to use is a feature that brightens up the sometimes repetitive action. Essentially it works in a similar fashion as the bullet time in , time slows down giving you the extra time to make precision hits on your enemies.

The showdown moments of the game are a nice touch. Few Western themed games have attempted to have a proper showdown element to them and I think it’s a credit to the games developers that they’ve created a solid draw system with a good cinematic quality to it. It’s not perfect, but it’s certainly the best attempt I’ve seen anyone come up with so far. The showdown situations are used to great effect in the game, especially in the Duelling Tournament in the later game stages, in the style of The Quick & the Dead.

By far the greatest quality of Red Dead Revolver has to be it’s faithfulness and reverence to the Western film genre. You can tell that the creators and staff who worked on the game were big fans of the Sergio Leone classics. The grainy film quality of those first Spaghetti Westerns has been incorporated into the games cinematics. It’s this attention to the small details that makes Red Dead Revolver one of the best Western games I’ve ever played, though I’ll admit there isn’t many of them.

The music - while it’s not for that of Ennio Morricone's famous Western music, my guess is that it was pretty damn expensive to get the rights to use the music – adds a lot to the atmosphere of the game. According to the games credits comes from other obscure Spaghetti Westerns and it’s just another example of the lengths Rockstar went to create the sense that your playing a Western movie and not just a Western themed game.

Another example of this is the level where you play the Mexican General Diego. The level is almost completely lifted from a scene in The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. As for the games protagonist, Red, it obvious from the intro alone that he’s modelled on Clint’s mysterious stranger of the Sergio Leone movies. For fans of the Spaghetti Westerns I must say that this game is pretty much as good as it gets.



The Bad
As I mentioned earlier the gameplay can be repetitive. This trait isn’t helped by the fact that the enemy AI is pretty poor, with perhaps the exception of the third last mission your opponents don’t offer up much of challenge. It’s only on the optional “Bounty Hunter” side of the game - a post game completion mode which allows your character to earn extras in the regular game, infinite ammo, invincibility, etc. – that provides a real challenge.

The opportunity of creating a lively Western environment for your character to inhabit in between missions is wasted. While the Brimstone setting between levels is a nice idea it doesn’t work as everyone you meet has only two set phrases to say. It’s a pity that the developers went to the trouble of creating a fairly decent Western town only to populate it with cardboard cut out characters. In the town the only options available to you, besides listening to the same dialogue from the non–player characters again and again, are to buy extra weaponry or items that affect the multi-player or extra material aspects of the game.

Red Dead Revolver has a bit of a schizophrenic character about it. At times it appears to be a somewhat gritty Western type drama that deals with greed, betrayal and revenge. Other times it descends into farce with the Professor Perry interlude of the game, with its circus freaks and clowns. It’s a pity as its moments like that take greatly from the main plot of the game.

This brings me to the games plot. It’s fine, a few bad moments like I said, but overall it’s ok. Perhaps this is not fair to say, but I felt that there was a lot more potential in the story then what was used in the game.

The Bottom Line
Red Dead Revolver is classified as a Western themed game, but I think it’s more appropriate to classify it as a movie inspired game seeing that it draws so heavily on the Westerns of the big screen. Unlike such movie inspired games such as which attempt to simply cash in on the fan ban for a movie, Red Dead Revolver is a Western game for Western fans. Really if you’re a fan of the Spaghetti Westerns, like me, or a big fan of Westerns in general go out and buy the game and you’ll be enjoying it before you can sing “wa-ah wa-ah wa-ah, wa
wa
wa.”

Xbox · by CiarĂĄn Lynch (84) · 2005

Pow Pow

The Good
The typical Rockstar stories and characters, the decent graphics, super fluid gameplay, and the fact that it revisited the western genre (of the spaghetti variety) for a quick market probe that, i believe, eventually contributed to small but significantly enjoyable western offers of the last few years: Gun, Red Dead Redemption, Call of Juarez, a few films as well.

The Bad
Gameplay is somewhat repetitive, although I may have been spoiled by the fact that I bought this well into the Xbox 360 era and so my standards for gameplay variety in a single title may have been much higher. Also, the duel mechanics aren't that much fun (try again ad infinitum), and the difficulty curve is actually a zig-zag. The infamous cannon level with General Diego is a perfect illustration of how poor difficulty balance can prevent people from finishing a a game out of justified frustration.

The Bottom Line
As a preliminary Red Dead Redemption, minus the GTA inspired bits. Imagine Sergio Leone's style applied to multiple converging storylines, soap style, and then add a healthy dose of weird west.

Xbox · by iPinteus (7) · 2012

"Killin a man's a hell of a thing"

The Good
Prospector Nate Harlow returns to his wife, Falling Star, and young son, Red, with news of a gold vein he and his partner tapped. Unfortunately a band of ruffians led by a rogue Colonel are close behind him. The Harlows put up a good fight, but it's not long before the ranch is in flames and Red's parents are dead. Picking up his father's Scorpion revolver from the fire, Red fires a shot at the Colonel—blowing the colonel's arm off and searing Red's hand. Red escapes that day, vowing revenge.

After the brief introductory level incorporating the events above, players take the role of an older, grimmer Red—now a bounty hunter. The game is played out from a third person perspective, and a series of tutorials introduce the player to the major actions Red will have to perform. Red controls well, drawing and switching his varied weapons, targeting enemies and blasting away at them. Some advanced moves include "sticking" to objects for cover, ducking and jumping, the Dead-eye and the Draw.

The Dead-eye is the western equivalent of "bullet time." Entering a slow-motion phase, Red locks on to enemies with as many bullets as he has loaded and then fires them rapidly as he re-enters normal time. Since Red Dead Revolver makes use of localized damage—head shots count more than arm or leg hits—this works well to clear out a room full of enemies.

The Draw is your typical western showdown. Using a more cinematic perspective, Red grabs, draws, aims and fires (the game drives this four-step process home). Taking place in slow-mo too, the process isn't that bad early in the game. Pull back with the right analog stick and then push up rapidly to whip the gun out of the holster, acquire locks with R1 (the longer you hold the gun cursor in place, the more likely you are to hit the target), and then either run through your ammo or end the slow-mo mode for Red to shoot.

The mechanics behind the Draw system work extremely well, but invariably there will be players who aren't good at it. Unfortunately, you have to be fast on the Draw to complete the story mode. I thought I was pretty good, but a few times I tried to Draw too quickly and ended up viciously pointing at my opponent before he killed me.

The game's story ends up getting to the revenge scenario set up in the first level, but the game takes numerous detours as soon as Red gets to Brimstone, the game's hub world. Red gets missions in Brimstone, goes out and gets his bounties, then returns to Brimstone to freshen up before his next mission. Red can interact with the town's citizenry, but they usually only offer a snippet of dialogue. Brimstone does have a handful of shops Red can enter, but most of the items he buys only unlock game extras.

There's no inventory system to speak of, apart from Red's weaponry. A gunsmith can repair Red's weapons and can sell him new ones, but Red only finds ammo during missions. Red also can't stock up on health packs, those are used immediately in missions, but there are some options to increase Red's health bar and number of Dead-eyes.

Red has a good assortment of weaponry to choose from: pistols, rifles, and shotguns, plus a few throwing items. Each weapon is rated according to its reload time, effective range, level of damage, and accuracy. Depending on the mission and your style of play, it might be more important to fill the air full of lead, than to slowly pick off opponents or to take people out quickly with a shotgun, rather than trying to snipe from a distance.

The game is pretty straightforward until Red gets to a mission looking for the surly Pig Josh. During the mission, Red rescues an Englishman named Jack Swift. Jack assists Red during the mission, but afterwards the player becomes Jack for the next mission. This is a little jarring. Luckily, Jack handles like Red and after the mission things return to normal. From this point on though, whenever Red meets a "hero" character, it's a safe bet that the next level will put the player in control of that character. I'll address this more later, but this does create some nice variety in the game, while adding to the story. After the initial jolt.

I completed the main story mode in a little over seven hours, but I've also spent a number of hours in the game's multiplayer mode. Supporting four characters (in my case, me and three bots), there are three main multiplayer options—two Death Match variations with or without teams and a Draw mode. In the Death Match modes, players earn power-ups by collecting poker cards from the players they kill. Playing through the story and multiplayer modes unlocks extra multiplayer levels and characters.

I've read some complaints about the graphics; the gritty washed out presentation is clearly a design choice, not a flaw, but a bit more puzzling are the cutscenes rendered in the style of an old movie. There's nothing breathtaking or pretty here, but the missions have a nice level of detail, the characters move well, and combat animations are convincing.

In terms of audio the game really stands out. Most of the music is lifted from Ennio Morricone's spaghetti westerns of the 1960s. Combined with realistic ambient sound, good voice acting, and spot on sound effects, the game sounds great.

The Bad
Red Dead Revolver biggest problem is that it has a lot of nice elements which never cohere into solid game play. This is most evident with the character switching. During the game, players take on the roles of six playable characters. The first two, Red and Jack, have a similar Dead-eye attack. The other four each have a unique Dead-eye attack. The manual makes no mention of this, so it's up to the player to find out what the special attack is and how best to use it. For a game that offers a lot of handholding already, would it be that hard to clue the player in?

Typically the controls are fine, but a few of the mechanics are lacking. Trying to jump from a horse to a train (and back again) is a frustrating combination of hammering on a button and trying to find the correct hotspot. Ducking involves pressing the L3 button, which isn't the easiest to use in a hurry, and, despite the onscreen message, really toggles between ducking and standing.

There's very little enemy intelligence to speak of. Enemies seem to rely on scripted behaviors. If an enemy spotted me and I ran behind a rock, they entered a search mode instead of chasing me. The game has a stealth area (because a game just isn't a game unless the main character is knocked unconscious and then locked up without his/her weapons), but the enemies seem to clue in more to visual clues than sound ones.

Finally, the game has a largely serious tone and is mildly gritty, but some of the bosses are pretty silly. Early on, Red runs into Pig Josh, a demolitionist during the Civil War. Pig Josh has dynamite strapped to his body and likes to run up to people and detonate. Of course this doesn't damage him at all. There's also Mr. Black who has a coffin strapped to his back (Django reference?), sinister clowns, and other larger than life characters.

The Bottom Line
Red Dead Revolver probably benefits from lowered expectations. It's a Rockstar game with a very soft M rating and surprisingly linear design. Having said that, the story was a nice variation of the standard revenge theme, the characters were likable (with a bit of depth), and the western setting was used very well.

Red Dead Revolver is a pretty good shooter with some unique elements and nice options for replay. I would have trouble recommending this game at its full retail price (unless you have a Fistful of Dollars), but if you see it in the bargain bin, pick it up.

PlayStation 2 · by Terrence Bosky (5397) · 2004

Trivia

1001 Video Games

Red Dead Revolver appears in the book 1001 Video Games You Must Play Before You Die by General Editor Tony Mott.

Development

The game was originally developed by Capcom for the PlayStation 2, but cancelled in August 2003. Rockstar bought the game, continued development, and released it in 2004.

References

General Diego likes to quote the gangster movie Scarface while firing a Gatling gun.

"Say hello to my little friend!"

Information also contributed by STU2

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by WarriorMouse.

PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4 added by Sciere. Xbox One, Xbox Series added by Eufemiano Bullanga.

Additional contributors: Sciere, Rik Hideto, FatherJack.

Game added May 18, 2004. Last modified February 15, 2024.