Red Dead Revolver

"A solid third person shooter with distinctive flair, and a few flaws."

Rockstar Games' Red Dead Revolver takes the third-person shooter genre in a fairly new direction, World War II and Sci-Fi having been pretty well hacked to death, by making you the star in a spaghetti Western in the style of The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly and A Fistful of Dollars. Personally, I'm a huge fan of this genre of film, and, as such, I'm tempted to rate the game a 9 out of 10 - and would, on my own personal scale. But, when trying to be unbiased, I just can't do that.

A word to the wise: While this isn't Game of the Year material, it should prove to be one of the sleeper Xbox hits of 2004 - and it's damn well a better game than most of the review sites - the so-called "authorities" are labelling it as. To wit:

Story - 9.5 out of 10

The story is, honestly, as good as any I have ever seen in a non-RPG game. It easily rivals that of Metal Gear Solid or Splinter Cell (and is, imho, better than the latter). Red Dead Revolver is the story of Red Harlow, a bounty-hunter in the Old West, just after the end of the Civil War. Red's father has just returned with news that he and his partner have found a rich gold vein, and that the family's financial woes are over forever, when a band of brigands led by a brutal man in a Union Army Colonel's uniform attack. In the resulting raid, only Red survives, and he is left with only a palm branded with the image of a scorpion (from snatching up a gun that lay on a bed of coals) and a terrible thirst for revenge. Red's life is an errant series of gunfights and bounties collected until one day he hears word of the same man in the Army uniform. Thus begins a quest to avenge his parents' deaths.

The story is well-knit and flows smoothly. There are a few detours in Red's quest, but these detours are welcome because they give you the chance to play as other characters. In the course of his adventure Red makes a few friends, and each of these friends has a level of their own. You even get to play (in a flashback scene) one of the men Red later seeks to hunt down and kill.

If you like Westerns, you'll love the story. Numerous homages are made to a lot of great Westerns, like Tombstone, Hang 'em High, The War Wagon, Pale Rider, A Fistful of Dollars, The Quick and the Dead, and Rio Bravo. Great stuff.

Graphics - 6 out of 10

The graphics are very thematically done - like the "grainy" effect used in Silent Hill 2 for PS2. During cutscenes you'll ofter see old-time film-ripples, like you would pick up when watching an old reel-to-reel projector. A heat-blur effect is used heavily, giving the whole thing the appropriately hot-n-dusty look. At times, however, it's a bit overdone.

The characters are so-so (think Wolverine from X2: Wolverine's Revenge - kind of blocky and angular-looking where they shouldn't be), but the levels are mostly very well-done, though some natural areas (rock canyons, etc.) suffer a somewhat low-poly, "jaggy" look.

Personally, I think the game should not look TOO glossy, for what it's meant to be. But there are some things that could be cleaned up. Fanboy rating would be 8 out of 10, but that's not what you're here for.

Sound - 10 out of 10

This is, to me, the very best part of the game.

Voice acting is very good on the more memorable characters, although at times some of the faceless goons you'll mow down get a little repetitive. Red speaks very little, but has a Clint-esque, growly, gravelly voice that just sounds right.

The British trick-shooter Jack Swift and the arrogant Governor Griffin, for example, are just perfect. All of the characters that are actually named are distinctive.

The SFX are really good. The rifles, shotguns, and pistols all sound very good, and they're distinctive enough that you can tell a bad guy with a fairly low-end six-shooter from a more dangerous gunman with a Widowmaker revolver.

Environmental sounds are equally well done - train whistles, horse whinnies, the sound of the wind blowing, hawks crying out ... all are done quite well.

And the music ... I just have to gush about the music. The soundtrack is taken from several classic Morricone 'spaghetti Westerns,' and in my opinion, it adds tremendously to the feel of the game. If you could buy the soundtrack to this game, I'd do it in a blink.

Gameplay - 6.5 out of 10

Movement is generally smooth and fluid. The characters all control well - rarely will you find yourself trying to run through a door and missing, and if you do, it's your fault, not the game's.

If you try to run-n-gun at all times, you'll be turned into a sieve; the game's cover system is reminiscent of Kill.Switch - it's imperative you learn to put back to the wall/rock/wagon/water tower and shoot from cover.

Each of the characters you get to control are different enough to matter. In particular, the character's "Dead-Eye" moves are all different.

"Dead-Eye" mode is the equivalent of Bullet-Time. It allows your character to get the drop on the bad guy and do some serious gunfighter maneuvers.

A word to the wise: on a few levels you will have CPU team-mates. These team-mates can and will use their Dead-Eye moves. I mention this because some of them can hurt you, as well. In particular, watch out for Annie Stoakes. She'll knock you on your ass if you get in between her and a bevy of bad-guys. Let the lady do her own fighting.

The game also offers a quick-draw mode. At certain times in the game you'll enter into a fast-draw duel with certain enemies. The mechanics of this take a little getting used to, but they're very well-done. Red's (you only do duels with Red in single-player mode) draw is MUCH faster than the first few opponents', but in time you'll run into opponents that will turn you into Swiss cheese if you're not quick, and are executing the series of moves (grab, draw, aim, shoot) perfectly. A certain Mr. Kelly retired me early MANY times before I finally sent him to his grave.

At times you'll duel two, or even three, opponents simultaneously.

There's a wide variety of weapons at your disposal. Multiple pistols, several rifles, a surprising variety of shotguns (all double-barrelled, remember, this is the old West), as well as some thrown weapons (knives, dynamite, molotov cocktails, and Professor Perry's Snake Oil - my fave).

When the situation calls for it, you can commandeer a Gatling Gun and go Wild Bunch on the enemy. You can also hop on horseback when necessary.

The camera sometimes gets a little wonky on you, but all in all, that's a fairly minor complaint.

There's not a whole lot that's incredibly novel, but all in all, it's pretty good.

Multiplayer - 5 out of 10

Yeah, there is one, but it's nothing too stellar. There's XBox Live support, but only to see what your Friends List is doing. If you could actually play this game on Live, it'd be a lot better.

What is cool is that there are 48 playable characters in multiplayer (up to 4-person, with bots allowing you to round it out at 4 characters, if it's just you and a buddy), and they're all fairly unique.

Too bad about 20 of them are totally redundant and unremarkable.

The power-ups in multiplayer are supposed to make it more original, but they do fall short.

You can have quick-draw multiplayer duels, though.

All in all ... don't buy this game for the multiplayer, but, it does add a bit of replay value.

Buy or Rent

I bought this game outright ... and I didn't regret it for a second. But most people should rent this one first, as a trial period. Unless you can find it used for around $30-35, then I'd pounce on it. Hardcore Western fans are probably safe to buy it outright.

All in all, I'd say this is a very solidly crafted third-person shooter with just enough distinctive flair to make it stand out. Hopefully they make a RDR 2 with some upgrades and true online multiplayer. In the meantime, however, this game stands out as a quality gaming experience.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/27/04