Back when spaghetti westerns had no place in the market, Red Dead Revolver occupied many players with its fascinating story and world. It enjoyed six long years before Red Dead Redemption arrived and completely changed things. The game is currently collecting dust in many households, but it wouldn't hurt to go back to the past...
You'll be glad to hear that Rockstar developed this game, so you'll be expecting a solid storyline to fit in with all the shooting. It delivers just that. The story starts out with a teenager called Red Harlow, who is living with both his parents in a desolate location. Red's dad comes back from his travels and presents a revolver called 'the scorpion' to his son, which he got from his partner named Griffin. Not long after, an army of men lead by a man called Daren appear out of nowhere, and they begin to fire at Red's parents, killing them. Horrified at what's happened, Red picks up his fathers gun and shoots Daren, which takes off his arm. The game then fast forwards to the present with Red looking for revenge, and to find out who order the hit on his family and why. I'm not going to go any further with the story, as it's too good to spoil. Red Dead Revolver is played out in a third person perspective, and has a mixture of linear and free roam gameplay. While taking part in a mission, you'll be forced to stick to a certain path, but you are allowed a lot more freedom when visiting the town of brimstone, which acts as the hub.
While on your journey to find the person behind your family's murder, you also help out several characters along the way. For example: early on in the game, you save a sheriff from being killed in his town, and you even help him get to Brimstone so he can recuperate from his injuries that he sustained from his ordeal. Once you make it to Brimstone, their local sheriff gives you some bounties for you to complete. Many people are on the wanted list, and to piece together what happened and to find some answers, you'll need to kill them if you want to get information about your traumatizing experience. Don't be fooled though, Red is an anti hero. He only helps people if there's some reward at the end of it, or if it helps him out. This makes him a likeable character in my opinion. You meet other characters throughout, such as Jack Swift, Annie Stokes, your cousin Shadow Wolf and a nameless Buffalo Soldier. You will control these characters at specific points in the game, which stops the game from becoming stale. You can even take the role of an army general several years before the events of the main story, which is a neat touch.
It's hard to judge the games graphics. They don't look special, but this might of been intentional, so it can capture the feeling of the wild west. The game features a grainy film effect during gameplay and cutscenes, which looks amazing but in reality, the textures fall flat and so do the character models. Thankfully, the voice acting and animations hold up even today. If you've played any third person shooter before, you'll be familiar with the way this game handles. Moving, switching weapons, vaulting over obstacles and shooting are comfortable, with the exception of the turret sections. Aiming while using a turret gun feels sloppy and over sensitive, forcing you to slowly move the analogue stick to align the crosshair with your chosen target. Other than that, everything behaves how it should. If you've been waiting for a genuinely hard game, then you've found one. Red Dead Revolver hosts some of the most bothersome moments I've ever played through. Many enemies will kill you repeatedly, you'll be outnumbered in every mission and you'll struggle with the duel mechanic. Duels are special moments at the end of a distinct point in time that requires you to draw your gun before your enemy (or in some cases, enemies) does. It sound simple on paper, but it's a nail biting process. and depending on how good you are, you'll most likely drop dead more than a few times. Still, it's an innovative mechanic that you don't see a lot nowadays.
More difficult parts are found in the boss fights. Whenever you find your bounty target or a high up opponent, you'll do battle with them, as you would in any other game. There are a good selection of them,and they all have different difficulties. Most of them will have you tearing your hair out as they beat you down and dispense your ashes for the third consecutive time. I can name some good examples, but the game has some bad bosses too, namely the twins at the end of the mineshaft level, who stand around and let you shoot them point blank in the face. Or Mr black, an insane man who believes he is head. He staggers around a graveyard while wearing a coffin on his back armed with a minigun. Just one example of a cheap boss. To mix up the action, some stealth sequences are thrown in. This is where the game starts to fade away. To put things bluntly, it's no Metal Gear Solid. Enemies will detect you just as you're about to finish them off, your arsenal of weapons is very limited and you'll spend most of your time finding darn keys to unlock doors. These stages fail horribly, making for some truly infuriating occasions.
Another negative about the game is that it's cut to the bone in terms of length. While each section isn't too shy to last up to half an hour, the story concludes at around six hours if you know where you're going and what you're doing. It will last longer if you're a new player, but it's hardly a game that you'll play for weeks on end. It can also feel isolated, as you'll want to explore the beautiful looking environments that the game has on offer. Instead, you go wherever the game tells you to go, which is displeasing. Apart from the story, you can play two extra modes. Bounty Hunter mode consists of the same levels you've already played but with new objectives and challenges, perfect for all the purists out there, and some local multiplayer but I never really bothered with it. A western wouldn't be complete without a legendary score, which this game has. I could listen to the soundtrack for hours without getting bored of it. Few games have music with such dedication put into it. I would've liked to have seen a tracklist included with a physical copy of the game, but finding each piece online is easy.
Red Dead Revolver is a forgotten classic among gamers. It provided some extremely difficult gameplay mixed in with suave characters, boisterous gameplay, easy to use controls, clever use of the graphics engine, a wonderful story, unforgettable music and faithful homage to other westerns. The clumsy stealth, the sometimes fiddly sensitivity and the linear routes you have to take are problematic, but it's just not enough to ruin such a fantastic game like this. I strongly advise anybody interested to find a copy of this as soon as possible.