Its an alright attempt at a western game.

User Rating: 7.5 | Red Dead Revolver PS2
By daconehead | Review Date:
The old west? Man, on the Playstation 2 that sounded like a damn good idea, and when our favorite developer Rockstar was on the case, we expected then what Red Dead Redemption gave us now! So did the previous title, Red Dead Revolver give us what we were waiting for??? The answer is both yes, and no. Story: 6.5/10: Without giving too much away to the plot, you play as Red, a Clint Eastwood kinda guy who is trying to avenge the murder of his family by his father's backstabbing best friend. The plot sounds good on paper, and it is alright I suppose, but it lacks depth. Red is a stereotypical bandit with not many identifiable qualities other than being ummm cold? And umm... a umm decent person? See, I can't even tell half the time where they are going with this character and what they were planning to do in the first place. See, I see Red as a prototype version of John Marston because Red's shortcomings are really fixed as Rockstar identified that problem. I think its hard to really care about Red succeeding in his goal because of his lack of personality and his cookie cutter bandit antics. Now, I mean, thats not necessarily a terrible thing because every other character seems to have Rockstar's unique touch to their characters. See, most of the side characters ARE in fact really interesting because of their oddness and just how memorable they are. Naming just the enemies, theres a fat guy obsessed with dynamite, an army man with a cannon for an arm, a guy obsessed with dead people, and a girl that looks and fights like a man XD See? Now because of these odd villains, and even the interesting allies like the British showman Jack Swift, Red's bland personality really doesn't make a difference in the overall scheme of things. Around these characters, the story really remains bland and really does not develop the characters at all despite them being strange and fascinating. While I do think the end is satisfying, overall, even with uniqueness, it all seems forced. its still decent, but everything is in desperate need of some fine tuning.

Gameplay: 8/10: Good stuff here, I like the way it was setup to a stylized gameplay that truly conveys the west and how a game should simulate such a time period. Using varieties of weapons such as revolvers (of course), rifles, shotguns, and dynamite. It feels like a different style than any of Rockstar's other games, and that gives me both a pro and a con. While I like the differentiation towards what I would have expected, I do not like the fact there was essentially no overworld and nowhere to explore. We will get more into that later, but the fact that there are no side missions can really be touched on here. Why, oh why, in a game like this would there be no side missions??? I think that would have definitely helped in a game like this, and made the relatively short game a bit longer. There are definitely some flaws in the gameplay here (riding the horse is pretty unsatisfying), and there are some pieces missing that would have helped the final product, but overall the game plays satisfying and how you would expect.

Atmosphere:6/10: Why is there no sandbox? It would only make sense really considering it is a western game and you would think exploring would be one of the main priorities of the final product. The ONE city you're in does feel like a classic western town, but there really isn't anything to do, or much of a point to the town itself. All of the story missions take place in great Western environments, and are really convincing, I'm actually pretty impressed with them and considering you spend 97 percent of the time in those, I will overlook most of the flaws because of the main feeling accomplishing the western theme of the game, and the places of the story mode missions being pretty cool looking. The characters fit in here too, and as ive said, allies and enemies are all memorable and pretty cool. Multiplayer: 10/10: I think this is one of the games surprising strongpoints with its showdown mode. During the story, you buy many obscure items in the shops that appear before each level such as an open for buisness sign. These seemingly useless items turn out to unlock characters in a battle mode known as Showdown Mode. I like this actually, I find it unique, and if you want to unlock all of the characters, you have to make an effort to do so in the story. When you get to the mode it is pretty much a general deathmatch mode, but the personality of the characters and the style of the weapons make it an oddly really enjoyable experience that maybe I bias, but hey, I find the whole thing fun as long as you have a couple buddies around to play with. Even without friends, it can be a good timekiller, and I found this mode to be the perfect thing they could have possibly added.

Pros: Memorable Characters, Good level design, Great Gameplay, Stylized Guns, Great Multiplayer.

Cons: NO SANDBOX, Can get boring, Red is a piece of cardboard, Story lacks some depth, Too short, Good concept but executed in a mediocre fashion.

30.5/40
Grade: C
76th Percentile

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