Red Dead Revolver
Finally, the Wild West done right.
Published: May 29, 2004
You wouldn't think that a Western-themed game would be hard to pull off, but few games have even come close to being fun, much less an authentic homage to the Spaghetti Westerns that really brought the genre back from the brink of cinema extinction (and solidified Clint Eastwood as a bona fide badass) back in the 60's.
While it languished in limbo for more than a little while before trading publishers, Angel Studios' digital Sergio Leone tribute has emerged as nothing short of the best Western-themed game ever, and surprise of surprises, it's actually a ton of fun to boot. It may have taken a few years, and Angel Studios may have been swallowed up by and transformed into an offshoot of Rockstar Games (they're now Rockstar San Diego for those that are still in the dark), but the end result has been game that not only had me enthralled, but everyone who saw me playing the game. When girlfriends and their siblings start getting into the action after just a couple-second glance, you know there's more than a little universal appeal.
And why not? Sure, kids these days may not play Cowboys and Indians anymore, but the whole idea of riding into town and filling varmints full o' hot lead for a couple bucks while entertaining the company of some saloon-bound lady is pretty timeless. Kill the bad guys, get yourself a girl, and make a couple bucks in the process. Simple, no?
Of course, if that were all there was to the game, Red Dead Revolver probably wouldn't hold up for too long. Luckily, there's the universal Western motivation at play here: revenge. See, Nate Harlow and a partner, after years of toiling away as miners, finally struck gold. Nate headed home to celebrate with his wife, an Indian girl from a nearby tribe, and Red, his son. Word, of course, travels fast on the open plains, and before long, men arrived at Nate's homestead to torch the place and take the deed to the gold. Nate, with help from little Red, tried valiantly to defend his home, but in the end he was gunned down, and in a desperate attempt at childhood revenge, Red pulled his father's gun from a fire and blew off the hand of the man that shot his pa.
Flash forward a couple years and Red has grown up, but still craves revenge. Working as a bounty hunter in the Spanish-American War-era Old West, he travels the dusty plains searching for a way to close the book on his family's ill-fated history, as well as discovering there was more to his childhood battle than just gold.
It's familiar territory, sure, but that doesn't mean it's not a whole hell of a lot of fun to run through. Gone is the old control scheme where Red auto-targeted enemies or tried to take out specific body parts. Instead, the left analog stick moves Red forward, back and strafes him, while the right analog stick moves the camera, or, when aiming with the L1 button, targets baddies. Pressing the R2 button drops the game into Dead Eye Mode, when Red can target as many as twelve different targets (depending on the weapons he's using) while moving in slow-mo. And really, aside from using Triangle to reload, Square to move up against objects, and the d-pad to switch weapons, that's all there is to the main gameplay mode.
While you'll take control of other players, they all pretty much play the same way, save for lacking Dead Eye Mode (the other players default to an alt-fire mode that does everything from release a massive explosion to lighting arrows or flares on fire). It's in the shootouts that things get interesting.
In classic showdown fashion, you'll have to square off against an opponent (or opponents in a couple of cases), draw, aim and fire before the other guys can. It's easier than it sounds; pulling back on the right analog stick will grab your gun, pushing forward draws it, and then it's simply a matter of slowly aiming a reticule (which moves from yellow to open red to tight red to indicate accuracy) at your target and tap R1 to lock in a shot. If you're fast enough, you can draw, aim, target and jump to the fire phase (it's otherwise kicked in once the enemy(ies) draw and fire at you), capping your foe before they can ever hit you. It takes practice, but the end result is incredibly satisfying.
Satisfying pretty much typifies RDR's whole experience. From chaining together kills to rack up big cash rewards to switching between different characters (you'll even play as the bad guys) to mowing through fools in shootouts, the couple of years spent on the game's development did it worlds of good. There are a few moments where the game's once-vaunted AI (Rockstar SD has since dropped the whole dynamic emotional AI aspect) screws up, running in circles or into walls, and the game actually crashed on me once, which cost it a few points, but the core experience is incredibly solid and just, well, fun.
Red Dead Revolver actually showed a lot of graphical promise right from the start. With impressive lighting and accurately cast shadows. A couple years later and the game still looks impressive, whether it's the blown-out, stylized lighting (there are times when looking at the sun results in nothing more than a screenful of white light), the bleached environment lavished with worn, aged texture work or the classic film grain effect that adds dust and scratches to the cutscenes, this is a gorgeous game, plain and simple.
The visuals aren't perfect; the washed out, overblown lighting and heavy anti-aliasing make the game a bit on the blurry side, so objects off in the distance can be either a rock pillar or a guy leveling his shotgun, and without targeting them to see if the crosshairs go red, it's hard to tell. This can be confusing in a shootout where you're seeking cover from incoming fire just to find out you've turned a back to a sniper up on a ridge or rooftop, but it's usually only in the more open environments that it happens. It doesn't destroy the game, but it does bear mentioning.
Still, even with the game's obviously stretched engine, the overall look is so authentic, culling all the style and flair of films like High Noon and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, that it's almost impossible to fall in love after watching someone play. The smaller touches like the screen pulses to tell you you've killed someone mean the minimal interface and liberal use of cutscenes can suck the player into a world that most haven't had a chance to experience in years – if ever.
Perhaps the greatest catalyst for this absorption into a dusty, sun-bleached era is the work of composer Ennio Morricone, who already plied his trade during the aforementioned Spaghetti Western 60's with classmate Sergio Leone. Morricone's work is a smattering of his greatest hits and most fit so well with the game, you'd think they were created for it, both in tempo and feeling.
The effects work also rings true, with slightly muffled gunshots, ricochets and quips from the people your either killing or saving. It was a bit annoying to have to re-engage conversations with townsfolk, and the reward was your typically drawled fluff, though once in a while the bits of conversation would offer very basic hints on how to tackle a boss, or would provide the opportunity to buy an item.
In the end, all the slick presentation, brassy refrains, clichéd dueling lines and stereotypical characters can't make a game good. It absolutely has to come down to the gameplay, and that's exactly where Red Dead Revolver delivers in spades. The pacing, boss designs and core gameplay are pick up and play easy, but with all the unlockable goodies doled out for replaying the game and finishing up levels with a dead aim and speedy trigger finger offer enough for those perfectionists to get the most out of the game.
It may have had a couple of missteps on the way to release, but Rockstar San Diego has turned out one of the best pure entertainment titles I've played in a while. Get this game, pronto.
While it languished in limbo for more than a little while before trading publishers, Angel Studios' digital Sergio Leone tribute has emerged as nothing short of the best Western-themed game ever, and surprise of surprises, it's actually a ton of fun to boot. It may have taken a few years, and Angel Studios may have been swallowed up by and transformed into an offshoot of Rockstar Games (they're now Rockstar San Diego for those that are still in the dark), but the end result has been game that not only had me enthralled, but everyone who saw me playing the game. When girlfriends and their siblings start getting into the action after just a couple-second glance, you know there's more than a little universal appeal.
And why not? Sure, kids these days may not play Cowboys and Indians anymore, but the whole idea of riding into town and filling varmints full o' hot lead for a couple bucks while entertaining the company of some saloon-bound lady is pretty timeless. Kill the bad guys, get yourself a girl, and make a couple bucks in the process. Simple, no?
Of course, if that were all there was to the game, Red Dead Revolver probably wouldn't hold up for too long. Luckily, there's the universal Western motivation at play here: revenge. See, Nate Harlow and a partner, after years of toiling away as miners, finally struck gold. Nate headed home to celebrate with his wife, an Indian girl from a nearby tribe, and Red, his son. Word, of course, travels fast on the open plains, and before long, men arrived at Nate's homestead to torch the place and take the deed to the gold. Nate, with help from little Red, tried valiantly to defend his home, but in the end he was gunned down, and in a desperate attempt at childhood revenge, Red pulled his father's gun from a fire and blew off the hand of the man that shot his pa.
Flash forward a couple years and Red has grown up, but still craves revenge. Working as a bounty hunter in the Spanish-American War-era Old West, he travels the dusty plains searching for a way to close the book on his family's ill-fated history, as well as discovering there was more to his childhood battle than just gold.
It's familiar territory, sure, but that doesn't mean it's not a whole hell of a lot of fun to run through. Gone is the old control scheme where Red auto-targeted enemies or tried to take out specific body parts. Instead, the left analog stick moves Red forward, back and strafes him, while the right analog stick moves the camera, or, when aiming with the L1 button, targets baddies. Pressing the R2 button drops the game into Dead Eye Mode, when Red can target as many as twelve different targets (depending on the weapons he's using) while moving in slow-mo. And really, aside from using Triangle to reload, Square to move up against objects, and the d-pad to switch weapons, that's all there is to the main gameplay mode.
While you'll take control of other players, they all pretty much play the same way, save for lacking Dead Eye Mode (the other players default to an alt-fire mode that does everything from release a massive explosion to lighting arrows or flares on fire). It's in the shootouts that things get interesting.
In classic showdown fashion, you'll have to square off against an opponent (or opponents in a couple of cases), draw, aim and fire before the other guys can. It's easier than it sounds; pulling back on the right analog stick will grab your gun, pushing forward draws it, and then it's simply a matter of slowly aiming a reticule (which moves from yellow to open red to tight red to indicate accuracy) at your target and tap R1 to lock in a shot. If you're fast enough, you can draw, aim, target and jump to the fire phase (it's otherwise kicked in once the enemy(ies) draw and fire at you), capping your foe before they can ever hit you. It takes practice, but the end result is incredibly satisfying.
Satisfying pretty much typifies RDR's whole experience. From chaining together kills to rack up big cash rewards to switching between different characters (you'll even play as the bad guys) to mowing through fools in shootouts, the couple of years spent on the game's development did it worlds of good. There are a few moments where the game's once-vaunted AI (Rockstar SD has since dropped the whole dynamic emotional AI aspect) screws up, running in circles or into walls, and the game actually crashed on me once, which cost it a few points, but the core experience is incredibly solid and just, well, fun.
Red Dead Revolver actually showed a lot of graphical promise right from the start. With impressive lighting and accurately cast shadows. A couple years later and the game still looks impressive, whether it's the blown-out, stylized lighting (there are times when looking at the sun results in nothing more than a screenful of white light), the bleached environment lavished with worn, aged texture work or the classic film grain effect that adds dust and scratches to the cutscenes, this is a gorgeous game, plain and simple.
The visuals aren't perfect; the washed out, overblown lighting and heavy anti-aliasing make the game a bit on the blurry side, so objects off in the distance can be either a rock pillar or a guy leveling his shotgun, and without targeting them to see if the crosshairs go red, it's hard to tell. This can be confusing in a shootout where you're seeking cover from incoming fire just to find out you've turned a back to a sniper up on a ridge or rooftop, but it's usually only in the more open environments that it happens. It doesn't destroy the game, but it does bear mentioning.
Still, even with the game's obviously stretched engine, the overall look is so authentic, culling all the style and flair of films like High Noon and The Good, The Bad and The Ugly, that it's almost impossible to fall in love after watching someone play. The smaller touches like the screen pulses to tell you you've killed someone mean the minimal interface and liberal use of cutscenes can suck the player into a world that most haven't had a chance to experience in years – if ever.
Perhaps the greatest catalyst for this absorption into a dusty, sun-bleached era is the work of composer Ennio Morricone, who already plied his trade during the aforementioned Spaghetti Western 60's with classmate Sergio Leone. Morricone's work is a smattering of his greatest hits and most fit so well with the game, you'd think they were created for it, both in tempo and feeling.
The effects work also rings true, with slightly muffled gunshots, ricochets and quips from the people your either killing or saving. It was a bit annoying to have to re-engage conversations with townsfolk, and the reward was your typically drawled fluff, though once in a while the bits of conversation would offer very basic hints on how to tackle a boss, or would provide the opportunity to buy an item.
In the end, all the slick presentation, brassy refrains, clichéd dueling lines and stereotypical characters can't make a game good. It absolutely has to come down to the gameplay, and that's exactly where Red Dead Revolver delivers in spades. The pacing, boss designs and core gameplay are pick up and play easy, but with all the unlockable goodies doled out for replaying the game and finishing up levels with a dead aim and speedy trigger finger offer enough for those perfectionists to get the most out of the game.
It may have had a couple of missteps on the way to release, but Rockstar San Diego has turned out one of the best pure entertainment titles I've played in a while. Get this game, pronto.
