Red Dead Redemptionwasn’t the firstRed Deadgame. That honor goes toRed Dead Revolver, released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and later re-released for PS4 and Xbox One.
Fans ofRed Dead Redemptionand its prequel may be interested in going back toRed Dead Revolver. While it is far from the same experience, the game does share some similarities with its spiritual successors. Here’s a breakdown of whyRevolvermay still be worth playing forRed Deadfans, and where it comes up short.
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There are a few parts ofRed Dead Revolver’s gameplay which will be instantly recognizable toRed Dead Redemptionfans. Dead Eye still works in more-or-less the same way as the games' successor series. Time slows down, allowing the player to line up a series of shots that they’ll fire off in rapid succession. The game is still played in third person, but although Red is able to move freely through each of the game’s 3D levels, Dead Eye feels far more like a mechanic out of an older arcade game.
This is likely a remnant of the game’s origins.Red Dead Revolverbegan development atCapcom. The studio hoped it could be a spiritual successor to the vertical scrolling run-and-fun arcade shooterGun.Smoke, released in 1985. Rockstar’s Hamish Brown described the Capcom version ofRed Dead Revolveras “uber-arcade.” The development of the Capcom version ended, however, and the IP was picked up by Rockstar while maintaining some of that arcade feel.
Red Dead Revolveralso has far fewer RPG elements than later games. There isn’t any hunting or skinning, and the player isn’t thrown into a largeopen world likeRed Dead Redemption. The player can buy a handful of items, weapons, and, oddly enough, even multiplayer characters in the single-player stores. Ultimately, the game is very short compared to the hundreds of hours of content inRed Dead Redemption. Fans of the different difficulty settings found inRed Dead Redemptionmay get some replay value out ofRed Dead Revolver’s four different difficulties, but without an open world players are unlikely to find many interesting new approaches to each mission.
AlthoughRed Dead RedemptionandRed Dead Redemption2would both switch to a different character for their epilogues,Red Dead Revolverjumps between several different player characters throughout, another remnant of its arcade origins. The story focuses on gunslingerRed Harlow, but at different points the player is thrown into the shoes of ranch owner Annie Stoakes, African-American veteran Buffalo Soldier, Red’s Native American cousin Shadow Wolf, British duelist Jack Swift, and even one of the game’s villains General Javier Diego.
The names alone only scratch the surface of just how much simpler and stereotypicalRed Dead Revolver’s characters are. In terms of gameplay, however, the variety of characters does lend itself to some interesting mechanics. Jack Swift is a far faster and more accurate shot, Buffalo Soldier has an explosive round, andGeneral Javier Diegocan order cannon fire.
The variety of characters inRed Dead Revolver, and the mechanics that come with them, have a greater effect on the game’s multiplayer Showdown Mode. Showdown Mode comes with an impressively large roster of playable characters including names like Bad Bessie and Kid Cougar, and abilities ranging from healing to setting themselves on fire. Showdown Mode comes with thirteen different stages, each based on classic western settings, from mayoral mansions to mines to ghost towns. The multiplayer combat adds a lot to the game, though the simplicity of the gunplay is unlikely to keep players used toRed Dead Onlineentertained for very long.
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Red Dead Revolver’s story is a patchwork of different western movie plots, and though it’s a fun send-up at times, the shorter length makes the seams more noticeable. Red looks almost identical toClint Eastwood’s Man With No Name, and Red’s backstory isn’t far off from Harmonica’s inOnce Upon A Time In The West- he’s hunting down the man who killed his family.
Red Dead Revolver’s story simply isn’t going for the sweeping, emotional storytelling of its spiritual successors. It doesn’t expect the player to be particularly invested in its characters, as fun as their varied abilities are. The story offers more of a cliche backdrop for the game’s shooting mechanics. If players recognize some of the music fromRed Dead Revolver, that’s because much of it is taken from actualspaghetti western movies.
None of that is necessarily a bad thing - the game certainly revels in its own silliness at times. AnyRed Dead Redemptionfan hoping to find relationships as complex as the one betweenDutch and Arthur, vistas as stunning as those in the later games' worlds, or similar themes of regret, decline, and revenge are unlikely to be satisfied withRed Dead Revolver’s story.
In fact,Red Dead Revolverisn’t even considered canon within theRed Dead Redemptionuniverse. Although some fans have speculated that Red Harlow might have grown into older characters seen in the other games like Uncle orLandon Ricketts, it’s implied that Red Harlow is just a story in theRed Dead Redemptioncanon, which also helps explain the tonal differences and the more outlandish aspects ofRed’s story.
The story, while simple, doesn’t take itself too seriously. For players who felt that being forced to hunt down former friends ordying of tuberculosiswas too bleak,Red Dead Revolver’s zaniness could be a welcome relief, though its legacy can also be seen in plenty of the other games' stranger missions.
Red Dead Revolveris a fun, goofy arcade-style shooter. It isn’t trying to be much more than that, as its characters are broad stereotypes that are goofy at best and cringe-inducing at worst. Players who go toRevolverhoping for aRed Dead Redemption-style experience are going to be disappointed, but it can be interesting to play the game just to see how much changed betweenRevolverand the firstRed Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Revolveris available for PS2, PS4, Xbox, and Xbox One.
