View of a -Drifter-: Red Dead Revolver

[-Drifter-]

Yeah, I know my header sucks.

For my first review, I'd like to take a look back at a game that's very close to my heart, Red Dead Revolver.

Red Dead Revolver takes place in the American West (and in Mexico for a very brief period) and follows the adventures of Clint Eastwood look-alike Red Harlow. The game opens with Red, as a child, living in a beat down house with his native mother Falling Star. Red's father Nate returns home and enthusiastically exclaims that he and his partner struck a huge vein of gold, and that the family's troubles are finally over. The scene pretty much screams "tradgedy waiting to happen," but while you wait for said tradgedy to rear its ugly head Nate gives you his old pistol and tells you to practice down by the river.

Sure enough, once the brief tutorial is over a bunch of outlaws arrive and start shooting the place up. Fighting your way back up to the house, you arrive just in time to find a Colonel with a huge chin standing over the corpses of your parents. He then spouts perhaps one of the most hilariously cheesy lines in video game history and goes to shoot Red. Red, however, spots his father's gun lying in a fire. He grabs the gun, burning his hand in the process, fires off a shot and, no joke, blows the Colonel's entire arm off. He then scrambles away and hides while the bandits are still in shock over how awesome that was.

Fast forward a few years, and Red is now a grisled, bad ass bounty hunter going after the toughest bandits in the county, all the while trying to get to the bottom of his parents' murder. If you haven't figured it out by now, the plot is simple, cliche and ridiculous, but it does a good enough job of moving the action along, and there's somthing endearing about its over the top nature. While you play most of the game as Red, there are a few levels where you shift to the perspective of other characters, even playing as one of the bad guys at one point. While the characters play basically the same, they each have their own special ability and the missions all have a distinct style, which helps to keep things varied.

[small]There's no shortage of dusty towns to fight in.[/small]​

As for the gameplay itself, it's a solid blend of run-and-gun action and cover based shooting a la Gears of War (though perhaps that's not the best comparison, since Red Dead Revolver was released in 2004.) Enemies react to gunshots in trademark Spaghetti Western fashion, spinning and hopping around as they're struck by bullets, and the game usually keeps up a fairly frantic and exciting pace. When things start to get too overwhelming, Red can use Dead Eye, which slows down time and allows you to paint multiple targets on foes. Once you're done, simply pull the trigger and Red unleashes a hail of gunfire upon the unlucky fools in your way. It's an interesting take on bullet time, and breathes a bit of life into an over used gameplay element.

Occasionally the regular gameplay is broken up by duels. When a duel begins a grainy filter is placed on the screen and you're shown shots of both sides staring each other down. Then the perpective shifts to behind Red and, once the filter disappears, you draw your gun as quickly as possible by pushing down, then up on the right analog stick. Once your gun is drawn, you paint targets on your oponent, preferably when the reticule is bright red and, when time is up, fire your shots. It's tense and fun, once you get the hang of it. Duels start getting much more difficult later in the game, but I never had to try any more than three times.

[small]Red prepares to shoot Mr. Kelly for wearing such a stupid hat[/small]​

Unfortunately it's not all sunshine and duel revolvers. Later in the game there are a few stealth sections, and they work out about as well as you'd expect. Luckily they don't stick around long, but while they are there, they're a nuisance. The controls (particularly when shooting from behind cover) are also a bit stiff, and there's one or two levels that may result in controllers being hurled at TV's.

Single player's not the only thing on display in RDR. You and three friends can duke it out in multi-player in three different modes, and, if need be, bots can fill in empty slots. The three modes available are Bounty Hunter, Sundown and High Noon. Bounty Hunter and Sundown are fairly similar. In Bounty Hunter the goal is to get a set amount of money (obtained by killing other players) first, and in Sundown you simply try to have the most cash when the timer runs out. High Noon is basically duels between players, and doesn't work quite as well. Dueling just doesn't really function when sped up to real time, and when trying to play with more than two people it becomes a bit of a mess, with people often winding up getting shot by someone they weren't even facing.

[small]What would a western game be without a gatling gun?[/small]​

You can unlock a huge number of characters and levels in multi-player by either getting good scores in single player levels or buying items in shops. It is a lot of fun, but the characters aren't very well balanced, and some, like Sheriff O'Grady and General Diego, are pretty much useless.

Despite its flaws, Red Dead Revolver is a fun and (for me at least) memorable experience with a lot of style, and these days it's very cheap, usually in the realm of five to ten dollars. If you're a fan of fast paced gameplay and the western genre, I suggest tracking this one down. It's definitely worth your time.

I hope you enjoyed my review, and I'll be writing more in the future.

 

[-Drifter-]

PS: If anyone could help me put together a less crappy header I'd be very grateful.