Storytime, when I was getting out of my comfort zone by playing non-Nintendo games when I received an Xbox One X back in 2018, opened the door to new experiences, and one of those experiences I dived into at the time was Red Dead Redemption. With its engaging gameplay, rich setting, and complex narratives, I ended up loving the duology and were my complete introduction to Rockstar Games. With that said, I've always been fascinated with Red Dead Revolver after relishing my time in RDR as I've seen images and a few videos of the game itself, but never played it until this year. Before I delve into the game itself, Red Dead Revolver has a fascinating development history.

The game was originally produced by Capcom with Angel Studios as the developer, acting as a spiritual successor to the 1985 arcade game, Gun.Smoke. This incarnation of Red Dead Revolver was planned to be released in 2002, but due to rocky development, it rarely saw the light of day. However, it caught the attention of Rockstar Games as it had potential in their eyes, and in 2002, their parent company, Take-Two Interactive bought the studio for $28 million and renamed it to Rockstar San Diego. This was the game's redemption at proceeding with the development with the game's release in May 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. If you want to learn more about the history, I recommend the links below.

https://youtu.be/zxVewjwwhog
https://sea.ign.com/red-dead-revolver-ps4/171557/news/how-rockstar-games-redeemed-red-dead-revolver-into-a-successful-franchise

Red Dead Revolver has you taking the reins of Red Harlow. After witnessing the murder of his parents, Red sets out on a journey seeking revenge on the person who killed his loved ones. Along the way, you'll meet some faces like Jack Swift and Annie Stoakes who will accompany you and serve as playable characters in their respective chapters. The story is pretty basic, and the characters are all two-dimensional, but it has that Rockstar feels that I loved in the later entries, and it was enough to engage me the whole way through.

Red Dead Revolver is an arcade third-person shooter with missions to complete and bounties to hunt. In between missions, you can explore the small hub world called Brimstone with people to interact with, weapons to purchase, and other stuff to buy that serves zero purpose outside of filling your journal. The Dead Eye mechanic made its debut in Red Dead Revolver, and essentially what it does is slow down time, opening up the chance to send a flurry of bullets to your enemies. For 2004 standards, I think it functions decently, though I found it to be more effective when being up close rather than far away. Speaking of which, some of the enemies in this game (specifically bosses) are essentially bullet sponges who take so many shots to kill. Adding on to a lack of health items and checkpoints can make certain stages feel unfair. Stage 25 is the worst example of this as near the end of the level, I had to protect one of my allies from waves of enemies while he was opening the door, and death can come by at any minute if I'm not careful. All of that culminates into one big shitshow of a level, and particular levels like these infuriate me when playing through this blind.

Overall, Red Dead Revolver is a decent third-person shooter. It has some rough edges for sure, but there's a bit of fun here to justify that. I don't think I see myself replaying this one in the foreseeable future, but I think it serves as a consequential piece of Rockstar's legacy. Without Red Dead Revolver, we would've never received the critically acclaimed Red Dead Redemption titles that gave us a full taste of what an open-world Western game can be.