Red Dead Revolver Is an Odd Game to Say the Least
Red Dead Redemption 2 might be the most anticipated game of 2018 and will, most likely, win loads of Game of the Year awards while selling a gazillion copies in the first four months of release. The sequel to the beloved 2010 open-world Western game, Red Dead Redemption, could go down as one of the best games ever made barring some unforeseen screw-up on the part of Rockstar Games.
However, what about the 2004 game that started it all? What about Red Dead Revolver?
Having played through the game recently on the PS4, I just have to say this: Red Dead Revolver is freaking weird.
It starts out fairly serious and somewhat believable in its first hour but the moment the game’s protagonist, Red Harlow, saunters into the hideout of a gang of gun-toting clowns lead by a large man named, no joke, “Pig Josh”, is when the game starts to go off the rails and never stops.
The level after that involves you playing as an Englishman who dual wields revolvers to battle a professor/wizard who owns a circus, imbibes what I can only assume (since this is an early 2000s game) to be Mountain Dew, and has teleportation powers.
And the game doesn’t stop getting weirder from there!
Red’s cousin, a Native American warrior named Shadow Wolf, inexplicably battles, in a forest, Yet Another Large Man™ named “Grizzly” who has no dialogue and just makes bear noises.
One of the five playable characters, Annie Stoakes, singlehandedly fights off gunmen who are trying to destroy her ranch while she rides one of her giant bulls.
An antagonist named Colonel Daren replaced his shot off arm with a functioning cannon and there’s a criminal that Red hunts down during the game that carries around a coffin that has a Gatling gun inside!
*Stands up on his desk chair* THERE’S A SMALL TEENAGE BOY NAMED “KID COUGAR” THAT YOU DUEL IN A CONTEST.
And all this weirdness canonically exists in the same universe alongside John Marston and the protagonist in Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan!
For example, you can hear stories about the exploits of Red Harlow and the rest of the game’s characters during the campfire stories in Red Dead Redemption (which takes place about 30 or so years after the events of Red Dead Revolver).
There was even a DLC pack that featured all five of the playable characters along with some of the antagonists!
That means that while the serious and somber lifestory of a preteen or teenage John Marston was going on, there was a battle between an Englishman and a teleporting wizard that owned a circus! That’s absolutely insane!
The 2004 third-person Western game was originally being developed by Angel Studios and published by Capcom before Rockstar Games acquired the developer, renamed it Rockstar San Diego, and took over the project. Taking what was originally a Japanese-style take on the Old West and making it work for a Western audience obviously lead to a lot of changes.
“There were already a lot of really strong ideas and features in the game when we first checked it out,” said Jamie King, the former Vice President and co-founder of Rockstar Games, in a 2004 interview with IGN. “But Rockstar has its own style… and of course a Western game on the Rockstar label would have to live up to certain standards.”
“Certain elements remained unchanged, such as the visual look of the environments, but a lot of the game has been altered,” King said. “We revamped the story, improved the gameplay, and added all new cutscenes, voices, and music.”
Well, Rockstar definitely ended up making one of the strangest games I’ve ever played! I can say that for sure.
The PS4 port of Red Dead Revolver is currently on sale on the PlayStation Store for $10.49 but is usually priced at $14.99. You can also play the Xbox version on Xbox 360 using the backwards compatibility feature but, be warned, it can suffer from freezes in certain instances.