Red Dead Redemption wasn't the first Red Dead game. That honor goes to Red Dead Revolver, released in 2003 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and later re-released for PS4 and Xbox One.
Fans of Red Dead Redemption and its prequel may be interested in going back to Red 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 why Revolver may still be worth playing for Red Dead fans, and where it comes up short.
Red Dead Revolver's Gameplay
There are a few parts of Red Dead Revolver's gameplay which will be instantly recognizable to Red Dead Redemption fans. 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 Revolver began development at Capcom. The studio hoped it could be a spiritual successor to the vertical scrolling run-and-fun arcade shooter Gun.Smoke, released in 1985. Rockstar's Hamish Brown described the Capcom version of Red Dead Revolver as "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 Revolver also has far fewer RPG elements than later games. There isn't any hunting or skinning, and the player isn't thrown into a large open world like Red 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 in Red Dead Redemption. Fans of the different difficulty settings found in Red Dead Redemption may get some replay value out of Red Dead Revolver's four different difficulties, but without an open world players are unlikely to find many interesting new approaches to each mission.
Although Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Redemption 2 would both switch to a different character for their epilogues, Red Dead Revolver jumps between several different player characters throughout, another remnant of its arcade origins. The story focuses on gunslinger Red 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 stereotypical Red 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, and General Javier Diego can order cannon fire.
The variety of characters in Red 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 to Red Dead Online entertained for very long.
Red Dead Revolver's Story
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 to Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, and Red's backstory isn't far off from Harmonica's in Once 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 from Red Dead Revolver, that's because much of it is taken from actual spaghetti western movies.
None of that is necessarily a bad thing - the game certainly revels in its own silliness at times. Any Red Dead Redemption fan hoping to find relationships as complex as the one between Dutch 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 with Red Dead Revolver's story.
In fact, Red Dead Revolver isn't even considered canon within the Red Dead Redemption universe. Although some fans have speculated that Red Harlow might have grown into older characters seen in the other games like Uncle or Landon Ricketts, it's implied that Red Harlow is just a story in the Red Dead Redemption canon, which also helps explain the tonal differences and the more outlandish aspects of Red's story.
The story, while simple, doesn't take itself too seriously. For players who felt that being forced to hunt down former friends or dying of tuberculosis was 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 Revolver is 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 to Revolver hoping for a Red Dead Redemption-style experience are going to be disappointed, but it can be interesting to play the game just to see how much changed between Revolver and the first Red Dead Redemption.
Red Dead Revolver is available for PS2, PS4, Xbox, and Xbox One.