3/5 ★ – BoscVegas's review of Red Dead Revolver.

Wrongfully forgotten or rightfully obscure? Definitely not a must play experience but still worthy of attention as the first game in Rockstar's iconic series and a good game to play for any fans of westerns. ——— Red Dead Revolver is a western shoot-em-up released for the Xbox and PS2 in 2004, published by Rockstar Games; the makers of the critically acclaimed yet controversial Grand Theft Audio series. Does Revolver hold up to the standards set by Rockstar’s previous and how has it aged? In the opening level you are introduced to a younger version of protagonist, Red Harlow, a child with concerningly good gun skills, a child who is soon to be an orphan. His farther is murdered by his own partner’s thugs and his mum perishes in a fire, from that point on Red’s sole objective (and his personality) is a murderous desire for unforgiving revenge…. So, a sharp shooting bounty hunter with a lust for blood must result in a serious, moody game, right? Yes and no, tonally the game can change on the drop of a dime, from fighting dynamite loving circus freaks to closing the eyelids on the corpse of a long-time friend back to machine-gunning a freakish spiked train. Revolver is a game which struggles to settle on an identity for its roughly 8-hour story, not ever fully committing to its cinematic drama or its slapstick characters, however, you reach the end before its identity crisis becomes too annoying. Whilst story and characters may be lacking this can be recovered by the quality of the gameplay and in some instances, it is, with waves of enemies that sometimes die in spectacular fashion with guttural sound effects and dramatic animations, usually culminating in epic set-piece battles against a stronger unique enemy, your bounty target. This all sounds pretty epic especially when you’re omitting the negative parts. For example, the Kevlar like properties of the enemy’s skin or little variation in enemy type and unpredictable and downright stupid AI. Despite many complaints, I did enjoy the game, its iconic weaponry, outfits, and events (like shoot outs) do help to draw you into the classic American wild west and redeems what otherwise would be just another jank early 2000s action-adventure game. Is it worth your time? If you want to play a western action shooter, there’s better options that won’t have you fighting clunky controls or straining your eyes for poor graphics. But, as the first entry in the now massively successful Red Dead series it’s an interesting romp. Ultimately, Red Dead Revolver is an alright game that has its charms but is hindered by a weak plot, repetitive design and poorly aged visuals and mechanics leading to it fading into relative obscurity. *Now being available on Xbox Series X via backwards compatibility does make me want to play it again given the enhanced visuals.