Post by: addyb on June 20, 2004, 11:58:00 AM
As you may have guessed by the title it does involve guns... lots of them! so let me tell you a little about the game. Red dead is a 3rd person style shooter (for those that dont know what this means think GTA or Manhunt camera angles, viewpoints)
The game opts for a cowboy western type theme with revenge storyline in place, the game kicks off with you (red) as a young boy practising to shoot with your father when a gang of outlaws appear and savagely gun down your family. Skip to 10 years or so in the future (cannot remember the exact time jump) and Red is all grown up and thirsty for revenge.
As the story goes thats pretty much it but there are some interesting twists and turns along the way which i wont reveal now but lets just say its not as straightforward as you may think!!
At the beggining of most levels you get to choose a firearm of choice but these are limited, you wont find any assault rifles or rocket launchers here but a selection of old style weapons such as pistols, revolvers, rifles, shotguns and throwing weaponry such as fire bottles and dynamite. Each of these have there own strengths and weaknesses so its up to you what you feel comfortable with.
Each level of the game has its own mission and linear structure to it. Most levels are quite large and there are often different routes to take and secrets to be found but dont expect it to be free roaming like GTA (but what game is)They all have different situations such as boarding a train and running along the rooftops jumping/ducking posts etc as they come near, saving animals from a burning barn, and even riding on cattle and stampeding the bad guys. Each mission may comprise of a series of tasks to complete but they are all non taxing and generally involve you shooting something or someone.
How does the game play i hear you all cry!! Well let me tell you its not too shabby at all. You control Red like most of characters Left trigger to draw your guns and right trigger to shoot with analogue sticks moving the character and Aim. The other buttons are used for Jump, Punch and weapons selection so nothing hard here. You also have the ability to hide behing scenery and take a peek again all standard of a game of this nature. Perhaps one of the best features of the game is the bullet time style attack you have. Basically you get a power meter on your screen and this fills up as you kill bad guys, once this is full if you press down on your right analogue stick while aiming the action will slow down (any1 whos played max payne or matrix will know what i mean) and you can move your cross hairs over the bad guys and a little target mark will appear on there body, now if you move it around there body you can pinpoint other areas or you can quickly move the target onto another person and lock onto them. Now if you press the right trigger you will unleash a flurry of bullets dependant on how many 'Points' you marked on your victim thus normally wiping them out and saving your skin. This feature works quite well and isnt hard to use. Keeping with the theme of features here is another one. On numerous occasions during the game you may get confrontated by a boss guy/woman and they will offer you a showdown so get yourself ready as its quick draw time cowboy style! The game camera here will zoom in so you basically see the back of red and his itchy trigger fingers near his holster. Now when your ready you have to use your anologue sticks to draw your gun and quickly move your target over his body and try and target his body and then release your bullets before he/she does and take the mo fo down.
Again this works well and is a great feature to add to the game.
Through out the game your are not limited to being red all the time, as the story progresses you get the chance to play other characters which although the general missions etc may be the same as red it does offer a nice diversion and mixes the game up a little. Most levels end with a confrontation with a boss and while some are easy, others are quite tough and you have to figure out there weaknesses and use the terrain, buildings etc to your advantage.
Graphically the game is pretty good, sure it wont win any awards for the best looking game in the world but it does the job well, its got a grainy kind of look to it will dull washed out colours but it suits the game very well, the characters are well drawn and all the environments are good and are instantly recognisable in the Wild west themes, Saloons, runaway trains, Farms, dusty deserted towns. The game features a lot of cutscenes which are done quite well and all the voices are adequate and you will recognise rockstars style of character design and movement.
Sound is also good with realistic effects from your various weaponry and the added pings and pows as bullets ricochet off walls etc. I wont go into the sound detail to much as i feel it does its job well and dont have any complaints with it.
Now its all been strawberries and Cream so far and you may be thinking the game is perfect well let me air my grievances i have with the game.
Firstly the control isnt as fluid as you may think. Red controls ok but sometimes it feels a little sluggish and when you have several men on your ass it can be quite trick to kill them without taking major punishment another downside is the recovery time when you get blown up by a firebomb etc, you will roll on the floor for a while and when you get back up you can get blown up again if your unlucky. Other features of the controls can be pretty unresponsive as well. Take for example that on one level you are on top of a train and you have to alternate between jumping platforms and ducking under them... well you really have to have lightning fingers as half of the time when you are crouching you cannot recover in time to jump the next platform etc. Again this doesnt make the game unplayable but just spoils it a little.
My only other gripe with the game is the overall gameplay, i just feel that at times your doing too much of the same thing IE enter a level and shoot the bad guys!
Again this spoils the game a little as i feel it should have had a bit more variety to the gameplay. Maybe its the controls that make it feel a little tedious at times i dunno, again its just my opinion.
The bottom line is this.... Red Dead Revolver is a good little game the only thing that stops it from being a classic is the overall gameplay. Sure the game is far better than Manhunt and with going with a western feel the appeal is there. All the graphics, sound etc are good but the game has too many great ideas that are simply not executed as well as they could be. I have no doubt that a sequel would be great and i do wish for one.
If i had to give a score id give 7.5 out of 10 <
Post by: AnThRaX on June 20, 2004, 11:01:00 PM
Post by: addyb on June 21, 2004, 12:42:00 AM
Im not saying its shite i suppose i was let down a little as it wasnt as good as i thought, serves me right for getting caught in the hype machine! I must admit the game gets better the more you delve into it but ultimately i thought it could have been so much better. <
Post by: AnThRaX on June 21, 2004, 02:21:00 AM
| QUOTE (addyb @ Jun 21 2004, 02:31 AM) |
| Yeh i was in 2 minds when i was rating it, dont get me wrong its my game of the moment as well as im playing it a lot but for me it doesnt have that Umph!! factor that sets it from other great games like GTA, Ninja Gaiden, Rallisport etc. Im not saying its shite i suppose i was let down a little as it wasnt as good as i thought, serves me right for getting caught in the hype machine! I must admit the game gets better the more you delve into it but ultimately i thought it could have been so much better. |
Ninja Gaiden = Hyped to hard. People state that it is hard. I personally beat it within a few days and then beat it in very hard within 2 weeks of the game's release. Which is just sad. I was never able to beat legendary on halo after 2 weeks of it's release. Ralisport I wasn't into that much. Seems just like Colin Racing to me. And Im not really a fan of GTA at all. The game was absolutley pointless and was a 1 hit wonder with 3, now it is personally getting old. Each release add's something new. GTA 1 had some cars not many. Gta 2 had more cars and 2 motocycles (red was faster), Gta 3 had NO BIKES, GTA VICE HAD BIKES, GTA San Andreas will have actual bike's to my knowledge as in bicycle's
Post by: kaioshade on June 21, 2004, 06:38:00 PM
Just my distaste for rockstar seeping through.
Great game and review though. <
Post by: deathx88 on June 23, 2004, 06:18:00 PM
good score
must be a good game
im going to check it out <
Post by: sulfur on June 24, 2004, 07:15:00 AM
| QUOTE (kaioshade @ Jun 21 2004, 09:27 PM) |
| Rockstar did NOT (i repeat NOT) make Red Dead Revolver. They picked up the pieces that Capcom left behind. Just my distaste for rockstar seeping through. Great game and review though. |
i herd, they took what Capcom had and redid some of it and added some more features on, so i guess they didn't created the game, but they made it. <
Post by: Booker T on July 02, 2004, 02:08:00 PM
Post by: Orgness on July 02, 2004, 02:49:00 PM
If AI was improved id give it a 9. But for its artistic appeal, its originality, and fun factor it deserves a 8.5 outta 10. <
Post by: corkinator on July 03, 2004, 07:56:00 PM
I guess it shows different people have different opinions. The earlier comment about Ninja Gaiden I disagree with too, I reckon (camera probs aside) it's one of the top Xbox games. I finished it in decent fashion on normal but think gamers who say the hard mode is easy are lying or masters at the game... <
Post by: RiotAct on July 04, 2004, 02:51:00 AM
Love the cowboys and indians feel and when their arrows stick in u, looks pretty cool. At least 8/10!!! <
Post by: RcbUK on July 07, 2004, 11:14:00 AM
Post by: sh4d0w_sh4d3 on July 19, 2004, 02:40:00 AM
Post by: K.O on July 19, 2004, 07:38:00 AM
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Post by: stcogolin on July 20, 2004, 10:01:00 AM
for an hour or two but it becomes repetitive and boring after a while.
I had bought it (right...) hoping the multiplayer game would be good but it's really one of the worst multiplayer games out there. Unimaginative and boring, you just run around and shoot. <
Post by: MrBones on July 21, 2004, 01:40:00 PM
Post by: shane_is_my_name on July 23, 2004, 11:05:00 PM
Post by: inthresh on August 10, 2004, 10:57:00 AM
there are 2 reasons it didnt get a 10 out of 10 and for that i took 2 points off.
the first reason being the AI...it can be VERY stupid sometimes. i was on a boss and was having a heck of a time killing him, and thought that it was cool that it was challenging...and well i was running around and the boss just seemed to get stuck....like he just couldnt move or shoot anymore. this happened on another boss too.
the other reason is the storyline. the storyline has a sweet idea...but its VERY repedative....every place you go is the same stuff....
Post by: Mockingbird on December 21, 2005, 04:38:00 PM
Shooting, perhaps? I personally think the multiplayer game is fun. You can play with up to four people, teams or no teams. Kill those who aren't on your team to earn a poker card. There are four different colored cards, and each one does a different thing. For example, the red cards give you new weapons, such as the venomous twin revolvers, ice rifle, fire bow, etc. Yellow cards increase your Dead Eye maximum, and each character does a different thing for their own Dead Eye. Green Cards give you life. Then there's the blue card, but to be honest I'm not quite sure what the blue cards do. I think they boost your weapon power and give you a little life, or something.
There are over twenty different awesome characters you can be, but you have to earn them on the one-player game, along with different levels to play at. It's really fun killing your friends on multiplayer, especially if they're into shooting games.
Post by: Mockingbird on December 21, 2005, 04:52:00 PM
QUOTE(MrBones @ Jul 21 2004, 02:47 PM) 
Maybe my memory is just serving me wrong, but I don't remember the game being as crisp as those screenshots show it.
No, you're right. The game itself isn't that 'crisp'. My guess is they enhanced it for those photos, unless that is the X-Box version, which is supposed to have a lot better graphics than the PS2 one, though I haven't seen it.
If you're into shooting games and don't mind the fact that its hero is a cowboy, this game is a good buy. It's not new, and I got it for only $17.99. There are only a few things I don't like about it. I think that if you shoot someone in the leg, they should limp, and they don't in this game. You could shoot a baddie twice in the leg and he'll somehow still manage to chase you down anyway. The other thing I don't like is how short it seems one you reach the end. My cousin beat it in less than twelve hours. He enjoyed it so much, though, he's going to buy it for his X-Box. I've beat it twice now and am now attempting to do so again on Hard, and it's still not a bore to me.
If you are considering buying it, do not absorb only the negativities. Sure it has its faults, but what game doesn't? The plot gets a little repetitive at times, but what else can you add to a shooting game besides shooting, killing, and decapitating to make it interesting? The game is rated M for blood and violence, and the occasional profanity, but it's nothing major. The blood comes out in big fake chunks when they do a close-up on someone dying. It's not the most realistic blood, so it's not that bad when you shoot someone in the head and torrents of blood come out in spurts. Plenty to be rated Mature for, though.
Post by: mrdan on March 27, 2006, 01:49:00 AM
Maybe you could justify renting it, as it won't take you more than a weekend to beat, but I really discourage any sort of support for this game. The gameplay is just awful.