My backlog of unplayed games is larger than I thought. While settling in to try out last year’s Red Dead Redemption, I realized that I still had an unplayed copy of Red Dead Revolver – the first game in the series from 2004! I sat down with both of them, along with some of the DLC for Redemption to check out the origins of the franchise, and to see how the series progressed into the modern console generation.
Red Dead Redemption is a “Spiritual Successor” to Red Dead Revolver, rather than a true sequel. Both are westerns, but Redemption is a free-roaming sandbox game in the vein of Grand Theft Auto, while the original Revolver was a linear third person shooter much more akin to Max Payne than GTA. Revolver as it turns out, is a very dated game, and not just in terms of gameplay.
In general, console shooters have a terrible shelf life. They tend to be based on cutting-edge graphics, and hot gameplay gimmicks that quickly become passé. Remember when 480p was considered to be high-definition? Back in the first few years of the original Xbox, developers loved to brag that their game supported mind-boggling resolution at an astounding 480p! To be fair, that was better than what was coming out of the PlayStation 2, but it was a far cry from later Xbox games that ran in 720p. Many of those later generation Xbox games still look great when played on high-def TV’s, but Red Dead Revolver don’t look too purdy now-a-days.
To its credit, Revolver did use a widescreen aspect ratio. It was presented in letterbox format, so players can zoom in their TV’s to at least fill up the entire screen. This trick was used in a few other games at the time, notably Resident Evil 4, and it does take a little of the edge off the dated graphics.
As with just about every third-person shooter at the time, it used “Bullet Time” slow-motion. Revolver added in a unique flourish to this; when players went into slow motion, they could lock on to enemies’ body parts, then rapid fire at everything they targeted. It simulated the way a gunfighter with fast reflexes might see the world.
Furthering the Gunfighter theme was the occasional duel sequence which used the same bullet time lock-on features, but also required the Player to quick-draw their smoke wagon by pulling back on the thumb stick, then quickly taking aim at their opponent’s vulnerable areas. While it was a right fine gunfighter for its time, Red Dead Revolver looks like a rugrat with a pop gun compared to 2009’s Red Dead Redemption.
Redemption kept many of the distinct features of Revolver, but added in sandbox gameplay and made a drastic change in tone. Revolver patterned itself after Spaghetti Westerns, and used campy humor with outrageous villains. It also had a user interface that added in cinematic effects like a film grain look to the graphics. While often very serious, it mostly stuck to over-the-top depictions of exaggerated violence. Redemption on the other hand fancied itself to be a gritty take on the western genre along the lines of Unforgiven.
While it has been rightfully compared to Grand Theft Auto IV, it’s not just a re-skin; the mission structure is the same, but riding through the open plains on a wild horse that you just tamed is very different from jacking an ice cream truck and driving through urban streets.
Although it is a little odd that horses have a map system that works exactly like the GPS in the latest Grand Theft Auto games…
The story-telling and social commentary are sharp as a bowie-knife, as always with Rockstar. We get the tale of John Marston, an outlaw trying to walk the path to redemption, but he’s beset on all sides by temptations. The game has a very long introduction sequence and the Player doesn’t do much until the writers have had their say. This is a far cry from the typical video game beginning where the amnesiac protagonist awakens and can’t remember how he came to be in his current situation. Sure, John Marston actually does wake up in an unfamiliar shack near death from a gunshot wound, but that scene doesn’t happen until a good twenty minutes into the game.
There were a bunch of DLC packs, but the best is Undead Nightmare. Undead Nightmare is sort of a sequel to Redemption, but it has the west overrun by the undead. It stars the same protagonist, and takes place in the same locations, with appearances by lots of familiar faces. This might sound like a zany “Cowboys VS Zombies” spoof, but it is actually a horror story as serious as the main game, if not more so.
It’s a much more action-centric story and very quickly sets players to fighting the undead. There are no tutorials about herding cattle, it’s just .45 caliber brain surgery and plenty of it!
It’s an impressive accomplishment for Rockstar that a DLC pack for a cowboy game is actually one of the best zombie games I’ve played. The way that these turn-of-the-century folk are completely unaware of the zombie genre is quite refreshing, and the free-roaming gameplay drives home the sense that this a widespread apocalypse.
Is anyone still playing this? Oh, yes, this here game is no ghost town. There’s a very extensive multiplayer section, and it’s heavily populated, including the exclusive Undead Nightmare online modes. A warning to new players, though, the online world is patterned after the wild west, and anyone who dips their spurs in the multiplayer can expect to be killed… a lot. There are plenty of yellow bellies out there just waiting to empty a six-gun into your back!
Red Dead Revolver is heading back into my Backlog where it will be corralled for a good long time. Its limited associated with Red Dead Redemption isn’t enough to rope my interests for another old third-person shooter.
Redemption and Undead Nightmare on the other hand are now at the top of my game pile. The story, gameplay and zombie killin’ all hold my attention (Plus I got me a mighty powerful affection for a certain Miss Bonnie MacFarlane).
Gamers who haven’t picked it up yet are advised to avoid the stand-alone release of Undead Nightmare, and rather grab the Game of the Year Edition, or at least pick up a copy of Redemption and download Undead Nightmare.
Join me here next week for another Backlog when I ask “With Lollipop Chainsaw on its way, isn’t it time I played one of Suda51’s other games?”
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