Retro Review: Red Dead Revolver

<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;tag&sol;rockstar-games&sol;">Rockstar<&sol;a> has announced that there will be a third entry into the <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;red-dead-redemption-2-game-talks-making-of-post-launch&sol;"><em>Red Dead<&sol;em><&sol;a> series&period; What&&num;8217&semi;s that you say&quest; There are THREE <em>Red Dead<&sol;em> games produced by Rockstar&quest; The whole series didn&&num;8217&semi;t begin on the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3&quest; Nope&comma; Rockstar released their first Western Americana game May 3&comma; 2004 for the original Xbox and the PlayStation 2&period; I remember being insanely exited for this game twelve years ago&semi; my father had my grow up on Westerns and up to that point there weren&&num;8217&semi;t really any good Western games&comma; but Rockstar changed all that&period; I picked the title back up recently due to a new game incoming and I finally defeated Pig Josh&comma; a boss that I had been stuck on for over a decade&period; Rockstar helped me pick up this title again&comma; and I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t be happier that they did&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Unfortunately&comma; the story in this game is not as epic as its successor&period; Instead of having an open world and quests to beat&comma; you are stuck in a linear story that is chopped up in chapters&period; When you&&num;8217&semi;re done with a chapter you either go to a menu screen where you can buy weapons and then decide on the nest bounty&comma; or you&&num;8217&semi;re thrown into a small town to wonder&period; Several bounty hunters&comma; which you play as&comma; cross paths while tracking bounties and each level is basically a boss fight&period; This is a pretty good way to go about a Western Americana game&comma; but it grew stale after a few bounties were put down&period; Sometimes after I beat a bounty I was thrown into a little hub town where I was mostly bored and looked immediately for the Sheriff&&num;8217&semi;s office to kill more baddies&period; With most of the chapters you have to kill a few grunts before you get to the final boss&comma; but one I remember in particular was a pretty long trail&period; You have to be good and you have to be fast to kill all your bounties and the checkpoints are not very nice to you&period; I had to restart one chapter several times at the beginning once I got to the boss which was quite irritating&period; Nothing felt better than putting a bullet into that ass-hat after having to restart that level&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115516" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115516" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115516 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;22021111&sol;CarnivalLife01&period;png" alt&equals;"&lpar;Red Dead Revolver - Rockstar&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"336" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115516" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Red Dead Revolver<&sol;em>&comma; Rockstar&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The controls handle quite well for a game in that generation&period; Left Trigger is draw&semi; Right Trigger is fire&period; If you need to change what weapon you want to use simply tap on the D-pad to pick between rifles&comma; pistols and some hand thrown goodies&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t forget to count your shots and hit Y to reload&period; That could save your life seeing as reloading two six-shooters takes up a bit of time&period; If you can&&num;8217&semi;t seem to damage a bounty or if your assailant is too far away simply press on the Right Stick&period; This starts up a slo-motion mode where you can more accurately send your enemy lead&period; When you&&num;8217&semi;re finally resting after a bounty slaughter and walking around town you can talk to people by pressing X&period; I never found anything too insightful in town&comma; but maybe I wasn&&num;8217&semi;t looking in the right places&period; During certain boss fights in the game you go into duel mode&comma; which takes some time to perfect&period; While in duel mode you have to watch your hand &&num;8211&semi; once it hovers above your pistol you pull down on the Right Stick then up really fast to simulate a draw&period; Once the gun is out of the holster you have a limited amount of time to aim&comma; press the Right Trigger and place all six shots in your gun into the enemies&period; If you don&&num;8217&semi;t kill them&comma; they will get you and you will have to start over&period; Don&&num;8217&semi;t get frustrated though &&num;8211&semi; practice makes perfect&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Rockstar made this game look amazing&period; The feel of the game&comma; the atmosphere&comma; is definitely a barren area of the Old West&period; The towns and canyons you fight in are rustic and dilapidated&period; They even made the cut-scenes look like an old WWII news-reel with the lines and copper tinge to them&period; The designers also went out of their way to make both the bounties unique and the bounty hunters&period; Yes the grunts are all similar&comma; but when you play as a different bounty hunter you know which you&&num;8217&semi;re playing as due to their distinct look&period; Every villain is also unique and has a certain special ability about them that can kick your butt&period; What bothered me is there really isn&&num;8217&semi;t a huge variety of munitions that can be purchased&period; I was hoping to at least get a Coach Gun &lpar;short double barreled shot-gun&rpar; at some point in the game&comma; and I have to wonder if I had done a bit better in chapters if that would have been unlocked for me&period; The pistols have some variety&comma; but the long guns aren&&num;8217&semi;t that great&period; I would also like a Sharps for those long distance outlaws&comma; but once again&comma; nothing like that unlocked&period; This lack of weaponry can sometimes put you at a disadvantage while trying to defeat the lawless&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;115525" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-115525" style&equals;"width&colon; 640px" class&equals;"wp-caption aligncenter"><img class&equals;"wp-image-115525 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;11&sol;22025814&sol;Red-Dead-Revolver-1-1280x720&period;jpg" alt&equals;"&lpar;Red Dead Revolver - Rockstar&rpar;" width&equals;"640" height&equals;"360" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-115525" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>Red Dead Revolver<&sol;em>&comma; Rockstar&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>I&&num;8217&semi;m really glad that I got back into this game&period; I remember trying to beat <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;5xKn4fmhsT8">Pig Josh<&sol;a> a few years ago but my Xbox Disc Drive wasn&&num;8217&semi;t reading properly&period; Now flash forward a couple years and I finally had it repaired&period; One of the reasons I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t beat Pig Josh was due to the fact the game kept skipping&comma; the other part was my lack of skill and patience while playing&period; Growing up somehow does make you a better gamer&comma; that or playing every <em>Dark Souls<&sol;em> games&period; If you&&num;8217&semi;re a fan of <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;red-dead-redemption-2-got-it-right&sol;"><em>Redemption<&sol;em><&sol;a> then I would suggest you grab this title&comma; if you have a working <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;bagogames&period;com&sol;5-playstation-games-that-should-be-remade&sol;">PlayStation 2<&sol;a> or Xbox I&&num;8217&semi;m sure you can find it pretty cheaply&period; And if you don&&num;8217&semi;t have one of those systems I think I read somewhere you can download an enhanced copy onto your PlayStation 4&period; Either way it is a must buy&period; I noted that some of the secondary characters in <em>Revolver<&sol;em> made their way into <em>Redemption<&sol;em>&comma; which makes me want to hop back into the saddle and replay that puppy before the sequel comes out&period; We all know that Rockstar never disappoints&comma; and I can guarantee you that <em>Red Dead Revolver<&sol;em> will not leave you with a flesh wound&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;