It’s difficult to approach a Western-themed game in this day and age without a little reservation in mind. Let’s be frank, the days of Bank Panic and Sunset Riders are almost two decades behind us, with little more on the horizon looking to eclipse their vision and polish. Or maybe it’s simply not a popular setting for a game. The point being that we don’t see a lot of Western settings in games these days, and those that are tend to be of rather questionable quality in the most generous evaluations. Fortunately, when Rockstar Games decided to resurrect a cancelled Capcom project in this vein of design, it turned out to be a fairly positive thing. I’m speaking of course about Red Dead Revolver, pitched as a gritty coming of age tale about a young bounty hunter on a journey for vengeance and justice. And though it may not live up to its influences from classic Western films, it does a fairly good job of delivering what it promises: Red, mountains of dead, and revolvers.

At the beginning of the game, the player is cast in the role of Red, a young frontier lad who has the misfortune of watching his parents gunned down by a group of cutthroat gunsels. Despite their earnest attempts to cut short the bloodline, Red manages to escape and over time, become an embittered, gritty-voiced bounty hunter. Every child’s boyhood dream, really. In addition to Red, you will also be able to take control of several other characters in the game at interspersed points of progress, though generally only for a single level. While these alternative avatars do little more than establish a little character and background (something that might have been better applied to the somewhat poorly developed character of Red), they do offer an occasionally interesting change of pace in play stylings and strategy.

These alternate characters include the British dandy and sharpshooter Jack Swift, tough-as-nails frontiers woman Annie Stoakes, stealthy Indian tracker Shadow Wolf, somewhat “Will Smithian” Buffalo Soldier, and an erstwhile villain, General Diego. While most of these characters don’t differ greatly in how you play them, as compared to Red, they do offer some variation in mood and setting, such as Diego’s ability to call down an artillery strike, or Shadow Wolf’s preference for stealth kills over direct combat.

Red’s particular ability is the Dead-Eye skill, strongly reminiscent of Max Payne’s Bullet-Time™, where everything slows to a crawl in order to allow the player to get their kill on. This is made even more efficient by allowing the player to lock onto different parts of their target’s body, such as the limbs, torso, and everyone’s favorite, the head. When coming out of Dead-Eye, Red unleashes a barrage of ammo that sends most enemies to Boot Hill without a second thought, although boss types seem to shrug this off without much concern. Showdowns are also an important part of the game, where the player may have to face anywhere from one to three opponents at once in a quick-draw contest. These are largely dependent on timing and mauling the right analog stick on your gamepad, which not everyone may equally appreciate.

Rockstar San Diego has certainly paid a decent homage to the Western genre through this game, with saloons, brothels, quick draw shootouts and varmints a-cussin’ and a-raisin’ a ruckus. The setting is further enhanced by the cinematics, for what they lack in story and dialogue they make up for with ambience and presentation. This is only further aided by a highly appropriate soundtrack, including work by the legendary Ennio Morricone, who has composed soundtracks for hundreds of films, including numerous classic Westerns. Comparatively, the voice acting tends to suffer at times, with a rather uninspired delivery by Red, and somewhat hammed-up roles by any of the bit players, although rarely to the extent the player will cringe from them.

Graphically, the title is definitely clocking in at “adequate”, with sometimes lumpy characters and stiff animations. There’s a slight floating in the movement of characters, and the terrain can seem a bit bland and repetitive at times, but hey, it’s a desert setting. There are admittedly limited options here. Particularly notable would be young Red’s follicle stylings, which appear to have been well before their time in trend-setting the Dragonball Z-esque “giant daggers of hair” look.

Now for the guts and garters of the game, the primary focus is weaponry. Whether ducking behind a stagecoach, riding on horseback, running across train cars, or blasting the living hell out of a ridiculously oversized mansion, you’ll be guaranteed to be doing it in style with a wide array of pistols, rifles, shotguns, explosives, and some throwing knives tossed in on a larf. Some are purchased in from a general store, others are rewards for accomplishing certain goals, but the best weapons you generally tear out of the still-twitching blood-smeared hands of your fallen foes. Additionally upgrades can be acquired for mission goals or purchased. These generally enhance damage, range, or accuracy, and will go sorely missed if you blow all your cash on weapons repairs or unlocking bonuses.

Red Dead Revolver is certainly a fairly satisfying endeavor into the Western genre of gaming, but the sporadic storyline, questionable character portrayals, and presence of midget clowns may lead to a jarring experience for those of you who were hoping to play through The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Definitely worth checking out at least once, this title will if nothing else show that Rockstar can make decent non-GTA games.