Red Dead Revolver is a third-person shooter from 2004, developed by Rockstar Games after sitting in Capcom's Development Hell for a while.You play as Red Harlow, who after being violently orphaned at a young age becomes a bounty hunter in classic Man With No Name tradition, hunting down colourful outlaws for whatever money he can get for them. A chance encounter puts him on the trail of the man behind the death of his parents, and the game climaxes in a huge battle to finally bring him to justice.Sound vaguely familiar? That's because the game's an extended homage to the classic Spaghetti Western, as least as much as its predecessor Max Payne was to film noir. A lot of effort went into the atmosphere, including giving an oversaturated and 'grainy' cinematic quality to the visuals and building a fantastic score heavily influenced by (and almost indistiguishable from) Ennio Morricone's best.Despite having very little hype and a disjointed production poking into the gameplay here and there, with its superb atmoshpere, large and memorable cast and extremely fun multiplayer on its side Red Dead Revolver got good reviews and became something of a Cult Classic. In 2010, it was followed by the huge hit and critical darling Red Dead Redemption, which borrowed the game's Western setting but gave it a sandbox framework.
Artificial Stupidity: The AI is quite buggy in places. Most notably, Annie Stoakes (when you have her as an ally in single player) has an annoying habit of shooting you in the back with her explosive special ability - usually while shouting "Keep going, Red!" - and there are several multiplayer maps where AI opponents will just stand around where they spawn or time-consumingly climb to high places.
Awesome yet Practical: The exquisite pair of Scorpion pistols that Nate Harlow and Griff have custom-made are also the most powerful in the game. One bullet was enough to sever Colonel Daren's left arm from its socket.
Awesome, but Impractical: Molotov cocktails, poison bottles and dynamite. Although they're very dangerous, they're lofted with a lazy underarm action that makes hitting a moving target almost impossible. The latter also has an extremely long fuse.
Several character-specific special abilities in multiplayer also cross into this.
Big Bad: Governor Griffon, your father's former partner, who sold you and your family out to Diego and Daren, and used the proceeds to become Governor.
Big Fancy House: The second-to-last level takes place in one of these
Bling Bling Bang: The Widowmaker revolver is one pimped out piece.
Bond One-Liner: Jack Swift after killing knife-thrower Clyde 'The Blade' Slade: "I think you've lost your edge."
Jack Swift after killing fire-eater 'Lightning' Larouche: "What an extinguished fellow."
Book Safe: You can purchase a "Hollowed Bible" from a merchant in the game. It has no in-game use, but it unlocks a journal page.
Annie Stoakes also faces a pair of buffalo-riding outlaws who can cause her cattle to go nuts and try to flatten her, making them a literal example.
Captain Ersatz: Mr. Kelley has an adopted daughter named Natalie who he's training to be a gunfighter like himself. If Red speaks to her in the saloon, she will sometimes say:
Colonel Badass: Colonel Daren doesn't let having his left arm severed stop him from being Diego's right-hand man; he receives a cannon as a prosthetic replacement. He's also responsible for murdering Red's parents and his cousin.
Crowd Panic: During his boss battle Mr. Kelley starts unloading at random into the citizens of Brimstone, causing them to scream and run all over the place. This makes it very hard to get a clean shot at him.
Does This Remind You of Anything?: The bridge in the level where you play as General Diego looks exactly like the bridge towards the end of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly. Both of them are even blown up!
Also Jason Cornet to Governor Griffon, to the extent that the former is the last bodyguard Red faces before going up against Griffon himself.
Dropped a Bridge on Him: Though it is implied, Jack Swift is apparently killed off entirely offscreen at the end of the game. You don't even see the fight that kills him; he just goes off with Annie and doesn't come back. However, in Red Dead Redemption there is mention of him, as well as being able to use him in mutli-player.
Funny Foreigner: Gabriel Navarro, Mexican gunfighter and barfly.
"Keel heem, and let's get back to dreenking!"
Gatling Good: The preferred Old West method of delivering More Dakka. A few stationary ones are scattered about the game, and you are required to commandeer a train cart-mounted one to take down a locomotive during one level. Also, Mr. Black likes to keep one in that coffin on his back.
Gun Twirling: Notably practiced by Red and Jack on their introduction screens.
Half Breed:Red is half-native,but he's never looked down upon because of his origins.It also becomes handy when it emerges that his grandfather-The Chief, still cares about him and sends his cousin to save him when he's captured
Improbable Weapon User: Where to start? We've got snake oil, boulders, a mining pick, a torch, a lasso, coffee, exploding balistic knives, exploding playing cards, shoulder-mounted howitzers, and a coffin with a freaking gatling gun in it.
Kill It with Fire: Getting set on fire does a huge amount of damage in single player, and while you're running around trying to beat the flames out you can't defend yourself. In addition, anyone on fire will set anyone they bump into on fire, who will set anyone they bump into on fire, etc... meaning that one flaming attack can cause utter carnage with a bit of luck.
One of Dr. Perry's cronies is a fire eater who puts his skills to deadly use against the player. You'll also acquire throwable "Fire Bottles" and Shadow Wolf has the ability to shoot flaming arrows.
Also Fawkes whom you encounter in the Train Job -level.
Let's Get Dangerous: In multiplayer mode, it's often the most poorly-armed characters who have the most devastating special moves.
Inverted rather amusingly in the case of Sheriff O'Grady - his special move is the almost-useless 'Hot Coffee', (you throw a bottle at your enemy, doing minimal damage, and they dance around for a second while their clothes steam) but he starts out armed with a stack of Fire Bottles.
Ooh, Me Accent's Slipping: The voice actor for Red can't really decide whether or not he wants to use a "western" accent, and since Red doesn't speak very much, the accent used for Red changes in pretty much every scene that he does speak in.
Quick Draw: Several enemies will engage you in quick draw duels throughout the game. You're also required to participate in a quick draw tournament late in the game.
Railing Kill: Can be done to one of the rifle-mooks on the third level.
Red Baron: Most of the bandits have nicknames of some sort.
Revolvers Are Just Better: Revolvers is all there is, cowboy - at least as far as handguns are concerned. But the best gun in the game IS a revolver rather than a rifle or shotgun.
Soundtrack Dissonance: The saloon's player piano keeps going during the bar fight level so you get glassed and thrown through tables to the perky sounds of 'Oh, Susannah' and a ragtime version of 'Flight of the Bumblebee'.
Take That: One opponent in the duelling contest seems quite closely based on Leonardo Di Caprio's cocky young gunfighter from The Quick And The Dead. Red guns him down and don't even give him a respectful tip of the hat.
Interestingly, Red Harlow's name is a reference itself to the bookThe Quick and the Dead by Louis L'Amour (there's no relation between the movie and the book beside a name, however), where the main antagonist's name is Red Hyle.
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