More like Red Dead ReAWESOME! Hahaha... ha...

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IGN has posted a new preview of the game and it looks really good:

March 11, 2004 - It's quite surprising, really, to know that Rockstar Games, whose focus is so firmly rooted in urban decadence and good old fashioned violence, is making a Western cowboy game. Quite strange indeed. But it's happening. Picked up from Capcom Entertainment at the end of last year, Rockstar Games is slated to release what we all hope and pray is a kick-ass, gun-toting, free-wheeling, frickin'-frackin', darn-tooting good-for-nothin', rascally Western cowboy shooter.


For those who've followed the long history of Red Dead Revolver, the game's development period reaches back into the previous decade, and though it's still quite muddy as to why, its execution never sat quite right with the Japanese publisher. But Rockstar acquired Angel Studios last year, and last fall picked up Red Dead with it, revitalizing the Western shooter with new life and focus. Earlier this week Rockstar dropped by to show off the significant improvements and graphical flair previously unseen in the game, and we've got the first look at the new changes.

Red Dead Revolver is a third-person perspective action game that takes place in the fictitious West of the 1880s. Created with stylistic arcade gameplay and looks, Red Dead Revolver tells the story of Red, a bounty hunter with a quick shot and revenge on his mind. Red can walk, run, sneak along side buildings, ride, mount, and dismount animals -- he can shoot at enemies from them -- and he wields an arsenal of weapons, ranging from pistols and shotguns to rifles and dynamite.

The narrative feels like it was pulled straight from 1960s spaghetti westerns such as High Plains Drifter and Fistful of Dollars, and it just so happens the lead character, Red, has a distinct resemblance to Clint Eastwood. The back story sets up the game's premise right purdy. Red was once a young kid living with his family on the western frontier. In a surprise turn of events, his family strikes gold, making them rich. But it being the big bad west and all, news of his family's overnight fortune reaches the ears of the rogue Mexican general, Javier Diego, a crooked money-grubbing bastard with few ethics or morals. It takes little time before Diego sends his bandits on a mission to slaughter Red's family and to acquire their gold.

The result is devastating. Red watches as his family is brutally massacred -- his mother burned, his father shot down. In the heat of the moment, Red picks up his dad's gun (which has fallen into the fire, therefore burning a permanent imprint his hand), and fires off a single shot, blasting one of the bandits in the arm. Diego's men escape and leave Red with nothing, no family, no money, and no future. Years later, Red begins his mission of blood vengeance.

And that's where players begin. Taking on the role of Red at first, each mission sets up different scenarios at staggered time periods employing the use of up to six different characters, including female characters, and even as General Javier Diego. Each character has a distinct special weapon that distinguishes their style of play. For instance, Red is a classic OK-Corral shooter, using lightning flash reflexes to grab, aim and shoot. Called the Dead Eye technique, Red builds up a special meter that, when fully charged, enables players to enter into slow motion (we won't call it Bullet Time or anything, but...), roll their gun reticule over enemies, and instantly target them with a red tag. He can target one enemy with multiple tags on various body parts (head, shoulder, crotch, foot, whatever), or he can tag multiple enemies. By keeping them in his sights and on screen he can then let it rip, taking down a half dozen enemies in a second.


General Diego has a different special attack. Players take on his role as a part of a story flashback, during a time when he was less of a scoundrel. In one of his missions, he and his army must cross a river and attack an enemy base. Using his reticule he can call for a cannon blast and the army comes to life to specifically target any area he points at. The four remaining playable characters each have their specialty, too.

Rockstar San Diego has added several moves to give the game's characters dexterity and variation. Characters can all walk, run, duck, jump over waist-high objects such as fences, and using a sticky hiding maneuver, hide behind crates, walls, fences and the like. So, if a trio of baddies walks toward Red as he's hiding behind a wall, he can spin out, target and blast them to pieces. Each enemy takes more than one hit and, as part of the remnants from the Capcom build we saw back in January 2003, enemies dance with pain and jump when shot. Each playable character can collect enemy weapons by walking over them, and the collection of weapons becomes quite interesting, giving player noticeable strategic choices.

As an example, in the level we played, "Ugly Street Fight," where you confront the "Ugly Street Gang," Red picks up two kinds of rifles, an Owl and a Bayonet. For shorter range attacks, the Owl is preferable, but the other is better for shooting enemies off roofs. The Dpad enables players to switch weapons, while R1 is fire. There are four kinds of weapons, short arm weapons (such as six shooter and pistols); long arm weapons (rifles), throwables (dynamite and Molotovs), and environmental weapons (Gatling guns). All of them are designed to work more or less like the weapons from the 1800s, but of course with more reliability, naturally. None of the guns have scopes or zoom functions, giving the game a taste of 18th century authenticity. Rifles will give players a slightly closer look, however, and depending on the kind, you will get a better, closer function.

The third-person camera works with good flexibility. The camera stays behind the character, from an over the shoulder level, but it doesn't stick to the player like a panhandle. It's generally designed to keep Red in its focus, enabling him to move from side to side, up and back while keeping most of the action in range. Players can also move it manually to enable him to focus with more precision. Even the reticule turns from orange to red when it strikes an open part of an enemy's body.

The game's even got "Dueling." Throughout the game players are challenged to a duel, requiring a steady hand and quick handling of the analog sticks. Duels begin in slow motion, and players need to draw and aim quickly to win.


The other gameplay aspect that turns the notch up a bit involves cashola, greenbacks, or, you know, old time bounty. Players earn cash by plugging bandits, and, depending on accuracy and the type of weapon utilized, they earn more or less. When an enemy dies, you walk over and pick it up. To blend another level of skill, Rockstar San Diego is adding in "Multipliers." Once you get the hang of the controls and the levels, you can try to target and kill multiple enemies, each within five seconds of the other. The higher the multiplier the higher the cash count. Cash is good for repairing and upgrading weapons, regaining health, and unlocking a slew of items in the two-to-four person multiplayer modes.

As opposed to the difficult-to-track, clumsy controls we witnessed in the old version of the game (back in 2003), the screen was a lot cleaner, stripped of too many characters simultaneously taking pot shots at you. The camera and the controls are also a little more fine tuned. There were fewer blurry enemies and wacky, distracting things bunching up on the screen, and overall there was a little more focus to the missions themselves.

We played a few levels, and each one was designed with healthy variation. After "Ugly Street Fight" and "The Traitor," I saw "End of the Line," a train level. This Western is interesting because players get to ride horses. Actually, they don't just ride horses, they ride cattle and bison! Yes, bison. Woot! When was the last time you rode a frickin' bison, eh?

In "End of the Line" players ride their horse while shooting. They also jump on and off the horse to detach cars for the main train while enemies return fire. The mission goal is to stop the train. Near the end you actually have to jump from your horse onto a push cart, you know, those old manually-controlled train carts, this one riding on a parallel track, to take hold of a Gattling gun. From there, players try to destroy the armor of the engine before it's too late.

Again, the horse riding aspect is quite unique. Your AI-controlled horse has a close "bond" with you, so as you jump from it to the train, the horse rides along side the train, tracking your position on it, and enabling you to jump to and fro with relative ease. In other levels, you'll ride down enemies on horseback, and you'll even command stagecoaches. Each animal has its own particular sense of power and speed. The horse, for instance, has that special bond and it can catch up to trains and enemies. The heavier animals can run down and over enemies.

Aesthetically, Red Dead Revolver is an interesting creature. Using a distinctly arcade-style look for the town backgrounds and character models, Rockstar San Diego has generated characters with a distinct cartoon look but they're distinguished enough to look close to the way those old dirty cowhands and drunkards appeared.

The old towns have a movie prop feel look to them, but the actual prairies, pastures and deserts have a decidedly realistic look. Helping the game's realism is an intensely hot, blazing sunlight effect that radiates across the plains. The radiosity creates scenarios of blinding light and heavy shadow, and rays of sun stream in through windows and creating great sunsets.

Red Dead Revolver will, without a doubt, fill that huge hole in the Wild West of videogames with something unique, stylistic, and quirky. An eccentric shooter crammed with variety and a mix of classic and new gameplay techniques, Rockstar's newly refined Western looks to give players the feeling of blood-curdling revenge and dirty, dusty, six-shooter combat. Come this spring on Xbox and PS2, take a look for yourself. We'll have more on Red Dead Revolver in the near future.

-- Douglass C. Perry

Awesome. Simply awesome. I can't wait until it comes out! WOO!!

And here are the fantastic-looking new screens!

I wonder how much of this you'll actually be able to travel through... I expect it'll be just a small path, but what a view! Looks like Colorado. :D