Red Dead Revolver

Red Dead Revolver is a western third-person shooter video game published by Rockstar Games and developed by Rockstar San Diego. It was released in North America on May 4, 2004 for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox; in PAL regions on June 11, 2004 and on May 26, 2005 in Japan.

Overview
The game's development stalled when it was dropped by Capcom. In 2002, Rockstar Games purchased the game and expanded on it. Changing from a supernatural American western to a Spaghetti Western allowed the developers to add more blood and over-the-top characters.

The lead character appears to be an amalgamation of various Western Clint Eastwood-inspired characters from assorted movies, mainly the Man with No Name character, with whom he shares many similar traits. The game reproduces a "grainy film" effect and uses music from many different Spaghetti Western soundtracks.

Story
Nate Harlow and his partner "Griff" have found gold in Bear Mountain. Griff is later captured by the Mexican military and condemned to be shot as a spy. He offers to give the General, Javier Diego, half of the gold on Bear Mountain if he spares his life. Diego agrees. Later, the General sends Colonel Daren, his right-hand man, to kill Nate Harlow and his family. Daren shoots Nate and his wife, but Nate's son, Red, manages to shoot Daren's arm off using his father's gun, which he retrieved from burning rubble, scarring his hand with a scorpion shaped scar, and escapes.

Red grows up to be a bounty hunter. The game begins with him battling a gang led by Bloody Tom. Hoping to claim the bounty on the gang, he takes the bodies to the town of Widow's Patch. In Widow's Patch, he is attacked by the Ugly Chris gang. He and the sheriff are able to eliminate the gang, but the sheriff is badly wounded, and has to travel to the town of Brimstone for a doctor.

After Red drops off the sheriff of Widow's Patch at Brimstone, the sheriff of Brimstone asks Red to take care of some criminals for him. After they are killed, he asks for the bounty on the criminals' heads, but the bank manager says to him that the gold wagon has not arrived yet; then he learns that one of the townsfolk, Annie Stoakes, is in danger of losing her farm to the bank, whose manager, Governor Griffin, also owns the Bear Mountain gold mine. Remembering that his family was killed over that mine, he goes to talk to her to find more information. This leads him to the sheriff of Brimstone, where he finds out that General Diego and Colonel Daren killed his parents, and that there is a bounty on them.

He later learns during a quick-draw competition, called the Battle Royale, that the governor is Griff, who sold out his parents to General Diego. Griff orders Red to be killed by quick-draw champion Mr. Kelley, but Red kills Kelley and pursues Griff to his mansion. There, Red shoots Griff in a quick-draw showdown. After Red kills Griff, the sheriff offers Red some gold, but he refuses it, instead taking Griff's Scorpion Revolver. Red says "It never was about the money."

Information

 * Weapons
 * Missions
 * Characters
 * Animals

Gameplay
The game allows the purchase of goods at local town stores. Goods range from general store items, which unlock extras, to guns and multiplayer characters. Each individual character has a unique ability which can be activated after so many kills or a certain amount of time. For example, Jack Swift can quickly empty his guns on a single target and Buffalo Soldier can impale men with a flare from a rifle. Guns can be purchased at stores and are chosen before each mission. The game offers a wide selection of shotguns, rifles, thrown weapons, and, of course, revolvers. Weapon repair plays a minor inconvenient role.

Multiplayer
The game features a unique single-console multiplayer in which participants can collect cards from dead players. These cards can form poker hands and each hand bestows a unique power to that player. For example, a straight or a flush might give a player a collection of acid bottle to throw or flaming arrows to fire. Each character has an ability. One unlockable character, a mannequin, can light himself on fire and charge enemies.

Cheats
Main article: Cheats in Revolver 

Development
The game was originally under development at Capcom, and had a very different gameplay style. Acording to Hamish Brown, Capcom's game was "uber-arcade," and "It even had a character who could fly." Rockstar decided near the end of development of Revolver that an open world environment was "the only way to do this subject matter justice."

Reception
The game received mixed, generally positive reviews. It received a 75% in GameRankings.

Sequel
Rumors of a sequel were circulating around since 2005, ever since Rockstar showed a video of an Old West horseback rider running on early PlayStation 3 hardware. The project was only known as "Old West Project".

Although not a direct sequel, on February 4, 2009, Red Dead Redemption was announced for the Xbox 360 and the PlayStation 3.

The spiritual successor of Red Dead Revolver, Red Dead Redemption was released on the May 18, 2010 in North America, May 20, 2010 in Australia and May 21, 2010 in Europe.