Red Dead Revolver (Capcom)

***Red Dead Revolver*** is a third-person shooter video game developed by Rockstar San Diego and published by Rockstar Games. The game is the first installment in the *Red Dead* series. The game was released for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox on May 4, 2004 and was well-received by critics and was a moderate success, spawning a more-successful, *Grand Theft Auto*-inspired 2010 successor titled *Red Dead Redemption*, which also spawns its more-successful follow-up in 2018, *Red Dead Redemption II*, which despite the number "II", it is actually a prequel to the previous game.

In *Red Dead Revolver*, the story follows Red Harlow, being orphaned by bandits and left for dead on the frontier, grew up with a scar burned into his hand and the lust for revenge burned into his heart. Surviving as a bounty hunter in the rough-and-tumble Old West, Red stays ever watchful for some clue that could lead him to the men who murdered his father and mother -- and then one day, that clue appears. Step into Red's spurred boots, and take up his mission of revenge.

*Red Dead Revolver* features environments and artistry inspired by the classic spaghetti westerns films, mixed with third-person shooter gameplay similar to that of *Max Payne*. The gameplay and story proceed linearly through stages, including several levels in which you play as different characters (a British trick shooter, a female rancher, a renegade Mexican general, a stealthy native warrior, and a Buffalo Soldier). Each character has his own signature move: for instance, Red's "Dead-Eye" slows down time and allows you to set up targets for a rapid "fan fire" takedown, while General Diego's flare rifle lets you specify a target for bombardment by Diego's cannons.

Beating each level will earn you reward money (and chaining together many limb shots and multiple kills will earn you bonus money). You can spend your cash on unlockable characters (for the multiplayer game), journal entries that offer backstory and character info, or an array of canonical Old West weaponry, including pistols, rifles, and shotguns of many varieties, as well as knives, molotovs, poison and dynamite.

The game features pistol dueling with certain boss characters, as a mini-game mechanic in which you time your draw to an opportune moment and prepare targets as you raise your gun. There is also a multiplayer game (split-screen only, not networked), which you can play with friends and/or AI bots. Multiplayer incorporates a wide array of powerups, an alternative dueling showdown mode, and two kinds of optional poker sub-games (based on stud or Texas Hold 'Em) that mix some strategy into the action.

In 2002, rather being published by Rockstar, Capcom was going to publish *Red Dead Revolver*, with it being developed by Rockstar San Diego's original name Angel Studios. Upon the initial reveal at E3 2002, the game's gameplay was different than the Rockstar version the developer ended-up, utilizing a lock-on system similar to that of *Panzer Dragoon*, and being a spiritual successor to Capcom's 1985 arcade game *Gun.Smoke*. Before *Revolver* and after the successful Nintendo 64 port of *Resident Evil 2*, Capcom and Angel Studios work together on the scrapped project known as *SWAT*, that utilized a four-person split-screen that allowed you to control four members of a S.W.A.T. team at once. The project bore a strange resemblance to *Hired Guns* for MS-DOS which was developed by DMA Design, the developer that would later go on to make the *Grand Theft Auto* series starting in 1997, and after the PlayStation 2 release of *Grand Theft Auto III*, Rockstar acquired them and renamed them as Rockstar North.

## Story

The story would start-off with Red Hand (the original name of Red Harlow) who, rather than being survived and becoming a bounty hunter, dies with his family, and after returning from the afterlife, he is found by an Indian shaman, who trains him to get revenge on the killers who killed Red and his family, while communicating with the dead.

## Gameplay

While some gameplay mechanics retained, the Capcom version was going to being more different than the Rockstar version, having more arcade-y feel. A targeting reticle is used to aim shots on enemies and projectiles and has two modes that the player can freely alternate between, a lock-on mode and a free aiming mode. The lock-on mode will auto-lock onto visible targets, and the player can quickly move the reticle between targets. It can also target limbs in various ways.

The HUD features a cash system (like the Rockstar version) which the player can buy weapons between stages. If the player loses all their health or (in early trailers) the stage timer expires, it is game over. Items can be picked up to refill the player's health gauge, increase the time (in early trailers), weapons, and provide bonus cash. A *Devil May Cry*-style combo gauge is called the "Tough" combo gauge, where it says "Tough" when it reaches every combo, and for TGS 2002 build the HUD had the enemy health bar with the enemy's name above it, and a mini-map that shows the player arrow and enemy dots; they were scrapped and never existed in the Rockstar version however (except "Tough", which was renamed to "Special Abilities" and "Spin Fire" was renamed to "Dead Eye"). Pressing L1+R1 when "Tough" flashes unleashes a special attack that every attack can be used by the player after defeating a boss, for example "Spin Fire" which is like the Rockstar version's "Dead Eye" mechanic but here it lacks the bullet-time effect, "Dancing Bullet" which a bullet from player's gun ricochets the environments and bounces into one of the enemies, "Stampede" which a group of buffalos runs over enemies, and "Cannon Fire" which a cannon fires into enemies. Player can also ride horses in some stages. A time-counter system that, in January 15/E3 2002 build, that says "Time", and it's on the top left of the screen, but in TGS 2002 build, the word being replaced by a clock icon and being moved to the top center of the screen. The font for words also differs between January 15/E3 2002 and TGS 2002 builds; the January 15/E3 2002 build originally had gritty, horror-like style but changed in TGS 2002 build to cleaner, western look. In early trailers, the time-counter system can be seen counting down, although January 15 and TGS 2002 builds had the time-counter system counting up. The Capcom game was also going to have a supernatural feel and was going to have more stages, starting with the original tutorial stage that took place at the camp site with an Indian shaman and would later follow with later stages like the original train stage in style of *Super Mario Bros.*, the flashback snow stage, and will end with the boss hideout stage which an ancient voodoo warrior in his throne plans to set-up traps and steal Red's soul.

In January 15, 2002 build, the boy who became Jody in the Rockstar version was going to be the original child version of Red, but the E3 build he was replaced by the new, adult model of Red except he appeared much older and had spiky hair, and the TGS build he redesigned to be less-spiky and being much younger.

## Why This Version Was Cancelled

* Despite being well-received by the press, praising the graphics, action sequences, and soundtrack, many players who played the Capcom version at E3 2002 was a mess that hey felt the gameplay feel "terrible", and compared it unfavorably to Namco's *Dead to Rights*, which had similar gameplay and also shown at the same event but had much better controls than this. Dominic Craig, the lead designer of *Red Dead Revolver*, in an interview with British media news website Den of Geek, stated that the Capcom version "wasn't actually very fun" and "the shooting was kinda weird" and also drew comparisons to *Panzer Dragoon* and one of the inspirations of the game was *Tenchu: Stealth Assassins*.

## Results

* The version was cancelled by Capcom in August 2003. Take-Two Interactive, Rockstar's parent company, acquired Angel Studios in November 2002, renaming them as Rockstar San Diego. Rockstar's successful relationship with Angel Studios on *Smuggler's Run* and *Midnight Club: Street Racing* led to Rockstar took over *Revolver*, alters changes the gameplay to be be cover-based and alters/expands the story; shooting mechanics being fixed and more-traditional and the story was changed to be less-supernatural and more-grounded approach. The end result being the released Rockstar version is more-playable than the cancelled Capcom version.
* Despite the Capcom version being cancelled, a January 15, 2002 prototype build is available to download on Hidden Palace since November 30, 2020, albeit being in unpolished state than the later builds.