Rockstar is well known now for the cool style and humour it injects into its games and Red Dead Revolver is no exception having been given the full Rockstar treatment in it's latest phase of development. Add this to the fact that it borrows very heavily from the Spaghetti Western movies of the 1960s with all their clichés (scratchy old film over-effects, et al) and is played out in a nicely produced gritty and believable sun-baked Wild West environment and we have one quite unique and potentially very enjoyable title.

The story follows the main character Red Harlow, whom we see orphaned as a youth at the outset when outlaws raid the family ranch and kill his parents. This introduction is the first level and acts as a dropped-in-the-deep-end training session where you learn the basics of handling and controls as you try in vain to help fend off the bad guys. From here on in we're treated to a twisting tale of revenge as Red, now an adult and a hardened bounty hunter and gunslinger, sets out to find the evil dudes who killed his Ma and Pa while dispatching swathes of various flunkies and low-lifes along the way. Sergio Leone would have been proud indeed as Red Dead Revolver is definitely a huge tribute to his take on the Western movie even right down to the Clint Eastwood look-alike main character (although facially Red also bears a striking resemblance to a Jim Lee comic book Wolverine).

Played mainly from a third-person perspective, Red Dead Revolver is at its core a fairly straightforward arcade shooter but it also introduces other gameplay elements into the mix just to keep things interesting. For the most part you'll be running around using a whole arsenal of vintage weaponry shooting like crazy but sometimes using a little stealth and occasionally taking out enemies at distance with one of a bevy of longer range rifles. With these rifles you have a slight zoom mode that allows you to pick off some enemies from further away and it comes in very handy against opponent gunmen and to whittle down otherwise almost overwhelming numbers of enemies.

You also have the ability to hide behind walls and objects for cover, which you can quickly lean out from to squeeze off a few rounds. It's not as rash as it sounds, though, as you actually have to aim to get hits (unlike the movies!) and it's a good feature that's really quite compulsory in a game of this type and fun to use (most of the time). You discover, however, that this is sometimes somewhat of a double-edged sword because in as much as it's helpful it's also where you'll strike one of a few small frustrations in the game: although controls are generally smooth throughout, trying to use cover sometimes results in just leaving Red standing exposed as you attempt to press him up against some object or staying crouched when you really need to be up and running.

The two main features in Red Dead Revolver which make for some interesting gameplay are Dead Eye mode and Duelling. The former is essentially Matrix-style bullet-time (oh, no, not again!) but with a nice twist. When the Dead Eye meter on your HUD displays full bars you can press R2 while holding in L1 (the targetting button) to enter a brief slow-motion phase. Simply moving the reticule over body parts of your enemy at this stage results in multiple acquired targets. After this is done pressing the fire button (R1) will return you to normal mode and rapidly unleash shots into all the acquired targets on your enemy, and hey presto, mass damage! The more accurate and quick you are to acquire targets the more damage can be done, and head shots are nearly always fatal.

Duelling is another feature that can both excite and frustrate. It introduces a whole new mode where you face off, gunslinger style, against mostly sub-boss characters and again uses a slow-motion method of targetting the body of your adversary. It's a very cool attempt at recreating the tension and exhilaration of an Old West gunslinger duel but it has by far the most frustrating control system in the game. It can be fun and challenging to a degree but it borders on sloppy and will definitely induce some controller throwing in at least a few households. We enjoyed it but also hated it at times - we're sure you seasoned gamers out there know that mixed emotion well. A couple of other things we liked about Red Dead Revolver were the ability to play as several different characters at certain points in the game and the included multiplayer modes which, whilst not groundbreaking, will certainly add a degree of longevity and enjoyability. There are 3 modes here - Bounty Hunter, Sundown and High Noon and up to 4 people can join in on the action (via a multi-tap for more than 2 players). Unfortunately no online mode is included.

Red Dead Revolver also features tons of unlockable items from journal entries for the book you use to access levels and information at the main menu to extra characters and levels for use in the multiplayer modes. Finishing the game for the first time rewards you with a bonus single-player mode called 'bounty hunter' which allows you to play through the game again with a new and alternative set of objectives. Completing bounty hunter mode then results in unlocking a further game mode to add yet more replay value. Just to round things out there are even times during gameplay where you can use a mounted Gatling gun to mow down enemies en masse and even get the opportunity to jump into the saddle for a little horseplay or climb on the back of a bull! Riding the animals is actually a practical part of gameplay, though, and you can still aim and shoot your weapons while steering the beasts around, adding to the variety of approaches Red Dead Revolver offers.

Visually, Red Dead Revolver probably treads that thin line between "Oooo, ahh!" and "Ho hum...". That's to say that while there's some attractive stuff going on here with brilliant dynamic lighting and shadow effects, the great slow-motion sequences, some wonderful attention to detail in the slightly exaggerated characters and realistic environments and some cool animated load screens, the overall look of the game could be described as a little better than average. Red Dead Revolver's visual style and presentation is excellent but a lot of the graphics generally look a little washed out and there's a certain amount of ever-present blurriness that we're sure is the result of a similar treatment to that used in at least a couple of other well-known Rockstar titles. That's not to be confused, of course, with the intentional scratchy-old-film style filter that's frequently used to great effect. There are slight differences visually between the PS2 and XBox versions of the game and the XBox version as expected is slightly superior. Red Dead Revolver on the PS2 has fewer viewing options, runs at half the frame rate most of the time and exhibits slower loading times. It does still look quite solid by comparison. A little annoying collision detection, however, is something you'll encounter frequently on many levels on both systems.

Sound scored well with us mainly because the soundtrack just fits the theme so well. There's even a sampling of tracks composed by Spaghetti Western soundtrack maestro Ennio Morricone who worked closely with Sergio Leone to produce those classic 60's movies in all their glory. These sit well within the game and add a lot to the vibe. Gun sounds, explosions and general sound effects are all good although some of the voice acting is fairly average.

We could probably say a lot more but we reckon it's about time you saddled up and rode on into Brimstone to try out Red Dead Revolver for yourselves! To sum it up this game certainly captures a great feeling and atmosphere of the Old West as portrayed in many of the Spaghetti Western movies from the 1960's with Rockstar's own humour and style chucked in for good measure. It has a degree of challenge, and is quite tough in places, but unfortunately is held back from being a classic by a few minor problems. But it will suck you into its world and give you some very enjoyable gaming moments with its Western styling that you won't experience in any other title thus far. Red Dead Revolver is not quite the perfect Wild West game that it could have been, but it's still excellent and especially recommended to fans of old Westerns who also like the odd fun arcade shooter now and then.