red dead
Red Dead Redemption
I played the first hour of Red Dead Revolver last year, mostly in preparation for what was going to be one of the biggest game releases of the year, Red Dead Redemption. I didn’t really like the start of the game too much, it felt cliched and reminded me a lot of Rising Zan: Samurai Gunman in the way the gameplay and story were structured. Pro-tip: that’s not a good comparison.
But here I am, finally, with the first hour of Red Dead Redemption. Rockstar essentially threw out everything but the Western setting of Revolver during development of Redemption, and it definitely shows. While Revolver felt like an arcade game at times, Redemption really does feel like Grand Theft Equine.
Released last May, Red Dead Redemption has sold many copies and reaped many awards, but so did Grand Theft Auto IV, and I could only stomach about a dozen hours of that monster before giving up due to its tedious amount of relationship balancing and all-too-realistic driving gameplay. But if any company has been able to learn from their mistakes in the past, Rockstar Games is that developer. Let’s ride into the first hour of Red Dead Redemption for the Xbox 360.
Red Dead Revolver
It's easy to forget that Rockstar Games actually develops other series besides Grand Theft Auto.
With nine studios making up the Rockstar empire, it's seemingly
unbelievable that the only games they've released since Grand Theft
Auto IV two years ago is a new Midnight Club racing game, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
on the DS and PSP, some music game called Beaterator, and a few Grand
Theft Auto DLC's. So what are all the other studios working on? Well,
Rockstar San Diego is almost done with Red Dead Redemption, the sequel
to our first hour focus today, Red Dead Revolver.
Red Dead Revolver
was released in 2004 on the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It plays like a
Spaghetti Western film and follows a very linear tale of revenge. The
last Western game I played before Red Dead Revolver was Sunset Riders,
a side-scrolling shoot 'em up featuring simultaneous multiplayer and a
whole lot of fun. I have some great memories playing this game on the
Super Nintendo with my friends in middle school.
April was originally going to be "Western games month" on the First Hour in what was sort of a celebration of the release of Red Dead Redemption and in honor of the many obscure and not-so-obscure Western games including Sunset Riders, Gun, Call of Juarez, Outlaws, Rising Zan (Samurai Gunman!) and maybe even Custer's Revenge. But with the delay of Red Dead Redemption until May and the general annoyance of getting locked into theme months, we decided to skip it. Here's what's left of it though: the first hour of Red Dead Revolver on the Xbox.
April was originally going to be "Western games month" on the First Hour in what was sort of a celebration of the release of Red Dead Redemption and in honor of the many obscure and not-so-obscure Western games including Sunset Riders, Gun, Call of Juarez, Outlaws, Rising Zan (Samurai Gunman!) and maybe even Custer's Revenge. But with the delay of Red Dead Redemption until May and the general annoyance of getting locked into theme months, we decided to skip it. Here's what's left of it though: the first hour of Red Dead Revolver on the Xbox.
