A graphic design studio is putting the granddaddy of Red Dead Redemption 2 into Unreal Engine 5 in hopes of convincing Rockstar to do a remake.
There is little doubt that Unreal Engine 5 is a powerful tool. However, the possibilities of what it can be used for have not yet all been fathomed. In this case, a small graphic design studio from the USA is using it to show Rockstar the potential of a remake of the first Red Dead.
In a specially made trailer, the team from TeaserPlay Studio shows how Red Dead Revolver could look with Epic’s new graphics technology. The action game was released in 2004 for PlayStation 2 as well as the first Xbox and is the granddaddy of the open-world milestone Red Dead Redemption 2.
A trailer that raises remake hopes
The engine technologies used are Lumen (lighting), Nanite (resource-saving polygon use), Screen Space Ray Tracing and a shader for global illumination. The fact that three of these are lighting technologies again illustrates how important this aspect is for a modern look.
At most, the pretty graphics are marred by the wooden animations, but you can’t expect graphic designers to hire an animation artist for an unpaid side project.
After all, the studio doesn’t want to develop the remake itself, but only illustrate the fan interest for such a remake with their trailer. Under the video it says:
“We hope that Rockstar Games will soon announce official remakes of Red Dead Revolver and Red Dead Redemption and that our video will help to illustrate fan anticipation “
For the impressive version of the protagonist Red Harlow, who not coincidentally reminds of a young Clint Eastwood, at least a collaboration with the character artist Hossein Diba, who specialises in highly detailed figures for games, cinematics and 3D prints, came about.
Why the original almost never existed
We’ve recapped the history of the classic for you in our Hall of Fame. Compared to the wishful remake, it’s downright unappealing nowadays, and even in terms of gameplay it couldn’t reach the quality of the later parts of the series at the time
Originally, Red Dead Revolver was developed by Angel Studios under the auspices of Japanese publisher Capcom. However, their cooperation limped from the beginning and resulted in the cancellation of the project in August 2003.
A stroke of luck for Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive, who were about to integrate Angel Studios into their development studios under the new name Rockstar San Diego anyway. In December 2003, they finally secured the rights to the unfinished game and released it less than half a year later.
Despite this turbulent history, one can already recognise the roots of certain mechanics that we still encounter in the grandchild Red Dead Redemption 2, such as the Dead Eye slow motion and the duels. However, whether the almost 50,000 views of the remake trailer so far are enough to make Rockstar think about a new edition of the console classic remains questionable.
Most PC gunslingers would probably skip the forefather with good grace if they could quickly get their hands on a PC remaster of the first Red Dead Redemption.
Which Rockstar games would you most like to see a full remaster of? Would you like to see the complete Red Dead series on PC at some point, or do you rather long for a modern version of one of the old GTAs? Drop us a line in the comments
