Red Dead Revolver is a third-person shooter and action-adventure game with a linear storyline. Players can fight enemies using handguns, rifles, shotguns, and throwable weapons such as hunting knives, molotov cocktails, and dynamite. New weapons can be purchased at the end of each level. Levels usually end with a boss fight, and each boss has a bounty on their head that is collected once they are killed. Each level uses a rating system that rewards players with unlockable content, such as new weapons or characters for the game's multiplayer component, depending on how well they completed specific objectives, such as the time taken to finish the level or weapon accuracy.
Though the game lacks an open-world, players may freely explore the small town of Brimstone between levels, where they can interact with NPCs. Throughout the storyline, players mainly assume the role of bounty hunter Red Harlow, but in some levels they get the chance to control other characters, such as English trick-shootist Jack Swift, rancher Annie Stoakes, Mexican Army General Javier Diego, Red's Native American cousin Shadow Wolf, and an African American soldier known only as the "Buffalo Soldier". Each playable character has a unique signature weapon, such as Red's revolver, Jack's twin pistols, and Shadow Wolf's bow and arrow.
A game mechanic introduced in Revolver and later carried over into other Red Dead games is "Dead Eye", a targeting system that temporarily puts the player in slow motion to place one or multiple precise shots on an enemy's body. When the targeting sequence ends, the player character automatically fires to all marked locations in very quick succession, dealing high amounts of damage. Dead Eye is also utilized in the game's duels, which consist of four stages:
Grabbing – the player controls the character's hand and must direct it towards the weapon.
Drawing – the player moves the right analog stick back up to remove the weapon from its holster.
Acquiring locks – the right analog stick is used to move the crosshairs over the opponent's body and place several targets.
Shooting – once the bullet time effect ends, the player character automatically fires bullets in rapid succession.
The game includes a local multiplayer component, which can be played by one to four players, alongside one to three AI-controlled bots. There are three game modes, mostly free-for-all battles, where the goal is to be the last man standing. The multiplayer component utilizes most maps and character models from the single-player campaign, with only a few exclusive ones.