Tiago Svn
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Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, Red Dead Redemption Reloaded, or whatever it's called, are two of the most successful games of all time. Naturally, making something special is hard to the point it feels like the universe – or maybe just the nature of capitalism – is constantly throwing obstacles our way in an attempt to convince us to make something bland instead. As you will soon learn, the Red Dead series came close to not happening at all, but all the trouble that the devs went through at least resulted in a bunch of awesome stories.
The original Red Dead Redemption is a spiritual successor to Red Dead Revolver, a game that didn't meet Rockstar's high-quality standard. Red Dead Redemption is about John Marston's own redemption, yes, but it's especially about the series' own redemption in the eyes of fans. Fans of the Redemption series who have never played Revolver should do so because despite not being as riveting as the newer games, it's still a lot of fun.
Red Dead Redemption came from Red Dead Revolver, and that began its life as SWAT, short for Spaghetti Western Action Title, a game originally by Japanese developer Capcom. How many times does a big series begin at a totally different company? Rockstar got the IP from Capcom in exchange for the publishing rights of GTA. It was a pretty good deal for both companies, we assume.
A question that's as pertinent as “why did an American company need a Japanese company to come up with th e idea of making a game set in the Wild West” is “what was the actual inspiration for it”, and the answer is Blindman, a western film starring goddamn Ringo Starr.
Even outside of the wackier Undead Nightmare DLC we get to experience paranormal events in both games of the series. The most poignant of which is the mysterious stranger, a man who knows everything about John Marston – including the knowledge of the exact place where he'll be buried in the future.
Bigfoot's presence on GTA San Andreas is a myth almost as hotly debated as the presence of bigfoot in real life. Rest assured that he doesn't exist in either. He does, however, exist in the world of Red Dead Redemption as an answer to all the fan outcry. The developers seemingly weren't too happy with it, though, as they have John Marston killing all but one of them, leading to one hell of a heart-wrenching conclusion.
Red Dead Redemption 2 proves that the 2011 hit Cowboys & Aliens starring Daniel Craig was based on real events as protagonist Arthur Morgan also has a run-in with a flying saucer.
The original Red Dead Redemption went through a very chaotic development, but the team ended up tying up the loose ends so well that the only glitches remaining by release actually make the game way more fun. For example, NPCs that look like people but fly as if they're birds (because they are birds living inside the wrong model).
When we begin Red Dead 2, we might come across a man looking for his friend, a man called Gavin. Good-hearted players might feel enticed to help this man find a wholesome end to his quest. If we don't find Gavin, we'll find a batsh*t insane version of this man still looking for Gavin many years later in the story. Should we have helped him when we had the chance? Well, that's what the game wants us to think, but there's no one named Gavin in the game and so anyone who goes looking after him risks having the same fate as Gavin's friend.
The series features many intentionally scary moments, but those pale in comparison to the times when the series is being scary by accident. Red Dead Redemption 2 originally had a glitch that immediately killed every single horse that crossed a specific part of the map, sometimes leading to ultra-creepy piles of dead horses.
Players can come across the corpses of the entire Blackwater athletics team. The scene is horrifying, and the explanation is even worse: there is no explanation. Why? Because the whole scene is based on the '09 murder of a real Colombian soccer team ‘09 that’s still shrouded in mystery.
Whereas the original game featured the actual bigfoot, the sequel went on to create its own mythos – albeit unintentionally. A lot of players began complaining about sightings of a weird blind man who sometimes just existed, sometimes flew over their heads, but was continually creepy. Unlike the fake bigfoot GTA San Andreas sightings, the bald man was a very real result of a glitch in Red Dead Redemption 2.
The only things wilder than the wild west in Red Dead Redemption 2 is the wild west in many other wild west games less grounded in reality, yeah, and also the online portion of the game because every now and then hackers come up with fun events such as invasions of killer bears or two-headed skeletons.
Red Dead Redemption 2 features a bridge that players can turn into a catapult via exploits, an accidental feature that the devs should welcome to canon since it feels a lot like the much-feared cursed swingset from GTA IV.
Many remember SPOILERS: Jack Marston killing Edgar Ross, the man who murdered his father as the final moment in the series, but that's actually John Marston getting out of his grave as a zombie. That kind of makes it look like Jack overdid his revenge, doesn't it?
Rockstar totally wanted to remaster the original Red Dead Redemption, a move that would have finally allowed PC players to experience the game. Rockstar ended up canceling the plans because fans couldn't shut up about the flaws in the Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Thanks, fans.
Top Image: Rockstar
