Games
In Red Dead Redemption 2, there are so many little things to appreciate. We take a look at some of the coolest hidden details.
Details, copious details, everywhere.
It's become a refrain for the scores of players moseying their way through Red Dead Redemption 2, but that doesn't make it any less true. There is an overwhelming amount of detail in this world, and the game's slow pace only serves to highlight it.
When you stop to clean your gun, you'll notice dirt under Arthur's fingernails. When you walk through the mud or snow, your horse will leave tracks that match its width and gait. The weather is dynamic; you'll have a windstorm one day and a thunderstorm the next.
We played the game for hours and scoured the Internet to find 18 of the most involved, granular details. There are the types of things that go above and beyond immersion; they're the sorts of things that we didn't even know we wanted until we saw them in action. For the next several years, they'll serve as a sort of challenge to other developers: Can you match this?
Will these sorts of details become industry standard for open world sandbox games? Or have Rockstar established a technical, artistic bar that other studios, with less resources, ambition, or time, will find impossible to exceed? Whichever the case, the labour and love that went into this game cannot be denied.
1. The animals hunt each other
There is an ecosystem in this game. Arthur may be the apex predator, tracking and skinning all prey, but if you take a moment to watch nature instead of hunting it, you might see a cougar kill a deer. Or an alligator kill a boar. You might even see a grizzly bear defend itself against a pack of wolves and win.
2. The houses and train tracks build over time
Near the beginning of the game, you might see scaffolding for houses or half-completed train tracks. Check back in every now and then; the builders will continue constructing these things, bit-by-bit, until they're complete.
3. You can get struck by lightning
The lightning in the game is more than scenery; the player can actually get electrocuted by it, causing instant death. It's rare, obviously. But if you're torn between seeking shelter and riding across an open plain during a thunderstorm, just know that you're taking a risk.
4. There are half a million lines of dialogue in the game
There is so much talking in this game, and most players will never see all of it. For example, there's a late-night campfire conversation between several Lemoyne Raiders, where they discuss their place in the West and the encroaching modern times. It turns out you have more in common with your enemies that you might have originally thought. And that's just one example of the numerous random events you might come across.
There's also multiple line reads of the same dialogue, which the game's engine mixes and matches depending on context. Arthur, for instance, talks differently to people if he's far away from them than if he's close by.
5. Arthur's journal shows his artsy side
Arthur keeps a journal with him, and he frequently writes in it whenever there’s a key plot twist or a new location he's visited.
Throughout the game, Arthur sees his outlaw status as inevitability. The gang is all he's ever known; robbing and killing is all he's ever known. But Arthur's journal, with its bubbly, cursive writing and detailed sketches, shows a softer, artistic side; you see the type of Arthur he could have been had things gone differently.
6. There's a callback to a popular character from the first Red Dead Redemption
South of Flatneck Station is a corpse with a letter next to it, addressed to Bonnie MacFarlane. It reads in part: "I'm heading off to make my fortune and when I come back as a rich man, you'll see what a fine husband I will make you, and a father to our children."
Bonnie MacFarlane is the rancher who saves John Marston's life in the original Red Dead Redemption. This gives us a little more backstory as to why she's running the ranch by herself.
7. There are 300,000 individual animations
This statistic is completely believable to anyone who's played the game for a length of time. For instance, Arthur has multiple ways of getting on his horse, depending on what angle he approaches it from and how quickly he's moving when he does so. He even has specific animations for getting on the horse when it's standing on a sharp incline.
8. The store catalogues have unique text
The heavy shopping catalogues in each general store and gunsmith shop do more than just list the items you can buy. They also come with textual advertisements for the items detailing their workmanship and customer response. This could easily have been a simple buy/sell interface, but by catering to the player as a consumer of virtual goods, the game increases its immersiveness.
9. The blood stays on you
If you carry a bloody animal on your shoulder, your shoulder will glisten afterwards. If you stow it on your horse, your horse's backside will have blood on it as well. If you get spattered with blood during a fight, it'll dry and stay on you; the quickest way to get it off is to take a bath or hop in the river. Otherwise, the townsfolk will begin making snarky comments.
10. The possums play dead
A nice, subtle touch; if you're hunting possums, they might roll over and appear to be dead; you're even given the option to pick them up or skin them. But if you try to, the possums will get up and run away again.
11. Townsfolk drop their schtick if you stick around
Many of the townsfolk do interesting things when you linger after your interactions with them. You might find, for instance, that the blind beggar who was panhandling for change can actually see, and he was hustling you the entire time.
On one side mission, you take a man with a bad arm to the doctor in Saint Denis. He'll decide to amputate the arm, and he will ask you to leave the room. But you don't have to leave, and if you decide to stay, you'll be treated to a time period-accurate amputation by saw.
12. The NPCs retain their injuries
If you brutalise the shopkeepers in the local towns, they won't forget it. If you enter the store later in the game, they'll get angry and try to rush you out (don't worry, they'll still do business with you). They'll also bear physical damage from their prior encounter with you; they might have a bandage wrapped around their heads, or a swollen black eye.
13. Townsfolk will notice if you run around town.
You can get in trouble for bumping into people on the street. But lest you think this is a bit overboard, put yourself in the townspeople's position; if you saw someone running around town, bumping into people, and waving his gun around, wouldn't you be concerned? For this reason, it's best to take things slow in urban areas.
If you run full speed at a door in town, Arthur will charge it with his shoulder and bust it open. Everyone inside will jump, and sometimes, you'll hear the townspeople swear. Give it a try. It's disrespectful, but not enough to get the law on your tail.
14. Arthur disses himself when he looks in the mirror
If you stay at a local inn, you'll be given your own room to sleep the night. That room will have a mirror, and if you look in it, Arthur will comment upon his appearance. He is, to put it mildly, invariably hard on himself.
15. Arthur can get punched out by his own gang
Most times, when you head back to camp, you'll greet your fellow gang members, and try to be nice – these are the people who you're counting on to protect you, after all. But you don't have to; you can choose to 'antagonize,' and Arthur will insult his victim's age, appearance, and life choices.
Usually, the other gang members won't take the bait; they'll walk away. But sometimes, things will get nasty. Someone might take a swing at you, and the rest of the camp will break up the fight. Or, if you've really crossed the line, you'll get punched unconscious. You'll eventually wake up outside the camp, and when you return, Dutch will give you a stern lecture about not being a jerk.
16. Animal corpses will decompose
In other games, dead bodies will disappear a period of time, especially if you walk away for a distance. Not so in Red Dead Redemption 2. The law will pick up human corpses. And the animal corpses will rot as the game progresses until they're nothing more than bones.
17. Characters will interrupt and resume conversations
The long rides through wilderness are where Rockstar puts long passages of expository dialogue, so that you have something to keep your mind occupied while traveling from Point A to Point B. If for whatever reason, your ride gets interrupted (perhaps you crash into a tree and fall off your horse) the dialogue will stop. And when you start riding again, the character will resume, "Well, as I was saying…" That way, the player doesn't miss important plot details due to bad luck.
18. You can recapture prisoners for cash
In your travels, you might come across a prisoner on the lam, who asks you to shoot his leg chains off. If you do so, he'll tell you the location of a homestead you can rob. Or, you can decline and leave him to fend for himself. Or, if you're feeling particularly moral, you can lasso, hogtie him, and take him to the nearest sheriff for a reward.
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