Embarrassing Things You've Done In RDR2 That You'd Never Admit To Friends
The first installment in the Red Dead Redemption series gave players the opportunity to live the life of an outlaw in the wild west. From collecting bounties to hunting animals and everything in between, it was a form of wish fulfillment in a beautiful cinematic landscape. When the second game in the series was announced, fans were excited for more of this rough-and-tumble gameplay with new added story elements and gaming mechanics.
With the release of the second game, however, came a whole new list of ways for players to get themselves into some interesting situations. And because Red Dead Redemption 2 is an open-world game, there are plenty of opportunities to find embarrassing situations (although many of them are bound to find you even when you aren't looking). The freedom afforded to players with this type of gaming genre means that gameplay is incredibly customizable and unique for each individual player. But even with such a wide variety of ways to play the game, there seem to be a few embarrassing situations players are finding in common ... though they might not want their friends to know about them. Here are just a few.
Don't punch a gift horse in the mouth
A big part of Red Dead Redemption is the bond you share with your horse. If you need to make a quick getaway, you have to be able to rely on your four-legged friend to be there for you. Your horse is your access to the world around you, since travel by foot is impossible for some areas. This is why most players will spend a great deal of time bonding with their steed. Unlike almost everything and everyone else in the game, you have to care for and nurture your horse in order to have a reliable enough relationship to trust the animal when you find yourself in a sticky situation. Unfortunately, because of some easy-to-mix-up control options, many players have been finding it easy to offend their four-legged friends.
A quick search of YouTube will bring up an almost unlimited amount of videos depicting people doing the exact opposite of bonding with their horse. Though some may do this on purpose, most players have found that it's incredibly easy to accidentally punch their horse in the face. No matter how patient and level-headed you may think your animal is, there's only so much it can take before it finally snaps and gives you what you deserve. In this case, that's a swift kick in the stomach that will send you sprawling. At least you know that your companion isn't a total doormat when it comes to standing up for itself.
A compilation you didn't know you were missing in your life
The introduction of the cinematic mode in Red Dead Redemption 2 is both a blessing and a curse. On the one hand, this option gives players a way to record beautiful picturesque scenes as they ride majestically off into the sunset, lending their YouTube channel a big boost in production value. But on the other hand, attempting to control your character and their horse while using the cinematic mode has proven to be nearly impossible.
Imagine mounting your horse, engaging cinematic mode, and finding that perfect forested area with just a bit of dappled sunlight coming through the branches. It's a majestic scene to be sure, and something that would be perfect to share with the gaming community. And so you, in your naivety, decide to get a shot worthy of James Cameron in scale, only to find that, as you're riding off into the sunset, you and your horse run headlong into a tree. You go flying, your horse flops onto the ground, and you pray that no one saw your embarrassing moment. But then you remember that you managed to catch the entire thing in glorious high-definition video. As embarrassing as this situation is, there's no way a golden opportunity like that can't be shared online. And this has led to the blessed birth of the RDR2 horse fails compilations on YouTube. Thank you, Rockstar Games.
It's never a good idea to explode your investors before you get their money
Though the main storyline in Red Dead Redemption 2 offers a rich and unique experience, the many side quests give players a chance to flesh out the world around them and reveal more backstory on otherwise unknown characters. The "Bright Bouncing Boy" sidequest found in Saint Denis is no exception to this rule. It reveals a small nod to H.G. Wells and the science-fiction literature that was just becoming popular during the era our favorite western takes place in. If you feel the desire to help an inventor with a fantastic new project, this is the quest for you.
In Saint Denis, if you can locate an NPC by the name of Marko Dragic, you can begin the quest "Bright Bouncing Boy," which will require you to pilot a remote watercraft through a small pond. You'll have to avoid mines and blow up enemy ships in order to impress some investors Dragic has gathered there. It all seems relatively straightforward. Unfortunately, because of the level of freedom Red Dead Redemption 2 affords players, there is the small chance that you might blow up one of the spectators or investors by accident. If this happens, it's probably safe to say that you won't be getting their cash any time soon. At least you tried.
Talk to yourself like no one is watching
Though it may not seem like it at first glance, Arthur Morgan isn't such an unrelatable character. Sure, he rides around the wild west on his noble steed, killing people and taking whatever he wants, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have insecurities just like the rest of us. Or, at least, that's what his little anti-pep-talk to himself would suggest, based on the self-deprecating things he says. The longer you listen to him, the more clear it becomes that maybe, just maybe, Arthur has a bit more of the average Joe in him than we first thought.
If, as Arthur Morgan, players approach a mirror in Red Dead Redemption 2, they are given the dialogue prompt normally reserved for interacting with other people in the game. By utilizing this dialogue prompt, players are treated to a special little performance that sheds some light on how Arthur really feels about himself. It's both funny and sad at the same time, but no matter how you feel about it, we can all agree we'd rather not have our friends witness us talking to ourselves in the mirror about how pathetic we are. Gaming doesn't always need to be quite that realistic — we have The Sims for that.
Goats: the silent killer
If there's one thing the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 has taught us, it's that animals can be real jerks. You would think that distinction would be reserved for bears or wolves or something that can actually chew you to death, but it seems that the biggest source of animalistic contention comes from the unassuming goats that roam all over the open-world map. Goats wouldn't exactly be the first creatures to come to mind when thinking of threats in the Wild West, but somehow, they've earned their spot at the top of Arthur Morgan's list of antagonists.
It doesn't matter where you are. It doesn't matter what you're doing. It doesn't even matter if you're trying to mind your own business and keep the peace, the goats will find you. The hostile goats of Red Dead Redemption 2 seem to be everywhere and nowhere all at once. Even if you feel safe and alone, there will always be a goat nearby, ready to ram you over the edge of a cliff. And, in true villain fashion, they seem to only show up at the most inopportune times when you're trying to be stealthy or carefully navigating dangerous terrain. The best strategy for dealing with these goats from hell is to always assume that no matter what you're doing, a goat is close by, ready to ruin your day.
When Good Samaritans become killers
There are several ways to play Red Dead Redemption 2. For most people, following the main story and doing whatever they need to in order to move the story forward seems like a perfectly viable option. But there are also those altruistic gamers who feel the need to help those around them, even if it doesn't necessarily benefit them at all. These Good Samaritan gamers can be rewarded with a sense of well being, knowing they've helped out an NPC in the virtual world. That is, of course, unless they accidentally kill them in the process.
As we've seen with the ability to accidentally punch your horse in the face, it's easy to do a lot of things in Red Dead Redemption 2 unintentionally. For example, if you see someone sitting alone by a campfire, you may want to make sure they're okay and try to assist in any way that you can. But in Red Dead Redemption 2, it's not so simple. Because of some finicky gameplay mechanics, it's incredibly easy to kill someone without intending to. In the campfire scenario, it wouldn't be at all difficult to accidentally burn your new friend to death when all you were trying to do was lend a helping hand. Maybe there's something to be said for minding your own business and keeping your head down.
He shoots, he scores
It's already been established that the bond between Arthur Morgan and his horse is a hugely important aspect of gameplay in Red Dead Redemption 2. That's why it can sometimes be a bit disheartening to players when they realize that maybe their four-legged companion isn't quite as fond of them as they'd hoped. Of course, there's always the option to chalk any negative interactions up to bad luck and move on, hoping your horse doesn't actually hate you. But can you ever really be sure?
Between the cinematic mode fails of running your horse into trees and walls, and the accidental face punches you may launch in your steed's direction, it's no wonder that the animal may want to pay you back every once in awhile for the mistreatment. There are endless ways to be thrown from your horse in Red Dead Redemption 2, but one of the most entertaining seems to be when you land perfectly inside of the very water trough you were going to lead your horse to. There's a kind of poetic justice for all of the horse punching you did before, proving that karma really does exist. But you can keep pretending it's an accident. That's fine.
You know what they say about karma
If you're playing Red Dead Redemption 2, chances are you're eventually going to come across a situation where you kill someone you didn't quite mean to. Either that, or you did intend to kill your target, but you now need to hide the evidence of your dastardly deeds. This is where a secretive spot to hide a corpse comes in handy. Having a mental list of these places will prove more useful in this game than you'd maybe like to admit, but it is nice for getting yourself out of a potentially bad situation when you really can't afford to be "wanted."
As convenient as a good body dumping spot is, even the perfect spot can't always save you from yourself. You may be able to avoid raising your level of infamy by hiding the crimes you've committed, but that doesn't necessarily get you off the hook in the eyes of karma. Take, for example, this player who fell to their death while trying to throw a body over a cliff. She managed to throw herself over quite successfully, but the dead body? Not so much. At least she and her victim can now hang around in ghost form together. That will make it much easier for them to haunt her.
Try to stay at the top of the food chain
Hunting is by far the easiest and cheapest way to keep Arthur Morgan fed in Red Dead Redemption 2. If you have an aversion to hurting animals (even digital ones), you can always opt to buy your food, though that route can get expensive quickly. Hunting can provide players with not only food, but also skins and other helpful items to make their time in the Wild West just a little bit more manageable. This, of course, means that you need to be able to successfully hunt and kill an animal before it hunts and kills you. This is easier said than done, especially when dealing with the more dangerous animals found in RDR2.
Even though we've established goats as public enemy number one for Arthur Morgan, for the most part, goat attacks are strictly non-lethal. Other animals won't be quite so gracious with their attacks. Bears, wolves, and cougars are only a few of the wild game you'll find roaming the forests waiting to attack. If you don't have a good command over your stealth skills, gunmanship, and patience, it's much more likely that you'll end up as dinner rather than the victor in any particular encounter. In these situations, it can be a bit embarrassing to know that you've been outsmarted by a virtual animal, but at least you can take comfort in knowing that you weren't the only person to fall prey to these predators.
If only wagons had back-up cameras
It can be difficult to master the skill of horse riding. Even more difficult still is the ability to expertly steer a wagon through the rough and rocky terrain of the Wild West. This is why it's particularly troubling when one of your quests relies on your ability to adeptly maneuver the counter-intuitive vehicles around the unforgiving open-world of Red Dead Redemption 2. If at all possible, just stick to what you know, which definitely isn't wagon driving.
In one particular quest in Red Dead Redemption 2, the player and their traveling party must navigate through the forest while driving a wagon, with the intention of blocking the pathway to stop others from getting through. The only problem is that the path is on a steep drop-off and if you aren't amazing at backing up and parking in real life, you probably aren't going to be great at it when a handful of horses are attached to a wagon and all of your accomplices are watching you. There's nothing like pressure and some added obstacles to really make a task fun. Chances are, you're going to end up at the bottom of the drop-off in a pile of horses and outlaws. But that's okay — you did your best.
Leave the parkour to the experts
It's important, when playing Red Dead Redemption 2, to remember what game you're actually playing. For example, if you suddenly get confused and think you're playing an Assassin's Creed game or Mirror's Edge, you may think that you can use parkour to jump from building to building as a means of cutting down on your travel time. But remember, Arthur Morgan isn't exactly the epitome of grace and agility. That's why a quick reminder that you're playing RDR2 can sometimes be in order.
If you do decide to take a short cut through town, it may be best to just take a few back alleys, rather than try to use rooftop jumping as your main mode of travel. While this can be done successfully sometimes, the majority of the time you're going to end up face planting on the ground in a painful fashion. And if you expect the townspeople to be polite and pretend they didn't just see your epic fall from grace, don't hold your breath. More likely than not, they're going to make a snarky comment to add insult to your already considerable injuries. It may be best to just stick to riding horses and leave the parkour to Faith or Ezio.
Rams: public enemy number two
If goats are the silent killers lurking around every corner of Arthur Morgan's life, rams are their annoying cousin trying to prove their worth by taking things to a new and deadly level of personal space invasion. For the most part, goat attacks in Red Dead Redemption 2 tend to be more annoying than anything else. There is the odd time that a goat attack can lead to something fatal, but in general, the biggest problem with these animals lurking in the darkest corners of your nightmares is the fact that you never know when they're going to strike.
Rams, on the other hand, are a completely different story. Because rams tend to hang around more mountainous areas, they are already given the advantage when it comes to killing off Arthur Morgan in an odd and truly embarrassing fashion. If you dare to wander too close to a cliff in the mountains, don't be surprised if you find yourself on the receiving end of a random jerk ram who decides to take his bad mood out on you. These attacks are almost always unprovoked and seem to only strike at the most inopportune times, like when you're trying to dispose of a dead body. With this in mind, the moral of Red Dead Redemption 2 seems to be that no animals can be trusted. Or rather, the few you can trust, you're doomed to accidentally punch in the face.