There have been many theories circulating about the release of Red Dead Redemption 2 prior to the release of its official trailer. But now we can all look into the real Red Dead Redemption 2 and set aside all the unbelievable scenarios that people have been coming up with.
Usually, the release of the first trailer for any highly anticipated game is followed by a huge resonance from the community, and the trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 is no exception. Many people say that graphically the game is too similar to GTA V -- but we haven’t seen the actual gameplay yet, so it’s hard to confirm these rumors.
However, we can trace some story elements and possible game mechanics in this first teaser to Red Dead Redemption 2. So let's take a look at what the teaser is really telling us.
Breathtaking environments
The entire first third of the trailer is dedicated to natural sceneries. In this way, Rockstar tries to tell us that Red Dead Redemption 2 will have incredibly beautiful environments supported by a powerful graphics engine.
All animations look super realistic, such as the movements of the animals and their interactions with other objects like grass, tree branches, etc. It also means that the game will have a huge open world. There is no clear indication of how big it will be, but with the latest trend of making massive open worlds (think of The Witcher 3) in video games, Rockstar should deliver in this department as well.
So, it is clear that the development team took the game’s environments very seriously.
Hunting and saving
Here is an interesting short glimpse at the small camp amidst the woods. A man that we see camping could be either a hunter or a fugitive, but in the next shot we get the confirmation that he is actually a hunter. So, does it mean that there will be an entire hunting system in the game? Possibly so.
What about the campfire? It could be a saving point, a sort of bonfire system like what you see in the Dark Souls series. Another theory suggests that this is a fast travel point similar to the ones we saw in The Witcher 3.
Anyway, this is a cool little shot that may contain an indication of saving spots.
Coming back home
Here is the shot that shows the game’s protagonist in a close up with a hunted animal on the back of his horse. This means that he is a hunter and he lives in a house where he keeps his prey.
It is unknown if the man has a family or if he lives alone, but since there is no indication of other family members in the trailer, we can be sure he is a lonely person.
Also, notice that the fence stretches pretty far away from the house itself, which means that our man owns a lot of land. This piece of land could be the reason of the conflict we will witness in the following scenes of the trailer.
A hidden message
The scene with the vultures is the key scene in the entire trailer. First of all, it’s the most violent scene of all – a pack of vultures shredding a pig is meant to shock the viewer after a series of beautiful natural shots.
Secondly, this is where the narration begins with the following words:
“Listen to me, when the time comes, you gotta run and don’t look back. This is over.”
We don’t know who says these words and who he addresses, but they can mean only one thing – if something gets uncovered, that person needs to run away.
Does it mean that our protagonist is hiding from somebody? Maybe this is all somehow connected to the previous events in the series? The clues can be found in the last few scenes of the trailer.
They burned it down
If you compare the house in the beginning of the trailer and the one in this scene, you will notice that it’s not the same one, but something is definitely burning. We can also see a man riding on the horse towards it. This is probably our protagonist heading towards his property.
Apparently, his true identity has been uncovered by somebody and now his life is under threat. He needs to run and find another place of hiding. Otherwise, some really bad things could happen to him.
At this point the trailer brings us closer to the identity of the main protagonist.
Who is this man?
Here is the closest we get to see the main character of the game. Currently, the fans of the series are speculating a lot about the possibility of him being John Marston – the protagonist of the first Red Dead Redemption.
Our mysterious RDR2 protagonist actually does look like Marston in this trailer, but there is one little detail – he was killed at the end of the previous game… or was he? What if Marston survived and changed his identity? Rockstar could be playing with its audience here, which is really not a bad thing.
Another theory states that this could be a completely new character that has no connection to the other games, but for now that is not considered to be legit.
A new gang
Finally, the trailer ends with seven men riding horses in the prairie. This could be a hint at a co-operative mode in the game. Or maybe the rest of the gang will be all controlled by AI -- and if that’s the case, then it would be a pity.
Another possibility is the game allowing us to choose which character we want to play as, and when it is required by the story we could switch to another one. Having multiple protagonists has been a popular choice in recent games like Dishonored 2, so perhaps RDR2 will follow suit. If that’s the case, then the gameplay could be very exciting.
All in all, the first trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 showed just enough to keep us hyped. It’s still a whole year before the game’s release, so hold your horses concerning any of these theories until we get more information.
If you have thoughts of your own about the events in the first official Red Dead Redemption 2 teaser, then leave them in the comments below.
Published: Oct 25, 2016 07:01 am