Few modern games have aged as well as Red Dead Redemption 2. Nearly a decade after the game first launched, the open-world Western is held up as the gold standard in graphics and detail. I’d argue not every game needs such granular levels of detail to the extent that horse balls shrink in the cold, but it’s still a masterpiece regardless.
If nothing else, the fact Red Dead Redemption 2 is so packed with details means there’s always something new to discover, even eight years later. It’s also worth noting that PC players can get even more out of the game thanks to hundreds of mods that add new content, overhaul gameplay systems, and offer completely new ways to play. If Rockstar won’t do it, you can bet modders will.
Wanted · Dead or Alive How Well Do You Know Red Dead Redemption? “We’re thieves in a world that don’t want us no more.”
OutlawsGunslingers’ end
The GangVan der Linde’s boys
HonorEvery bullet counts
FrontierThe dying West
BountyPinkertons on your tail
01
Both Red Dead Redemption and its prequel centre on a single gang of outlaws — a ragtag family led by a charismatic, revolution-spouting idealist who preaches loyalty above all else. What is the gang’s name?
✓ Correct! The Van der Linde gang is the beating heart of the franchise — Dutch van der Linde’s outlaw family, including Arthur, John, Hosea, Sadie, Charles and more. Founded in the 1870s and destroyed in 1899, their collapse is the tragedy the entire prequel is built around. Every Red Dead story is ultimately about what happens to these people.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is the Van der Linde gang. The O’Driscoll Boys are Colm O’Driscoll’s bitter rival crew, the Lemoyne Raiders are Confederate holdouts you skirmish with in the bayou, and the Del Lobos are a Mexican border gang from RDR1 DLC. Only the Van der Linde gang is home.
02
Midway through Red Dead Redemption 2, Arthur Morgan contracts a terminal illness from a sick debtor he roughs up for money. The diagnosis reshapes the entire back half of the game into a story about redemption. What disease does he catch?
✓ Correct! Arthur catches tuberculosis (called “consumption” at the time) from Thomas Downes — the tubercular farmer he shakes down on Leopold Strauss’s behalf in Chapter 2. His worsening cough, greying skin, and weight loss become one of gaming’s most devastating character arcs. Every mission after the diagnosis is a meditation on how a dying man chooses to spend his time.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is tuberculosis. Cholera, typhoid and yellow fever were all real scourges of the late 1800s, but Arthur catches TB from Thomas Downes during a debt-collection beatdown in Chapter 2. His slow deterioration — and Roger Clark’s performance of it — is what turns a prequel into one of the most emotionally wrenching games ever made.
03
Red Dead Redemption 2 is set at the very tail end of the Wild West — railroads are creeping across the frontier, motor cars are appearing, and the Pinkertons are making outlaws obsolete. In what year does the main story begin?
✓ Correct! RDR2 opens in 1899 — deliberately picking the last dying gasp of the frontier. The gang is on the run after their botched Blackwater heist, fleeing into the snowy mountains of Ambarino. The epilogue jumps to 1907, setting up the twelve-year gap until the original 2010 game begins in 1911 with John Marston hunting down his former brothers.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is 1899. 1876 is the Custer/Little Bighorn era — before Dutch’s gang even existed. 1885 is when Hosea and Dutch are established bandits in flashbacks. 1907 is the epilogue’s time jump. But the main story of RDR2 — the gang’s collapse — unfolds across 1899, the last breath of the Wild West.
04
The 2010 original Red Dead Redemption follows a former Van der Linde gunslinger turned reluctant family man — blackmailed by federal agents into hunting his old outlaw brothers. Who is the protagonist of RDR1?
✓ Correct! John Marston — former Van der Linde gunslinger — is the protagonist of the 2010 original. Voiced by Rob Wiethoff, his story of being forced to hunt down Bill, Javier and Dutch by the Bureau of Investigation (in exchange for his family’s safety) made him one of gaming’s most iconic leads. RDR2 is the prequel built to contextualise everything John lost.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is John Marston. Arthur Morgan is the RDR2 protagonist (and fills the playable role for the prequel’s main story). Micah Bell is the villainous gang member. Hosea Matthews is Dutch’s right-hand man and a mentor figure. John is the face of the original 2010 game and the playable character in RDR2’s epilogue.
05
Dutch van der Linde’s most famous catchphrase — repeated with growing desperation as his gang falls apart — has become one of the most meme-worthy lines in gaming. What is it?
✓ Correct! “I have a plan.” Dutch delivers it constantly — first with genuine conviction, then as self-delusion, then finally as a hollow reflex. The more he says it, the worse things get. By the late chapters, every gang member knows his “plans” are falling apart — and hearing him say it again becomes dramatic shorthand for how far he’s fallen.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is “I have a plan.” “We just need more money” is a recurring gang lament but not Dutch’s signature line. “I have a plan” is what he says over and over as Blackwater, Rhodes, Saint Denis, and Guarma each blow up in his face. By the end, the phrase is a warning, not a reassurance.
06
Red Dead Redemption 2’s map is divided into five fictional US states — a painstakingly detailed recreation of American regions from Louisiana bayous to Rocky Mountain snow. Which of the following is NOT one of those states?
✓ Correct! Blackwater is a town, not a state — it sits in West Elizabeth, and it’s the scene of the infamous botched ferry job that opens RDR2. The five fictional states are Ambarino (snowy mountains), West Elizabeth (plains and Blackwater itself), New Hanover (Horseshoe Overlook country), Lemoyne (Louisiana-flavoured bayou), and New Austin (RDR1’s familiar desert).
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is Blackwater — that’s a town in West Elizabeth, not a state. Specifically, it’s where Dutch’s 1899 riverboat heist went catastrophically wrong right before the game opens, putting a massive bounty on the whole gang and forcing them into the Grizzlies. Ambarino, New Hanover, and Lemoyne are all genuine states on the map.
07
One gang member is secretly feeding information to the Pinkertons throughout the back half of RDR2 — a twitchy, paranoid latecomer who Dutch inexplicably trusts over Arthur. His betrayal is the knife that finally finishes the Van der Linde gang. Who is he?
✓ Correct! Micah Bell — the twitchy, blond latecomer who joined roughly a year before the game — is the Pinkerton informant. He plants suspicion, isolates Dutch, and sells out the camp repeatedly. His final fight with an older John Marston atop Mount Hagen in 1907 is one of gaming’s most satisfying revenge arcs, closing out the Van der Linde saga for good.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is Micah Bell. Bill Williamson is a thug but loyal to Dutch to the end. Javier Escuella is a true believer in the revolution. Leopold Strauss is the gang’s shady loan-shark bookkeeper (whose collection jobs indirectly give Arthur TB). Micah is the rat the whole time — and the reason Arthur’s dying words are a warning to John.
08
Arthur Morgan’s performance is widely considered one of the greatest in gaming history — winning the BAFTA and The Game Awards for Best Performance in 2019. Which actor voiced and motion-captured Arthur?
✓ Correct! Roger Clark — an Irish-American actor whose weathered drawl became synonymous with Arthur Morgan — won both the BAFTA and The Game Award for Best Performance in 2019. His ability to pivot from easy-going cowboy to gaunt, dying redeemer gave RDR2 its emotional heart. The role took nearly eight years of motion capture and recording sessions.
✗ Wanted, dead! The answer is Roger Clark. Rob Wiethoff is John Marston — both in RDR1 and as the playable lead of RDR2’s epilogue. Benjamin Byron Davis voiced Dutch van der Linde across both games. Troy Baker is huge in game VO (Joel, Booker, Pagan Min) but famously isn’t in Red Dead. Roger Clark’s Arthur won a BAFTA and a Game Award.
Last Stand · Six-shooter Holstered Your Outlaw Rank
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True gunslinger — or still green at the saloon?
Anybody who has played through Red Dead Redemption 2 will undoubtedly remember Arthur Morgan’s accidental lad’s holiday to Guarma. The gang wash up on the shores of this fictional island after a Saint Denis bank robbery goes horribly wrong.
It’s a fascinating location, its tropical climes a stark contrast to the dust and mud of the mainland. Alas, players don’t get to spend much time there. After the story mission is done, it’s back home with no opportunity to return to Guarma. Not that there’s an in-universe reason John or Arthur would ever want to go back there, mind you.
While there are glitches that let players return to Guarma after the story mission is wrapped up, you’ll quickly find there’s absolutely nothing to do there. This is where Guarma Expanded – More Locations and New Animals comes in.
This mod, created by hackrdude83, does exactly what it says on the tin: it makes Guarma worth visiting again by adding a wealth of new content, including new locations and two brand-new animal species you can only find on the island.
This mod expands Guarma to include a cemetery, a pirate shipwreck, an animal hunter, and an escapee to find. You’ll also come across a Jaguar if you’re unlucky, or a Guarma Alligator, who defies biology to chill out by the salty ocean shores.
There’s plenty to do in this mod, so I’d definitely suggest giving it a go. It’s also compatible with the Hidden Paradise mod, another project designed to add more life to Guarma.
In many ways, Red Dead Redemption 2really is the gift that keeps on giving. But we wouldn’t be here without the modders doing their part to keep the game alive and interesting.
Systems
Released
October 26, 2018
ESRB
M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
