Yeah I got another one of those darn Red Dead Redemption II articles – but hey, I’m really excited for this game and can’t wait to get my hands on it. And the release of the second trailer a while back is not helping much as ideas for the plot keep popping into my head.
Given the mass amount of detail Rockstar like to cram into their game worlds, I’m sure Red Dead Redemption II will be no different – I mean, they even added swinging horse-bollocks… they really have, check out the trailer closely. Actual horse-balls physics!
But there is one detail in the previous game that some people overlooked and its a detail I hope plays a bigger part in this sequel… err, prequel. And seeing as Red Dead Redemption II is a prequel – that means that my idea could work out too. Okay so for those not in the know despite the ‘II’ in the title of the game, Red Dead Redemption II is not a sequel but a prequel – even more so, it not really a II either.
Red Dead Revolver was the first game in the franchise and released in 2004 by Rockstar for the PlayStation 2 and Xbox. It told the story of bounty hunter Red Harlow (above) who uncovers the plot that killed his parents and extracts his revenge. This was followed by Red Dead Redemption for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 in 2010. Where we play as John Marston trying to atone (or get redemption) for his past life as a gang-member – making this game the second in the series and Red Dead Redemption II the third… but its a prequel so technically its the second or could it even be the first?
See, we don’t actually know just how far back in the timeline of the series Red Dead Redemption II will go. Five years, ten, twenty, more? Which brings me to the aforementioned little detail in Red Dead Redemption that many people overlook or just did not know about. There has always been some sort of debate as to whether Revolver is even part of the Redemption series at all as many people claim that Redemption is in fact a reboot to the Red Dead franchise and exists in its own separate universe. Except that’s not true…
That right there is Red Harlow from Revolver in Redemption – he is in the game. Now before everyone jumps in with ‘that’s only in the multiplayer’, yes that is very true. Numerous Revolver characters including Annie Stoakes, Shadow Wolf, Ugly Chris and even Red Harlow himself are playable in Redemption… but only as part of the multiplayer aspect and not the main story. So that really does not count does it?
You know how I talked about the level of detail Rockstar put into their games (horse-plums people!)? Well Redemption has a ton of tiny details too and one of them was being able to just wander over to a campsite in the dessert, sit down and listen to stories told by strangers. And who was the subject of some of those stories?
“You heard of that Red Harlow fella?
Red Harlow and his adventures, the events of Revolver are mentioned within the main story of Redemption more than once. That video is just one of the numerous stories told and more than one of them mentions Red Harlow by name. So there you have it, solid proof that Red Harlow and the events of Revolver happened and do exist within the main story of Redemption. So what does this all mean?
Well people are getting all excited about the prospect of John Marston returning as the new game is a prequel, me? I’m really not all that bothered if John returns or not, yeah it’ll be nice to see him and all that – but what if another character returns, what if Red Harlow is a part of the Redemption II story line? It is possible, it could happen right?
For me, I’d much rather see Red back over John… or what about both?
Given we don’t know exactly how far back Redemption II will go, its kind of hard to work out the timeline. But the main events of Revolver were set sometime in the 1800’s, I’ve not played the game for years so if anyone can come up with a more accurate date, it’ll be much appreciated – but I’m not even sure if an exact date was mentioned. While Redemption was set in 1911 with John being born in 1873, making him around 37-38 years old during the events of the game. So it is possible the two existed in the same place at the same time… depending on exactly when the events Revolver occurred. A younger John Marston could have interacted with an older Red Harlow and that could be a part of Redemption II‘s story even if its set 20 years before Redemption. A 17-18 year old John and a 50 year old Red? If Billy The Kid could be an outlaw by the age of 18 (and he was), then so could John Marston.
The more I think about this, the more it makes sense. Redemption II could be the game that officially links the previous two games together… with added horse-nards!
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