Red Dead Redemption 2 is a living world full of mystery, intricate characters, and deep storylines. As such, it’s no wonder many are wanting a remaster of the original Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare 2, or a RDR2 port to the PS5 and Xbox Series X. At its core, though, it seems many may just want more of Arthur Morgan or Jack Marston, depending on the game.
A new meme, posted by Redditor flopfish30, captures this challenge and dilemma for Rockstar Games. In both the original and Red Dead Redemption 2, players take over a secondary protagonist after the death of the primary, yet many knew how to easily avoid this. There’s effectively a no turning back portion of each game where players simply need to stop progressing the main story, and this is easily taken advantage of.
In Red Dead Redemption 1, players knew not to start the “The Last Enemy to Be Destroyed” Mission to keep playing as John Marston, and not Jack. For those who wanted more John, Rockstar Games made John Marston the second playable protagonist in RDR2, yet players can avoid playing as John in order to spend more time as Morgan, simply stopping around the Shady Bell camp (among many other stopping points). In other words, Rockstar Games is stuck between a rock and a hard place with this game structure, as many players want to stick with the character they spent most of the time with and know how to do so.
At the same time, it’s not like Rockstar can just avoid this structure. The deaths of John Marston and Arthur Morgan are defining moments in the franchise, and a Red Dead Redemption 3 would presumably continue this trend. It’s a strong moment in each game and arguably a fan-favorite, but fans justifiably want to stick with their main character in either game as well. Flopfish30’s tagline that “nobody wants to play as Jack” is true in many cases of the first game, although it doesn’t necessarily apply to the second.
Presumably, RDR3 would continue Jack’s story, but it would be interesting to see how Rockstar Games adapted this approach. It would make sense if Jack was the main character, as the time crunch between the Wild West and WWI would propel the franchise’s most prominent themes forward, but then it would also likely be Jack’s final ride into the sunset. Who players would take control over after Jack would be the biggest mystery, but based on past patterns, many fans would likely want to stick with Jack before his death anyway.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is out now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
