Red Dead Redemption 2 is almost 2 years old at this point and fans are still holding out hope for some sort of substantial single-player DLC content. The first AAA game in the series, Red Dead Redemption did a lot to make people fall in love with gaming’s premier Western franchise and continued that in 2018’s prequel-sequel.
That first game built on Grand Theft Auto’s legacy of clever easter eggs and pop culture references as well. Let’s now look at the 10 best ones and explain what they mean and why they were included.
10 Various Achievement Names
There was a trend in video games that has persisted to some extent where trophies and achievements are used as easter egg references to other pieces of pop culture and media. Red Dead Redemption went a little overboard with this and feature many achievements that did exactly this. The One Die To Rule Them All achievement is a reference to The Lord of the Rings, Over 9001 references Dragon Ball Z, and Pa-Pa-Pa Poker Ace is a play on lyrics from a very famous song by pop singer Lady Gaga.
9 The Hills Have Eyes
There’s a mission in Red Dead Redemption called American Appetites that happens to be very much inspired by the film The Hills Have Eyes. In this mission, players must help three residents of Armadillo figure out what happened to their missing loved ones. The climax of the mission has John Marston coming face to face with an actual cannibal, who he thought was the victim in the situation. Players have the opportunity to kill the cannibal and save his next murder victim in one of several different ways.
8 Horror Legends
Red Dead Redemption was a beloved game in its own right but it is also considered to have one of the best DLC add-ons of all-time in Undead Nightmare. This zombie focused expansion brought the undead to the wild west and managed to sneak in some love for famous producers of beloved horror films.
Many of the zombie models were named after these producers with Ishmael Raimi (Sam Raimi), Paco Romero (George Romero), and Viper Craven (Wes Craven), being a few of the more notable ones among the bunch.
7 The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
It’s hard to make a modern piece of entertainment in the genre of Westerns and not pay tribute to The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly in some form. Red Dead Redemption did this in two different ways, with one being immersive and the other being a part of the multiplayer mode of the game. The former happens when a character names Seth is looking for a part of a map in a grave, and the latter is that there are equippable player titles that happen to be one-third of the title of the film.
6 Red Dead Revolver
Red Dead Revolver is such a unique situation in the realm of video game franchises and IP. Most fans of Red Dead Redemption and its sequel likely don’t even know about Red Dead Revolver. It was technically the first game in the series but narrative and lore-wise has no connection to John Marston and company. It was a cult classic game that had a small but dedicated audience who fell in love with its arcade multiplayer mode. The game’s protagonist, Red Harlow, is mentioned at campfires when the story of him winning a dueling contest is spoken about.
5 Van Down By The River
Chris Farley was one of the most popular members of Saturday Night Live and exploded onto the scene as an ultra-popular film and television comedian. His physical style of humor made people laugh uncontrollably until his untimely death due to overdosing on drugs in 1997. One of his more popular characters was a motivational speaker by the name of Matt Foley who warned kids about bad decisions. An achievement in Red Dead Redemption called “In A Van Down By The River” is a direct reference to the character’s signature catchphrase.
4 Shawshank Redemption
The easiest way to put an easter egg in a game is to simply name a character or design a poster with a direct reference. When people cleverly place objects or treasures that reward exploration but provide a nice reference for those who know, that’s when easter eggs are really good.
A treasure site in Red Dead Redemption happens to be near Breecher’s Hope near a single tree next to a broken brick wall. This is in reference to the hidden treasure location Morgan Freeman’s character Red finds at the end of the beloved film, Shawshank Redemption.
3 The Matrix, Austin Powers, & Clint Eastwood
Like it was mentioned in #10 on this list, Red Dead Redemption put a focus on placing easter egg references into its achievement list. Among the first batch already mentioned there are several more that call out popular franchises and pieces of media. The Dodge This achievement is an easter egg for The Matrix, Austin Overpowered is a not so clever play on Austin Powers, and More Than A Fistful is an achievement that nods to the series of Clint Eastwood films referred to as the “Man with no name” series.
2 Aliens
At the time Red Dead Redemption was an unknown property as it was a non-direct follow-up to the cult classic known as Red Dead Revolver. The quickest way to earn the hearts of gamers and nerds is to sneak in lines from Aliens, one of the most beloved sci-fi films of all-time. If John Marston is attacked by a wild animal and is in the middle of reloading he’ll utter the phrase"Game Over, Man! Game Over!" which is a line directly lifted off of the script from Aliens. It also happens to be quite a meta moment in a video game.
1 Red Dead Redemption 2
Some of the best-hidden parts of entertainment are when they allude to future projects that aren’t obvious until after the fact. Little did fans of the first Red Dead Redemption know that there would be two direct references to events from what would eventually be Red Dead Redemption 2. The first was an NPC in Blackwater Saloon talking about exploring the mountains known as The Grizzlies, featured in RDR 2’s open-world. The second was that the horse received for reaching the highest honor ranking was similar to the horse featured at the end of RDR 2’s first trailer.
NEXT: Red Dead Redemption: A Step By Step Guide To Treasure Hunting
