I strongly stand by my opinion that there’s no better medium for telling a good story than through a video game. Digital entertainment has come a long way since we were little kids who enjoyed shooting ducks on screen; nowadays, authors can either choose the way of the ink, or the way of the pixel. However you want to experience their fabric of imagination, the horizon of opportunities is now wider than ever.
Engaging yourself in someone’s story by playing it makes it more personal — that character’s fate depends on your skills, you’ve got more freedom to explore their world, and the hours you put in create the opportunity for deeper emotional connections. You don’t just get to watch a story unfold, you make it unfold.
For the last decade, developers have gifted their players with greater power regarding their stories’ directions — games like Life is Strange, Detroit: Become Human, Beyond: Two Souls, Until Dawn, Heavy Rain etc— give you, the player, the chance to steer the plot through different story paths. Not all of these games have totally different endings, but even the fact that you get to choose who lives and dies, or how the character develops, is a huge improvement, and one that no other medium could offer you.
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Red Dead Redemption 2 is an emotional Falcon’s Flight. It’s got a mature story, complex characters, beautiful landscapes and a fearless plot. If immersion, attention to detail and next-gen graphics had a baby (yes, a complicated family tree)… you guessed it.
But I don’t want to talk about the technical aspects of the game here. Sure, I’ve spent countless hours ‘miring the details of this wonderfully created Western (like the fact that horses’ balls shrink in the cold), but the story’s just as good on the inside as it looks on your screen.
Here’s three lessons RDR2 taught me through my 160-hour-long playthrough:
1. “There’s no saint without a past, no sinner without a future”
My first title choice was “it’s never too late to change”, but this quote by St. Augustine does better justice to our beloved outlaw.
Red Dead Redemption 2‘s story is, by all means, not a happy one. The plot follows a group of outlaws as they’re forcing a life outside of society’s lawful bounds, living from crime to crime, guided by their ferociously charismatic leader — Dutch van der Linde — and his ambitions of savage grandeur and questionable freedom.
We take control of Arthur Morgan’s fate — epitome of Western cowboys, loyal companion, tough enforcer and avid collector of moral dilemmas, Arthur’s one of the most fascinating characters a game has ever managed to bring to life. Though he’s the one facing the moral dilemmas, you’re the one making the choice, and your choices are as follows:
- you either lead Arthur on the path he’s already taken, living a life scarcely burdened by the gift of conscience, morals or rules, taking care of everything and everyone standing in his way, regardless of consequences;
- or you follow the path of redemption, fighting the evil that’s already blinding Arthur, allowing him to challenge his own desires, choices, path and kin towards proving himself that it’s not too late to make things right and live a better life — for him and everyone else who crosses his path.
I chose to help Arthur follow the path of redemption. I really think this is the proper way to build his story, as well. You could live a life of relentless crime until the end of the line, never fully grasping the nature and the impact of your actions, nevermind trying to change them, but what’s the point? If Arthur never realizes he’s worthy of redemption, the story loses its core meaning.
A crucial turning point for our main character is represented by the fact that he contacts tuberculosis. The disease helps Arthur realize his days are finally numbered and his life has been led by a broken moral compass and a psychopatic leader with a bunch of sugar-coated illusions.
Considering how close he is to shaking hands wih death and the fact that his gang’s close to being ripped apart by greed and fear, Arthur now directs what remains of his power towards everyone else but him. This is not a religious affair, either. I mean, here’s his thoughts on hell:
“I hope it’s hot and terrible, Mrs. Downes… otherwise I’ll feel I’ve been sold a false bill of goods.”
Having figured out the fragility of life, Arthur can now see beyond his prior motivations. All this running from the law, living with poor morals, being guided by the dead flame of a distant dream… it now seems so futile.
“You don’t get to live a bad life and have good things happen to you.”
They’ve chased a better life but paved their roads with bones and tears. Everywhere they went, they did nothing but plunder and destroy.
For Arthur’s entire life he wanted nothing but to see his people thrive, caring too little about who stood in his way — no matter how wrong his ways or bad his deeds. His soul’s stained by past sins, but it can only be cleansed by present actions.
From the time the doctor gives him the verdict ’til his death, Arthur tries to make everything right and prove everyone who doubts him wrong. It’s never too late to give meaning to your life; even if you’ve forever walked the wrong path, you can die paving the good way for others.
“We can’t change what’s done, we can only move on.”
Seeing him try to change so much so quickly is really heartbreaking. Maybe it’s too late to fill his pages with good deeds, but he’s at least trying to right his wrongs — absolving the poor families he’s been threatening from their debts and even giving them money; refraining from using violence; engaging in quests towards protecting higher values; trying to help the members of his family escape the inevitable fate of destruction that the leaders have set it on, while he goes after them, sacrificing himself in the process.
Even if it’s a disease or your own will which forces you to change, you’re still doing it. It still matters. It’s never too late to start anew, become a better part of others’ life, reaching for your full potential. Change takes time, but it’s always worth it— for you and for everyone else.
2. “Good character is not formed in a week or month. It is created little by little, day by day. Protracted and patient effort is needed”
Simple, yet wise words by Heraclitus. Good character building may not require bricks, but it sure does require a strong foundation; one that can only be built upon selfless acts of kindness and good judgement.
There are lots of quests you can engage in that are not directly related to the story; they do matter for Arthur’s character development, though, and some of them may bring interesting personas into his story.
If the player wants to, Arthur can dedicate a lot of time helping other people. Quests may vary from helping a woman escape cannibals and retrieving a black doctor’s wagon from racist thieves, to going on full adventures across the map in search of dinosaur fossils or helping people escape animal attacks… or photographing them. The interesting thing regarding these quests is that they’re not mandatory, but the game may punish you for failing to engage in or solve them. For example, if you hear someone being attacked by a wolf and you don’t intervene, you’re going to lose honor because that person could’ve lived if it weren’t for your ignorance.
There’s a certain memorable side quest involving a character named Charlotte Balfour that Arthur runs into while exploring. Her husband had just been killed by a bear and her hunting knowledge is too scarce to provide her any survival abilities. If you refuse to help her, you’ll find her dead in her house a couple of days later. But if you do help her — by showing her how to hunt game and shoot straight — she’ll be able to sustain herself and will become a good friend of Arthur and even the epilogue’s main character, John, who visits her eight years after Arthur’s passing.
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Many of the characters Arthur helps through his journey either compliment him or straight on tell him that he’s a good man. Arthur usually pays no mind to such nonsense, but we know his soul grows with every kind word that touches it.
Even though he refuses to acknowledge his moral progress, it still exists. The deeds are done and the bricks laids. He does this not for God’s forgiveness, but to leave a better mark on the world he’s been hating for so long.
Arthur Morgan has “lived a bad life”, as he tells Sister Calderon, but it does not have to end this way. His life still means so much to so many, and it can still end better than it unfolded. Guided by morals and a kind, tough heart, evil becomes a fool’s game. By changing his character, Arthur changes his circumstances, and the world can now witness the birth of a dying, good man.
3. “Be loyal to what matters”
Advice given by Arthur to John Marston, his longtime companion and the protagonist of Red Dead Redemption.
Arthur and John have both been rescued by Dutch van der Linde and Hosea Matthews when they were very young, being introduced to the outlaw way of life quite early. Having grown into the teachings of those two gentlemen, they followed their lead until the very end, dreaming their dreams and savoring their visions for a prosperous, lawless future.
Because money becomes scarce and the gang’s patience shrivels with every member that leaves it, Dutch turns towards the more… ambitious members of the gang, who never fail to wheedle their ways around him. Arthur and John have always tried to see things as they were and not as they wanted them to be, and because their views did not necessarily align with their leader’s predisposition, he began to believe they were after him.
Arthur’s loyalty has always stood along his heart, and he’s always given everything he could for the well-being of his brothers and sisters, no questions asked; but the values that once guided his family’s future are long gone, and the new order does not really have a place for our hero’s change of heart.
Now that Arthur’s life’s received a deadline, he can focus on the things that truly matter to him, things that are real and true; things that may make this world a better place if they’re taken care of.
In his final moments, he sends off the gang’s women and does his best to save John Marston, the only gang member who had a family to protect. They are the only ones worthy of Arthur’s loyalty, the only ones worth fighting for.
Even when death’s at the door, Arthur remains loyal only to his heart and to the ones that are forever bound to it, rejecting the ambitions of his past demons and dying as a good, honorable man.
In life, there’s not much time to run around chasing values that are not really ours. Are the things that matter to you really yours, or have they been appointed to you? Is your love for them borrowed, by any chance?
Loyalty is a dangerous game — you just put your heart somewhere and it settles around it. We have to constantly check its environment, for we can never be sure its surroundings are still in line with our values. We have to properly and thoroughly examine our lives, otherwise we’ll realize too late that our loyalty had been, in fact, stolen.
Finally, it’s never too late to leave a bad place. Don’t just cling to a bond or a relationship because you’ve already invested so much time in it. If it’s draining, toxic, holds you back or doesn’t align with your values, you’d better act fast. The best time to make a change is always now, and your choices are to either to do it now, or regret it later. Don’t postpone a life worth living.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s story is full of meaning, and no article could ever do justice to its main character. What I tried to express here is but a mere 1% of what’s out there. This is a story no one should ever miss, and I’m really grateful I got to enjoy it.
Thank you for reading my article! It would mean a lot if you’d consider subscribing to my email. Totally understandable if you’re not in the mood, though!
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: iStockPhoto.com
