Red Dead Redemption Is At Its Best When It Shuts Up

Red Dead Redemption marks its 15th anniversary today, May 18, 2025. Below, we explore how it may excel in showing rather than telling.

Typically, Westerns are earnest and genuine. Sure, there are blatant comedies like Blazing Saddles. Many classic Westerns such as Rio Bravo present a comforting, humorous aspect. Even somber epics like The Searchers offer moments of humor. However, even in their humor, Westerns treat their archetypes with honesty. They are easy to mock due to their authenticity. In this light, Red Dead Redemption finds it challenging to carve its niche. It borrows Grand Theft Auto’s satire and transposes it into a stark, serious world. Often, the protagonist John Marston stands as the sole voice of sanity amidst clichés and caricatures. When Red Dead Redemption engages in dialogue, it often feels trivial and dismissive. When it refrains from chatter, though, it reveals genuine beauty through its barren landscapes and unpretentious environment.

Let’s delve into the writing. RDR is a sunset Western, situated in the dwindling days of Westward expansion. Marston is a man out of sync: a cowboy outlaw in a world bent on his destruction (and it will). Marston makes unwise choices. He tracks down his former associates under the orders of the US government, hoping they will honor their pledge to return his family and leave him be. He is mistaken. The violence he enacts rebounds on him and his family.

This tragic storyline is engaging, yet a limited portion of the game focuses on it. Much more time is dedicated to Marston mingling with rogues to locate his targets. These characters largely embody clichés. Nigel West Dickens is a conniving quack. Irish is simply a drunken Irishman. Agustin Allende represents a tyrannical ruler, and Landon Ricketts is a noble sheriff. Like Rockstar’s other expansive games, RDR’s narrative missions are largely isolated from the overarching gameplay. Most missions involve lengthy horseback conversations followed by potential conflicts. A significant portion of RDR’s duration consists of listening to absurd characters ramble on while Marston reacts, shrugs, or offers remarks.

In this aspect, the game’s representation of Mexico stands out as particularly questionable. The Mexican Revolution was one of the most intricate conflicts of its era, encompassing numerous factions. RDR simplifies this to two sides: an oppressive regime and a revolutionary force headed by the charlatan Abraham Reyes, driven solely by personal ambition. Marston aids both factions to further his own agenda, thus placing himself above the turmoil entirely. He grimaces while assisting the dictator in obliterating a village and shakes his head as the rebels celebrate their triumph. The game’s cynicism isn’t genuinely grim but rather superficial.

Partly, RDR’s political insights feel underdeveloped because of Marston himself. He embodies some of the United States’ most troubling vices—a mercenary intended to eliminate political dissidents and petty criminals—and also serves as a victim, compelled to labor for a government unwilling to dirty its own hands. This creates a significant tension that RDR does not fully explore. Marston’s struggle parallels that of indigenous peoples within the game. Both have lost their homelands. Yet Marston personifies the type of white frontiersman who displaced so many native populations. Due to the game’s satirical perspective and Marston’s superior, detached demeanor, it fails to leverage that tension for dramatic effect.

The game even undermines its most poignant moments. As Marston crosses into Mexico, a unique song by José González plays. I still vividly remember experiencing this moment for the first time. Dawn cast light over the digital desert. Blood-red soil and sky appeared in an unbroken strip. However, this significant moment is preceded by Irish’s drunken antics. While the magnificence of RDR’s universe enhances the needle drop impact, it lacks a proper buildup or resolution.

Nevertheless, the clear divide between RDR’s narrative delivery and its expansive world serves as both a strength and a flaw. This is not a typical Ubisoft checklist affair. RDR’s side tasks, especially minigames like poker and liar’s dice, operate on their own terms. You can’t conquer outposts to expand your territory or win a tournament to become the most esteemed poker player in the West. Instead, there is space for you at the table if you choose to engage, but the dealer will proceed regardless. RDR’s random incidents can seem grandiose. Marston consistently arrives just in time to thwart a robbery or rescue a damsel from miscreants. However, Marston can also be duped. Highwaymen might attempt to steal his horse or bandits might ambush him from behind rocks. These systems work cohesively to create a world that feels distinct from the player. The sun rises and sets. Familiar figures drink at the local tavern each night. Marston navigates through them.

RDR’s simulation of nature contributes to this sense of separation, with elements functioning autonomously. The game includes detailed hunting and foraging mechanics. Whether or not you partake, animals scatter along the roadside, herds of buffalo and cattle graze in the meadows, and an unexpected bear encounter can quickly ruin your day. While this leads to some absurd game moments—predators might attack without provocation—there is also a wildness that enriches its quieter scenes.

Much of that wildness stems from the game’s stunning visuals. Each biome possesses a unique identity. It offers breathtaking landscapes, inspired by real-world sites like Monument Valley, while also showcasing the mundane: a worn dirt path, a chicken coop at dusk, playing horseshoes in the backyard. Rockstar’s dedication to intricate backgrounds can seem ridiculous, but it distinctly contributes to making its games feel exceptional. RDR is notably tranquil. There are no incessant radios or honking horns. Just the desert. RDR can manifest as meditative, even monotonous, in ways that few games do.

The conclusion is where the finest aspects of RDR’s animated and subdued elements converge. After completing his mission, Marston returns to his farm and family. His wife Abigail and son Jack are not mere stereotypes. Both harbor intricate emotions towards the man who has been absent from their lives. The game takes its time to unravel these familial threads. Meanwhile, Marston toils like…

An average individual. He performs household tasks. During the final hours of the game, there is an overwhelming sensation of simply existing within the world.

The ultimate, brutal disruption of Marston’s tranquil existence is even more poignant due to the duration it takes to arrive. The intensity of Red Dead Redemption’s concluding visuals clarifies its tremendous acclaim. Marston assuring his family that he will seek them out as he anticipates his demise. Taking a deep breath before confronting the agents sent to eliminate him. Blood seeping from his mouth as he struggles to rise. There is ample reckless violence in RDR, but this moment feels profoundly pointless. It’s the quietness, the significant buildup that leads to this point, which heightens its impact. It illustrates the game’s underlying themes, highlighting that a white settler serves as the ultimate, symbolic victim of U.S. state brutality. Nevertheless, this in no way diminishes the haunting presence of death that RDR evokes at its finale.

But here’s the crux: One of RDR’s key inspirations is Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian. Simultaneously beautiful, grim, and absurd, the novel chronicles a group of men as they kill for profit along the border of Mexico and the U.S., loosely based on the actual Glanton gang. Blood Meridian reads like ash and gunpowder etched onto the page. Much of RDR’s impact is drawn from it, causing the game to feel somewhat derivative. Moreover, it achieves emotional depths that RDR struggles to convey in a fraction of the time. Yet, what those others cannot provide is RDR’s aesthetic personification. The spontaneous dawn of a clear desert night, a coyote’s call, a distant campfire as you venture into the shadows.

For additional insights on Red Dead Redemption’s 15th anniversary, explore its spaghetti western cinematic influences.

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