My Only Major Immersion-Breaking Moment in Red Dead Redemption 2

According to my save file, I’ve experienced a little over a third of the content in Red Dead Redemption 2. That is a respectable chunk of content. The game has, in short, been everything I’ve wanted it to be. Every inch of land is beautiful, even the ugly areas where the mud is thick and the humidity is evident by the ceaseless buzzing and croaking of insects and frogs.

Red Dead Redemption 2 has certainly had its strange moments, from drunkenly mistaking everyone in a saloon for my friend to seeing strange lights at night, but none of those oddities ever felt out of place. Rockstar’s open world games have always been a little goofy in some ways. Whether you were hunting pigeons with machine guns in Grand Theft Auto’s Liberty City or tracking down Bigfoot in the first Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar is known to line their usually grim worlds with a bit of humor.

Appreciating that Red Dead Redemption 2 would likely have its intended silly moments and crawling out of the learning curve might be too hard for some players to do. I read that a lot of people dislike the game’s controls, pacing and character design. I feel sorry for them, that they weren’t willing to stick through the plodding beginning to learn the controls and get to the second chapter of the game where it opens up. Understanding what is the game’s “fault” and what is the player’s “fault” is also an issue for some.

I see people frequently cite the game’s confusing controls as being what broke their immersion. They went to climb onto their horse and ended up punching it because they pushed the wrong button. They blame the game’s controls, yet they were the ones pushing the wrong button. They say that was immersion breaking for them, but I say they broke their immersion by not paying attention. The controls are clearly displayed on screen whenever a button can be pushed to preform an action. Those players just could not be bothered to pay attention.

A little bit of attention and consideration goes a long way in Red Dead Redemption 2. By just paying attention to what’s around you, you’ll notice the landscape, which makes treasure hunting easier. You’ll be more aware of where to find animals, if you decide to attempt hunting challenges later in the game. You’ll be able to pull of quick and bloodless robberies if you know what buttons to push, and I’m not just talking about the buttons on the controllers. Human interactions yield results just as effectively as bullets do, and knowing when to antagonize, intimidate, defuse or give up on a heist can elevate the game’s social immersion to incredible levels.

Immersion Robbery

Even understanding and appreciating all the systems in the game, I experienced one scenario that seemed like a total oversight on Rockstar’s part.

As you play through the game, random encounters occur that typically give you the freedom to handle them as you will. In this case, I was riding back to my camp when a man in shackles and prisoner’s garb (the unmistakable black-and-white stripped jumpsuit) jumped out of the bushes and shouted at me to help him. Now, knowing my options, I could have helped him out of his shackles and he might thank me and run off, or I could just shoot him and be on my way.

Those are the obvious two options. But I came up with a third option.

I play Arthur Morgan as a good man who only knows how to make ends meet through questionable ways. He only gets caught up in bloody business when he’s dragged into it to save the life of someone who has saved his own.

I decided I wasn’t going to let this criminal go free. He was dumb enough to get caught and who knows how many people he killed in order to get free. The criminal ran right up to me, and by the time he was done jabbering about me helping him I punched him to the ground and already had my lasso out. Before he could protest I had him hogtied and hanging off the back of my horse.

I had the scenario all planned out in my head: I’d ride into Valentine with Felon Fred tied up on my horse. The townsfolk would say, “There’s Arthur again, being the best dang guy.” I’d ride right up to the sheriff’s office, throw Fred down into the mud and the sheriff and deputies would come out and shake my hand. I was going to be the hero of the day.

Instead, I found that I was the one going down into the mud, knees first, as a deputy put me in handcuffs and the sheriff pointed a rifle at my face.

What ended up happening was that as I rode into town with Felon Fred tied to my horse, the townsfolk reacted as if Fred was just another citizen of Valentine. They shouted that I was kidnapping a man and soon witnesses began running from me, while other, braver citizens drew their guns on me. By the time I made it to the sheriff’s office, the lawmen were already waiting in the street for me. I complied to their demands and allowed myself to be arrested.

That was the first time I was arrested in Red Dead Redemption 2.

The game’s system failed me. It failed to realize what I was doing was perfectly logical, sensible even. Returning the escaped criminal to the sheriff is one of the most iconic tropes in the Wild West genre. I found it baffling that in a game where possums are programmed to play possum, the developers failed to account for one of the simplest tasks that cowboys are known for.

This discovery was further frustrated a few hours later when I learned that collecting criminals was actually a legitimate way to earn cash in the game. Why it didn’t work for me, or account that players may logically make the decision to return the randomly encountered escaped criminals, I’ll never know.