Awesome / Red Dead Redemption 2

Moments pages are Spoilers Off. You Have Been Warned.

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Pre-Release

Pre-Release

• The level of detail is absolutely mindboggling if the previews are to be believed. For example, during rainfall, footprints your horse (and presumably Morgan as well) leave on the ground will be filled with rainwater, turning them into puddles.
• (At least) the first three trailers consist mostly of actual gameplay recorded from unusual angles; not cutscenes. For example, it's possible to miss Hosea's story about his first meeting with Dutch, unless the player actually is nearby.
• The September previews that ended the news-drought. To name a few things, Arthur's weight can be altered by eating, you can hijack trains, NPCs remember your actions... There's way too much information to add a full list here.

Post-release

All Game

• The soundtrack.
• Seeing the gang at their prime is a sight to behold. Think that Javier and Bill are Dirty Cowards because they spend most of the last game running from John? No, that's not the case. Those two are perfectly competent gunmen and can pull their weights in a fight. Javier won't hesitate to chase after a speeding train full of guards. Bill is perfectly capable of fighting by Arthur's side against overwhelming odds. These two are no cowards, John is just that good in comparison.
  • This extends to any moment that the gang has to pew-pew their way out of an ambush, which will happen quite often because its leading mastermind is a man whose best idea of a long-term plan never lasts for more than a single chapter. They may be poor strategists nursing a horrifically Wrong Genre Savvy mentality, but for a while at least, they compensate with group camaraderie and an almost supernatural talent for gunplay.
• A lot of the mission challenges (Get X headshots, 80% accuracy, no damage for example) has the implication that if, like Assassin's Creed that the challenges are canon, then Arthur Morgan is one of the most dangerous badasses in the Old West as well as John Marston.
• Pretty much every time the group rides together, they get to show how much of a Badass Crew they are, taking on forces much more numerous than them and still winning.
• If you get arrested, the gang will occasionally break you out. Even better, their way of releasing you early may not even involve violence or property damage. For example, Hosea may come to the police station with several bottles of booze, and either bribes or tricks the guards to let you out.
  • Or Dutch will come over acting like the kindly uncle picking up his wayward nephew, complete with you promising the guards that you’ll rethink your life and act better.
  • If you get arrested in the epilogue it's possible that Abigail will barge in, demand that the guard hang you right then and there, and then knocks the guard out by pistol whipping him after he responds that that's not quite how they do things.
• Uncle calls out Dutch to his face for being a hypocritical Control Freak. [1]
• One shout-out must go to one camp interaction: Micah starts antagonizing Charles by sneering, "Hey redskin, go get me something to eat!" Charles, usually stoic, dares him to repeat it again, and Micah does repeat it...only for Charles to flat-out grab him and toss him into the mud before pointing at it and growling, "Eat that!"
  • Similarly, Micah starts hassling Javier by telling him to "fuck off back to Meh-HEE-co". Javier, who calmly stands up and approaches Micah, immediately socks him and gives a chilling Bond One-Liner: "Why don’t you fuck off back to hell?"
• One camp interaction shows that, while Hosea is the voice of reason for the gang, he is not one to be trifled with when he puts a drunken Bill in his place.
  Bill: So what's wrong with you, you old fool?
  Hosea: Go sleep it off, you drunken buffoon.
  Bill: (Trying to sound threatening) Excuse me?
  Hosea: (Getting up and pointing a gun at Bill) I've excused you quite enough! Go sleep it off, you drunk, is that clear!?
  Bill: (Backing away) Okay!...Okay.
• Becoming really good at the game can be awesome to watch. Seeing Arthur or John jump into cover and defeat a wave of men in less than a minute, especially without using deadeye. Though deadeye is awesome too, especially if you manage to target a few in one use and watch them go down in slow motion.

Chapter I - Colter

• Dutch may be an awful human being and quite possibly worse leader but his immediate reaction to finding one of the O'Driscoll's victims is to comfort her as well as take her back to his camp. It's a reminder that for all of his flaws, the potential to be a hero was there.
• John Marston manages to survive a wolf pack in a freezing snowstorm until he's rescued by Arthur and Javier. This despite the fact they got his horse, badly scarred his face, and it's been two days. It shows that he's already a dedicated Action Survivor.
  • When Arthur begins carrying him, a very familiar whistle can be heard from the soundtrack as if to say "Our boy is back."
• Even when the gang is at its weakest, they can launch an attack on an O'Driscoll base and slaughter a whole bunch of them. This is partially to show Dutch's recklessness and antipathy toward them but also a sign that they're still a bunch of badasses.
• The gang manages to launch an attack on an armored train with a small private army in order to rob Leviticus Cornwall, one of the richest men in the world. The fact they're able to blow their way into the private car of the man is just icing on the cake.

Chapter II - Horseshoe Overlook

• In Exit Pursued by a Bruised Ego, Arthur survives facing off against the meanest grizzly bear in the game, and can potentially continue to hunt after and kill it immediately afterwards.
• During the events of Americans at Rest, a shout-out must be given to a random bystander when he intervenes to stop Arthur from beating a man to death in the middle of town. Think about it. He’s just a random townsfolk who likely never had a day’s experience of fighting in his entire life, yet the minute he sees a clearly violent and angry man savagely punching his victim, he decides to put his own life at risk and jump in to save the victim. Even better, you know who that random bystander is? Mr. Downes, aka the man dying of tuberculosis. He is literally on his last legs succumbing to the disease, yet still intervenes in the fight that he has no chance of winning even without the sickness killing him.
• In Valentine, Uncle of all people may end up killing an O'Driscoll about to attack Arthur.
• The Six Point Cabin ambush launched by Arthur, John and Bill against their O'Driscoll gang nemesis in Paying a Social Call is probably a routine affair, especially regarding the two gangs' mutual history. The three of them outgunning up to two dozen armed men in situ is just as routine - they are three of Dutch's best gunmen for a reason. But having Kieran intervene to save Arthur from a surprise attack by killing his ambusher is what validates this entry, which earns him Arthur's gratitude and a chance at integrating himself into Dutch's gang.
• Sean's rescue from Fort Riggs during the First Shall be Last, which begins with reconnaissance on the outskirts of Blackwater, deep in the heart of the portion of West Elizabeth where the whole gang is licenced by law to be shot and killed on sight following their botched Blackwater Ferry heist. It's one of the earliest available missions in the chapter, and it ranks up closely with some endgame missions as one of the most memorable in the game.
• In Pouring Forth Oil I-IV, Arthur meets up with Sean who's shooting at some bottles and talking trash to Arthur daring him to take his best shot. In the blink of an eye Arthur pulls out his pistol and shoots and breaks a bottle showing the vast difference in aim and experience between the two before then telling Sean to grow up.
  • The mission strand itself is inspired by John's idea to place a loaded cauldron of oil in the middle of the rail tracks in order to force the oncoming train to halt. A simple enough idea whose originality impresses Arthur enough to offer John the following back-handed compliment:
    Arthur: Y'know Marston, you might be the only feller who got half their brain eaten by wolves and ended up more intelligent! [..] Next time, have them eat all of your brains, then you'll be a genius!
• The Sheep and the Goats marks the first in a trend of missions often escalating in an ambush situation out of which the Dutch Boys have to fight to survive and/or avoid capture. A vengeful Cornwall announces himself outside the saloon Arthur and Dutch are drinking in before it's revealed that he's captured Strauss and John and posted gunmen all over Valentine in retaliation for the Chapter One train robbery, from which point a massive firefight ensues after Dutch puts on a act to distract the gunmen holding the other two men hostage.
• An American Pastoral Scene - despite it featuring an obviously posturing Micah - begins by following a trail which overlooks the breathtaking scenery of northern Big Valley, before the action kicks in when the stagecoach Micah has been staking out emerges and the duo give chase in order to hijack it. Naturally, with the stage's route being sourced from an O'Driscoll, the two are then in turn ambushed by a large group of their outlaw rivals by a shallow river crossing. In the ensuing firefight, Arthur and Micah singlehandedly litter the crossing with the corpses of twenty to thirty men!

Chapter III - Clemens Point

• Further Questions of Female Suffrage mostly serves as a proper introductory platform for one of Dutch's newest gang recruits, and is one of the first available missions once the gang settles into their new hideout. It's (on paper, at least) a fairly mundane groceries shopping excursion in the local town. With Sadie, at her insistence. On the way back, she will have changed into one of her most iconic outfits (an ochre-yellow shirt with suspenders and dark brown trouser bottoms) when she and Arthur are intercepted by the regional bad boys, the 'Lemoyne Raiders.' The rest is history.
• Advertising, The New American Art. Not the plan itself (or almost anything else that Dutch and Hosea orchestrate during this chapter), but the fact that once Catherine Braithwaite tips off the Raiders to ambush the Greys' hotel while Hosea and Arthur were still giving away their stolen moonshine, Dutch's men demonstrate once more their ability to simply brute-force their way out of a bad situation against superior numbers using their incredible marksmanship.
• In an Honest Mistake, Uncle of all people manages to come up with a solid lead on a payroll being transported by wagon. It being Uncle, the whole thing goes south and quick: the payroll in question being owned by Leviticus Cornwall and his personal paid security soon give chase. Arthur, Uncle, Bill, and Charles hole up in an old barn on a (seemingly) deserted farmstead to lie low. After nightfall, the agency men find the outlaws and a gigantic firefight ensues, as the Van Der Linde boys not only hold off the Cornwall agents, they do so while the barn is on fire. The entire sequence and the party's escape is one gigantic moment of awesome.
• The Valentine Bank heist during the mission Sodom? Back to Gomorrah, which is conceived, organised and spearheaded (with some help from Karen and Lenny) by none other than Bill Williamson! Even when taking Trelawny's Chapter Four Riverboat stint into consideration, this is by far the most successful robbery accomplished by Dutch's gang (with the main participants earning upwards of $2K each) at least until they rob the Army train in Chapter Six's penultimate mission, and it only required three carefully handpicked accomplices in Karen, Lenny, and of course Arthur.
• In Blessed are the Peacemakers, Arthur is captured by the O'Driscoll. Shot, tortured, and beaten nearly to death, Arthur not only manages to free himself from his bonds, not only cauterizes and seals his wound with a heated file, buckshot, and a candle, but he kills his would-be torturer, gets his gear, and escapes on horseback. All while nearly half dead. Arthur Morgan is tougher than old leather.
  • This mission provides yet another example of Arthur recovering from an ambush using his resourcefulness, tenacity, and fighting ability.
• The rinse-and-repeat pattern of Dutch's Boys walking into an ambush only to turn the tables on their assailants continues in A Short Walk in a Pretty Town, although not without suffering their first casualty since the Blackwater debacle.
• After Jack gets kidnapped in Blood Feuds, Ancient and Modern, the whole gang rides out to save him, storming the manor and stronghold of the Braithwaites, a local Southern clan that does not lack men or guns at all. In the ensuing fight, they kill nearly 40 men together. Truly a family of outlaws.
  • Special mention to the standoff leading up to the fight. Dutch demands Jack's return, and the Braithwaites come out of the woodworks, with one of them (Bartholomew) telling Dutch in no uncertain terms to fuck off.
    Dutch: If you ain't gonna be civilized about this... (Headshots two goons)
  • They receive another visit from the Pinkertons after returning to camp, this time demanding for Dutch's unconditional surrender in exchange for the rest of the gang walking free. In a show of loyalty to their leader, every person with a gun unholsters and cocks it in response, with some even pointing theirs at the agents - including Kieran! The agents promise to return with reinforcements as they're forced to retreat.

Chapter IV - Saint Denis

• Taking up residence in Shady Belle is actually one of these. Arthur and Lenny wiped out a local gang, one formed of former soldiers, and confiscated their headquarters as their own.
• Jack's reunion with the gang in Angelo Bronte, A Man of Honour is aptly treated with much jubilant fanfare and merriment for an entire evening.
• No, No and Thrice, No has Susan Grimshaw set on a warpath to return Tilly Jackson from the Foreman brothers after the former learns of their part in Tilly's abduction.
• Horsemen, Apocalypses sees Dutch's gang successfully stave off an aggressive ambush attack on their new home base, this time from the O'Driscolls. Of note, Sadie Adler abandons all notion of self preservation and at one point brutally eviscerates three armed men to death, one after the other almost simultaneously with her hunting knife, all the while unleashing a shrieking warcry that makes her sound more like a banshee than a human being. It's highly probable for her to end the mission with her clothes completely drenched in her victims' blood, and she won't change out of them for at least the rest of the day.
• In Saint Denis, there are two main 'jobs' the gang tasks themselves with before their plans to attack the City Bank are finalised. One is Dutch's trolley station robbery taken on Bronte's advice (Urban Pleasures), and the other is Trelawny's Ocean's Eleven-style riverboat shakedown (A Fine Night of Debauchery). Care to guess which was worth going for?
  • Riverboat Summary: Trelawny's mission begins with Arthur being outfitted for a tailor-made suit and hairdressing makeover in order to better impersonate the upstart oil company mogul his cover story has him pretend to be while aboard. Trelawny also collaborates with his connection of 'discouraged men' employed on the boat to feed him and Strauss with the information Arthur needs to rig a poker game to their advantage, and once having fleeced his mark, Arthur would calmly cash his chips and collect any other prized belongings won over during the game under the escortage of Javier disguised as boat security. They oh-so-nearly walk out undetected, but even after the brief skirmish that they endure, they manage to escape the boat and safely swim to shore, each of them now at least seven hundred dollars richer!
    • Some noteworthy details include Arthur (who normally loathes playacting) gleefully settling into his role, especially apparent on the way back from retrieving the mark's valued pocketwatch with Javier masquerading as a staff bodyguard. Another occurs once their cover has been exposed, and Strauss has to knock out an armed enemy using a wine bottle to defend Javier's blind flank during the skirmish.
  • Trolley Station Summary: Dutch, Arthur and Lenny managing to recover against a city-wide police ambush after Bronte sets them up into the trap is exhilarating to watch and participate in as the protagonist, with the trio hijacking a tram to use as a getaway vehicle, before crashing into a busy intersection and fighting their way through the ensuing chaos which culminates with Arthur blowing up a blockade by improvising an aerial bomb by pin-point targeting a thrown dynamite stick with a newly-upgraded deadeye skill. Although the train station mission may have been complete wash, it's a small miracle that it didn't also result in the deaths or detention of the three men. It might be the most expensive fifteen dollars (and twenty five cents!) Arthur has ever earned in his life.
• Feeding Smug Snake Bronte to the alligators after his attempt to bribe the gang fails. He is completely unable to comprehend a gang made of True Companions that view Jack as a son.
• The beginning of Chapter Four's final mission has almost every gunhand in the gang ride into the city to a slow heavy percussive soundtrack which emphasises the gravity of its importance and risk. It's just too bad that everything goes to shit shortly thereafter, but in that moment (in spite of the foregone outcome leading into the first game's canon) we're teased with the possibility that they may just about pull it off.
  • Actually, Banking, the Old American Art is an Awesome Moment... for the Pinkerton Detective Agency, who not only make true on their Chapter Three promise to pursue Dutch's gang with everything they have, but also successfully pre-empt the gang's plan of robbing the bank while dismissing the distraction set up by Hosea and Abigail for the ruse it was meant to be. In essence, this mission not only highlights how much of a threat the Pinkertons present once they surround the bank with what seems like an endless supply of manpower (enough at least that it forces Dutch and his gang to abandon most of their take and retreat into hiding at the cost of two major casualties), but also in terms of how they'd planned their ambush around what they knew was the biggest target Dutch would aim for. Everything about the way they thwarted Dutch and Hosea's bank heist suggests that they have been compiling a detailed profile of the gang's behaviour to the point that they no longer need to chase after the gang when they can accurately predict Dutch's next several moves ahead of himself... although in truth Dutch wasn't really making much effort to keep a low profile to begin with, and only becomes much sloppier from this point onwards.

Chapter V - Guarma

• Hercule Fontaine's introduction in Welcome to the New World, as well as Guarma itself.
• A Kind and Benevolent Despot displays both some of the best and worst of Dutch's personality attributes in a mission which eventually leads to Javier's rescue from Fussar's men in Aguasdulces, before the trio makes a hasty retreat back into the wilderness past surrounding sugarcane plantations, all done under a hail of bullets from pursuing reinforcements. Mission highlights include Dutch's improvisational creation of a powder bomb utilising the settlement's central sugar press factory, as a diversionary tactic that enables them to retrieve Javier.
• During the final mission strand on Guarma (Hell Hath No Fury / Paradise, Mercifully Departed), when the St.Denis segment of the gang are stranded on the island and looking for a way back to the US, they participate in a full military battle, repelling seemingly countless waves of soldiers that storm the beaches near the old fort on which they're stationed alongside the local rebels, and with whom they co-operate. The mission culminates with Arthur and Hercule using a cannon to sink an off-shore battleship, before they rescue the captain and eventually eliminate Alberto Fussar by cannon-blasting him in the turret stronghold he had positioned himself on top of a disused watchtower.
• We never get to see it, but the reason Dutch, Arthur and the crew that attempted to rob the St.Denis National Bank still have a gang to come back to on their return from Guarma is because Sadie and Charles had worked hard to relocate them all from Shady Belle to their new hideout in Lakay, which presumably means that before the main caravan could make its way over, someone had to sweep through the location's eerie compound in order to rid it of its original denizens, whom are implied to have been the Nite Folk responsible for terrorising the region's swampland. In other words, these two characters took over the stronghold of what amounts to Bayou NWA's living nightmares to ensure the gang's preservation!
• Highlights from Dear Uncle Tacitus / Fleeting Joy:
  • Getting back from Guarma and riding to Shady Belle to the sound of "Unshaken". One of the most memorable moments from the entire game.
  • Fleeting Joy, whose eponymous soundtrack is a blaringly frenetic piece that plays as the Pinkertons make good on their promise and launch a no-holds-barred assault on Dutch's gang in Lakay, with the acclaimed Colin Stetson as lead saxophonist. A truly cinematic experience.
    • The mission it plays in is equally as awesome. Just after Arthur finally reunites with the gang after their trip to Guarma, the Pinkertons storm their new hideout and attempt to finish them off for good. Arthur, almost completely enraged, takes on an army of Pinkertons alongside Sadie and Bill before eventually sending them running with their own Maxim Gun!
• In Icarus and Friends, Sadie comes up with the ingenious plan of scouting the island prison of Sisika via hot air balloon in order to confirm John's incarceration there, before they can break him out. You get to fly the balloon and the view of the surrounding countryside is absolutely stunning.
  • Most often this mission is what follows shortly after stark revelations are made in ''A Fork in the Road'', and even ''That's Murfree Country'' (if the player begins with the latter before heading back into Saint Denis, thereby initiating the mission in chapter six), and is comparatively light-hearted, offering some respite from what would eventually develop into the story's bleakest chapter. The balloon pilot's personality provides comic relief, and the mission culminates in a chase-and-shoot scene between Sadie and the O'Driscolls, with Arthur providing aerial cover-fire. It's every bit as outlandish as it sounds.

Chapter VI - Beaver Hollow

• Late in chapter 6, the gang has caused so much trouble they're in conflict with the US Army. They're so badass they maul an entire regiment.
• Visiting Hours has Arthur assist Sadie in successfully breaking John out of Sisika Island's maximum security penitentiary cell.
• Colm O'Driscoll's hanging in the sarcastically-titled Goodbye, Dear Friend.
  • The look in his eyes of desperation as he realizes his escape plan has gone into deep shit thanks to the gang's fast thinking is nothing more than satisfying. Once the cutscene of him getting hanged is done, do the world a favor and shoot him in the genitals for all of his rape crimes too.
• Favored Sons. Not the mission itself, or the 'plan' leading to it - both are complete shitshows. But the ONLY noteworthy moment it has for this page is the speech Dutch makes as stalling tactic once he and Arthur are cornered against a cliff edge overlooking a river. It's a tidy retroactive callback which almost completely parallels Dutch's death scene in the first game.
  • On second thought, the mission itself probably counts metaphorically, since it serves as a portentous precursor towards what would eventually become Dutch's modus operandi in the first game, where he has become a cave-dwelling terrorist whose (continued) exploitation of the Natives in his personal war against the encroaching civilisation is an excuse to justify his sense of anarchy.
• Charles and Arthur's two-man siege of Fort Wallace in a bid to rescue Eagle Flies during the King's Son. En route, Arthur confides in Charles about his deteriorating physical condition to TB and the latter responds with an offering of consolation and moral advice, which not only reinforces the bond the two men share throughout this chapter, but also torques Arthur (particularly on a high-honour playthrough) to make a significant push towards being a better person in the time he has remaining while simultaneously coming to terms with his mortality. This interaction underscores Arthur's personal motivation to 'earn' his redemption by helping Charles and the Wapiti in any way he can. Doubles as a heartwarming moment.
  • The incursion begins with stealth and guerrilla tactics, with either man taking turns to silently eliminate lookouts from the high ground under cover of darkness, before creating a firelamp explosion in the fort's central camp to create a diversion that allows them to free Eagle Flies from his holding cell and kill most of the remaining soldiers in the confusion, after which they blast their way out through the main exit and continue their escape downriver by canoe - all the while fending off army reinforcements chasing along the banks.
  • This extends to any other mission which has them pairing to great effect. Other examples include their raid and take-over of Beaver Hollow from the Murfree clan in That's Murfree Country, as well as the rescue and extraction of Cpt.Monroe from the clutches of Col.Favours and his corrupt regiment in the Fine Art of Conversation.
• My Last Boy, where you assault an oil field with an army of natives is pretty epic. A handful of Wapiti braves, Charles, Sadie, and Arthur at the point of a V-formation riding to rescue Eagle Flies from the US Army.
  • In the same mission Eagle Flies saving Arthur's life by single-handedly killing three army soldiers with little effort, only to take a bullet from Col. Favours. Arthur then returns the favor by finally slaughtering that evil bastard; his death is arguably one of the most satisfying in the whole game.
  • This mission superficially plays into Dutch's claim that it was "all part of [his] plan" for the natives to keep the army busy so they could raid the office for state bonds worth thousands, although how much his part in the fray counts as an 'awesome moment' is debatable enough to be a YMMV issue regarding the implication that said plan exploits the indignation of the already exhausted and compromised young Wapiti tribesmen whom it's made clear could not afford to take on the army by then, and that Dutch may or may not have been willing to abandon Arthur to be killed by the army (which leads to the death of Eagle Flies) in a move which dramatically underscores how anyone incorporated into his 'plans' is an expendable accessory to serve his own chaotic ends. Ultimately, siccing the Army with the Wapiti on each other doesn't work as the gang's activities never go unnoticed and Pinkerton reinforcements eventually besiege Beaver Hollow anyway.
• Mrs.Sadie Adler, Widow Pts.I&II lays the final death knell on the last remnants of the O'Driscolls as Sadie avenges her husband's death and the destruction of her civilian livelihood in bloody fashion. A significant highlight during the siege of Hanging Dog ranch is the evidence Arthur finds of all the bodies belonging to the men Sadie had killed in the house sheltering the target of her personal vendetta. The mission is underscored in tragedy since Sadie's transformation into a bloodthirsty outlaw is rightly never glorified and ultimately she finds no peace in vengeance, although that in itself doesn't diminish from the lengths to which she goes to make her perpetrators answer for their transgressions against her. As broken as she may have been by her homestead's fateful encounter with the O'Driscolls, her tenacious refusal to see herself as a helpless victim is one of the aspects of her personality which has earned her much fan adoration.
• Our Best Selves can be summarised with a single sentence: Dutch's gang successfully rob the US national army.

Main Story Denouement

Highlights from ''Red Dead Redemption'':

• After Sadie gets captured, Arthur decides to confront Mr. Milton alone. He then takes on all of the Pinkertons and manages to kill them all, all while dying from a progressive disease. The guy really was fighting to the last breath.
• Abigail saving Arthur by putting a bullet in Agent Milton and finally ending him.
  • Abigail is awesome even when she isn't killing Agent Milton. For most of the game, she spends her time at camp, caring for Jack and tending to the other camp chores. The main exception is the Saint Denis bank heist, where she and Hosea create the distraction so the other men can sneak into the bank. Then, at the very end of the game, not only does she remind Arthur that she’s a damn good thief, she proves it by telling Arthur that she seems to be the only one who knows that Dutch has hidden the gang’s money in the caves, and then she steals the key without anyone knowing.
• The confrontation between Arthur and the entire gang before the final battle. Without any fear, Arthur calls out everyone in the gang for their treachery, including Dutch, and exposes Micah as a traitor. Even though it doesn’t work, after all the crap Arthur’s been put through, it’s cathartic to see him unload on everyone. At the very least, it was impressive enough for Miss Grimshaw to join his side, before her sudden death.
  • It’s a quick moment, but when Micah starts to pull out his gun, Arthur draws his out in an instant! What makes this even better is that Arthur can do this with any of his sidearms, so he can literally pull out a sawed-off shotgun faster than Micah can pull out a revolver. For a second, even Micah must have been terrified.
• Arthur's last stand with Micah, all in the middle of the night. Having saved John and given him a chance to live a better life, Arthur will make one last hopeless fight with Micah. We know Arthur won't survive. He's too weak due to his disease and injuries, but yet, we're still trying our damn best to at least take Micah with us for being a manipulative rat. Unfortunately, it doesn't work and Arthur is either executed (low honor) or gets to live to watch the sunrise one last time before succumbing (high honor), all to the fantastic theme track reprise of "Unshaken", which is here called "Crash of Worlds".
  • What makes this even more awesome is that Arthur puts up a hell of a fight, despite the fact that his TB has almost killed him. Yes, he gives Micah the mother of all brawls while dying from a crippling disease. Also consider one of the things Arthur is shown doing early on, beating Tommy, a man twice his size who literally threw him out a window, almost to death, bashing his face to a pulp and it's implied he gave Tommy brain damage. It's abundantly clear that if Arthur had been at his best, he would have folded Micah faster than Superman on laundry day.
  • The song that plays during this final battle (aptly titled "Red Dead Redemption" after the final mission of Chapter 6) is simply fantastic as well. Beware of spoilers in the comments.
  • Double the awesome is Arthur's taunts and insults to Micah during the fight.
    Arthur: "...Can't even kill a dying man."/"In the end, Micah... despite my best efforts to the contrary... it turns out I've won... Goddamn you."
  • Even better, if Arthur chose to go for the money in High Honor mode, the knife fight will end with him aiming for Micah's left eye and slashing it out, rendering him nearly blind and unable to attack him in a frenzy (as he would have if Arthur was at Low Honor), and biting Micah in the hand and punching him in the face before getting stopped by Dutch. Though Micah getting nearly blinded by the knife attack doesn't stop him from taking the money from Arthur and getting away, it does, however, make Arthur's payback bit all the more satisfying.
  • Some points do have to go to Micah, especially the above one. As Arthur stabbing him in the friggin' eye with a knife, which has lasting damage and blinds him from one eye, only seems to piss Micah off and he only stops when Arthur bites his hand and punches him in the face. Even then Micah almost immediately gets up when Dutch arrives. And the knife injury has no change to the final fight with him, as he can still outspeed deadeye even when blinded from one eye. Call him what you want, but what a badass.
  • The true Moment of Awesome in this final battle, and also in this game? Usually outlaws meet their violent, horrifying, and bloody end (Sean, Kieran, Hosea, Lenny, Molly, Susan), but with the Honor system, a high-honor Arthur with TB shows that sometimes not all outlaws die violent, terrible deaths, meaning that at least he doesn't have to suffer their vicious and cruel fate in the end. Quite a rare feat for an outlaw-turned-good guy.
  • Special mention goes to the buildup to the knife fight if you choose to go for the money.
    Arthur: (Voice utterly dripping with anger ) "Dutch.... Micah.... Come and get me you bastards."

Epilogue - Pts. I & II

• The mission Jim Milton Rides, Again? gets an extra special mention for one reason: once the shooting starts, the music launches into an extremely triumphant sounding remix of of the Red Dead Redemption Main Theme from the first game. Notable because the game teases the theme throughout its runtime, culminating in a version that begins blasting every single instrument in the soundtrack. Very fitting since John decides he's out of retirement just as abruptly.
  • One thing that makes this part even more awesome for fans of the first game? The moment where John shoots the Laramie gang member after he threatens to go after his family is a direct recreation of the first game.
  • Another awesome thing is that up until this point, you've been mostly playing as Arthur, who can mow through dozens of men in a single mission, while John is a side character who often needs rescuing and is overshadowed by the likes of Sadie and Charles. Here? John uses his experience as a bandit to quickly mobilize the retaliatory strike against the Laramie, while his coworkers can only gawk in awe at the speed and skill in which he takes the gang down. John may not have been the best fighter in the Van der Linde gang, but amongst civilians, he might as well be Superman.
• An understated one at the beginning of Motherhood, in the form of a telegram:
  Jim STOP If you're the JM I know STOP It's Sadie Adler STOP I've got something to discuss STOP Pay good STOP Meet me in saloon in Valentine STOP I'm there most days
  • Subsequent missions featuring her naturally give way to a wealth of content to place here, from the point when she's physically introduced while disciplining a rowdy pair of ordinary joes foolish enough to harass her for their sport in Gainful Employment; teaming up with John in order to intercept and retrieve a hijacked bounty from a crooked rival in the game's only mission to take place in New Austin during an Honest Day's Labors, or the stakeout marathon spanning across three states in a Quick Favor for an Old Friend which sees the duo track and capture a notorious bounty twice, with the second retrieval involving shootouts with the Del Lobo trying to stop them. A more subdued example is provided towards the end of A Really Big Bastard, with Sadie making her best effort during their final (legal) bounty mission with each other to dissuade John from pursuing Micah out of concern for the Marstons, which shows how much importance she places in what they've built as a family.
• Bare Knuckle Friendships has John reuniting with Charles after Uncle locates his whereabouts in Saint Denis. More specifically, we learn that Charles had been reduced to throwing rigged fights in the city slums in order to make a living, although once he resolves to leave town with John and Uncle, we're treated to what he can really do with his bare hands when he decides against holding back on an opponent of equal size. The challenging boxer is physically overwhelmed by a flurry of blistering haymakers within half a minute.
• Props to Uncle (particularly in Home Improvement for Beginners and A New Jerusalem) for managing to get John to do something about Beecher's Hope instead of just constantly complaining about his family leaving. We finally find out why the Marstons keep him around; the farm would not exist without him.
  • Watching John, Charles, and Uncle (who's supervising due to his terminal lumbago) build John's house and ranch in the epilogue gets really satisfying when you realize that through menial labor and humble dedication, they managed to build a grand home that could have housed at least half the gang, when they had previously been living in tents, abandoned houses, and dank caves for most of the game. If that is not a profound statement against all of Dutch's high and mighty plans about Tahiti and making big money through crime, nothing is.
• The Marstons' reunion in front of their new homestead in the Best of Women, followed by John's marriage proposal to Abigail over Flat Iron lake in A New Future Imagined may not be packing much in the way of action, but as underscores to the evolution of John's Character Development into the man most players of the precedent game are familiar with, these are arguably more important to who he is than anything he could do with a gun. It's such a tragic shame Hosea never survived long enough to see the man he believed John truly was become a reality.
• In the last of the story missions, John, Charles, and Sadie fight their way up a snowy mountain seeking revenge with ''American Venom'' playing in the background, facing resistance from an outlaw gang all the way up. Knowing the predecessor, you get a sense of foreboding regarding the later two, and sure enough, the later two get gravely wounded on the way at separate point, leaving John to face Micah alone. Both Charles and Sadie end up getting back in the mix at crucial moments, and not only that, but they make it back down and make it out of the story alive.
  John: IT'S JOHN MARSTON, MICAH!
  • The short cutscene where John, Sadie, and Charles are racing over to Mt. Hagen to bring Micah to justice is like something out of a cinematic movie.
  • Even better: The game forces you to wear Arthur's hat during this mission^note though it's likely to be shot or knocked off at some point; in fact, one cutscene mandates that it will. Dress John up in one of Arthur's outfits, and it's almost like Arthur coming back from the dead to avenge his death.
  • When Sadie gets stabbed and John has to go it alone, he shortly comes to the bottom of an incline, with Joe and two other outlaws above him. It's three against one. But John isn't scared.
    Joe: Look who it is...ain't you got a habit of just showin' up.
    John: Where I got something to take care of, sure.
    Joe: Just you left, is it?
    John: Yeah...just me. I was kinda hoping I could kill you!
    Joe: Likewise...
    • Cue the player cutting all three down before they can get a shot off, "American Venom" kicks into high gear, and the asskicking truly begins.
  • When finally confronted by John atop mount Hagen, Micah, being the piece of shit he is, tries to get under John's skin. It flat out doesn't work.
    Micah: How's that... whore of yours?
    John: (Casually) She's good. Didn't reckon I should waste my time killing ya... but I felt different.
    Micah: So it seems. Well, maybe after all this is over... I'll go pay her a call... and the boy.
    John: (Unimpressed) Whatever you say.
  • A villainous nod is owed to Micah here. yes, THAT rat fucking bastard Micah. Though he proves himself throughout the story as an irredeemably spiteful, psychopathic, perfidious and nihilistic reptile of a person, he's also such an avowed Blood Knight who fully commits to his self centred might-makes-right brand of outlaw philosophy, combining an almost uncanny talent for close-quarters gunmanship with his 'knack' for Combat Pragmatism to the point that he becomes one of the very few characters in the entire game who can directly counter the protagonist's deadeye. He also has a surprisingly dignified reaction to his imminent death, which naturally only comes after he feigns concession by congratulating his aggressors for getting the drop on him before taking advantage of the resulting momentary distraction to retaliate - and in failing to do so, he simply staggers off, giving an almost comical Kanye West-like shrug before collapsing lifelessly into the snow.
    • It's also a testament to his perceptiveness and conniving that Micah was able to decipher and exploit Dutch's personality flaws and ideological oversights even before the main story begins, to the extent that it takes Dutch YEARS before he fully accepts that he had been soundly manipulated into trusting a remorseless sociopath he'd barely known for a few months over the men he had practically raised as his surrogate sons. There's widespread rationalisation amongst the playerbase that Micah represents through his actions a more accurate (and far less self-deluded, compared with Dutch) historic representation of the way most wild west outlaws probably operated, presenting him as a more 'realistic' contrast to Dutch's attempt (and notable failure) to romanticise the outlaw image.

Strangers and Sidequests

• No Good Deed focuses on Arthur finding Alphonse Renaud, a black doctor whose wagon was stolen by some racist thugs. After he explains to Arthur what happened to him, Arthur empathizes with him and agrees to go find his wagon without any prompting from the player.
• In the mission The Wisdom of the Elders, Arthur (or John) gets involved with the people of a small settlement called Butcher's Creek. The town is plagued by a mysterious curse—the citizens are violent and paranoid, and demons have been attacking their houses at night. Town elder Obediah explains that a shaman has been offering them advice about the curse, but a suspicious Arthur soon notices that things aren't adding up—the "demons" are just feral dogs, and the shaman seems to be coming up with new, nonsensical terms of the curse whenever things start to improve. Arthur eventually discovers that the supposed hex is actually the result of poisoned water in the nearby mines, and even survives the shaman trying to blow the place up with him inside. But the truly awesome moment comes when Arthur returns and discovers all of the townspeople gathered around the shaman, who has promised to lift the curse if everyone will just sign some papers. But then Obediah does something that no one expected: he reads the document and reveals that the entire situation has been a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax staged by a corporation called the Roanoke Fuel Company. They inadvertently released massive deposits of arsenic and lead into Butcher Creek's water supply while mining, but rather than admit their mistake, they tried to trick the denizens of Butcher's Creek into selling their land and releasing them from all liability. It seems that the dirty businessmen who run the RFC figured that the citizens would be too stupid to figure out what was going on—but Obediah's literacy has singlehandedly saved his people and their homes. Talk about Underestimating Badassery. Granted, the moment is unfortunately undercut by the townspeople deciding that the mining company is just another manifestation of the curse, but at least they'll know not to drink the poisoned water and can hopefully recover to a degree.
  • Arthur's revenge on the crooked shaman is also awesome. When the fake claims that there's nothing wrong with the water, our hero forces a vial down his throat—after all, since it's not dangerous, it shouldn't be a problem, right? Caught in his lie, the shaman is forced to admit that the water is loaded with arsenic, a prime example of Laser-Guided Karma.
• Upon finding Mrs. Downes in Annesburg, Arthur offers his feeble apologies and explanations for what he did to her family, and she shuts him down.
  Arthur: This country is man unleashed, that's the thing, and it ain't my fault any more than is anyone else's-
  Edith Downes: Man unleashed!? Then unleash goodness! Not just hell's feeble brother, sir.
  • It goes much further: she makes it crystal clear that she doesn't forgive Arthur for murdering her husband and ruining both her and her son's lives. While she does suggest that he try to do the right thing with the time he has left, she does add that she's beyond really giving a damn about him.
  • For his part, Arthur readily acknowledges that he doesn't deserve their forgiveness, and at that point in the story is simply trying to mitigate for the suffering he's caused to the Downes - not because it will earn him any absolution, but simply because it's the right thing to do. In fact, it's a plot point that this mission's availability is dependent on Arthur's moral alignment, meaning that he has to have some semblance of moral aptitude before he can make amends for what he did to this family. His intervention does pay dividends as the endgame credits montage briefly displays how Edith and her son have since become successful entrepreneurs.
• Throughout her Willard's Rest mission strand beginning from Chapter Six, Charlotte Balfour eventually graduates from the hapless city-slicker Arthur finds to be out of her depth trying to live self-sufficiently in the wilderness into a seasoned hunter, bushcrafter and author by the time she's encountered for the final time as John, several years later.

Online

Online

• The missions in Red Dead Online compensate for the little story by having much more intense action during them.
  • We have a mission about robbing the Saint Denis bank! Complete with a shootout through the streets, a quick wagon chase and a grand finale of hopping on a moving train and escaping from the city guns blazing!
  • Also from the same update, we have an interesting Valentine defense mission against the Del Lobos, where you help the whole town fight off a massive invasion of Del Lobos wanting to save their leader, all culminating in a stand-off between you and your posse versus a war wagon.
• Let's just say that Rockstar has not held back with the clothing in the game. You want to be a legendary Badass Longcoat wearing cowboy? Go ahead. Want to ride a donkey while wearing a poncho, sombrero and a bandana? Go ahead. Wanna wear a nice suit and a top hat while toting two sawn-offs? Go ahead. The possibilities at this point are endless!
• As flawed as the character creator might be, the community still managed to make some pretty interesting characters. Shall you play online, you'll find a nice variety of creative characters, from old men and women, to young and ambitious cowboys, to Django Unchained look-alikes. Hell, some are even making their characters Native Americans!
• Griefers are an unfortunate problem in every online video game, but Red Dead Online players have reportedly been having a field day fighting them back with various different measures. Here's an insanely satisfying compilation.
• In Red Dead Online, you can pick up stew from certain spots on the map to eat. While holding stew, you cannot draw your weapons and neither you can run without dropping the bowl. A player saw this as a challenge rather than an obstacle and decided to walk from Valentine all the way to freaking Saint Denis while holding the bowl of stew in their hands, in the wild lands of Red Dead Online. Watch the whole journey here.
• The entire Red Ben Clempson Legendary Bounty is one giant CMOA, where you're tasked with taking down a veteran train robber right after he and his gang hijacked a train in New Austin. Starting from the very end of the train, you'll fight your way through it, killing bandit after bandit while taking cover behind what little objects there are to save your life, fighting off reinforcements coming in horses and just barely surviving on Moonshine and Health Cures. The bounty is quite possibly the hardest one of them all, but you're still completely capable of killing everyone onboard of the train, stopping it and then taking all three bounties including Red Ben Clempson himself alive back to the Sheriff.
  • Red Ben himself is a notable awesome character, being a legendary train robber who's dressed in an appropiate red suit and, when you capture him, he proves to be one of the most formal bounties out of all the legendary ones, saying that his arrest will be merely just another chapter in his book.
• Speaking of Legendary Bounties, the Owlhoot Family also certainly counts, especially if you're playing solo. Here we have a group of incredibly violent and immoral people who commit increasingly barbaric acts against people and animals, and you take all of them in by yourself (especially when you consider that only one of them has no backup.) Even taking all of them back dead is still awesome, as it makes it feel like your character is sending similarly sadistic outlaws a message.
• Hell, all of the Legendary Bounties count as this. To name a few, we have an arsonist holed up in a fort protected by a gang of dangerous, violent criminals, a former military sharpshooter surrounded by even more guys packing long-range rifles (keep in mind, a shot from any of them, including the bounty mark, will result in a One-Hit Kill,) and the widowed wife of a gang leader who is just as dangerous and violent as her deceased husband. Even the "meeker" targets, like Philip Carlier and Tobin Winfield, are still difficult to pull off as both bounty missions involve fighting off waves of incredibly vicious enemies. By the time you complete all of them, your character can very easily be considered the most chillingly efficient bounty hunter in the west, and for good reason.