History RedDeadRedemption2 / TropesAToL

** During the final mission of the game, a sniper shoots Charles in the shoulder. You can pretty easily see him and, if you're quick, take a shot with a sniper of your own - only it wont hurt him, even though the reticle will be red. You ''have'' to take him out the way the game tells you to, by playing redlight-greenlight between reloads until you get close enough that he becomes vulnerable.

** Dual-wielding sawed off shotguns with slug rounds. You'll reduce any man or beast to bloody chunks at close range due to the sheer stopping power of your pair of {{Hand Cannon}}s, but the rate of fire and reload speed is very low, the recoil is utterly insane and the accuracy beyond very close range is poor compared to more moderate sidearms.

* BearsAreBadNews: Both black and grizzly bears are present in the game. Black bears will usually run away from you, but grizzlies won't hesitate to charge you and are one of the most dangerous animals present. They are {{Lightning Bruiser}}s that can shake off multiple pistol/revolver shots. Fortunately, one rifle shot to the head will put it down for good.

** Sadie also gets herself nice and blood soaked [[spoiler: during her side mission where she and Arthur finish wiping out the O’Driscoll’s and she brutally stabs the one ItsPersonal with to death.]]

** [[spoiler:Kieran gets his eyeballs gouged out and head cut off, before the corpse is sent back to Dutch carrying its own head.]] And for the players who aren't used to gore, better grab your trash bins.

** Venturing into New Austin before the epilogue will result in an unseen sniper killing you. [[spoiler: Same with Guarma - venture too far into the red zone and if the hordes of guards won't kill you, the sniper will.]]

* BearsAreBadNews: Both black and grizzly bears are present in the game. Black bears will usually run away from you, but grizzlies won't hesitate to charge you and are one of the most dangerous animals present. They are {{Lightning Bruiser}}s that can shake off multiple rifle rounds.

** While you can go there at any point in the game, and at one point are required to for a Chapter 2 main story rescue mission, the endless waves of federal agents swarming all around Blackwater will prevent you from getting much accomplished. [[spoiler: Until the Epilogue, when you live as a local, unmolested by law enforcement by default.]]

** The half-black, half-Native American gang member Charles takes bison hunting very seriously. The beasts are a big part of his heritage, and he urges Arthur to respectfully shoot only one and claim every part of the animal for use. So when a pair of cowboys massacre an entire herd of them and just leaves the carcasses to rot, he confronts them and guns one of them down without batting an eye.
** Arthur doesn't take too kindly to being called [[PrettyBoy "pretty boy"]] and almost beats a guy to death for it in Chapter 2.

* BettingMiniGame: Several, including Poker, FiveFingerFillet, and Dominoes.

* BigBeautifulMan: Arthur can potentially become this if the player fattens him up by eating a lot of high calorie items. Unlike [[VideoGame/GrandTheftAutoSanAndreas C.J]]'s obesity which is PlayedForLaughs, Arthur is still undeniably a major {{Hunk}}. [[spoiler:Which makes it worse when he [[YourDaysAreNumbered contracts tuberculosis]] and gradually wastes away, as you'll be unable to eat enough to keep his weight up due to the disease.]]

* BlindSeer: The blind beggar random encounter. Giving him money results in him giving cryptic-but-accurate predictions of Arthur's [[spoiler:(and John's)]] futures.

** Fitting for the setting, one of the customizable clothing options are coats, ranging from waist length jackets to dusters and tailcoats. One of Arthur's default outfits (the "Gunslinger") features a slightly past-the-waist beige jacket.

** InUniverse: Bill at one point complains how any time he screws up, he gets chewed out while Arthur's fuckups are "One of them things" and he faces very little criticism. Being Dutch's first son clearly has ''some'' benefits.

** Owls in the game have non-zygodactyl feet and have wing flapping sound when flying.

** Nobody is sure just what route the big ships anchored at Saint Denis take to reach Cuba. They can't go east since there's a waterfall on the way, so the only other option is north, up Lannahassee river.

** The Guarma segment is an odd case. The 2016 map shows it was not a late addition, but appears to have been ''heavily'' castrated from what was originally planned. Unused coding suggests it was meant to act as a small second hub -- coding suggests you could return to it in the epilogue and turning off the snipers reveals the area is much larger than it seems, with an entire unseen second bay down an inaccessible path. The mansion seems to also have been plot-relevant. Rewrites turned the location into a linear, limiting, and temporary experience.

** One of the campfire songs present in the game is the real word "Ring Dang Doo", except the mention of "New Orleans" is replaced with "Ol' Bordeaux". "New Bordeaux" was the beta name for Saint Denis, the game's [[NoCommunitiesWereHarmed New Orleans stand-in]], before being changed in development.[[note]]This may have something to do with Uncle having 2 voice actors, one of whom died but his singing was kept in. If he died before the change was made, it makes sense why this oddity was kept[[/note]]

** Most likely due to technical limitations, but animals never climb nor perch on trees; this is specially odd with normally-arboreal creatures, like squirrels, who are always found scurrying on the ground.

** Unlike in the first game, Armadillo is almost completely deserted when the player visits it in the epilogue, with only a few sickly men and women, a local town crier, the Saloon owner and Herbert Moon occupying the place. The Del Lobos occasionally come in to terrorize the place, which results in the town's single sheriff [[ScrewThisImOuttaHere to get the hell out of dodge.]]

** Also once you get to Chapter 6, [[spoiler: Arthur's journal gets increasingly illegible due to his handwriting as his disease progresses. The entry about the DearJohnLetter he gets from Mary in particular is pretty much impossible to read unless you use the text function]].

** During one mission, the protagonist has to fight a wildcat in a pitch-black cave. The only apparent options are for the player to either have Arthur hold a lantern in one hand (which prevents him from using a rifle on the cougar, since those guns require two hands, and restricts him to weaker, one-handed guns), or standing in one specific spot where there's a lantern on the ground (and thus being a sitting target). Unless, of course, the player already went to the one location in the game where a [[HandsFreeHeadlamp Miner's Hat]] can be found lying around. The hat produces light by itself and allows the player to move around and wield a rifle while still being able to see what's going on. It makes the fight much easier, but absolutely nothing indicates where the hat is (or that it even exists), meaning the only ways to find it are by using a guide or just stumbling across it.

* GravityBarrier: Used in several areas on the edges of the map. Slopes less than what you've climbed to get to them suddenly send you sliding back down when you try to climb them.

* InstantDeathBullet: A headshot with most weapons on a human enemy will kill them instantly. This is also true for most animals, however, larger animals like bears and buffalo can shrug off single headshots from weaker weapons. Shooting a human with the Varmint Rifle can cause them to bleed out slowly until they eventually die.

* LittleUselessGun: The Varmint Rifle is a deliberate example. As a small calibre weapon, it's not much good for combat unless you're good at getting headshots. Shooting a person with it can result in a slow death as they bleed out. What it is useful for is for shooting small game in order to obtain perfect pelts and carcasses from animals that would be obliterated by larger guns, something Hosea notes that Arthur once did because he hunted rabbits using a shotgun.

** After recovering the items from the foreclosed home of an old man [[spoiler:who turns out to have been a former slave catcher]], you can kill him on the spot and actually ''gain'' honor.
** The Braithwaite stablehand and riverboat pit boss both refer to Javier as a "greaser" and are subsequently killed by Arthur. Though [[VideoGameCaringPotential if you wish]], you can subdue the stablehand with a lasso and steal the horses.

** In the first game, if you had John Marston fight wolves with only a knife, one thing he might shout was, "How do you think I got these scars!?" This game features an early mission where Arthur and Javier go searching for John who it turns out got attacked by wolves, and thus got his scars.

** Some the character's heights are wildly inconsistent. In the first game, Ross was much shorter than every other male character, but in the second, he's average height. Similarly, Uncle was about half a head shorter than John in the first, but appears to be the same height or perhaps even taller in two. John and Abigail's height difference has also changed from John towering over her to only being a few inches taller.

* AerithAndBob: There is a noticeable mix of common names (Arthur, John, Charles, Sean, Karen, Susan, etc.) as well as some rather old-fashioned ones that will seem unusual to modern players (Hosea, Micah, Josiah, Kieran,[[note]]which is still fairly popular on the British Isles[[/note]] etc.). However, given the game's time period, this is rather appropriate.

* BoomHeadshot: How [[spoiler:Andrew Milton]] dies.

* IWasQuiteTheLooker: Hosea. While him in the present is good looking for a guy his age, you can find a picture of his youngerself in Arthur's camp, with both Dutch and Arthur who are also in their younger days..And boy is he so goddamn ''fine''.

** Thaddeus Waxman, in place of UsefulNotes/TheodoreRoosevelt. Like TR, Waxman is noted to be a crusading reformer and expander of industry, a strong proponent of national defense, and a celebrated Navy veteran (having been a Colonel in the Rough Riders), who almost immediately eclipses his predecessor in public approval; the only difference is that he served as a Senator, not a Governor as Roosevelt had. This is also a {{Retcon}}, as Roosevelt had already been fleetingly mentioned as the President at the time of ''Red Dead Redemption'' [[note]]Unless he was elected in the 1908 election[[/note]].

** [[spoiler:The final mission of Chapter 6 allows the player to choose between covering John's escape or going back to the camp to retrieve the money. If you choose the latter, then Micah will be waiting for Arthur back at camp and will either stab Arthur to death (if your Honor is low) or leave him to die after his illness catches up with him (if your Honor is high). Either way, Micah gets away with the money.]]

* HistoryRepeats: A subtle one, but noteworthy nonetheless. [[spoiler: John gives his life so Jack can have a normal life in the first game, only for the boy to throw it all away years later in pursuit of vengeance. In this game, Arthur does the same so that John can leave his outlaw days behind, only for the latter to ruin it by attacking Micah's gang to avenge the former and putting himself back on the law's radar.]]

* HoistByHisOwnPetard: [[spoiler:Thomas Downes coughs on Arthur while the latter is beating him to recover a debt. There's even a particular moment where he coughs right in Arthur's face and Arthur wipes it in disgust. Downes' wife comes out and reveals that Downes is sick as he lies there coughing and struggling for breath. This is how Arthur caught TB. The music that plays in the ride back to camp clues the player into something major having just happened.]]

* EtherealChoir: [[spoiler:A reprise of "Unshaken" called "Crash of Worlds" plays in the background during Arthur's final moments leading up to his death; depending on what you do with his honor, it can be either angelic or sinister.]]

* LittleUselessGun: The Varmint Rifle is a deliberate example. As a small calibre weapon, it's not much good for combat. Shooting a person with it can result in a slow death as they bleed out. What it is useful for is for shooting small game in order to obtain perfect pelts and carcasses from animals that would be obliterated by larger guns, something Hosea notes that Arthur once did because he hunted rabbits using a shotgun.