10 Things CUT From Red Dead Redemption 2

10 Things Cut From Red Dead Redemption 2

Welcome to MojoPlays and the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 is the biggest and most detailed Rockstar has crafted so far, but that doesn’t mean there wasn’t still a lot of content left on the cutting room floor.

Missing Hunts

There is no shortage of creatures to hunt and collect during your exploration of the vanishing wild west in Red Dead 2, but originally there were plans to have quite a few more for players to encounter, even some that would be borderline on the cryptid side of the animal kingdom. From sharks during the Guarma chapter to even more legendary creatures such as a bobcat to a giant white rabbit and even a camel, files have been discovered of all these creatures that were cut at one point or another during development. One of the strangest cuts is legendary channel catfish as the fish itself is continuously referenced during the start of the “A Fisher of Fish” mission leading many players to continuously fish the waters for a mythical fish that doesn’t even exist. So that further begs the question, what exactly pulled Jeremy Gill under the water?

Princess Isabeau Katharina Zinsmeister

Another bizarre bit of cut content is the mysterious disappearance of Princess Isabeau Katharina Zinsmeister as her missing poster can still be found within the game in the town of Van Horn, while the Princess herself is nowhere to be found within the game. Long before this was discovered to be cut content, thousands of players scoured the game world searching for this girl who went missing 15 years ago, with some even checking in game NPCs for an older version of the young girl but to no avail. Dataminers eventually found that an adult Princess Isabeau model does indeed exist within the game, as well as animations for returning her to the sheriff's office, but for whatever reason, this side mission was cut, and her character is locked from the base game itself.

Guarma Camp

Compared to the rest of the game, Guarma feels surprisingly linear and feels out of place given the rest of the game’s open-ended nature and exploration. However, at some point during development, the scale of Guarma was severely cut back as within the game files, dataminers found not only cut side missions and cinematics but also mechanics to set up camp on the island. The island of Guarma was initially designed to be fully explorable, full of stranger missions, unique hunts, outfits and treasures and even at one point a volcano. Given the complex and ambitious scope of the base game, Guarma was likely scaled back to focus on main areas of the game, but had these elements in the full game, Guarma likely would have been more positively received by players.

Eliza

Within the base game, Mary Linton is Arthur’s former love and the only real glimpse we get into Arthur’s love life, but that wasn’t originally the case. Arthur mentions later in the game that he had a son who unfortunately lost his life along with the boy’s mother Eliza during a robbery, but according to some unearthed files, Eliza was planned to be part of the Van Der Linde gang from the beginning. Within these files, players have found that Arthur’s infant son Isaac sadly froze to death in the opening chapter, with even infant rags and audio of the couple grieving in the files. Eliza would have had her own missions during Arthur’s portion of the game and even a special one during the game’s epilogue but considering what an emotionally draining experience the game is already, it’s probably for the best it didn’t start with an infant’s death.

Minigames

Red Dead Redemption 2 is already overflowing with extra content for players to entertain themselves but there were plans to have even more extracurricular activities to lose even more hours in the game. While in the base game there is already blackjack, dominos, poker and five finger filet amongst others, there were just as many left out of the game. Liar’s Dice which was playable in Red Dead 1 would have made a return alongside craps, roulette, three card monte and even horseshoes were playable at one point before being cut. There were even plans for chess to be playable and even an archery minigame, but whether due to time constraints or the overabundance of game mechanics, none of these made the cut.

Clawson’s Rest

During your exploration of Ambarino, you might’ve stumbled across a dilapidated shack in which you can find the bodies of two young children who unfortunately starved to death awaiting their mother’s return after chasing after some bandits who stole what little money they had. Although tragic, it seems there were originally plans for Arthur to find and rescue the children before it was too late. Files indicate that Arthur would have found the children and returned them to the sheriff’s station in Valentine although their mother would still never be found. Considering this is one of the darkest environmental details in the game, and the already bleak and brutal nature of the world, it would have been nice to give those poor children a happier ending.

Daily Lives

Red Dead Redemption 2 already has some of the most realistic NPCs in all of gaming, with the number of possible interactions seeming to be almost limitless. But at one point, they were planned to be even more advanced and realistic than they already ended up being. Files indicate that many of the shopkeepers and various other tradesmen and women were going to have normal lives outside of their jobs. While you can already witness these NPCs' normal day-to-day lives, opening the shops and working till the sun goes down, they were supposed to have lives outside of their jobs. Files indicate that players would be able to follow these NPCs to bars and other nightlife activities, even dressing up or down for the night and relaxing after a hard day's work. Odds are this was too ambitious for the time but will likely make a return in GTA6.

Blackmarket Horses

There are 19 different breeds of horses in Red Dead Redemption 2 and finding and collecting all of them originally would have been made much easier by less than noble means. Plans were originally in place for the game to make use of a black-market system in order to buy, trade and even steal different horses, bring them to a fence and receive forged papers so that the horse was no longer labeled as “stolen” leaving you free to stable the horse or even resell it to another buyer who would make varying offers depending on the condition of the horse and how many previous owners it had. There were also numerous additional breeds of horse that didn’t make the cut in the final game such as the Quarter Horse.

Industry 2 Mission

Creatures, characters and locations weren’t the only things cut from Red Dead Redemption 2, as entire story missions were also abandoned. One such mission simply known as "Industry 2” within the game files would have taken place before the mission “Banking, The Old American Art” and would have seen Arthur, Abigail, Hosea, and Micah testing the response time of the local law enforcement by setting off an explosion nearby. However, after Arthur saves a witness before the blast goes off, the group is caught in a gunfight and must flee on a train with the train eventually crashing leading Arthur and Micah to bail out before being caught in the devastation. It’s unknown why this mission was cut as models for the crashed train still exist within the game files.

Mexico

New Austin might be locked off for Arthur in the main game, but some uncovered lines of dialogue indicate this wasn’t always the plan, as well as another iconic location seemingly originally planned for the already ambitious prequel. Dataminers found that almost the entirety of Mexico from the original Red Dead Redemption is already in the game, with many of the buildings and iconic locations still intact and even some recovered lines of dialogue referencing Nuevo Paraiso. Red Dead 2’s Mexico even has its own ambiance theme already designed leading to many modders working diligently to rebuild these lost textures and elements back into the game. Considering the size and scale of the base game, it’s almost impossible to think that Mexico could have also been fully explorable with its own missions and unique encounters.

What content are you most disappointed didn’t make it into the final game? Share your picks in the comments.