25 Facts You DIDN'T Know About Red Dead Redemption
25 Facts You Didn’t Know About Red Dead Redemption
Welcome to MojoPlays and we’re saddling up and setting out to uncover the mysteries of the West and stake our claim on the behind-the-scenes facts we didn’t know about the creation of Rockstar’s original western opus.
Not the First Red Dead
While everyone is familiar with “Red Dead Redemption” and its sequel/prequel, many don’t realize Redemption wasn’t the first Red Dead title. “Red Dead Revolver”, under development at Capcom, was more action focused than the later games but still maintained many of the elements that fans have come to associate with the Red Dead series, in particular duels and the now iconic “Dead Eye” mechanic. Although the game lacked the open world the series is known for today, players could still explore western towns and interact with NPCs and it was notable for ensuring a level of authenticity rarely seen in cowboy games of the time. Capcom eventually canceled the game and Rockstar, through their acquisition of Angel Studios, gained the IP and released “Red Dead Revolver”.
S.W.A.T.
Like many games, “Red Dead Revolver” went through several changes during development, but the tone and aesthetic of the series was almost completely different. So different in fact, Rockstar might have passed on picking up the original concept from Capcom. While “Red Dead Revolver” ended up being a bit of a lighthearted adventure compared to what it would become, the original concept was far more outlandish. Originally pitched as “S.W.A.T.” or “Spaghetti Western Action Title”, the game featured an eclectic cast of characters from all over the world, and “Panzer Dragoon” style on-rails gameplay. Naturally the game tested terribly and was eventually reworked closer to the “Red Dead Revolver" that eventually released in 2004.
Blindman Ringo
Before the western setting was decided on for “Red Dead Revolver”, “S.W.A.T.” was originally intended to let players play on a four player SWAT team completing missions, which was quite similar to Rockstar’s previous game “Hired Guns”. Whether this was coincidence remains unknown, but the idea was scrapped after one of Capcom’s executives watched, of all things, “Blindman”, a 1971 western starring Ringo Starr. Somehow out of all the incredible westerns over the years, the one starring a Beatle was the inspiration for the series we all know and love today. Thankfully future entries were inspired by much better westerns, but we have Ringo Starr to thank for the entire Red Dead gaming series.
Lengthy Development
These days long development times have become the norm, but at the time, “Red Dead Redemption” had the longest development cycle in Rockstar’s catalog. While during the PS2 era Rockstar had an especially proficient development cycle, turning out three “Grand Theft Auto” games, “Bully” and many others, “Red Dead Redemption’s” development time ended up taking a whopping five years to complete given the scale and detail of the open world. Rockstar had long become accustomed to designing city infrastructures but given the endlessly open landscape of the wild west, the devs worked meticulously to make what easily could have been a boring expanse of desert consistently engaging. The team eventually grew from 180 developers to over 1000 with multiple Rockstar studios contributing to the final product.
A True Work of Western Fiction
Not only did “Red Dead Redemption” have an extremely long development time for the studio, but nearly every aspect of the game’s development ended up being a massive undertaking. Lead writer Dan Houser and his team spent over two years perfecting the script and delicately balancing the tone between Rockstar’s usual crass sense of humor alongside the more mature narrative they were trying to tell. In the end the script for “Red Dead Redemption” ended up being over 1500 pages long with the number of lines of spoken dialogue far outpacing anything Rockstar had done up to that point. This would then be further eclipsed by the game’s follow-up “Red Dead Redemption 2” whose script was over 2000 pages long with half a million lines of spoken dialogue.
Dead on Arrival
The “Red Dead Redemption” series might be one of the best-selling franchises of all time alongside Rockstar’s own “Grand Theft Auto” series, but at the time, it was predicted to be the developer’s first major flop. Given the scope and scale of the project alongside the lack of brand recognition, few believed that “Red Dead Redemption” would ever be able to recoup its production costs, let alone turn a profit. In the end, “Red Dead Redemption” not only proved to be a critical success, achieving the highest of accolades from everyone in the industry, but also managed to sell an impressive five million copies in its first three weeks.
Horse Mo-Cap
By the time production began to ramp up on “Red Dead Redemption", Rockstar had long been an industry leader when it came to using motion capture for their actor’s performances, but “Red Dead Redemption” offered a new challenge: horses. Rather than attempt to recreate a horse’s movements, the team once again wanted to be as authentic as possible and hired a stunt horse and rider to capture as many movements as possible. The stunt horse Blanco was fitted with a special suit that allowed the devs to more accurately track his movements, resulting in some of the most realistic horses in the medium, even by today’s standards.
Cowboy With No Name
John Marston is now one of gaming’s most iconic protagonists and Rob Wiethoff’s voice is synonymous with the character. But early on, the devs wanted to keep the character as authentically as the films that inspired the game, so naturally they first approached “The Man with No Name” who inspired John Marston’s character, Clint Eastwood for the role. However, despite this pitch perfect casting, Eastwood ultimately passed on the role and Rockstar then approached Robert Duvall, Robert Redford and even Bill Paxton. Bill Paxton was interested but scheduling conflicts prevented him from taking the part.
One And Done
These days it's hard to imagine anyone but Rob Wiethoff’s gruff voice bringing John to life, and oddly enough it’s the only real video game performance he ever did. Despite becoming an instant icon with his performance of John Marston, Rob basically walked away from video games and returned to a normal life until “Red Dead Redemption 2”. Rob even joked that the only reason he got the role to begin with was he sounded like Bill Paxton, who Rockstar initially wanted for the role after Eastwood and the others turned it down. Rob Wiethoff is undeniably John Marston, his voice, his movements, everything, and Rob even rode off into the sunset for a normal life after “Red Dead Redemption’s” release, something in-game John was never able to have.
The Waiting West
Rockstar has always pushed the boundaries of what was thought possible for video games, but even they needed to wait for technology to catch up to the ambitions for “Red Dead Redemption”. After acquiring the IP after the release of “Red Dead Revolver”, Rockstar had to wait for the seventh generation of consoles to truly begin production on “Red Dead Redemption” in earnest, alongside finishing work on the equally ambitious “Grand Theft Auto IV”. The massive open world and various landscapes, alongside the highly detailed character models and environments wouldn’t have been possible on anything less than the PS3 and Xbox 360.
A Double Meaning
Many fans naturally assume that the “Redemption” part of the game’s title refers to John’s attempts to redeem himself for his past actions with the Van Der Linde Gang and from a narrative standpoint, this is true. However, for the devs, the “Redemption” took on an additional meaning. The many devs at Rockstar were extremely passionate about this new IP and after the middling reception to “Red Dead Revolver”, viewed their spiritual successor as a “Redemption” for the “Red Dead” series, a way to fully realize the limitless possibilities for a western themed video game. We’d say they more than succeeded.
Film Inspirations
Unlike “Red Dead Revolver” the teams at Rockstar took inspiration for their western epic from more high profile and critically acclaimed westerns. Naturally Sergio Leone’s “Man with No Name” trilogy was a main source of inspiration but there were also numerous other westerns the team pulled from to authentically recreate the wild west. One of the team’s favorites was “The Wild Bunch” for its atmosphere, but also “High Plains Drifter”, “Unforgiven” and even more modern titles such as “The Proposition”. “There Will Be Blood” even gets an in-game reference in the oil drilling region in Plainview and even the man sitting outside the clerk’s office resembling Daniel Day-Lewis from the film.
Strange Encounters
By the time of “Red Dead Redemption’s” release, Rockstar had perfected their open world sandbox gameplay structure. However, the rather rigid mission structure of the “Grand Theft Auto” series didn’t fit within the vast open world of “Red Dead Redemption”. Rather than try to force their tried-and-true formula into a world it wouldn’t fit, the team instead developed the Stranger missions. These encounters allowed Rockstar to offer additional missions for players while also organically implementing into the game’s world, allowing players to come across these events naturally during their exploration of the world rather than being led from one mission to another.
Historical Accuracy
Rockstar is renowned for their attention to detail and while this has been true in all their “Grand Theft Auto” games, “Red Dead Redemption" was on another level. Not only did the teams develop period-accurate locations and attire, but they even went to the library of congress, documenting hundreds if not thousands of records to make sure every recreation was brought to life in realistic detail. This also translated to the many firearms within the game. Although they naturally don’t carry their real-life monikers, Rockstar accurately recreated nearly forty different firearms with near one to one accuracy. This is even more impressive given the hardware limitations compared to the sequel “Red Dead Redemption 2”.
An Appropriate Score
Just as much as Rockstar’s open world games are synonymous with the sandbox formula, the game’s soundtracks are just as iconic. The radio stations and the different music stations perfectly recreate their respective eras and authentically bring their cities and worlds to life. However, given the time-period of “Red Dead Redemption”, licensed music wasn’t exactly an option, making “Red Dead Redemption” one of the first Rockstar games to focus almost entirely on an original soundtrack. Musicians Bill Elm and Woody Jackson collaborated on over 200 original tracks over the course of 15 months, naturally taking inspiration mainly from the “Man with No Name” trilogy to bring the isolation of “Red Dead Redemption” to life.
Older Than The West
Rockstar has quite a diverse library of protagonists ranging in age from teens all the way to middle aged, but until the release of “Grand Theft Auto V”, John Marston was Rockstar’s oldest protagonist. At 38 years young, John Marston set out on his quest to track down the members of his former gang, with all the numerous bodily harm he endures likely wearing him down even more than we realized given his age. Interestingly, in the promotional trailers and footage shown before the game’s release, John is noticeably younger, meaning Rockstar intentionally aged John up for the final game. John would remain the oldest protagonist until Michael in “Grand Theft Auto V” clocking in at the ripe old age of roughly 45 years old.
Seldom Swears
Rockstar scripts are often known for their vulgarity just as much as their parodies of modern culture, but with “Red Dead Redemption” Dan Houser and his writing team struggled with authentically recreating the dialogue and speech of the time but managed to find their groove with strategically placed swear words. However, even despite the near constant use of every vulgarity known to man in the “Grand Theft Auto” series, “Red Dead Redemption” is still incredibly tame with John only uttering the F-word three times during the main story and the mature rating coming mostly from the mature themes and violence in the game rather than the usual string of expletives.
Bigfoot Extinction
A long running rumor within the Rockstar fan community was that Bigfoot roamed the woods of “Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas” with fans even posting supposed pictures of the cryptid online only furthering speculation. Rockstar denied these claims and although no data within the game even suggested Bigfoot existed in the game files, that didn’t stop fans from endlessly searching for the creature. Naturally, Rockstar played into this speculation and included Bigfoot much to fans’ delight in the DLC “Undead Nightmare” in which players end up hunting the Bigfoot species to extinction, meaning if “Grand Theft Auto” and “Red Dead Redemption” take place in the same universe, Bigfoot could never inhabit the woods of San Andreas. Even if “Undead Nightmare” isn’t considered canon, Rockstar still included an unlockable achievement for successfully completing the hunt called “Six Years in the Making”.
One Last Ride
The wild west of “Red Dead Redemption” is filled with memorable characters, but few left the impression the way aging gunslinger Landon Ricketts did. As one of the last true gunslingers of the old days, Ricketts crotchety demeanor endeared him to both fans and John himself. Just as Landon Ricketts made a name for himself in the west, so too did the actor bringing the character to life. Ross Hagen got his start in films and televisions playing characters in westerns so his casting as the old man clinging to the old ways of the west made perfect sense. Unfortunately, Hagen rode off into the sunset one last time almost a year before “Red Dead Redemption’s” release, making the game his final acting credit in a filmography that spanned decades.
Hybrid Humans
“Red Dead Redemption” was one of Rockstar’s most ambitious projects and due to the sheer scale of the world and the technical wizardry holding it all together, the game would often run into issues during the game’s tumultuous development which often led to several chaotic bugs and glitches. One of the most famous involved the game confusing the scripting for the human characters with the ones for animals and creating things like the now infamous “Donkey Lady” among many others. Although Rockstar was likely horrified by these unforeseen glitches, fans found them hilarious and only added to the mysterious wild west’s many charms.
No PC Port
Due to “Red Dead Redemption’s” troubled development, Dan Houser reportedly had to reach out to former producer and technical wizard Leslie Benzies to bring the project together and ready for release. Benzies had left Rockstar before development on “Red Dead Redemption” began under tumultuous circumstances but when the project became stalled in an unplayable state, which according to some was nothing more than a jumbled mess of code barely being held together before Benzies returned to save the game. Due to the condition of the game’s code and the poor reception to the recent “Grand Theft Auto IV” PC port, Rockstar decided instead of releasing another buggy mess, to just forgo a PC port of the game at all.
Red Dead Remastered
For over a decade, “Red Dead Redemption” was locked on the Xbox 360 and PS3, only playable through backwards compatibility on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S but finally in 2023, Rockstar finally released a remastered version of their western epic, but fans almost had a remaster much earlier. Rockstar had initially planned to remaster “Red Dead Redemption” a couple years prior but due to the poor response to “GTA: The Definitive Edition”, those plans were shelved and thought abandoned. Thankfully the remaster of “Red Dead Redemption” was much more successful, even if the price was a bit steep for a remaster. “Red Dead Redemption” also finally made its way to PC for the first time in 2024.
A Fateful Meeting
As players we learn surprisingly little about John’s life with the Van Der Linde Gang before the events of the game and are only told we need to hunt down the gang’s former members including leader Dutch Van Der Linde to reunite with our family. After systematically tracking Dutch down towards the game’s end, upon seeing John Dutch remarks “We gotta stop meeting like this” alluding to the fact this likely wasn’t the first time the two had squared up like this. It wouldn’t be until eight years later fans would understand what Dutch meant as at the end of Red Dead Redemption 2, John confronts Micah on a mountaintop and has his gun trained on Dutch before ultimately letting him go. A brilliant piece of writing that took almost a decade to pay off.
Dead Localization
Video game localization has come a long way over the years, but somehow even in the year 2010, “Red Dead Redemption” made a bizarre localization blunder that is just as confusing as it is strange. For whatever reason, despite the game’s incredible popularity and its obscene budget, somehow South Korea never received a localized version of the game. This meant that anyone in South Korea wanting to play Rockstar’s epic western were almost completely out of luck. No Korean dub, not even the subtitles were changed. As some sort of consolation, Rockstar instead provided a manual translating the game, which further begs the question, if the manual existed, why couldn’t at least the subtitles be updated? Thankfully the remastered version finally included full translations and dubbing.
The Strange Man
One of the most enigmatic and mysterious strangers John meets on his travels is known simply as “The Strange Man” who seems to know an awful lot about John and his past. Ultimately the Strange Man routinely sends John on quests to test his morality before finally leaving John just outside his home ironically on the hill where John ends up being buried. After years of speculation with fans debating the Strange Man as everything from Death himself to the Devil, during an interview writer Dan Houser finally revealed the Strange Man’s true origins. Sort of. Rather than being some evil entity, the Strange Man is instead meant to represent the manifestation of John’s Karma and the decisions he makes during these missions judging his character.
What was your favorite unknown fact about “Red Dead Redemption’s” wild development? Share your tidbits of knowledge in the comments.
