Life in the Wild West, with endless mysteries, curiosities, and much to discover, is what the fascinating land of Red Dead Redemption offers us, where our dream of being outlaw cowboys became a reality, a game that continues to amaze with its meticulously crafted details and captivating story.
And like good cowboys searching for gold, we’re here to uncover 10 secrets hidden in the landscapes of the West. So, put on your hats and sharpen your sense of adventure, cowboy legends, because we’re going to talk about the 10 secrets of Red Dead Redemption 2 that you may not have known. Yeeeehawww!!!!
10 Animals Play Dead
Survival of the fittest is a detail that Rockstar couldn’t leave out of Red Dead Redemption 2, and something unexpected is seeing how animals behave according to their own nature. The animations of each species are in line with their own instincts, such as bears fishing for salmon, wolf packs hunting bears, and foxes jumping in the snow. What truly surprises is that if we hunt small animals, some of them will pretend to be dead as a survival tactic.
But when it comes to us players, being stalked by a larger animal like a bear, it’s possible to apply the same method, and maybe it’ll work… or maybe not…
9 Agnes Dowd and her Tragedy
The Bluewater Marsh is haunted by the ghost of Agnes Dowd, and on 16 occasions, we can encounter her, always between 9 p.m. and 3 a.m., where, wandering in anguish through the marsh, she tells us the tragic story that led to her death. However, she reveals her story without chronological order, but don’t worry cowboy, I’ll tell you:
Agnes was having an affair with a married man, her family disapproved of their love, so they met under a tree, the only one without foliage in that small area where she appears, to prove their love to each other. Agnes became pregnant, and because of this, she constantly begged her lover to leave his wife and start a family with her. This man refused to leave his wife, thus ending his relationship with Agnes.
Having children out of wedlock was a sin, and something highly rejected by society, therefore, Agnes no longer had a future or possibilities of a life without humiliations. Agnes’s family was wealthy, but her lover was of a lower class. And although there was an obvious advantage in starting a family with Agnes, her family would prevent it at all costs.
As her belly grew, Agnes suffered from unrequited love, and begged her lover to return to her, that she forgave him. Time passed, and she gave birth to a child who resembled her lover, and one night when she escaped from her home to meet her lover, she confessed that she had abandoned the child and everything she had to be with him.
Agnes’s father lost control upon seeing her capable of abandoning the child and becoming obsessed with a man who didn’t love her. He took his shotgun and went to find the lover at his home, where he found Agnes as well. But her determined father threatened to kill him, and a fight ensued. Agnes panicked and, trying to calm her father down, saw him shoot her lover.
Agnes lost her sanity, and it is presumed that she took the gun and ended her father’s life, then she suffered a very serious mental breakdown in which, going to the swamp where she met her lover, she decided to end her existence.
8 Desiree Laflamme, Queen of the Rapids
For an era when television didn’t exist, entertainment was extremely scarce, and gossip was the order of the day. Any circus act, or any crazy person who performed impossible feats, would attract everyone’s attention, and one of those acts that left more than one person surprised can be seen advertised in Emerald Station.
A poster of a woman and a barrel that says: “Desiree Laflamme, the fearless woman over the Donner Falls. The world-famous Desiree Laflamme risking her life and limbs by plunging over the Donner Falls in a barrel.” An act that draws a lot of attention, but, unfortunately, if we head to the Ambarino waterfall, we can find the result of this fatal act on the shore.
7 Moira Calthorpe’s Death
When we complete a bounty hunting mission where we capture Benedict Allbright in Valentine, we’ll be surprised to find the Sheriff in a very intimate situation with a woman named Moira Calthorpe. They were having a romantic moment in the sheriff’s office, and we interrupt it as soon as we enter to collect the bounty.
The thing is, Moira is a married woman, just like the sheriff, and they’re having an affair. And after capturing Ellie Anne, she threatens to tell people about Moira, but apparently some people in town already know, including Moira’s husband.
If we catch the sheriff, and take his belongings, we can find a letter from Moira where she exposes her intentions to leave him, as that romance is undermining her Christianity and her morality, and for which she feels extremely guilty.
Later on, if we go upstairs in the sheriff’s office, we can hear an argument between Moira and the sheriff, where again she wishes to leave him, and after insulting him, we can hear choking sounds and assume that the sheriff, who is supposed to be a man of the law, murdered Moira Calthorpe.
6 The Ghost of St. Denis
Ghost stories abound in towns and of course Red Dead Redemption is no exception. But what if we live the story ourselves? Visiting a cemetery at night can be extremely terrifying, and that’s exactly what is proposed in Angelo Bronte’s mission, where we must search for grave robbers.
But once we venture into the cemetery of St. Denis, we can see a silhouette of a woman not far from us, who the second we start walking, she will start running away. This ghost appears in various places and we can see her as we walk around and every time we try to approach she will run away and disappear.
The appearance of this ghost is inspired by Sylvia Ganush from the movie Drag Me to Hell. There are audios and cinematics of her in the game files that were deleted for the final version.
5 Miss Aberdeen’s Remorse
By now everyone must be familiar with the story of the Aberdeen farm and the brothers who inhabit it. Incestuous brothers who enjoy lowering people’s health bars, a practice they did with their own parents, as they didn’t allow them to do… you know… the shameless stuff… and for obvious reasons.
But something extremely curious is that if we go to the Aberdeen ranch and leave the woman alive, we can take her to the pit where they threw their victims, and if we leave her lying there, we’ll see how she slowly descends into madness and begins to beg her dead mother for forgiveness.
4 Shameful Secrets
The NPC routines in RDR2 are so well done that you could follow an NPC and it will seem like they really have a purpose for existing. From actions like eating where as time passes the amount of food on the plate decreases, to the nighttime routines of some NPCs.
And it’s precisely at night when we can spy on the nighttime routines of some families in Valentine. If we wait well into the night, we can spy through the windows and discover a secret, maybe two, of those who live in that home.
3 Death by Lightning
It’s highly unlikely that lightning could strike us in real life, and something we’d never imagine is that they included the possibility of being struck by lightning in Red Dead Redemption 2.
If we head north of Elisyan Pool, right in a circle of trees and burned earth, during an electric storm, many lightning bolts will appear and there is a high probability that one of those lightning bolts will end your health bar.
2 Gang Graves
One of the most emotional things we can do is roam the map and we’ll find each and every one of the graves of the members of the gang who have died throughout the game, and remember every adventure we lived with them that made us see them as more than just outlaws: as friends, and with whom we explored the wild west making us feel like true cowboys.
1 Arthur Morgan’s Grave
But undoubtedly the secret or detail that excites us the most is visiting the tomb of that cowboy we accompanied in this great adventure at the end of the game, and realizing that his grave is facing west, facing the sunset.
We can remember a conversation that Arthur had with Hosea and Lenny in one of the campsites where he mentions that if he died, he wanted to be buried facing west so he could remember all the adventures they had together in that direction. Realizing that in the end, his wish to look west was respected is something that shakes our heart, because now Arthur, in the afterlife, rides alongside all his friends towards the sunset, and although he didn’t want to be a legend, he ended up becoming something even greater.
A fascinating game
Despite the years that have passed since its release, Red Dead Redemption 2 has so many details, so many secrets, mysteries, stories, that to this day it remains a game that is talked about a lot. And it’s because Rockstar took care of every detail so much that you can feel that the wild west they created is truly alive, that it has its own autonomy, which makes you feel even more immersed in Arthur’s story.
It’s no secret what this game means to many, even Jack Black made a song about Red Dead Redemption because it’s simply incredible. And of course, this list of secrets and mysteries is far from being a complete list of everything that Red Dead Redemption 2 has to offer, but they have been mysteries and details that to this day continue to linger in my head.
If you know other details of Red Dead that you would like to share and that have blown your mind, leave them in the comments, there are endless secrets worth sharing and I want to read your favorites, or your top!
If you liked this article, you may also like: Videogames That Teach Us What Redemption Is
What’s up, gamers! I’m Andrea Villasmil, the one weaving magic behind Joystick Latino. From the glorious era of Metal Gear Solid on the PS1 to today’s RPGs, video games have me hooked. Besides being the boss around here, I’m an editor and translator on this wonderful website. I’m also a music teacher, delving into the world of dubbing and voice acting.
Between psychological thrillers, RPG sessions, and delicious pasta dishes, I have a great time sharing my obsession for games on Joystick Latino. See you in the game, friends!
