Over the past 13 years, theRed Dead Redemptionfranchise has been praised for its open-world, Old West environments. The details within the second game were so dense, in fact, that on home consoles the game needed an entirely separate disc just to help download it. However, theRed Dead Redemptiongames, as a whole, tend to be light on northern settings and the challenges they bring.
The actual locations of the games' settings are a bit on the ambiguous side. The states and territories themselves are entirely fictional, but the idea seems to be that they’re in the American South West near the Mexican border.Red Dead Redemption 2’s map held the entire first game’s mapand expanded upon the setting’s vast world. Characters go further north and expose the players to colder environments, especially while in the mountains. IfRed Dead Redemption 3were to go even further north it could give players more variety as well as take advantage of these colder environments.
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TheRed Dead Redemptiongames already have very diverse environments. The first game specifically had three different areas that John Marston traveled around. The first was a more desert region that is more what many people may picture when they think of the Old West. Later on, John ends up in the middle of aCivil War in Mexicobefore going to The Great Plains for the final act.
Red Dead Redemption 2would continue to capture the spirit of the Old Westand expand upon the setting further by having the characters go into more mountainous regions where things were significantly colder for everyone involved. They would further find their way into a relatively modern city and would have to spend a good deal of time traveling in the swamps of that territory before moving on.
Red Dead Redemption 2does have something of a rough openingwith its first chapter functioning as a prolonged tutorial. In it, the Van der Linde gang is hiding out in the mountains after a heist goes horribly wrong. The player character is forced to move around this area in the dead of winter, hunting for animals, searching for other survivors, and battling rival gangs. This winter aspect doesn’t really last beyond the first chapter and could benefit a hypothetical third game if the story opted to go further north.
What some people may not be aware of is the fact that the territories of what is considered to be the Old West effectively stretched to virtually all the territory west of the Mississippi and east of California. So it would not at all be unreasonable for aRed Dead Redemptiongame to take place even further up north. It would help divorce it from previous installments and give a potential third game its own sense of identity.
In addition to this, it could put a greater emphasis on the survival aspect and provide players with more obstacles to overcome. With a touch more of a survival element, players could need to attempt to survive in the harsher environments of the north with shelter, clothing, and other needs in consideration. In addition, snow is difficult to get around in any circumstances and could provide more challenges to the player when they’re trying to pull a heist or escape from the law. Players already had a taste of thesnow inRed Dead Redemption 2and could make for an interesting permanent hazard if the developers opted to take the story further north.
Red Dead Redemption 3isn’t expected to be released until the 2030s and there is no telling what direction it may take. Some have suggested making it another prequel or a sequel following Jack Marston. Regardless, the game would certainly have one major benefit if it chose to go north.
