Summary
Earlier this summer, Rockstar Games finally announced a newRed Dead Redemptionproject. Unfortunately, it wasn’t the news fans were hoping for. Instead of a full remake or remaster, the developer revealed that it was releasing aRed Dead Redemptionport with no new content. This sadly means that it is likely that the franchise will never fully address the big elephant in the room.
In 2018,Red Dead Redemption 2was released to stores and digital storefronts worldwide. The game was a prequel to the first and told the story of what happened to the Van der Linde gang and what drove John Marston away from it. The problem is that this caused somestory inconsistencies with the firstRed Dead Redemptiongamewhere major characters like Arthur Morgan were never mentioned. Now it appears that the franchise will never address these elements.
RELATED:The Red Dead Redemption Port May Have Timed its Release Date Poorly
Rumors of aRed Dead Redemptionremakeor remaster have been around since 2021 and continued to persist until the summer of 2023. Whether a remake was ever seriously being considered as a project has yet to be confirmed, but it is likely that some of the more recent rumors were misunderstanings about the port project. It’s been speculated that the remake or remaster of the game may have been canceled due to the poor reception toGrand Theft Auto Trilogy: The Definitive Edition. It may also be that the developer wanted to put more of its resources into the development ofGrand Theft Auto 6.
Regardless of the developer’s reasons, the news of the port has not gone over well with fans. The trailer for theRed Dead Redemptionport was flooded with dislikesover the lack of new content and price. The game only has the base game plus theUndead NightmareDLC and won’t be released for PC, which has been long sought-after. Furthermore, it finally seemed to end any and all hope that a remake would ever happen and address some of the story issues.
WhileRed Dead Redemptionhas an amazing story, it’s not the easiest game to come back to after playing its prequel. A lot of this has to do with the fact that very little of what goes down in the second game is mentioned in the first. Characters like Sadie Adler, Charles Smith, and Micah Bell are never brought up in the first game.
Despite having a massive impact on his life, Arthur Morgan isn’t mentioned once throughout the game’s runtime. He saves John’s life multiple times and gives him the ring that he uses to propose to Abigail, yet as far as the first game is concerned, he may as well have never existed. These were all things that could have been potentially fixed by a full remake or remaster.
While a remake wouldn’t have needed to devote enter cutscenes to Arthur Morgan, at the very least it could have rewritten a few. Dutch or John could casually mention Arthur and what went down at the end of the second game in some capacity. It wouldn’t need to intrude on the plot in a meaningful way but could make the story feel more consistent and less like elements were removed altogether.
TheRed Dead Redemptionport will likely be the final nailin the coffin that is the remake rumors. The game may have also timed its release poorly and will be sandwiched between some major releases and will likely never escape degrees of controversy. For fans everywhere, it also means that some of the franchise’s biggest story elephants in the room will likely never be addressed.
Red Dead Redemptionis available now for PS3, PS4, Switch and Xbox 360.
