Continuing my mind boggling playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2, enjoying both its bountiful gameplay and spectacularly stunning environment. I slowly sauntered through the campaign completing any side missions available to me and just enjoying the vast variety of character personalities.
One of the few things I'm happy about, is the development of the main character; Arthur Morgan. Seeing how he cares little for those he doesn't know personally but still helping them at the command of the player. Although, about halfway through the game, a slightly surprising twist occurs. Noticing a few changes in dialogue and the way he now behaves I deduced that Arthur had cancer. After riding through Saint Denis (An industrial city cluttered with fumes of the factories and the NPCs that reside within) you collapse off your horse and are through a small cutscene of Arthur's eyes opening and closing in a haze you see a man dragging you to a local doctor. After arriving to the doctor and paying a small fee the doctor diagnoses Arthur with the big TB, Turbercilosis for those who are unfamiliar, is a rather unpleasant bacterial infection in the lungs.
With this new revelation, Arthur wishes to repent and be able to make good of the mistakes and lives he had taken in the past. However, this is entirely based on the players decisions, depending on if you have a high or low honour score. Arthur will leave the doctors clinic and have a hallucination of sorts and will see a deer (high honour) or a fox/coyote (low honour).
With the main missions of the singleplayer making it harder to maintain a high honour score, mainly because you're an outlaw and in a gang. Your proceed to rob, kill and be a rather intimidating individual. Just for the chance that Arthur and his rag-tag outlaw family may live a free life in Tahiti or Australia (was never quite settled on which they wanted.)
With the burning of fields and trying to befriend allegedly wealthy families just to steal from them.
(The feud between the two families is honestly like an episode of home and away but with cowboys)
Rockstar also isn't afraid to kill those you have come to appreciate, while that may seem rather depressing, it goes to push the story in a totally different path, with the death a few beloved characters during a bank robbery. A few of the gang members are forced to hide away in an abandoned building while waiting for nightfall to be able to make their grand escape. Which leads to the next chapter of the story.
And island off the coast of Cuba, controlled by a dictatorship. Where the main production is sugar. Slaves are used to produce and manufacture sugar. While the chapter isn't especially long, and not too large to explore. It's still an extremely interesting turn.
A while later, you meet an Indian chieftain Rains Fall and his son Eagle Flies. To whom they inquire about your assistance. Assisting the chief and his people, you meet Colonel Favours, a rather ironic name for a rather horrible man. Cheating the Indians out of their land and treating them like animals.
The chiefs son decides the play hero, and tries to stop the destruction of his peoples land and attacks the oil field. The chief then arrives at your camp and tells Arthur and asks him to save his idiot of a son.
More stuff unfolds, traitors are discovered and the gang is torn. Arthur makes a promise to his friend John Marston that he would get him and his family out of the conflict so that they might be able to live out the rest of their lives. After a dangerous encounter with the law and the deluded members of the gang, Arthur and John make an escape.
While not a fully safe one, the law on their tail and the members chasing them a distance of the way, Arthur tells John to run and find his family, ultimately deciding to sacrifice himself. While there is a decision to whether to stay with John or to return to camp and try to take money. I decided to help. Arthur fights the traitor, weak from his illness and on his last legs. Arthur is left alone, watching as the sunrises and the illness takes his life.
Years have passed and you now play as John Marston, main character of the first Red Dead Redemption. But it's more of an explanation of how John became to own a ranch and what had happened to the gang. It's a rather hefty epilogue, consisting of 10 hours of gameplay. With the additional ability of free roam after the game is completed.
Overall, the game is stupidly long. While enjoyable every step of the way. I skipped some major point in the story as to not spoil much, and mainly because this post would probably be over 10k words. I would suggest that anyone that owns a recent gen console play it, as it's unavailable to PC and previous generations.
All images were captured on my Xbox One.
And as always, I'd like to thank anyone that took the time to read this, if you'd like to hear more, or anything like this, please up-vote, re-steem and consider following me for more content.