Rockstar Games' Red Dead Redemption series has developed something of a reputation when it comes to spooky, otherworldly content. Ever since the publisher's Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare unleashed a horde of zombies on America's Old West back in 2010, players have come to expect the odd fright and creepy encounter in their cowboy themed adventures. With that in mind, it's not surprising that Red Dead Redemption 2 in particular is packed with creepy Easter eggs.

Thanks to the fact that the popular adage of 'the more the merrier' often gets applied to content in open-world games, glitches that break down the walls of reality have become a common and almost expected occurrence within the genre. While Red Dead Redemption 2 is no different, what sets it apart is the fact that a lot of its technical hiccups seem to lean heavily on the scary side of things. With Halloween once again right around the corner, now feels like the ideal time to explore some of the Wild West's spookiest accidental occurrences .

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Red Dead Online's Zombie NPC

Red-Dead-Online-Zombie

Considering the sheer size of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the vast amount of content Rockstar Games has packed into the experience, it's little surprise that the game's single-player and multiplayer components are both filled with creepy glitches. Over the last three years, players have encountered all sorts of terrifying unexpected technical failures, ranging from graphical hiccups that prevent Arthur's skin textures from loading, all the way to errors that force the eyes of NPCs to grow to ridiculous sizes. After all of that time, new glitches are still being found.

Only a few months ago, for example, one Red Dead Online player had an unexpected fright courtesy of a glitch they encountered whilst harmlessly exploring one of the game's many wooded locales. Reddit user Jasonpf1123 subsequently uploaded a gif to the internet after the event, that appeared to depict a zombie-looking NPC wandering around the PS4 version of the online mode. What's especially curious and adds to the creepiness of this particular glitch is the fact that the zombie can be seen behaving like a typical shambling corpse, suggesting that Rockstar Games has created and inputted that behavior into the game for a specific reason. While the undead character was reportedly laid to rest for good by the player via a well placed shot to the head, the remains that were left behind by the glitch could not be looted for items like a typical character.

While some fans have speculated that the glitch could be a preemptive sign that Rockstar Games is getting ready to launch a sequel to its Undead Nightmare, that sadly seems like too much of a reach. After all, the existence of the now-confirmed Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy Definitive Edition and the next generation incarnation of GTA 5 are likely to consume most of the publisher's immediate attention. Since the zombie was glitched into existence, the publisher has also announced that its seasonal Halloween Pass event is coming back to Red Dead Online at the end of October. Even though the content within the pass has yet to be fully revealed, the proximity of both headlines to each other suggests that the zombie might be featured during the event within a special multiplayer game mode instead.

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Zombified Single Player Characters

Close-up of zombie from cover of Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare

Ever since Rockstar Games released the Undead Nightmare expansion, fans of the groundbreaking DLC have been clamoring for more single-player horror content within the publisher's games. Despite the unearthing of cryptic datamined references to the undead within Red Dead Redemption 2's code, the aforementioned glitch, and a handful of cannibalistic themed cryptic Easter eggs, Rockstar has so far remained steadfast in its reluctance to resurrect a zombie army in any official physical capacity. What's fueled demand for a Undead Nightmare 2 all the more, though, is the fact that a Reddit user by the name MosseVI has briefly spotted a pair of zombies in Red Dead Redemption 2 via a glitch.

Whilst viewing a cutscene-based conversation between Arthur Morgan and another denizen of the Old West, the forum member noticed that both characters momentarily transformed into pale corpse-like figures. After only a few seconds,the pair and the greenish world around them turned back into their traditional non-haunted forms, suggesting that the occurrence was down to some form of brief graphical hiccup within the game's software. Even though this is the closest fans are probably going to get to having zombies show up in Red Dead Redemption 2's singleplayer content, hopefully the publicity the glitch has generated helps influence Rockstar Games' future plans in that direction just a little bit.

The Swamp's Ghost Rider

red dead redemption 2 swamp attack

Of all the locations that can be visited in Red Dead Redemption 2's diverse and densely populated open-world, the Bayou Nwa swamp found to the south-west of Saint Denis is by far the creepiest. Amongst the atmospheric tall trees, foggy roads, and bubbling bog water, a number of popular otherworldly Easter eggs can be uncovered by those brave enough to go looking for them. One unfortunate user, however, has stumbled across a glitch that's right up there with the spookiest references Rockstar Games has deliberately created. That's because, whilst riding across one of the swamp's many land-connecting bridges, a Red Dead Redemption 2 player known by the name C4S0x came face-to-face with a ghostly figure.

At first glance the character appeared to be an ordinary living and breathing NPC, as his dark motionless silhouette rapidly came into view as the player approached the bridge. However, upon narrowly avoiding a head-on collision, C4S0x noted that the horse rider vanished into the swamp's thick fog without leaving a trace once he'd passed by. To make the occurrence all the more mysterious, Arthur curiously chose the immediate moment after to comfort his own seemingly distressed horse - something the cowboy normally only does after the animal has been spooked by an enemy, fall, or wild beast. While plenty of actual ghosts call this Red Dead location their home, fans might want to keep an eye on the NPCs they encounter as well, just in case a glitch causes one of them to pass over to another plane of existence.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.

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