Red Dead Redemption 2 managed to break many gamers' hearts through its final scenes, not least of all because of the ultimate fate of Arthur Morgan. Fans of the series were doubly aggrieved, knowing the events of the original game which would chronologically follow Arthur's last moments. Some even revisited Red Dead Redemption, eager to glean some more meaning from its own cutscenes and conversations and come to terms with the story of hero John Marston.
One Redditor managed to perfectly encapsulate the complicated feelings of coming back to John's story following Red Dead Redemption 2. User snowflktuts took a scene from the game in which John shares a drink with gunslinger Landon Ricketts, added a bit of reverb and some emotional music along with a slightly grayscale filter, and let the thread's title - "RDR 1 scenes hit differently now man" - do the rest.
It's a surprisingly powerful moment, especially for those who had followed John's story throughout Red Dead Redemption 2. John confesses his woes to Ricketts, detailing his attempts to "go straight" and saying "I left the gang after the gang left me." He describes the final events of the prequel, and the disappointment in his voice is almost audible when he speaks of Dutch: "Our old leader...he more or less lost his mind, went and shot a bunch of people unfair like."
The toughest part to watch after playing Red Dead Redemption 2 is John's final mission statement. "I been sent to track down the men I used to run with," he says. "Track 'em, kill 'em." For those who only played the original game, this was a sad enough moment: Rob Wiethoff's delivery manages to capture a surprising amount of pathos considering that, from the player's perspective, all these former gang members have been doing is trying to kill them.
Anyone who also played through Red Dead Redemption 2, though, would get an extra-hard kick in the feels at moments like these. Having spent almost an entire game alongside the likes of Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella, and of course the charismatic Dutch van der Linde, having to hunt John's former friends down and execute them on the order of the Pinkertons is a much tougher ask.
The original Red Dead Redemption is, naturally, full of moments like these. Similarly, too, knowledge of the first game has plenty of heartbreaking connotations for the second: seeing the lengths that Arthur goes to in order to help John get out and start his life anew, it's hard not to feel a pang of sadness knowing what fate ultimately lies in store for John Marston. It's surely a sign of two well-made and intricately connected games, and arguably snowflktuts put it best: the scenes just hit differently now, man.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.