Red Dead Redemption 2 Trailer Analysis

We dig our spurs in to the first trailer for the Wild West epic

In case you missed all of the teasing…Rockstar Games treated us to a first teaser trailer for their sequel to the 2010 modern classic – Red Dead Rdemption.

Before we get stuck into the nitty gritty of the extremely brief trailer and break it down…You might as well watch it again!

Scale of the world

Right of the bat, it looks big. Seriously, the world looks enormous with extremely varied terrain. From dense forest to rolling hills with mountain ranges spanning the horizon. Rockstar’s open world games have always pushed the boundaries when it comes to scale, each game has been bigger than the last. GTA 5’s Los Santos and Blaine County were big. Red Dead Redemption 2 looks to draw from the latter and build on it’s vast landscapes even further.

Everything also looks noticeably greener compared to RDR’s New Austin. Couple this with Rockstar’s description of the setting as ‘America’s unforgiving heartland’ and you might think that we might get to explore a fictional version of Oklahoma or Colorado.

Ecosystems and food chain

Let’s be honest, who doesn’t love a good God ray beaming through some woodland trees. Aside from looking great, this area looks similar to Tall Trees from the original RDR. The most interesting part of this shot is the wildlife. It looks like Rockstar has expanded and improved the AI animal’s ecosystem.

Blink and you’ll miss it, but we witness a small animal catch an even tinier critter as prey. Previously only aggressive hunters like Cougars or Wolves could be caught in the act of hunting. Has this been expanded to a complete food chain that allows all species to interact with each other? And speaking of hunting…

Hunting might have more of an impact

A farmer is shown hauling a carcass back to his ranch. Is this simply an AI characteristic to make for a more believable world or is this how players will hunt within the game? Hunting in Red Dead Redemption simply involved killing and animal, pressing a button to skin it which then fills your inventory with items like pelts and meat.

This shot suggests that hunting has changed and you will be physically restricted in how much you can carry at one time. Perhaps you can carry more if you have a carriage or wagon with you? If this is accurate, it means that making money will be more challenging, time consuming and ultimately play a much more important role to the core game as it does in GTA 5.

Boats/Swimming

This shot of a canoe gliding across a misty lake/river gives us a glimpse of a new mechanic to the Red Dead series. Previously in Redemption, playable characters were unable to swim and the only time spent on the water was an on-rails ferry crossing the river into Mexico.

If boats are being shown, it’s safe to assume that swimming will be present too.

When is it set?

What we see in the town may give us clues as to when RDR 2 takes place. Horse and carts as well as carriages are still present. The original was set in 1911 and showed us the death of the old west. Blackwater town was more build up and John Marston is even driven around in the back or a car. However, everything we see here suggests this is set either before or roughly the same time as the original.

The new (or old?) gang

Our first in-game glimpse of the gang in the announcement poster…And it really is a glimpse, as they blast past the camera and are riding off into the [almost] sunset before you can throw your lasso.

While the speculation of Red Dead Redemption 2 being a prequel could definitely be interesting given what we know of John Marston’s part in Dutch’s gang – I hope this is not the case.

Have you spotted something that we haven’t? Have a different opinion of what we might be expecting Give us your thoughts in the comments!