Red Dead Spoiler Alert
I’m going to talk about the ending of Red Dead so consider yourself warned.
The thing is the whole game you’re playing a character who has put his outlaw ways behind him. Now for the most part in the story missions Marston in fact has. However… and here is my trouble with the game a lot of the side missions or tertiary stuff is Marston’s outlaw ways. You’re encouraged to act as an outlaw.
By analogy Marston is an alcoholic and you’re expected to give him a bottle of whiskey and that rather bothered me. You’re an outlaw or you’re not and the game acts as though you can be both and that took something away from the narrative for me. Is this or is this not a story of redemption?
I saw the end coming at least as early as during the trip to the wrecked riverboat. So given the ending and the kicker side mission (that I almost missed and is the real end of the story) the question of is Marston redeemed seems unanswered. Jack’s actions suggest that Marston was in fact not redeemed and I didn’t much like that. Or perhaps that choosing the outlaw life of the quick and the dead is an act of redemption.
Just seemed that the authors didn’t in fact have anything to say. At least not anything new.