By now, all serious gamers have likely tried their hand at Red Dead Redemption 2, the much-awaited prequel to the original game of the same name brought to us by Rockstar Games. The game is set in 1889 in the Old West and follows the story of Arthur Morgan, one of the top members of the Van der Linde gang, as he attempts to survive as an outlaw. In the game, players are faced with vengeful bounty hunters, fellow vigilantes, and a whole slew of out-of-the-box characters that make the game great.
One point that proves just how much effort Rockstar Games put into making this game as epic as possible is how historically accurate it is. Many of the characters and events are based on real-life people and occurrences that took place in the Wild West. Even details like the color palette and animation style of the scenery have stayed true to the historical accuracy, meaning not only will the player have fun playing this game but they might also learn something in the process.
Several additional historically accurate elements that reflect the incredible level of detail that Rockstar put into their latest game have been added to this list. From its social issues to outlaw heists, Red Dead Redemption 2 is more realistic than many players may realize.
The Aberdeens Were Actual Siblings
The Aberdeens are two of the most interesting characters players come across in RDR2. As a player approaches the farm, Bray Aberdeen offers an invitation to stay for dinner with him and his wife, Tammy. If the player agrees, the next thing they know Arthur wakes up in a mass grave with all of his valuables stolen. If the player goes back to the farm, they’ll quickly realize these two were siblings with a huge secret.
What’s even more interesting is that the Aberdeens are actually based on real-life people. Siblings John and Kate Bender were found to be responsible for the disappearances of at least eight people after remains were found on their farms in the 1870s.
Shotguns and Repeating Rifles Dominated The West
Duelists in classic Westerns may be most famous for their skills with a six-shooter, but Read Dead Redemption 2 accurately reflects the real-life domination of shotguns and repeating rifles at the turn of the 20th century.
Reliability was often crucial in the American West, and the straightforwardness of shotguns meant that they were all but guaranteed to work when their owner needed some stopping power. Repeating rifles were widely used for the same reason, and their increased range and sizeable magazines added to their effectiveness in the hands of experienced shooters.
Edmund Lowry Jr. Is Based On A Real Person
Throughout RDR2, there are hints (aka bodies) that there’s a Ted Bundy type on the loose. The more investigating the player does the sooner they realize that Edmond Lowry Jr., a dapper but odd fellow who draws little notice, is actually a serial killer.
Just like the Aberdeens, Mr. Lowry was based on a real-life criminal by the name of Stephen Richards. He targeted a variety of different victims (just like his RDR2 incarnation) between 1876 and 1978 before finally being caught by police. Whether or not Lowry faces the same fate is up to players to decide.
Cars Are Few And Far Between
Considering that Rockstar is the company that brought us Grand Theft Auto, some fans were curious as to whether we’d be able to hijack cars in Red Dead Redemption 2 or not. The point is fairly moot, though, because cars were exceptionally rare in the Old West.
Cars were invented in 1885, and though RDR2 takes place in 1899, cars still hadn’t become widespread by this point. Players might run into a car if they come across some very wealthy travelers (hint: check the ports), as it was only the rich and famous that had cars during this time.
The Suffrage Story
While playing RDR2, players are bound to come across one of the suffragettes campaigning for women’s rights to vote. The game’s inclusion of this storyline has received some criticism as some players have used it as an opportunity to bring a brutal fate to the activists.
Rockstar included this element because of its historical relevance- if we’d been an actual cowboy during this era, we would have witnessed the suffrage movement in its full glory. The American women’s suffrage movement started in the 1840s and gained a lot of traction in the ‘70s and ‘80s. However, it wasn’t until 1920 that women were granted the right to vote.
One Of The Feminists Is Based On Sophia Duleep Singh
Among other activists, players will stumble into various women’s rights protestors during the game, and it turns out one of them was inspired by a real-life English suffragette named Sophia Duleep Singh.
Many RDR2 fans have drawn comparisons between Singh and the activist who players meet in the center of St. Denis. Singh was known for campaigning on busy streets with a large wooden sign, just as the character in the game is. She was one of the first South Asian women to fight for their rights and was most remembered for her activism in the Women’s Tax Resistance League as well as the Women’s Social and Political Union.
Societal Changes Spurred Violence
The removal of the “wild” from the west is a major theme in the original Red Dead Redemption, but it’s also seen in the clash between freedom and industrialized control in Rockstar’s prequel. Societal changes have always spurred resistance, but rarely have these changes affected so many different groups.
Native Americans were still struggling against the advancing U.S. government, women and minorities were pressing for the right to legal equality, outlaws were fighting for their freedom from the law, and workers were starting to push back against unfair labor practices and income inequality. Several of these conflicts are represented in-game, and, unfortunately, this friction often led to violence.
Saint-Denis Is A 19thCentury New Orleans
If players have ever been to New Orleans, then they were probably shocked at the similarities between the modern-day city and RDR2’s Saint-Denis. Rockstar Games is known for amazingly detailed cities, and they flex their design muscles by showing players what New Orleans was like in the 1890s.
The town square looks strikingly similar to New Orleans’ Jackson Square, even featuring a small park outside of an ornate building. From the Spanish-inspired architecture to its swampy marshes on the outskirts of town, Rockstar really nailed the details on this one.
The Wealth Divide Was Huge
“Middle class” may be a challenging term to define stringently, but Red Dead Redemption 2 depicts the 19th-century United States in which most Americans are either plump with cash or just trying to survive. While some of the game’s more eccentric characters like Leviticus Cornwall may seem too over-the-top to reflect reality, the truth is that the business climate and lack of worker protection laws created a massive divide between the haves and the have nots.
Unfortunately, it would take several decades for the law to catch up and allow for the booming of a strong middle class.
The Pinkertons Were The Original Cops-For-Hire
Many of RDR2’s characters complain about having unpleasant run-ins with the Pinkertons, and that’s because these were real people causing a ruckus amongst outlaws back in the day.
The Pinkertons were essentially cops for hire who would contract their services out to private businesses and even the government. They founded their company in 1850. They’re most famous for foiling an attempted assassination against Abraham Lincoln as well as hiring one of the world’s first female detectives. By the 1890s, estimates suggest that there were more Pinkertons than soldiers in the US military, which is why we guess everyone has such a hard time avoiding them in the game.
Natural Resources Caused Land Disputes
In Red Dead Redemption 2, players come across a Wapiti tribe settlement at odds with the government due to the oil on their land. Unfortunately, the history of the era is rife with examples of the U.S. government seizing Native land by force once natural resources have been found.
One of the most famous relevant examples is the Black Hills gold rush of the 1870s. General Custer’s arrival and declaration of present gold led to several mining towns springing up in Sioux territory. Eventually, the government removed the area from the Sioux reservation by an act of congress to legally claim the present gold.
Cowboys Of Color
One thing some fans have noticed is Red Dead Redemption 2 more accurately showcases the diversity of the time, particularly compared to RDR1.
While the game is still a long way away from having equal representation, this is a welcome improvement that’s historically accurate as there were many cowboys and outlaws who were also people of color in the Old West. Many times people of color fled from slavery to find freedom in the West.
The Landscape Is Based On An Art Movement
Anyone who plays Red Dead Redemption 2 will marvel at how gorgeous the scenery in the game is. Rockstar paid extra close detail to the animation and detail in this game. So much so, the landscape is actually based on a 19th-century art movement, The Hudson River School.
The school was essentially a group of painters led by Thomas Cole who became known for their elaborate and sometimes exaggerated depiction of the American frontier. The painters would go on dangerous Western expeditions just to get inspiration for their artwork- now that’s dedication.
The Van Der Linde Train Robbery Really Happened… Kind Of
Early in the game, the mission “Who the Hell is Leviticus Cornwall?” tasks players with robbing a train. While numerous cinematic heists likely inspired this, the mission also bears a resemblance to Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid’s Wilcox train robbery.
Like the game, this real-world heist also took place in 1899 and saw the thieves blow train car doors open with dynamite. The Van Der Linde gang’s jump onto the train is highly fictionalized, however. In real life, the Wild Bunch gang stopped the train with warning lights and damaged a bridge to prevent it from continuing.
Tuberculosis Is The Real Deal-Breaker
Given all the chaos Arthur faced one would assume his fate would come to the end during a shoot-off with police or by being betrayed by one of his men. But Arthur’s ending isn’t really violent at all. But it is realistic.
In the end, the fan-favorite cowboy sadly succumbs to Tuberculosis, which seems so anti-climatic given the action he’s seen. But Rockstar made this move to stay true to history, as TB was the number one reason for mortality in the 1890s as no global cure was available.
