Highlights

  • Red Dead Redemption 2 is a vast improvement over the first game with incredible visuals, deliberate gameplay, and an engaging story.
  • The game foreshadows future events in the Red Dead Redemption series, laying the foundation for characters and storylines that will be developed later.
  • Arthur and Micah are contrasting characters, with Arthur on a path of redemption and Micah being a cunning and vindictive antagonist, both dealing with their own health issues.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an advancement over the first game in almost every way. The visuals are incredible, the gameplay is slow, but deliberate, and the story being about the infamous Van Der Linde gang elevates the character interactions to a whole new level, all set in a sprawling open-world that is still coughing up surprises, over five years after it released.

Hosea is friendly and wise, Charles is charming and polite, and Sadie is vengeful, but incredibly easy to root for. There are, however, some villains in plain sight in Red Dead Redemption 2, and there are subtle personality traits in Micah Bell that draw interesting parallels to Arthur's very personal tale.

Gta 6 x Red Dead 2
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Micah is constantly snorting, and has a hacking cough, and his respiratory issues are a huge canary in the coal mine for Arthur's eventual TB diagnosis, something that plagues the sixth chapter of the game, and the last where players see through Arthur's eyes.

Much of Red Dead Redemption 2 is Foreshadowing Future Events

arthur morgan johns hat

Red Dead Redemption 2 is an exceptional experience in its own right, but is made better with the added context of the first game. Being a prequel to John's story in the 2010 outing, Red Dead Redemption 2 lays the foundations that are to be built upon later, be it Marston's injury, Dutch Van Der Linde's descent into villainy, or the importance of Arthur Morgan's hat. Because of this, the pair of Rockstar-developed games feel like two parts of one continuity, even with characters who make their debut in the 2018 title.

Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in 1899, 12 years before the events of the first game in 1911.

However, there's a lot of foreshadowing taking place only in Red Dead Redemption 2. Seeing the cabin where the story will conclude in one of the game's opening missions, or fleeting moments where Uncle will sit and relax in Beecher's Hope in the exact spot he dies add to the narrative consistency. Micah is constantly snorting, and has a hacking cough, and his respiratory issues are a huge canary in the coal mine for Arthur's eventual TB diagnosis, something that plagues the sixth chapter of the game, and the last where players see through Arthur's eyes.

Arthur and Micah are Opposite Sides of a Coin

Red Dead Redemption 2 Arthur and Micah shooting

During the first playthrough, Micah being this way compliments his unsavory nature. He's rude, obnoxious, and belittling, and hearing him struggle with his health rounds out his nature as an uncomfortable presence. There's no sympathy to be had for Micah's condition, but when Arthur falls ill, it's less of a complimenting character trait and feels like more of a glitch in the system, as the gradually redeemed Arthur becoming fatally ill isn't something that would happen in a typical story. Arthur Morgan is walking a path of redemption, so to have illness be a bump in the road contrasts Micah's similar issues, as players care far less about the outcome of the latter's health problems.

Micah Bell was the main brain behind the botched robbery in Blackwater, the pivotal story point that fuels the beginning of Red Dead Redemption 2 .

Arthur Morgan and Micah Bell couldn't be further apart in terms of their character quirks and outlook on life. Arthur is pleasant to those he cares for and loyal to a fault, whereas Micah is sly, cunning, and vindictive. The differences can be seen in clothing, hair color, and more, and can be heard in the way they speak to those around them. The common thread between the pair is the health problems they each endure, but the way they are implemented with each character sheds a completely contrasting light on them in the eyes of players.