Red Dead Redemption 2’s main story campaign is an operatic Western tale of loyalty and corruption that transports players all across the game's massive in-game map and takes around 60 hours to complete. After Red Dead Redemption 2’s prologue, the story sees the main character Arthur Morgan and his fellow gang members in an idyllic countryside location and relatively high spirits. But as the story continues, these relationships become frayed until the once peaceful camp has a tense and uneasy atmosphere surrounding it.
Many players may have been surprised to find that after the game’s 60-hour main story ends, Red Dead Redemption 2 contains another 6 hours of epilogue. This epilogue doesn’t just wrap up RDR2 and set up the events of the first Red Dead Redemption, but it also tells an entirely new story that compliments the game’s main campaign, this time with themes of family and leaving the past behind.
RDR2’s epilogue is like a breath of fresh air for players after the tense and emotional final hours of Red Dead Redemption 2’s main campaign. The game time jumps forward seven years and follows John Marston as he builds his house from the first Red Dead Redemption and puts the events of RDR2 behind him. A huge number of subtle interactions were added between John and his family in order to make the game feel unending even after all the missions have been completed, but a Reddit user named Riddey_ has come across an interaction that is more subtle than most.
During the epilogue, the player is free to continue exploring RDR2’s game world to finish off any side quests or challenges, but John’s home, Beecher’s Hope, will act as the game’s new permanent camp location. Returning there will allow the player to have hundreds of short conversations with John’s family and Uncle. The interaction discovered by Riddey_, however, is completely wordless, and instead shows John and Abigail look out over their homestead and son Jack playing with Rufus the dog. The interaction is subtle and unprompted, but it does perfectly encapsulate the tone of Red Dead Redemption 2’s epilogue.
Once the epilogue is finished, the game takes on a very peaceful atmosphere. Red Dead Redemption 2 even has a trophy called “Endless Summer” in reference to the final free-roam chapter from another Rockstar game, Bully. RDR2’s tense finale during chapter 6 feels very far away from the events of the epilogue, for both the characters and the player.
Extended interactions like this on John Marston's ranch are also a gift for returning players who reached the ending of the original Red Dead Redemption and then wished to spend more time as John interacting with his family and working on his ranch.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
