Red Dead Online – what might they do for the third game? (pic: Rockstar Games)
A reader has an interesting idea for Red Dead Redemption 3 that involves it being set in the 1970s with John Marston’s son Jack.
Some of my favourite things in life include cowboy films and Grand Theft Auto, so you can imagine how I feel about Red Dead Redemption 1 and 2. I know some people think the second one was a bit bloated and, in terms of story, perhaps it was but I loved its world and characters and wouldn’t have it any other way.
I’m obviously looking forward to GTA 6 but I’m also keen to hear something about Red Dead Redemption 3. The last game was a huge hit, so I can’t imagine there won’t be another one. But how would it work? Red Dead Redemption 2 was a prequel and the first game was set in 1911, which is right at the end of the Wild West era. However, it’s easy to imagine some of the characters living to see the 40s and 50s and the very youngest ones could’ve got all way to the 80s.
It’s not a very good movie but I’ve always been fascinated by Young Guns 2, which has an epilogue set in 1950 with someone that may or may not be Billy The Kid. I think you can probably guess where I’m going with this now, but wouldn’t it be great if Red Dead Redemption 3 was also a Grand Theft Auto game?
The obvious thing to do is have John Marston’s character be the lead, although you could easily make it any future relative of someone from the first two games, with or without a bit of retconning. I imagine it being set somewhere out West and you’d start the game with it looking something like Yellowstone, which I can imagine being right up Rockstar’s alley.
At first you could just pretend it was still set in the old days and then just have a plane fly past or something and you know you’re in the modern day (or late 20th century, at least). After all, the scenery hasn’t changed much and it’s not as if people do either – which would obviously be one of the main points of the story.
Just think how much change someone born in 1900 or so must have seen if they lived for 70 or 80 years. I’m fascinated by that and I think it’d be a great idea to point out what has and hasn’t changed and how it’s not technology that makes the difference but people’s attitudes and what does and doesn’t become socially acceptable.
Obviously it’d still be a Rockstar game, so there’d be plenty of exploration and heists and crime and everything, but with a sort of old meets new theme where it’s technically a Red Dead Redemption game but times are changing and you can’t just go around doing what you want any more, shooting up the town. Unless, of course, you do…
Rockstar did sort of dabble with this idea with their weird character creation tool for GTA Online. I don’t know if they’ve changed it since but when I first played it you had to pick photos of your character’s ancestors, some of who looked suspiciously like Red Dead characters. It never worked properly, because the photos were too hard to make out, but I think the germ of the idea was there.
I’m not too hopeful of seeing Read Dead Redemption 3 much before the end of the decade but when it does come around my hope is that as well as horses and cowboy hats, it’ll also have jeeps and helicopters.
A reader has an interesting idea for Red Dead Redemption 3 that involves it being set in the 1970s with John Marston’s son Jack.