Red Dead Redemption 2 fan tests Rockstar's historical accuracy by conducting a literal census in the open-world game, concludes it's "a pretty amazing representation" of the era
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Anthony McGlynn
2025-12-09
The depiction of the Old West in Red Dead Redemption 2 is nothing short of remarkable. Rockstar's attention to detail is among the finest in the whole industry. One fan decided to test just how deep the developer went for the new frontier by surveying a town in RDR 2, and his findings are fascinating.
This involves following and examining Valentine's NPCs thoroughly, examining their routines, responses to your presence, and their in-game models. In some cases, this is quite simple: the sheriffs, shopkeepers and service providers are all pretty easy to find at any given time, and come with flavor dialogue to answer the bulk of the questions needed.
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But many of the other passers-by are harder, since Rockstar employs RNG to populate the map. In order to circumvent the randomization, Austin broke down the map into blocks and time slots, to ensure he got a strong sample of the NPCs that could appear there. It looks as tiring as it sounds, but it worked in providing a healthy amount of data.
The data he gathers demonstrates that Red Dead Redemption 2 is fairly close to legit. The unemployment rate is 4.5%, for instance, higher than the available stat of 1.8% nationally for the US in 1907, but much closer than you'd think. The same can be said for wealth and the spread of jobs within the town, though specific data points are hard to glean for this far back.
One inaccuracy that sticks outs is in oral hygiene. Rockstar's given people too many teeth, when folk missing a few - or more - would've been exceedingly normal. But that’s a rare gap in the general accuracy of the recreation.
"Even down to the hyper-specific details that you would dig up in something like a census, Red Dead Redemption 2 is really a pretty amazing representation of a slice of American history," Any Austin states at the end of the video. I can't wait to see what he discovers when going through GTA 6 with such a fine toothcomb.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is "slightly more novelistic" than GTA 5 because Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser "binged on Victorian novels" for inspiration
debugCat
Jun 08, 07:23 PM
🧠 yo ain’t no way This is loud.% ¬ worth the money.
Jun 05, 03:13 AM
sheesh Single-player focused. This is relaxing.
ctrl_alt_delight
May 31, 09:53 PM
co-op is broken.?
voidRider
May 14, 06:03 AM
-no way [Removed] not worth buying.
404hearts
Apr 07, 06:24 AM
This is easy.
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