10 Background Video Game Characters That Change EVERYTHING

Look, I know, modern life is very busy. I know that these game developers seem absolutely obsessed with creating the biggest, sprawling world possible, with absolutely no consideration for how many hours it's actually going to take you - a normal person - to navigate.

I just want to say then that I understand if you got all the way through Red Dead Redemption and have absolutely no idea who Mrs Downes is or why she's important. You probably recognise the name from the core story, but it's in her side-quest that everything, as our title here suggests, changes.

Beating her terminally-ill husband over a debt he can't pay, Arthur ultimately contracts both tuberculosis and a hefty case of the guilts from his interactions with the Downes family. Finding a widowed Edith selling her body later in the game, Arthur takes it upon himself to make things right in a series of optional missions. Doing so unlocks both additional dialogue during his final moments, and drastically opens up the character in the process.

Far from being an outlaw whose luck simply ran out, the Downes quest establishes Arthur as an undeniably good man who was simply doing his best to make a living in a dangerous world. Opt to miss it because - my god - you've already sunk 100 hours into staring at the back of a horse, and its a drastically different game.