Not to be confused with honour missions or the litany of various side-interactions littered throughout the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, Stranger Missions - those colourful, random interactions that occur throughout the game - are surprisingly vital to Arthur Morgan's journey. They intersect with the main story in surprising and at times devastating fashion, and thusly contribute to the growing sense that Red Dead 2 has revolutionised open world storytelling - for better, or for worse.
But, as with all open world games, some encounters are better than others. This largely stems from the way in which Red Dead seamlessly transforms its additional content into an ancillary pillar of Morgan's story, which leaves some encounters feeling decidedly less significant, on top of those that pretty much serve as the narrative basis to justify the world's collectibles - of which there are many.
Pretty much every player’s Red Dead experience will be unique to them, and that’s duly reflected in the way stranger encounters impact Arthur throughout the game. Regardless of their varying influence, however, one thing is absolutely clear: you’re going to want to do them all.*
WhatCulture's very own resident movie guy, Ewan has been working in the content creation biz for over 10 years now, having started as a freelance contributor to WhatCulture Gaming all the way back in 2015. After graduating with a First-Class Honours in History from Northumbria University in 2017 (where he won a prize for a totally killer dissertation on the Watergate years), Ewan took on the role of Comics Editor at WhatCulture and quickly developed WhatCulture Comics into one of the biggest superhero-focused channels on YouTube. He followed this with a brief hiatus at Screen Rant in 2021, where he worked across the Gaming and Film sections as a writer and editor, before returning to WhatCulture as a Senior Content Producer / Presenter in 2023. He started his own podcast, We Love Dad Movies, in 2022, and has contributed several written pieces to the Eisner-nominated comics website Shelfdust as well.
In his current role, Ewan incorporates his love of cinema, comic books, and history into written pieces and video essays for WhatCulture's Film & TV channel, as well as WhatCulture Gaming and WhatCulture Horror, with a particular focus on nineties-era Dad Movies, old school Westerns, and Golden Age Hollywood Noir. John Carpenter is his fave, and he thinks Batman Beyond should never have been cancelled. If that's your vibe, you'll probably like his stuff.
