Red Dead Redemption 3 - 10 Ways To Make The Perfect Sequel
3. New Cities
This
one is a no-brainer, but it's always worth mentioning.
Rockstar has steered clear of using actual cities, instead imbuing their fictional locales with homages to real places. Saint Denis was very clearly inspired by New Orleans; Armadillo is an analogue for traditional Western desert towns like Tombstone; and Valentine is reminiscent of livestock towns like Cheyenne, Wyoming, Ogallala, Nebraska, and Abilene, Kansas.
What real-world cities may Red Dead Redemption 3 take inspiration from?
Since Marston was rescued from Illinois homesteaders, perhaps the game could model its obligatory metropolis after Chicago.
Alternatively, if they wanted to head further west, they could take cues from San Francisco, known then as the 'Paris of the West', which exploded in population after a gold rush in 1848.
Other cities include Denver, Colorado, home to lavish opera houses, luxury hotels, and real-world outlaw crime bosses like Soapy Smith; Santa Fe, New Mexico, known for its elaborate pueblos and an imposing Spanish cathedral; or, perhaps most promising of all, Deadwood, South Dakota, which hosted famous Old West figures from both sides of the law.
Drawing inspiration from Deadwood would allow the game to really lean into the "wild" in Wild West.
Which, now I mention it...