Rockstar’s Hidden Message At The Heart Of Red Dead Redemption 2
Main-man Arthur Morgan has the hard edge of an outlaw; the ability to turn off his moral compass and kill civilians for even getting in his way - but he also has friends, a journal filled with sketches, an ex-partner and ultimately, a death-bringing disease that reframes his entire being.
It's this dichotomy that lets you indulge in all the foibles of Rockstar's past - the crime sprees, brutal killings of innocent people, physics-based carnage, humorous reactions from protagonists as we gun down entire townships - but by the time Arthur's life reaches its end, if this is how you played, it'll trigger a fundamentally more "empty", futile ending.
Play the game not keeping an eye on your honour meter, and when one of two endings plays out, you'll either be mercilessly stabbed by Micah, or shot straight through the temple by him as Arthur screams "Damn us all!".
Both don't happen if you lived honourably enough to have your meter sit above the halfway mark. It's literally Rockstar saying, "If you can't even make it past the middle of this measure of decency, we're going to put you down". In a wider sense, looking at something like 2015's Hatred, Rockstar are spelling out the idea that if you only bought this game to mess around, when so much more is on offer, they're barely going to reward you, outside of carnage itself being sporadically enjoyable.
Such a harsh sentiment is cemented by what happens if you DO live honourably. If you complete the main missions without going out your way to kill unnecessarily, help out NPCs and indulge in Stranger interactions, Arthur's death happens peacefully. Both Dutch and Micah leave, and Arthur is left watching the sunrise - a far more relaxed and apt finale for a flawed character that still conducted train robberies and killed people, but one that's a far cry from being literally executed.
All of this - of creating such an expansive world filled with morally-challenging possibilities, inquisitive NPCs, patience-testing characters and scenarios - is to ask the question: What kind of player are you? How much are you indulging in these various game mechanics and systems, versus living a digital life with consequence and an idea of right and wrong?
The black mirror GTA holds up never came with any authored takeaway message, but if you didn't find peace as Arthur, Red Dead Redemption 2 forces you to grapple with the question of "Why?"
The answer, taken in the context of a Rockstar game, their history and on behalf of the player, is just about the most sobering and mature sentiment a developer could ever put forward.