Why Arthur Morgan Is The Best Video Game Protagonist Of The Generation

2. Arthur And The Player's Redemption

This dissonance felt in those Strauss missions, between the player's actions and the character's personality, only comes into full view following Arthur's TB diagnosis. It's at this point, with inevitable, tragic death staring him in the face, that the character comes to analyse just what his way of life has achieved. The only family he's ever known are crumbling around him, and the people he's spent the entire game, and in the narrative his entire life, protecting don't return the favour. At one point, Dutch even leaves him to die.

It's here where the titular redemption kicks in, but skilfully Rockstar makes it not only a redemption for the character, but the player as well. Where once the violence of the Old West had meaning, and was justifiable because of how it allowed you and the camp to prosper, it's now just violence for violence's sake. The justifiable context you were once operating in has vanished, and despite nothing mechanically changing, there's no incentive to continue playing as you were.

In the narrative, Arthur's actions change, and he starts to make amends for his past mistakes, uses his blood money to help others, and becomes hellbent on getting John and his family to safety before the whole thing implodes. But the game also encourages you to support these story developments through gameplay, and the way you interact with the systems in place. It no longer feels right to continue indulging in the bloodshed. Money becomes pointless; Arthur can't take it with him when he dies, so you're encouraged to be charitable when the option arises.

For many of us, the implications of the diagnosis completely sucked the fun out of some of the game's core mechanics and gameplay loops that had been drilled into us for a hundred hours, but that's the point. From here on out, the violence is supposed to feel as empty and meaningless as it does in many other games, inspiring a change in how you interact with the mechanics to find satisfaction another way.

I can't say whether sacrificing the fun in this final stretch makes RDR2 a better game, but it does do wonders to further that connection between Arthur and the player, and ultimately make his redemption more directly compelling, as you're encouraged to change just as much as he is.