Red Dead Redemption 2 Places Emphasis on Gang Interaction and Decision-Making

Red Dead Redemption 2 will be encouraging players to become an active participant of their in-game gangs, according to a lengthy new preview of the upcoming game from IGN. Instead of becoming a lone wolf and going about everything alone, you’ll want to take part in gang activities, as they’ll offer dynamic mission choices and events as you play through the game. Given that the characters around you behave more like realistic human beings than ever before, you’ll be faced with choices at every opportunity to work with the folks you see regularly or others, all of which will come with consequences.

IGN mentions, for instance, protagonist Arthur walking past Pearson, the camp cook, who advises him that the gang’s meat supply is running low. It’s an important interaction that can shape how the game will play out from then on, just like dozens of others you’ll see throughout the title. You don’t get immediately catapulted into a mission or see a cutscene start up, but you can casually make the decision to continue speaking to people like Pearson or walk away. It’s all a part of the way Rockstar is working to blur the line between what’s hard-coded as a story mission, per se, and branching options that could eventually result in different outcomes for different players.

Many of your choices will be contextual based on what time of day they occur, and will vary in importance and “high level” decisions. This means that every single choice won’t function as a story-altering decision but will instead let you simply change the direction things are going in from just slightly to massive ways. You’ll be given several different ways to interact with the world to make this happen, via dynamic options that will change depending on your location, those around you, and other factors.

You’ll have a massive amount of freedom in-game, but sticking close to your gang, choosing to participate in things that take place involving them, and other optional missions will be key. You can head over to IGN to read the full preview for more juicy tidbits about the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.