Your Morality is Questionable
Red Dead Redemption 2 appears to take place right around the time when the Dutch van der Linde gang starts to lose their moral fiber. Yet even as things start to unravel, his crew appears to remain fiercely loyal. In trailer #2, Dutch asks the main character, Arthur Morgan, if he has his back, and he replies back “Always, Dutch.” We see that loyalty confirmed as he acts out all manner of violence at Dutch’s command in trailer #3.
Indeed, we see Morgan threaten murder, ambush a train, engage in general acts of mischief, and the trailer today just added armed robbery onto the pile. Sure, there might be a “justification” for all this, but considering what we know about the man leading this gang, the group’s moral compass is likely way off – probably unbeknownst (at least initially) to Morgan and some of the other members.
This would be quite the change in tone from the first game. Sure, you could play John Marston from Red Dead Redemption as a brutal outlaw, but the game’s narrative seemed to constantly nudge you the direction of being an ex-cowboy that was reluctant to mix it up because of his terrible past, and at his heart, was a good guy. He wanted to close out that part of his life (violently, sure) and then move on. Similar to Niko Bellic from GTA IV.
Morgan from Red Dead 2 appears to genuinely enjoy the life he is currently living, and unless we’re playing as a straight villain in this game, it probably will take some time for him to realize the error of his ways. A scene in the third trailer hints to this as we see another character try to reassure Morgan by saying “brothers make mistakes,” alluding to something regrettable bothering Morgan.
