Red Dead Redemption 2: Can You Play as John Marston?

Can You Play as John Marston in Red Dead Redemption 2?

Red Dead Redemption 2 is the latest open world game developed by Rockstar, and it serves as a prequel to the original game released for the PS3 and Xbox 360. Players will take control of Arthur Morgan, a trusted senior member of the notorious Dutch Van Der Linde gang. If you’re wondering whether you’ll get to play as John Marston in Red Dead Redemption 2, here’s what you need to know.

Before we go any further, do be warned that this article contains major spoilers for the plot of Red Dead Redemption 2. If you don’t want to be spoiled on the main story, we recommend turning back now.

For most of the game, you’ll be playing as Arthur. However, you’ll still get to interact with John Marston himself when he’s hanging around in camp. Just like with any other NPC in the game, you can Greet or Antagonize him for different dialogue triggers. At times, you’ll also be able to go on missions with him, and learn more about him before the events of the original game.

That said, once you complete the main story of Red Dead Redemption 2, you will indeed be able to play as John Marston during the lengthy epilogue and for the rest of the post-game content. Once the epilogue starts, you’ll get to see how John, Abigail, and Jack survived immediately after breaking away from Dutch’s gang, and how they tried to build a normal life together.

Without getting into major spoiler territory for the epilogue content, this two-part chapter does do a good job of providing closure to the story in Red Dead Redemption 2, and showing how the events of the original game would eventually come to pass.

From a gameplay perspective, John Marston plays exactly like Arthur Morgan. After a certain point in the epilogue, you’ll gain access to all of Arthur’s weapons and items, and you can still explore the open world at your own leisure. Most of the major Stranger quests will still be available to you as well. It’s worth noting that once the epilogue starts, you won’t have any money on you. So it might be a good idea to keep some valuable items as Arthur, and then sell them for money in the epilogue so John can get some spending money.

Even after the credits roll when you finish the epilogue, the open world of Red Dead Redemption 2 will still be open to you. You’ll be playing as John Marston for the rest of the game, and there doesn’t seem to be any way to go back to Arthur.

That’s all you need to know about whether you can play as John Marston in Red Dead Redemption 2. Be sure to check our Red Dead Redemption 2 guide wiki for more tips and information about the game.