Summary
Red Dead Redemptionreleased yesterday on PC and, predictably, Nexus Mods is already awash with various tweaks and changes courtesy of the game’s blossoming modding community.
One of the mods that has already been uploaded by Nexus Mods user fatassfukingmonkey (great name) is theArthur Morgan Restoration Project, which replaces John Marston’s default outfit with something resemblingRed Dead Redemption 2’s protagonist Arthur Morgan. The original uploader admits that it’s a “joke” which is why the model doesn’t look that nice, but it’s still funny how fast the uploader and his collaborator (ColonelKernal) got the mod online.
Arthur or John?
The description describes Arthur Morgan as the “far superior” protagonist, which isn’t an unpopular opinion in the fandom. In many ways, Red Dead Redemption 2 players were able to mould Morgan into something resembling the player’s morality, while John Marston tends to be a more static character. As a counterpoint, Marston’s story is a more grounded one, as he’s driven by a simple desire to protect his family.
The two characters wound up being close during the events of Red Dead Redemption 2. Since the game is a prequel, John never mentions Arthur during the events of the original game (as he hadn’t been invented yet), which led to some fans hoping that a few lines of dialogue referencing Arthur might be included in the updated release, along with the fixing of a couple of narrative inconsistencies that spawned from the prequel. These include John saying he’d never been to New Austin, and Edgar Ross saying he’d never met Dutch Van Der Linde even though they meet in Red Dead Redemption 2.
That isn’t what ultimately happened, as the updated release is just a port with platform-specific upgrades like 4k resolution support. Still, it’s interesting to think about how the narrative of Red Dead Redemption might have changed if Red Dead Redemption 2 had been the original game, rather than a prequel.
We might see modders attempt to incorporate references to Red Dead Redemption 2 in the future, but for now, at least we can walk around as Arthur Morgan.
