It’s hard to pinpoint just what exactly is a plot hole. Some deem it a narrative inconsistency, others consider plot holes to be anything the sജtory cannot realistically justify. While the latter is certainly the most true to definition explanation, does that mean that character inconsistencies and continuity errors aren’t plot holes? After all, t🉐hey’re creating holes in a story where there otherwise would be none. Regardless of what your definition of a plot hole ultimately is, you have to admit that inconsistencies are bound to turn up in any story regardless of quality. Doubly so for particularly long stories.
Red Dead Redemption II is an incredibly long game. Spanning six chapters and two epilogues, Arthur Morgan’s journey will take players upwards to 60 hours to complete in full- and that’s if you rush by the end. While a fantastic narrative about the last days of the Wild West, it is not a story without fault. Underneath the game’s genuinely gripping story is a plot filled with holes that detract from its inherent quality. Character motivations often don’t make sense, events are sometimes poorly explained, and scenarios will occasionally even contradict the first game. Red Dead Redemption II is a fantastic gam♚e, but it isn’t immune from having plot holes.
Be warned: Spoilers Ahead!
25 Milton Doesn’t Follow Arthur Back To▨ Camp
In Chapter 2, Arthur takes Jack on an impromptu fishing trip. As John hasn’t been the best father prior to the events of the 💮prequel, it’s up to the other men of the camp to serve as a good role model for Jack. Only Arthur is able to fill that role, however, so Abigail requests he spend time with the boy.
The game could have ended two chapters in if Milton were competent at his job.
While they’re together, Andrew Milton and Edgar Ross stumble upon the twoꦗ with the former immediately recognizing Arthur. Milton goads Arthur into ratting out Dutch with Arthur naturally refuses. From there, Arthur takes a roundabout way to camp, but he doesn’t ride so hard or fast where Milton wouldn’t be able to follow and find Dutch immediately.
24 🎶🥃 The Strawberry Mission Where You Eliminate The Whole Town
The Red Dead series has never been grounded in reality. From as early as Red Dead Revolver, Red Harlow’s adventures were basically a glorified cartoon. The game was even going to feature supernatural elements at one point. Come Redemption, the tone has gotten more serious, but John Marston is still an interpretation of the l𝓀egeꦍndary gunslinger trope.
That said, tꦬhere was a realism to his story. He met a real fate and his exploits were never outlandish. When you get to the prequel and see Arthur and Micah gunning down an entire town without any repercussions, though… it’s hard𒆙 to take seriously. The series always had its own rules and the Strawberry missions very much contradicts all common sense.
23 ♌ 🀅 Weather Doesn’t Matter
Consistency is important in any medium, but doubly so for video games. If the gameplay does not infer the narrative or vise versa, what’s the point of making a video game in the first place? Create a world that can only exist in this medium or don’t create t🐬hem at all. Naturally, this means everything mechanic should count.
Realism only matters when it comes to horse anatomy.
Which, unfortunately, weather doesn’t. Despite building up ho🤪w much weather will affect the game, Arthur is basically left to his own devices as he can run up the snowiest peaks wearing as little as possible with only the most minor of penalties. If the story stresses the dangers of weather, the gameplay not reflecting that is a plot hole🔴.
22 💦 Arthur Would Never Get The Low Honor ཧEnding
It may seem counterintuitive, but player freedom is not always a good thing. It truly depends on the game. In a story based title like Red Dead Redemption II, it genuinely does no good to have an Arthur who can be bad while his arc is clearly pushing for him to be better. Not only does it create a dissonance between story and gameplay, ♚it creates a plot hole.
Narratively, there is simply no realistic way that Arthur would have had low honor 💖at the end of the game. He is actively giving away money, atoning for ꦏhis sins, and trying to help those around him find a better life. Those are not the actions of a man with no honor. If you play low honor, you’re sadly not getting the intended story.
21 Trelawny’s Role In The Gang 🎃
Rather early o﷽n into the gang, Arthur mentions that Trelawny is allowed to weave in and out of Dutch’s gang as he pleases simply because of the quality of information he gives out. At the time, this seems like a fine enough explanation, but thinking about it does nothing but unravel how stupid a decision this was on Dutch’s part.
Treꦑlawny can sell the gang out at any point, a fact that Arthur even reflects on. While the game desperately tries to brush this aside, it simply does not make logical sense that Dutch wouldn’t keep eyes on Trelawny at all times. He is the only member of the gang who does not rely on Dutch to survive but actively knows his plans and whereabouts.
20 Arthur Will Attack Thomas Do💙wnes Even If You Donꩵ’t
On the subject of player freedom, Chapter 2 will feature an insta🤡nce in Money Lending and Other Sins where Arthur Morgan confronts Thomas Downes, the man who ultimately infects him with TB. Naturally, most players will beat up poor Thomas🎀 without really thinking considering the context of the mission.
Player freedom is never not an illusion.
Interestingly, the mission actually gives you a choice.꧙ You can simply threaten Thomas if you want. Despite this, the immediate cutscenes shows a bloody and bruised Thomas as if Arthur did beat him up. Player freedom resulted in a cutscenes that will be totally inaccurate for more passive players.
19 Arthur Falls For C🥂olm’s T🍃rap
Chapter 3 is when things start to really turn sour for Dutch’s gang. Following mess after mess, it seems as though the group is at their lowest point. Suddenly, Colm O’Driscoll asks for a truce and with no real ground to say otherwise, Dutch agrees to meet in ordeꦦr to come to some kind of agreement.
Naturally, Arthur is put on lookout and is immediately caught in a trap. Considering their history with the O’Driscolls, though, Arthur and Dutch should never have been caught in such a juvenile trap. Arthur should have known to keep someone spotting him a🐻s he spots Dutch, but this detail was somehow overlooked by two of the gang’s brightest members.
18 𝓡 Arthur Never Reflects On John Leaving The Gang
Incredibly early into the ♓gang, Arthur re𓆏veals that John had left the gang for an entire year prior to the start of Chapter 1. This abandonment clearly created some wedge between Arthur and John with the two butting heads early on. Oddly, though, Arthur more or less gets over it by Chapter 2 as he never actually reflects on it.
So much for a nuanced dynamic between Arthur and John.
For as much a stink Arthur makes about John leaving, he never truly sits down to confront these feelings of abandonment. This is made all the more perplexing when Arthur helps John leave the 🐠gang at the end of the game. Narratively, it’s a nice bit of parallelism, but it certainly hurts that Arthu🌸r never makes note of it on an internal level.
17 Hosea Doesn’t Put A Stop To Micah’s Meddling ✅
If Arthur is the muscle and Dutch is the mouthpiece, then Hosea is the mind of Dutch’s gang. He’s the one who investigates each town, meets the locals, an🅷d crafts schemes to keep the gang afloat. In many ways, he’s a common swindler, using his intellect to help the people around him get ahead.
The smartest man in the gang does nothing to prevent its downfall.
Forꦍ as blatantly smart as Hosea is, though, he didn’t think twice about stopping Miach from meddling with Dutch. All game, even before Chapter 4, Micah is slowly weaseling his way into Dutch’s inner circle. It’s plain as day and everyone can see, but Hosea inexplicably never chooses to address this despite Dutch’s deteriorating mi🌺nd.
16 Arthur Can Do Edith’s M🏅issions Out Of Order 𝓰
Either due to a glitch or an oversight, it’s possible to do Edith Downes’ missions in Chapter 6 out of order. Depending on how players proceed, they’ll be helping Edith Downes 🗹leave Annesburg only to find her in Annesburg with Arthur having never helped her at all. It’s a totally nonsensical turn of events that should have been examined closely.
Don't you miss when games were consistent?
Ultimately, this is a problem of modern game design. Before the seventh generation, games needed to be playtested extensively due to how problematic it was to fix a glitch. Buggy game? You need to ship out a whole new batch of games. Now you can overlook potential bugs thanks to patche🐓s resulting in an entire plotline being done out of order.