RDR2 Character Info + Interview

The central plot of the original game focuses on Marston's quest to hunt down his former gang members and stop Dutch from forming a new posse. While the new title focuses on the days when the gang was still in action, it isn't quite set in the heyday of the lawless West, says Bass. "Things are changing — there’s not much room in a rapidly modernizing world for the gang’s way of life. Through Arthur’s eyes, you see events begin to take a toll on the gang as they are forced to flee across America, while at the same time, Dutch’s hold on the gang begins to slip," Bass explains.

You can exchange stories with a barman in a saloon, talk yourself out of trouble with a local lawman, hijack a train or simply rummage through the drawers of an old homestead hoping to find cash or just some food to help the gang survive — and seamlessly transition between these things in ways that are both fun and in keeping with Arthur as a character."

"Switching characters made sense and was a lot of fun in Grand Theft Auto V," Bass says, before adding, "Sticking with a single character felt more appropriate for the structure and narrative of a Western. Arthur lives with and fights alongside the other members of the Van der Linde gang, and they are a group of fully realized characters with relationships to each other and to Arthur, but this is Arthur’s story and we are placing players firmly in Arthur’s boots as he and the gang deal with a rapidly changing world. We think people will really love the feeling of being in the gang. It isn’t like anything we’ve done before."

"It’s the sense of life the game has that most sets it apart," Garbut adds. "When you first enter a town and you see the townspeople going about their business, building houses, selling papers, hanging out, you can instantly tell that we’ve never experienced this detail in an open world game before. Where you see a shack on a hill and you know there is something interesting for you there, maybe you will break in and stumble onto a mystery, or meet the owner and end up getting tangled in something. I think that’s when you can tell that it's new territory, when you are not even sure if what you’ve done was a mission or not. When all the systemic parts of the world come together with our scripted content in the right ways, it’s kind of incredible."