Red Dead Redemptionalong with its sequel,Red Dead Redemption 2,are for many players the quintessential Western genre video games. Both games take place in the closing days of the once wild west, with the series' open world landscapes and gameplay capture the feeling of being an old west cowboy; a key element of capturing this feeling is through the behavior of the games’ horses. Whereas Rockstar’sGrand Theft Autois known for its many varied cars, the horses ofRed Dead Redemptionwere designed to be both vehicles for the player, but also independent creatures when the player isn’t riding them.
A lot of effort was put into designing thehorses inRed Dead Redemption 2in order to make them seem as realistic as possible. The horses from the firstRed Dead Redemptionwere also incredibly detailed pieces of game AI for the time of the game’s release in 2010. However, looking back onRDRtoday, it is easy to notice some peculiar quirks in the game’s horse AI.
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One such example of howthe horses fromRed Dead Redemptioncan sometimes act peculiarlyhas been captured by a Reddit user named ceilingofplankton, who shared a clip of them exploring one of the cliffs which overlooks the river that separates the US and Mexican sides ofRed Dead Redemption’s game map. The Reddit user then dismounts and walks to the edge of the cliff to look out over the beautiful landscape. A few moments later, however, the player’s horse silently wanders forward and straight over the edge of the cliff.
The player then watches their horse tumble down the edge of the cliff and into the river below, while the player character, John Marston, stands staring in seemingly stunned silence. The clip ends with the player looking back out over the landscape as if they couldn’t believe what they had just witnessed.Red Dead Redemption’s horses are programmed to naturally steer away from cliff faces while the player is riding them, as this not only keeps the player from accidentally riding off a cliff, but it is also a more natural reaction from the horse itself. ClearlyRDR’s horse AI is not so averse to cliffs while not being ridden by a player, however.
The comments of the Reddit user’s clip are full of hilarious references to Dutch’s “you can’t fight gravity” speech to John from near the end ofRed Dead Redemption’s main campaign. This speech was also referenced inRed Dead Redemption 2when Arthur and Dutch get cornered on a cliff overlooking a riverin an encounter which ends with similar results to ceilingofplankton’s horse.
The horses inRed Dead Redemptiongames are primarily meant to be the players main mode of transportation through the game’s world. However, it isunpredictable behavior like this which elevatesRed Dead Redemption’s horses from standard player vehicles, and into endearing animal companions.
Red Dead Redemptionis available for PS3 and Xbox 360.
