Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of those games that can surprise you even after hundreds of hours of playing. One of the things that can and will continue to surprise you is the NPC reactions that the developers have created. The vast range of unique interactions feels like a bottomless well that keeps you stopping to marvel at the details of this 2018 game.
The best thing about NPC interactions in RDR2 is that many of them can come quite unexpectedly. For example, you’ll know that you can expect some sort of reaction when you point a gun at someone, but you don’t expect it on some random occasions when you run next to people or come wearing muddy clothes. And those are exactly the things that make the RDR2 experience magical.
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Be Careful of What You’re Carrying in Your Hands
Carry a large animal carcass through the down, a dead body, or simply a gun, and people will start to comment on it. When it comes to the animals, NPCs might congratulate you (if you’ve hunted a big deer, for example) or be disgusted (if you’re carrying a dead cat). Naturally, their fear and disgust will also be immediately visible when you’re carrying a dead body around them or drop it in front of them. What is interesting is that carrying bodies will leave a blood mark on your character, so even after dropping it, you’ll get comments from NPCs about your bloody clothes.
Having a weapon out without pointing it towards an NPC will also trigger their reaction. For instance, it can make them tell you something like, “You think you’re tough for carrying that.” Be careful, though, as lawmen and other armed men can challenge you and shoot at you if you get too close with a weapon drawn.
9 Camp Members Will Keep Asking You Questions
Don’t Disappoint the Gang
While still in the main storyline of the game, you can get quite a few unique reactions from gang member NPCs. Expectedly, these behave differently from random NPCs around the world, and have extended dialogues and reactions. But one of the funniest things is that you can’t seem to indulge them, as they’ll make sure to comment on everything you do.
For example, if you have been away too long from the camp, they’ll ask you where you have been. If you’re there too much, they will ask you why you are sitting there all day instead of going out there. Similarly, donations for the camp funds will be greatly appreciated, and the lack of them will get you a grumpy response. An especially interesting detail for me is the gang members commenting on a dead animal you bring back. First of all, they’ll all be cheerful and thankful that you’ve brought food for the table, but if you keep carrying it around for too long, they will switch gears and tell you that the animal will rot if not cooked soon.
Try experimenting with the camp members yourself, as they can react to many things, like your clothes, the amount of chores you’re doing around the camp, or if you’re scolding the dog.
8 NPCs Can Duel You If You Insult Them
Make Sure You Draw Quickly
Even though RDR2 doesn’t have the dueling system of RDR1 outside scripted encounters and missions, it’s still possible to challenge NPCs, and sometimes their reaction will be to duel you. If you find an armed NPC and insult them a few times, there is a good chance that they will go after you. Only sometimes will they go for a fistfight with you, and at other times they will go for the gun, and you can have a real Wild West duel.
If you really want the old-school movie duels in RDR2, you’ll be happy to hear that the game’s rich modding community has created a mod just for that.
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7 Townsfolk Respond to Being Greeted or Insulted Repeatedly
Chatting With Strangers Can Be Fun
Any NPC that you approach and talk to will naturally respond, only each one will do it kinda differently, and you really never know what to expect. Saying hi once or a couple of times to one of the townsfolk will exhaust your options for talking to them, so there is one little trick that can extend the dialogue. To prolong interactions with strangers, you can antagonize and defuse them interchangeably.
Be careful, however, because this can often lead to fights or shootouts, but it’s still fun to see what lines strangers will come up with and how John/Arthur will reply to them. I even noticed that the two protagonists don’t have the same insults that they throw out to strangers, and that makes the game even better.
6 Widows Will Start Appearing In Towns If You Kill Too Many People
Every Bullet Has Its Consequences
If you keep killing a lot of people in the game, widows will start to appear in towns around the map. Not only that, but they will also yell at you to stop and then curse you for killing their husbands. And even in sensitive situations like this, you’ll have the option to antagonize the woman or defuse the situation, after which you’ll be able to give her $2. As you can expect, whatever you do won’t change the encounter dramatically.
Rare encounters like these are part of what makes RDR2’s world feel alive, and some of the game’s most intriguing characters are easy to miss entirely, including one mysterious NPC that has sparked years of player speculation.
This little piece of interaction is very well-thought-out by the Rockstar team, as it puts you on the spot for doing dishonorable things. The game would have been completely fine without it, but having it takes NPC interactions to a whole new level. This is one of the reasons RDR2 is among the best open-world games that let you discover new secrets after years of playing.
5 People Notice When You Are Following Them
NPCs Don’t Like Stalking
If you follow NPC through the town, they will begin to notice and react to it. As always, the reactions will be different for each NPC depending on who they are. So, as to be expected, unarmed NPCs will just run in fear when they notice you’re following them, while the armed ones will turn around and start a fist fight with you.
What is particularly interesting in NPC reactions are some smaller details about the stalking of NPCs. For example, if you follow an armed NPC with a gun in your hands, they will turn around and shoot you right away, instead of starting a fist fight. Similarly, if you follow a woman for too long, it can happen that as she runs away from you, another man who was nearby attacks you to protect her. As you can see, the details in this one have really been well thought of, and who knows what sort of reactions are still waiting to be discovered.
Law officers can arrest you if you follow them and then stick around after their warnings to go away.
4 People Compliment Your Horse
Horses Are The Cars of the American Wild West
Everyone likes to see a nice ride and try it out for themselves, and the RDR2 folks are no different. When you ride a fancy horse like an Arabian or a Mustang, both random NPCs and gang members at the camp will compliment it. This usually happens after you greet them, but it can also happen spontaneously.
On top of that, stable owners will change their dialogue to tell you how happy they would be to stable your horse, and how they will give you a good price for it if you want to sell it. From my personal experience, this is easily missed, as I would usually grab one horse and keep it throughout my whole playthrough since swapping horses isn’t as simple as swapping cars in GTA games.
3 People Will React To Anything Unusual That You Do
They’re Always Looking
If you simply crouch when walking through the town, people will start telling you that you are weird. Also, if you’re hiding when there is no shootout going on, you can expect similar reactions. Shopkeepers will similarly react to when you hide or move around in weird ways, in addition to other reactions they have, such as when you go behind a counter or enter with a mask on.
This reaction has made it to the list just for the fact that it shows us that RDR2 folk don’t let anything go unnoticed. When NPCs react to small things like you crouching instead of walking, you know that the team behind the game was really aiming to make one of the most immersive experiences out there.
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2 Get Drunk, And People Will Make Fun of You
You’re Not Scary When Wasted
The first thing that changes when you get drunk with Arthur/John is, of course, their own dialogues, and that is more than amusing since there are plenty of mistakes, jokes, and insults that surely took some writers some time to complete. But the funnier side of that is NPCs’ reactions to you being wasted.
Most of the NPCs will make fun of you and crack jokes. You won’t be able to rob them as your threatening sentences will turn into something like “Give me all your honey.” Especially unique are the dialogues with the gang-member NPCs, as Arthur can start a conversation with them that can go both ways for a couple of minutes.
1 Strangers Remember Previous Encounters
Better Memory Than You Thought
NPCs around the world will often have memories of previous events and refer to them later in the game. For example, if you saved someone in the wilderness and then run into them in a town, they will call you (and usually reward you). Also, shopkeepers that you’ve robbed, beaten, or shot before will remember you and talk differently when you come to their shop again.
One fascinating thing for me was that some NPCs mentioned Arthur to John. My best guess is that these mentions of Arthur are unfinished conversations that Arthur could have had, but if you don’t do it with him, you’ll be able to end the interactions while playing John and remembering Arthur.
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Author: 360 Technology Group
