With a world as big as RDR2's, it comes as no surprise that some of the content is going to drift into the darker side of life. Taking players from a fun wild west shootout into some of the most distressing scenes most players will have sat through.
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Giving the player a gauge for how much good or bad the character is doing, some choose to completely disregard it and take off their civil shackles. Putting the surrounding citizens through some serious trauma while creeping their way up the power ladder. Sometimes it's not the players choice though, with stories that weave a bleak web of deceit and pain available from the very beginning.
10 Braithwaite Manor
A quest that some won't feel too bad for, seeing as the 2 families involved are far from innocent. Commissioning the gang to commit various tasks in order to spite and take down the opposing side, resulting in one of the more depressing scenes in the game.
Watching a families estate burn up as they cry and scream is dark no matter how bad the people are, especially when the player is directly responsible for starting the fire. It's a strange contrast between giving them their dues and feeling strong guilt.
9 Horse Abuse
While it may be a hysterical discovery that aren't aware, serving a swift roundhouse to the horses in the area does little but make the character a complete psychopath. They do nothing but carry the player around and carry their gear, only to be boxed up by the goon.
Not only is it disgraceful, it's also not the smartest action if the players teeth want to be kept. This goes for slapping the horse on the butt too, as they can deliver a serious kick that will send the character flying. Players picked the wrong animal to bully if they want to come to the fight bare handed.
8 Marko Dragic
A down on his luck inventor that the player will meet just as he starts to get his inventions off the ground, Marko Dragic is one of the more unique characters in the game. Going to his lab will reveal the robot that he's been working on that will momentarily come to life, encouraging Marko to continue his work.
If Arthur visits the lab a second time then he will find Marko dead, a note that mentions the robot is left in its place. Once the player stumbles across the robot, it will be seen mourning Marko Dragic and miserably repeating ''Papa.'' A sad moment that stays with most much longer than expected.
7 Animal Targets
Some players come to the Rockstar games with intent on making good choices, others come to blow off some of that much repressed steam built up from daily life. But even the most explosive character can't justify using the towns local ''good boy'' to test out a pistol.
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Some of the darkest actions in the game aren't the result of a mission gone wrong but the random callous acts played out in the open world. While tying someone up and launching them off a cliff isn't morally superior, it's awfully hard to find an innocent man in the Wild, Wild, West.
6 Andrew Bell's Invention
While his intentions are good, walking past Andrew Bell's laboratory might be the most traumatizing mistake to make. Initially fetching him large quantities of moonshine so he can build his humane killing machine, this progresses into actually fetching his test subject for him.
Accompanying him to a demonstration that he puts on for potential buyers, players must watch a criminal be slowly and brutally terminated. This is all just after a bolt of electricity flies towards the scientist himself, taking out him and the criminal in a complete and utter failure.
5 Jeremiah Compson
At first the old, broken down man seems like a good chance to do a good deed, reclaiming his lost possessions and giving him pieces of his old life. However, once the player breaks into the house and snoops around, the remnants of his past will change perspectives pretty quickly.
A now retired slave finder who revelled in his work, often boasting about it in the pages read around the house. The job that he lost was an evil one and Arthur will be disgusted before heading back to old man and sending his valued possession into the fire.
4 Going Overboard
Taking out some unsavoury characters is something that's necessary in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2, clearing out the landscape for honest citizens to live their lives. However, the game gives the player every chance to turn a required kill into an all out slaughter.
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Pummelling some poor corpses face into mush is definitely taking it too far by any metric, especially when the victim is usually an innocent bystander. There's nothing worse than a robbery gone wrong with too many witnesses, causing a chain reaction that can get very messy and depressed.
3 The First O'Driscoll
Setting the tone for the entire game, this is the first possible choice that Arthur will come across. It's the introductory moral decision that can shift how certain characters see Arthur, taking out the first possible human he comes across that gave up information.
While the O'Driscoll's are the rival gang, this member is far from the worst and serves as a perfect tipping point in whatever direction the player wants to take it. First chances can make people overexcited but taking his life is the first step down a long, slippery slope.
2 Refusal To Help
Throughout the game, there are many times when players get a chance to help an assortment of characters that are helpless in the moment. Often, these are the few wholesome people that exist in the West and give the players a chance to do something good.
Turning down these offers is always a choice, rejecting a chance to help while cutting off a redemption arc. The darkest part of these choices is the lack of benefit on the other end, leaving players with an empty space where serious development should be.
1 The Final Choice
After enduring the lengthy end sequence that will try to tear the player open in every possible way, the end will all come down to one final choice. While it isn't game defining, it will definitely determine what kind of taste is left in the mouth of anyone that completes it.
Enduring a shootout, Arthur has to choose whether to help John escape to reunite with his family or abandon him to find loot in a nearby cave. Abandoning the man to find treasure is an ending that will leave a hollow weight to the finale and taint the experience.
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