As one of the biggest games released in 2018, Red Dead Redemption 2 managed to keep players engaged for dozens of hours, even for those that stuck to the main story. However, a new leak seems to indicate that a portion of the story, or at least a bounty mission, was cut before release.
An image of the mission log, surfaced by a user on Twitter, tells players to capture Esteban Cortez, the leader of the Del Lobos gang. Cortez is wanted for the murder of an officer, and players are offered $65 for his capture. More than likely, the section is simply a cut bounty missions, probably left unfinished before the game actually released, though it could possibly be related to the Rhodes section of Red Dead Redemption 2, in which the player is deputized.
Players have been anxiously awaiting Red Dead 2 story DLC, though it doesn't seem likely that will ever happen, especially now that the game is more than a year and a half old. There's likely plenty of other cut story content out in the wild too, though when or if that will ever surface remains a mystery.
Luckily, this doesn't seem to be a major mission. It's possible that it could have spawned another narrative arc, launching increased aggression between the Van Der Linde gang and the Del Lobos, but considering that Red Dead 2's story was already a little long, it may be for the best that it wasn't included after all.
It's possible that modders could reintroduce cut content to the game, at least on PC, for any who really want to play it. Other games have received similar treatments, and it is always interesting to see what could have been in larger games. Games with no cut content don't exist, as time and budget constraints pretty much always mean that certain ideas need to be scrapped.
Maybe more cut Red Dead Redemption content will begin to surface in the future. For now, at least, Rockstar is still updating Red Dead Online with new content, so those that are desperate to dive back into the game should still have more to play through.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.