Red Dead Redemption 2's Supernatural Weird West Elements…

Summary

Red Dead Redemption 2 is filled with hidden supernatural elements, embracing the "Weird West" concept of blending Western stories with sci-fi, horror, and fantasy.
The game features horror-inspired encounters like a vampire encounter in Saint Denis and an Undead Nightmare Easter egg, as well as sci-fi elements like an alien encounter and time-travel.
There are also more subtle Weird West factors, such as Nikola Tesla-inspired Stranger missions and fantasy-inspired elements like a Viking helmet. The game showcases a passion for the Old West and its diverse stories.

With the story and characters of Red Dead Redemption 2 being so engaging and memorable, it is easy to forget the more implicit content that the game also offers. Befitting of such a large-scale world that rewards thorough exploration, the title is jam-packed with Easter eggs that range from fun discoveries to sinister and supernatural happenings.

Hiding away supernatural elements for dedicated fans to discover is a common practice for Rockstar, and the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 was the perfect vessel to take this to the next level. By being such a heavily detailed title, RDR2 easily leaned into the "Weird West" tropes that often go hand-in-hand with Western stories, and the game does not shy away from exploring this to the fullest.

Red Dead Redemption 2's Weird West Elements

The term "Weird West" describes a piece of media that blends classic Old West stories with other genres, mainly sci-fi, horror, and fantasy. While the name of this mash-up only came about in the 1970s, the concept of mixing Wild West stories with the supernatural has been around for much longer. There is something deeply engrossing about the isolated towns of the Wild West having to deal with things like zombies or aliens, with the Red Dead franchise exploring this in detail with 2010's iconic Undead Nightmare DLC.

While a lot of the first Red Dead Redemption's Weird West elements came through this DLC, 2018's RDR2 took pride in including horror and sci-fi tropes in its base story. In terms of horror Weird West elements in RDR2, fans will remember the unnerving vampire encounter in the city of Saint Denis. By following a trail of death and carnage, the player can come across a vampire feeding on a helpless victim, providing an undeniable supernatural twist to the world of Red Dead.

There are other horror-inspired encounters in RDR2, such as an Undead Nightmare Easter egg that zombifies the game's protagonist, but the title focuses much more on sci-fi Weird West tropes above all else. Quite famously, the player can trigger a detailed alien encounter in Red Dead Redemption 2 that sees a UFO fly over the protagonist, tying in well to similar UFO appearances in Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto franchise.

As well as this, a prominent Stranger mission in RDR2 confirms the existence of time-travel in the game's universe, with the protagonist witnessing a man return to his childhood home from the future. The fact that such a staggering revelation features in easily-accessible side-content is a great example of just how far Rockstar took Weird West tropes with RDR2, with fans not having to look far to come across some seriously supernatural findings.

There are of course more muted Weird West factors in RDR2, with the Nikola Tesla-inspired Stranger missions featuring a seemingly sentient robot that can be found roaming around the map. The title even touches on fantasy-inspired Weird West portrayals, with a Viking helmet and hatchet strangely being present within a tomb to the map's North East. The development of Red Dead Redemption 2 was clearly driven by an intense passion for the period of the Old West, as well as the countless stories that have been told about it. This is more than obvious when considering the wide range of Weird West elements that feature across the game, covering a mix of sub-genres and supernatural occurrences.