“Narrative Enmeshment” in Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2 (2018)

Abstract Rockstar Games’ 2018 Western video game, Red Dead Redemption 2, received critical acclaim upon its release. In particular, the narrative and technical aspects of the game received praise from critics. A slow pace, strong narrative, and impressively rendered game world are hardly unique within the genre of open-world video games, however. In this article, I analyse the game and argue that the combination of traditional narrative elements (such as plot, characterisation, setting, and time) is carefully interwoven with technical aspects of the game (including the game mechanics and internal honour system) through which the player experiences the narrative. Through this process of imbricated generic elements and game presentation, I contend, the game achieves a high level of what I theorise here as “narrative enmeshment”, a state through which the player’s narrative engagement in the story is heightened to a point that is technically unachievable through other storytelling media such as prose and film. In my discussion, which takes a narratological point of departure, I focus on select moments in the game’s narrative, as well as the game mechanics the player is compelled to use to progress through the game, to argue that the interlinked nature of the game’s technical sophistication and narrative maturity ultimately allows the player to experience a heightened level of engagement— or narrative enmeshment—in the game. This emphasises the importance of studying video games as a highly effective and innovative narrative medium.


Introduction
To those not familiar with video games, it may come as a surprise that games publisher Rockstar Games' 2018 release, Red Dead Redemption 2 (henceforth RDR 2), 1 is described as a "slow-paced, sumptuous, character-driven Old West historical drama" by Keza MacDonald (2018) in her review of the game for the Guardian.Writing in a respected British broadsheet like the Guardian that RDR 2 eschews the simplistic violence of Rockstar's other games, as MacDonald (2018) does, is an indication that the game developer was taking an entirely different approach to its material.As a games publisher, Rockstar Games is best known for its Grand Theft Auto (GTA) series of games, which have proved controversial given their depiction of violence.In these games the player controls a character within a fictionalised, satirised version of several contemporary American cities.While there are certainly still some irreverent parodic moments in RDR 2, principally in the ways in which it challenges some of the tenets of so-called Manifest Destiny attached to American expansionism, and while it is, at times, a very violent game, it is not a cynical look into the present in the same way that the GTA series has been.Instead, RDR 2 is a sprawling tale of the demise of the American Old West.Indeed, like its predecessor, Red Dead Redemption, RDR 2 is a powerful narrative game that stands "in contrast to older games that glorified the cowboy kingdom" and "[presents] a troubled, complicated, and dying region in its 'twilight years'" (Wills 2019, 79-80).It is hard for the player not to be entrapped in this engrossing, but ultimately rather bleak, tale.As one reviewer put it, the game is "a profound glorious downer" that "relentlessly" compels the player "to confront decay and despair" (Hamilton 2018).
A slow pace, strong narrative, and impressively rendered game world are hardly unique within the genre of open-world video games. 2 Of course, developers have also long relied on history "and the interpretation of historical account" as a foundation for video games (Donald and Reid 2020, 15).But when it comes to RDR 2, Matt Bertz writes that " [a] rare harmony exists between the narrative, gameplay systems, open world, and mission design" (2018; my emphasis).In this article, I want to read this "between", delving into how we can read this space within a narrative form such as a video game.In this article, I analyse RDR 2 and argue that the combination of traditional narrative elements (such as plot, characterisation, setting, and time) is carefully interwoven with technical aspects of the game (including the game mechanics and internal honour system) through which the player experiences the narrative.Through this process of imbricated generic elements and game presentation, I contend, the game achieves a high level of what I theorise here as "narrative enmeshment", a state through which the 1 The name of the game is also sometimes written as "Red Dead Redemption II". 2 Many modern AAA games may be argued to fit such a description, including the Grand Theft Auto series; The Last of Us (2013) and its 2020 sequel; Spider-Man (2018) and its 2023 sequel; etc. AAA titles are games that are generally published by large and well-established game developers, which have considerable budgets for production, marketing, and distribution.
player's narrative engagement in the story is heightened to a point that is technically unachievable through other storytelling media such as prose and film.

Narrative Enmeshment
The notion of "narrative enmeshment" is drawn firstly from how the player of the game experiences it as a story.In this way, it can be considered and analysed as any story would be.There is a point of focalisation, and the player is gradually introduced to a specific narrative world that is populated by characters and events; the tension between these elements is what enables the construction and experience of the story.However, the expanded access that a player is given to the narrative world-and the ability to make certain choices, potentially feeling not just a deeper sense of catharsis with the story but also a complicity in the choices and outcomes in and of the story-adds another level to the player's narrative experience that is different from those engaging with other forms of media.
My analysis in this article incorporates several connected storytelling elements from both textual and visual narrative modes: the characterisation (of the main, playable characters, but also the non-playable characters who populate the game world), the setting (the world depicted in the game and its relation to a real contemporaneous counterpart), and the visual and audial aspects.Simultaneously, I also explore how the mechanics of the game serve to underscore and intensify the narrative elements of the game in a way that produces the very narrative enmeshment that I am focusing on in this article.Put simply, "the mechanics" refers to how the game world works and how the player accesses and exerts control over this world. 3When talking about game worlds and how they are experienced, reviewers (for example, Hamilton 2018;MacDonald 2018;Takahasi 2018;Van der Byl 2018) and game studies scholars (Calleja 2011;Murray 1997) will often use the word "immersion", which describes an involved gaming experience.In fact, in the case of RDR 2, the frequency with which the term is used in various reviews signifies the importance of the concept in the experience of games.This description, however, is often used for narrative works in other media too.So, one can also become immersed in films, television, and novels. 4 3 Tracy Fullerton distinguishes between what she calls, on the one hand, the "formal elements" of the game-which "provide structure to the experience of games" (2018, 38) and include "players, objective, procedures, rules, resources, conflict, boundaries, and outcome" (2018, 57)-and, on the other, the "dramatic elements" of the game: that which "engage[s] the players emotionally by creating a dramatic context for the formal elements" (2018,46).While this distinction is clearly useful for game design and studies firmly situated within video game theory, the crux of my argument relies heavily on the integration and overlap between elements from Fullerton's two categories.As such, I will not be using them in this article to distinguish the relevant elements of RDR 2. 4 Gordon Calleja offers an in-depth discussion of the development of the notions "immersion" and "presence" within the field of game studies.He distinguishes between "immersion as absorption" ("absorption in some condition, action, interest, etc.") (2011,26) and "immersion as transportation ("a world to be navigated … [and a] game world … as a metaphorically habitable environment … The notion of narrative enmeshment reaches beyond what we would traditionally still consider experiences of immersion.As a descriptor, "immersion" still reveals a certain one-sided experience of the story.For example, whereas a reader might become engrossed and immersed in the narrative world of a novel, and imaginatively construct and populate the world as they progress through the story, as Wolfgang Iser (1980) describes, the reader still experiences the story as a tale told to them.A sense of catharsis might still be intense, but the reader of the novel largely remains at the mercy of authorial choices, with little ability to deepen either their identification with the story or the defamiliarisation of certain ideas, values, and historical discourses that the novel might attempt.This applies similarly to the viewer of film or television.So, while "immersion" implies being completely involved in a story experience, it remains at a surface level, cast in a certain kind of stone that remains always a step removed from the reader's (or viewer's) grasp.As I theorise it in this article, "enmeshment" describes something more complex.RDR 2 is immersive, but the careful integration of the story elements with the mechanics of the game world-and the active processes of choice, character formation, and culpability that Calleja (2011, 23) explains as "altering the course of events" and "exerting agency" within the game-results in a response from the player that weighs heavily with emotional poignancy and affective investment.
Iain Donald and Andrew Reid (2020) correctly assert that the video game is a cultural text that can be analysed from different perspectives.Despite this, of course, the medium has not quite escaped the idea that it is trivial-that is, that games are "considered inconsequential because they are perceived to serve no cultural or social function save distraction at best, moral baseness at worst" and "[carry] none of the weight, gravitas or credibility of more traditional media" (Bogost 2007, viii).This article seeks to combat these notions, showing that video games, like films and novels before them, have become a medium worthy of the consideration of literary and comparative scholars.Moreover, this article straddles the fields of literary study and video game theory and explores how, in their presentation of narrative, video games may offer new dimensions in our understanding of how fictional narratives that involve the "reader" might engage audiences differently.

Contextualising RDR 2
The story of RDR 2 begins in 1899 in the fictional southern state of Ambarino (that is, a federal state of the USA).Based on the depicted natural characteristics of this area, including a mountain range named the "Grizzlies" (seemingly corresponding to the real by the anchoring of the player to a specific location in the game world via their avatar") (2011,27).One could also refer to Marshall McLuhan's (1994) notions of "hot" and "cool" media, and how the player's participation in the video game narrative can bring further insight here in terms of "immersion".While there are overlaps between these concepts and my work here, in my study I give preference first to the narrative elements of RDR 2, and then to how the game mechanics take on an auxiliary function in relation to the story.Subsequently, a more expansive discussion of the theory of immersion falls outside the scope of this article.
Rocky Mountains), this state seems to be based on the real states of Colorado and Wyoming (Boehme 2020).The other states that feature in the game can also be linked, based on certain natural features and the characteristics of the depicted human settlement, to a handful of real-life contiguous US states: Lemoyne (Louisiana, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama), New Hanover (North Carolina), New Austin (Texas and New Mexico), and West Elizabeth (Kansas and Nebraska) (Boehme 2020).Together, these states form a dynamic open world within which the player can move about freely and interact with both the environment and non-playable characters.
The setting of the game is important not just because it situates the game temporally within the context of America's rapid industrialisation and social change at the end of the nineteenth century, but also because of the way it embeds the narrative experience and the player within an authentic, albeit compacted and stylised, game world.While this rendition of the Old West feels true to that world in many ways, "real states, cities and even politicians have alternate, fictional names here, with the creators taking inspiration from a moment but not recreating it precisely" (Plante 2018).The main protagonist for the first part of the game is Arthur Morgan, a high-ranking member of the so-called Van der Linde Gang, led by the charismatic Dutch van der Linde.Through the course of the game, the gang roams across the different states, settling in camps, whence they plan and commit a series of petty and violent crimes.They are described in epitextual marketing material by the publisher as "a gang of criminals, dissidents and free-thinkers who have chosen to reject a corrupt system of power and live instead by their own code.As the price on their heads continues to grow, so does the struggle to remain free" (Rockstar Games 2018).
The main narrative of the game plays out as the player progresses with a series of missions, for the most part as the character Arthur.In this way, the plot operates in a linear and chronological fashion, not dissimilar to those often employed in many novels and films.The main missions in most cases relate to the gang or to one or more of the gang members.The pace at which the player undertakes these missions, however, is entirely set by players themselves, giving one considerable control over the overall pace of narrative progression.
Along the way and scattered throughout the game world, the player encounters numerous opportunities for additional missions or activities that are tangentially related or unrelated to the main narrative thread.These encounters can be found because of the open-world system utilised in the game; the freedom it affords the player for unencumbered exploration and action within the fictional world is why this type of game is also called a "sandbox" game. 5 In the main story missions, side missions, and the free exploration of the game, the player will be drawn into differing levels of narrative involvement, which "concerns the player's engagement with story elements that have been written into a game as well as those that emerge from the player's interaction with the game" (Calleja 2011, 133).It is this added element of "engagement" and "interaction" that contributes to what I am calling narrative enmeshment, grounded in a player's culpability in the choices of the character and the overall route of his character arc.
The player exerts control over the narration time, but the player also exercises a level of control over the narrated time of the story, which can be slowed down or sped up by the player through abstaining for a time from missions or activating them in quick succession.I would argue that when there is careful integration of the main and side mission structures of the game with the complex content of the open world and game mechanics that serve the narrative and content, these types of games can offer players a "tense, beautifully structured story experience" (Stuart 2022a), with the story being not merely a stand-alone aspect of the game, but one deeply integrated into the game as a system.This relies on the way in which humans experience narratives: "the human mind is not inclined to function like a fact-memorization machine but instead operates according to affective association that draws on empathy" (Dowling 2021, 706).There is a simultaneous process through which the player manipulates these elements via the game mechanics and through which these play reciprocally into the process of advancing the narrative and facilitating the player's experience of the game world.These mechanics include the basic control of the character (movement, mounting a horse, physically attacking non-playable characters or animals, etc.) and the character and narrative choices that can be exercised.However, they also include the various roleplaying game elements, such as the improvement of experience levels of the character (health and stamina) and his horse (health and stamina), the improvement of the special combat mechanism ("Dead Eye"), 6 and the acquiring of certain tools used by the character to interact with the world (crafting weapons and clothing, altering or creating ammunition, and making tonics for health, stamina, and Dead Eye, etc.). 7As its title suggests, RDR 2 is about a type of redemption-or at least the option of redemption, which I discuss below.

The Character
The player spends most of the game playing as Arthur Morgan, a thirty-six-year-old high-ranking member of the Van der Linde Gang.Over the course of the game, it is revealed through several conversations between different characters that a much younger Arthur was picked up and taken into the gang by Dutch and Hosea Matthews, whom he becomes attached to as paternal figures.Arthur shows a deep fondness for 6 "Dead Eye" is an ability through which the player is able, for a few seconds, to slow down time in the game world in order to quickly aim and fire a weapon at targets.This ability enables the player to overcome multiple enemies at once, or to compete in a weapons duel (a draw) with a non-playable character.For an example of its use, see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WFIFAnSoR2g.7 Players can also participate in several other activities, including gambling, duelling, and horse taming.
Hosea, while his attachment to Dutch is a combination of paternal and fraternal affection.Their relationships are convincingly presented as long, complex, and real.Hosea himself comments on this during a fishing trip with Arthur and Dutch in Chapter 3 of the game, where he refers to himself and Dutch as "the curious couple", and Arthur as their "unruly son".The nature of Dutch and Arthur's relationship is one of the central dramatic conflicts in the narrative, and the player is privy to a series of scenes in which Arthur's initial loyalty to and appreciation and love for Dutch are demonstrated.Other characters also comment on this, cementing the depth of attachment between these two men.So, for example, Arthur is called Dutch's "most trusted lieutenant" by Agent Milton of the Pinkerton Detective Agency in Chapter 2.
The slow breakdown of their relationship is therefore an important affective element for the duration of the game.
Arthur's development as a character happens on two planes.First, he develops as a character within the narrative.While he initially adheres to Dutch's vision of the West, the United States as a country, and the place of both the Van der Linde Gang and the individual within those spaces, he gradually becomes disillusioned with Dutch's philosophising, and forms a rather more realistic view of himself and the rest of the gang-that is, that they are murderers and thieves.Second, Arthur develops as a playable character.His health and other character attributes (in the role-playing game, rather than in narrative sense) are slowly developed and increased by the player, while his inventory of useable items (such as satchels to hold items, weapons, and tonics) and his horse can be improved by the player through a series of activities.These game mechanics speak to an impact on the player's experience of the narrative, to which I return below.
In terms of being the outlaw generally portrayed in narratives of the Old West, Arthur both embodies and resists notions that might traditionally be associated with such figures.Physically, he is tall, muscular, and ruggedly handsome, with a deep voice and blue eyes.His default outfit is simple and well worn (as compared to Dutch, for example, whose clothing suggests an aspirational bent), reflecting a relatively hard life lived outdoors.The player's ability to alter Arthur's appearance also serves the purpose of allowing the player to have the character reflect the sense of self with which they wish to imbue him-a sense influenced by the player's own horizon of expectations and the way the character is shaped within the game by the narrative events.The player can depict Arthur as simplistic and humble in his appearance, or ostentatious and grand.
A centrally important element of the game mechanics, influenced both by fixed elements of the character and the individual choices made by the player who controls him, is the honour system employed in the game.This is tracked on a quantitative basis and depicted visually as a sliding scale.Actions such as random robbery or (unjustified) killing are considered dishonourable, while helping someone (saving someone from a robbery, giving them directions if they are lost, etc.) is considered honourable.Over the course of the narrative, certain choices will influence Arthur's level of honour.The system works with two poles: honourable on the one end, and dishonourable on the other.During dialogue cut-scenes that the player watches after reaching pre-determined sites or plot points, the player will often be faced with a choice of two actions.For example, in the case of Arthur's interaction with the debtor J. John Weathers, Arthur tracks the man down to collect a debt he owes to the gang.Weathers turns out to have absconded from the army and is tracked down by some of his comrades.Arthur helps Weathers fend off the attackers, and the player is then given the choice to help Weathers (who is accompanied by his pregnant Native American wife) by absolving the debt or persisting and collecting it.Other such interactions include, amongst others, deciding whether to help Mary Winston, an old love interest of Arthur's, with some family troubles, giving a ride to a woman whose horse has died far from a settlement, and sucking the poison out of the snakebite wound of a stranger encountered by the side of a track.In these interactions, Arthur will either increase or decrease his honour, depending on the player's chosen action, moving him closer to either pole on the scale.Being considered honourable or dishonourable will unlock certain benefits in the game.
If the character achieves high honour, Arthur receives discounts at many shops in the game, whereas low honour will allow him to loot higher-quality items from dead bodies.
More important for the argument of this article, however, is the influence that the attainment of high or low honour, respectively, will have on the narrative experience of the player.Whereas the player can assume that certain actions will be considered dishonourable (e.g., robbery, murder, assault, animal cruelty, etc.) and can adapt their actions in the game accordingly, whether certain more specific actions will have any impact in this regard, or what impact they will have, is entirely unknown.Honourable actions and high honour on the one hand, and dishonourable actions and low honour on the other, also influence the cut-scene dialogues in many of Arthur's interactions with other characters.Through their embodiment of the character, the player's emotional experience as a character depends on the types of dialogues Arthur has.Thus, through game mechanics, one is given access to two different types of conversational/dialogic constructions of identity.
These impacts are not just during smaller, individual interactions with other characters, but also feature in the overarching narrative, as, ultimately, Arthur's honour or dishonour will impact the way he dies.If honourable, he will fight Micah, the primary antagonist of the game; however, Arthur will asphyxiate because of his weakened state on account of contracting tuberculosis, while Micah runs off and Arthur sees a last glimpse of a beautiful sunrise.If dishonourable, Arthur will be shot dead by Micah after a brief exchange about how they are very alike, or he will be stabbed in the back with a knife.The honourable death will feel to the player to be a fitting end to Arthur's quest for redemption.The dishonourable death is brutal, and ultimately less satisfying on an affective level.If Arthur is murdered, the player, who has embodied this persona for the whole game, will experience his death as rightfully disruptive to the sense of self one might have formed with the character.As the player, Arthur's death by way of murder means one is denied narrative catharsis and closure in a way that exceeds the limited notion of "immersion" that is so often used to refer to a wide range of narrative genres, including video games. 8 Because of the impact the player can have on playing as honourable (or not), the game also reveals, in addition to the impact on the narrative and Arthur's characterisation, that it is not aiming at a perfect historical recreation of the attitudes and mores of the time the game is set in, but that it takes a rather more modern and progressive approach to certain issues.One example of this is a random encounter with a man in the town of Rhodes that begins the mission "The Inequities of History" (Chapter 3).Jeremiah Compson is a drunk, homeless man encountered near the train station of the town.If the player chooses to engage Compson, who says he "used to be a gentleman", he reveals that his home, Compson's Stead, some way from the town, has been repossessed by the bank, saying that "they" took his "whole life, a whole way of living, a career".Protesting that he was "supposed to live a different life", he asks Arthur to collect a number of "personal mementos" from his house: a watch, an old pistol, and a ledger.By this point in the game, the player will know this world to be a cruel one, and the default view of Compson will be empathetic.The player is able to delay the collection of Compson's items for as long as they like, and any curiosity as to what might be revealed about the narrative world and of Compson himself is entirely within the power of the player.In fact, the player can also choose to never undertake or complete the mission, which means that key aspects of Arthur's characterisation (which I discuss below) are foregrounded for some players and left entirely unknown to others.Finding the watch, but continuing the search for the pistol and ledger, Arthur must fight off two thieves robbing the house, one of whom has Compson's pistol.Thereafter, as Arthur descends some stairs through a trap door in the floor, the pieces of Compson's life come together.In the light of his lamp, Arthur enters a cellar with chains affixed to the walls and support pillars.On one wall hangs a series of whips.Picking up a diary on a nearby sideboard, next to which lies a leather collar, Arthur reads: Well, that's that.I was somewhere near Rhodes when they caught me.'Til the day I die I ain't going to forget the sound of that dog barking at my heels, but I don't suppose that day going to be far off yet.At this point, the player is faced with a choice that demonstrates what I am calling narrative enmeshment: One can leave Compson as he is and ride off.But should the player decide to act on feelings of anger and disgust towards Compson and kill him, he or she will gain some honour-an outcome that is unknown beforehand to the novice player.This paints Arthur as a character with dichotomous, progressive values.On the one hand, he is opposed to racially oppressive systems (and, by extension, readily recognises the humanity of others), while on the other, he is not opposed to corrective killing.Arthur clearly opposes the practice of slavery, which is depicted not just in the side mission involving Jeremiah Compson, but also in another mission in the city of Saint Denis where Arthur-if so decided by the player-helps a monk to free two men who have been enslaved by a shop owner.When initially told about the enslaved men, Arthur replies incredulously: "I don't believe you-it's 1899."Furthermore, there are three other random encounters where Arthur happens upon gatherings of members of the Ku Klux Klan, dressed in their familiar white robes and preparing to burn crosses (even though this is an anachronism, as this practice only started in the Klan after 1915).
In any of these, Arthur can listen to the men speaking, which includes references to the Lost Cause of the Confederacy, "re-establish[ing] sanity and supremacy" and "our sacred cause".In all these cases, Arthur can attack the Klansmen; if he kills any of them, he will gain honour, saying, "Damned hooded rodents.I'll kill all you bastards."Should Arthur not act against the Klansmen, they will inevitably die farcically by the cross falling on them or by accidentally setting their own robes alight.The player therefore has a choice not to engage with the narratives of Compson and the Ku Klux Klan, but the player cannot take an opposite, conservative, and supportive position towards their political views that manifests in the game.The player as Arthur thus becomes complicit in the moral choices of the character but may be unable to specifically pinpoint the moral logic of the game's universe.This allows the player a certain level of personal impact on the character and narrative, with it being left up to the player to decide just how far Arthur's actions will go in determining the expression of his character traits and his narrative endpoint.
Of course, it must be acknowledged that there are limits to the choices a player can effect through playing RDR 2. As the game opens, Arthur is already morally compromised as a member of the Van der Linde Gang.In Chapter 2, he contracts tuberculosis when assaulting a debtor, Mr Downes, whose wife and son are consequently left destitute.This initial mission to collect the debt from Mr Downes is not optional and must be completed to progress the main story.I acknowledge here what Clint Hocking (2009) refers to as ludonarrative dissonance, which is concerned with the disparity between elements of play and elements of story in a game.While Hocking's original discussion (a blog post) concerns another game, BioShock (2007, 2K), the notion of ludonarrative dissonance as a general concept is described by Toh Weimin (2015, 227, 230), who argues that the phenomenon can occur in two ways: The first way involves the information conveyed to the player in relation to the player's choice in the gameworld.The narrative message (interpretation) conflicts with the information conveyed through the gameplay.On the one hand, if the gameplay promotes certain gameplay actions by rewarding it but the character's narrative portrayal (interpretation) conveys an opposite message, ludonarrative dissonance occurs.
[…] The second way is when there are logical inconsistencies between what is conveyed through the gameplay and the narrative.This logical inconsistency can happen between the cutscene's narrative representation or narrative themes of the video game and the gameplay.
In RDR 2, Arthur has no choice but to assault Mr Downes and collect his debt after his death from his bereaved wife and child.This is necessary to progress the narrative.Although I agree with Hocking that this kind of ludonarrative dissonance can disrupt the player's suspension of disbelief, this narrative force of hand in RDR 2 adds to the player's own level of affective experience and influences their choices later in the game.In terms of narrative, which is my primary focus here, I would argue that this is a fair authorial choice on the part of the game developer to steer the narrative in a certain direction, even though it does, of course, remind us that video game narratives also cannot be entirely open-ended. 9 After Mr Downes has died and the player has collected his debt, Mrs Downes and her son might be encountered again in the game world, although the missions related to these encounters are optional, and will only be available if Arthur is honourable (according to the in-game scale).If the player so chooses, Arthur can try to apologise to Mrs Downes, who has had to resort to sex work to survive, while her son works in a coalmine, and he can help her and her son by giving them a large sum of money to try and make a life elsewhere.For most of the game, the player-as Arthur-must work to earn money (by good or bad deeds) to be able to buy certain items from stores (weapons, clothing, provisions, etc.).To therefore give up a large amount of that money will have an impact on Arthur's ability to buy things the player may need or want.So, to have collected the debt from the Downeses in the first place, and to later help them financially, has in-world consequences for Arthur and for the player controlling him.
Initially, when speaking to Mrs Downes in one of the later missions, Arthur tries to justify his actions.He says to her, "This country is man unleashed.That's the thing, and it ain't my fault any more than is anyone else's."Mrs Downes cuts him off, however: "Man unleashed?Then unleash goodness, not just hell's feeble brother, sir."In a moment that seems to speak as much for Arthur as a character as it does for the player set loose within this open-world game, and which will be experienced by players only if they choose to activate these encounters, Arthur responds: "But how?I mean, all I know how to do is fight.I guess ... I was set free to fight."This returns the player again to a key question: Even if playing a morally compromised character in a morally opaque world, why not choose to try and do good?
In his final confrontation with Mrs Downes and her son, Arthur unreservedly apologises, and reveals that he sees his grim lot as punishment for his actions: "I'm sorry for what happened, and I was a … a fool.And I'm suffering for my foolishness."Mrs Downes is not as moved by Arthur's apology as one would have thought: "So 9 As literary scholar, I am inclined to be comfortable with a certain level of authorial control over a narrative.I do recognise that scholars of game studies might be prone to disagree.As mentioned earlier, however, this article is concerned first with aspects of narrative, and so further discussion of these opposing views fall outside of its scope.For an interesting consideration for improving the possibilities of narrative within video games through the creation of what he calls a ludonarrative model, which can avoid the pitfalls of ludonarrative dissonance, see Weimin (2015).
you're sick now too, and you think that affords you the opportunity for penance for cutting his [her husband's] time short?"Arthur admits: "No, I ain't looking for that", and he seems to begin to understand what the cost of redemption will be, as is made clear in the rest of the exchange: Arthur-and the player'sactions throughout the game up until that point in the narrative are thus thrown into sharp relief for the player, even more so if they should choose to have completed the side missions involving Mrs Downes, as their impact in the game world and on its inhabitants also becomes clear.

Setting and Historical Context
The recreation of the American West and South around the end of the nineteenth century is utilised, much like the characterisation is, to accurately portray some issues of that time, while at the same time creating certain links with contemporary issues and thereby ultimately increasing the player's enmeshment in the narrative.RDR 2 is set during the fin de siècle of the Old American West and opens with a brief contextualisation of the conditions at the time: "By 1899, the age of outlaws and gunslingers was at an end.America was becoming a land of laws … Even the west had mostly been tamed.A few gangs still roamed but they were being hunted and destroyed."Although the characters now and again mention the untamed West and lands still mostly undeveloped and sparsely populated, most of the game is not set in the West.A part of the map, the fictional state of New Austin, is mostly desert territory, and seems to be a fictionalised version of parts of Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona, but most of the events in RDR 2 are set further to the south-east of this fictionalised version of the US.The detail and size of the world of the game, in which the player can get lost for hours on end, is perhaps best summarised in Tarryn van der Byl's (2018) review of the game: The world of Red Dead Redemption 2 […] is one of opportunity, a spacious landscape extending from snow-swept crags to sun-scorched mesas, between prairies and woodlands, spanning murky swamps and breezy meadows, farms and towns and dusty wastelands, populated by an equally diverse cast of [non-playable characters]-farmers and traders, barbers and doctors, homicidal hillbillies.[...] It's a stage of unprecedented proportions and evocative grandeur, itself an unfolding narrative of expectations and elusive realisations next to those of its ensemble cast, and an extraordinary sandbox that defines entirely new limits in its genre.
Writing about games set in a particular historical era, Donald and Reid (2020, 16) argue that game developers must carefully include elements in games that "actually existed at the time [the game is set in]", since this has a marked impact on whether the player experiences the game world as convincing.Although games may create an historically accurate version of a certain world-again, much like other media like film, literature, and television can-they are not intended to be a real historical representation of that time, but are rather "an exaggerated version where the application of thought or action is not only up to interpretation, but is often a core mechanic that allows the player to choose options that would not be historically accurate" (Donald and Reid 2020, 16).Donald and Reid recognise the reciprocal influence between historical accounts (relying on fact) and representations of history on our understanding of history.So, they write, "Many people think they know aspects of history that are not even remotely accurate, because they have seen or read about versions or accounts in other media" (2020,17).
What is aimed for in a game such as RDR 2, then, is therefore not historical accuracy, but rather a representation of a certain time and place that is filtered through "the lens of the developers and modern-day perceptions", which Donald and Reid refer to as "historical authenticity" (2020,16,17).A convincing historical authenticity is essential to a player's experience of narrative enmeshment as it "is less about getting the past completely accurate and more about getting the feeling of period and timeline correct" (Donald and Reid 2020, 17), or, as Chris Plante wrote about the game, its creators "[took] inspiration from a moment but [did not] recreate it precisely" (2018).The game allows the player, writes historian Jonathan S.Jones, "to see the past through Arthur's eyes and feel it through his avatar-or at least, an imagined version of American history" (2021, 676-77).As Donald and Reid state, the game "acknowledges the multiple layers of cultural memory associated with the wild west ... from a multitude of perspectives" (2020, 17).Unlike most forms of cultural memory, however, for which we can interpret at best, here cultural memory is imbricated with the player's choicesallowing different shades of cultural memory (certain acts, erasures, etc.) based on contemporary choices and approximations of the moral logic of the game.Through the player's enmeshment in the narrative world, they are offered a complex view of this historical time.
The third chapter of the game is set mostly in the state Lemoyne-the same state where Arthur meets Jeremiah Compson.Interestingly, the game hints that Arthur does not always realise how strong Confederate sentiments and racism still are in the state the gang finds itself in-despite his clear opposition to forms of racial oppression.During a conversation on a mission with Lenny, a young black member of the Van der Linde Gang, Arthur asks him if "it"-meaning his experience of racial prejudice-is "really that different in this state?We haven't come far.These boys [i.e., the Lemoyne Raiders, a gang of Confederate veterans and younger disenfranchised men] have a manner about 'em, but I haven't necessarily noticed."Lenny then comments on the subtlety of the racism he faces: "All respect, Mr Morgan, you wouldn't notice.Might call you a nigger lover, they see us riding like this, but most of it is a … a glance, or a word.And after that, a visit in the night.
[…] Some places down here, they judge differently."Arthur, being a white male, does not pretend to understand, but does say, "I guess it can't be so easy for you, Lenny.I'm sorry you're caught up in this."The attentive player, however, would have noticed that much earlier in Chapter 1, Micah refers pejoratively to Lenny and Charles Smith, a biracial character, as "a bunch of darkies", and later to Lenny as "the boy"-a term which is, within the context of Micah's established prejudice, racially loaded.This means that Lenny's statement that "you wouldn't notice" the racism he faces is directed as much at the player as it is at Arthur.As the narrative continues, the gang becomes involved in an old feud between the Grays and the Braithwaites, two families around the town of Rhodes.Both families own large estates in the area, with homes and farmland clearly inspired in their design by certain former slave states in the southern US; however, like in much of the state, there are palpable signs of a decline in the financial fortunes of both families-particularly the Braithwaites.
The conversation between Arthur and Lenny occurs while they are riding their horses towards a destination where the rest of the mission will unfold.At one point, they pass by Braithwaite Manor, the cotton plantation estate owned by the eponymous family.By looking to the right during the conversation, the player can see in the distance and at the end of a long lane of old oak trees the imposing manor house of the family.Between the player's position and that of the house lie cotton fields-a stark visual reminder of the historical context of the game's setting.Then, just as Arthur and Lenny have passed the Braithwaites' land, they ride through Bolger Glade, where they see the remains of a battlefield-the Battle of Scarlett Meadows of 1864, as is evinced by an in-game newspaper the player can access-dating back to the Civil War.Unobservant players who are intensely focused on the objective of the current mission might miss the subtlety of what is being revealed in Arthur and Lenny's conversation and their ride past a former slave plantation and a Civil War battlefield, but to the more attentive, it is clear enough: Lemoyne was a Confederate state during the War, and in it still linger many of the racist attitudes that were at the very foundation of that conflict.Arthur as a character is blind, so to speak, to a lot of this, and the player can be too.However, should the player notice something such as this that the character has not, the momentary dissonance between player and character might provide the player with greater insight into the character.
The game thus shows an awareness of the limits imposed by Arthur's subject position, and allows that more be revealed through the narrative, events, and characterisation.

Setting and Realism
The detailed socio-political and cultural context depicted in the game can only succeed as part of an attempt to ensure enmeshment of the player if it is supported by a properly fleshed out, historically authentic world.This requires that the physical world in which the characters exist and move around is detailed and varied and provides an authentic version of a part of the US in the era between 1899 and 1907.For the game developer, this entailed not just creating authentic versions of certain ecological regions and human settlements of that part of the world at that time, but also establishing a series of connected systems that could manage the appearance of characters and animals, and the realistic variety of these regions, settlements, characters and animals encountered by the player as they progress through the game.As such, the game includes a system that will mimic a real-world day/night transition, including the concomitant light conditions and the appearance of the moon and sun in the sky, weather conditions (dynamic wind, rain, clouds, lightning, thunder, dust storms), as well as a large variety of fauna and flora.In the case of the animals, each species is detailed and convincing in appearance and behaviour-even in their interaction with other species.This level of sophisticated and complex world-building has been celebrated by reviewers (Bertz 2018;Carter 2018;Hamilton 2018;Jones 2021;MacDonald 2018, McKeand 2019;Meikleham 2018;Navarro 2018;Plagge 2019;Plante 2018;Plessas 2018;Reilly 2018;Reynolds 2018;Takahashi 2018;Van der Byl 2018), with one in particular commenting that the world is "astonishing, affecting and unintentionally funny in the way real life can be" (Plante 2018), and the others also commenting on the comparably detailed sophistication of the humans and human settlements the player will encounter in the game.The depth of the game world has been tested in a quantitative study of players of RDR 2, who noted, similarly to many reviewers, that the game "creates a great feeling of immersion in a world that is alive and dynamic", to the extent that the authors of the study claim that the game, "due to its detailed, open-world simulation of late 19th century North American ecosystems, […] [even] provides opportunities for players to learn about real-world wildlife" (Crowley, Silk, and Crowley 2021, 1229, 1239).The experience for some attentive players went beyond mere "species identification", resulting in players "learning about animal behaviours and interspecies interactions" (Crowley, Silk, andCrowley 2021, 1229).Of the many experiences in the game, the most memorable was reported to be those "associated with RDR 2's immersive environment and ability to provoke emotional responses" (Crowley, Silk, andCrowley 2021, 1229; my emphasis).Over and above the dramatic elements of the story of RDR 2 evoking a series of emotional responses from the player, this dramatic enmeshment is further underpinned by the type of experiences also elicited by the game world itself.
The detailed game world is not just a backdrop against which the dramatic narrative plays out, however.The player is required to engage with this physical world.The time of day and weather conditions reflected can have a marked impact on the player's experience-whether it's being struck by lightning or struggling to aim and shoot because of poor visual conditions due to rain, wind, and lightning.Even the fauna and flora do not just serve to create a game world that feels visually real.Like the game's predecessor, RDR 2 features what Sara Humphreys calls a "representation of a mainly white, masculine, heteronormative world" (2012, 213) that requires the player to play as a character that embodies a rugged life of "'living off the land', in which wildlife is generally considered a natural resource to be harvested" (Crowley, Silk, andCrowley 2021, 1240).Another system therefore exists in the game which includes activities and tasks that can help the character improve skills, replenish health, manage Arthur's constantly growing hair and beard, donate supplies to the gang's camp, and so on.This takes the form of often monotonous tasks such as hunting, fishing, and collecting a series of plants, and using the materials gathered to make certain improved clothing garments and equipment (such as bandoliers and gun holsters), cooking meat to eat, creating health tonics (for the character and his horse), and to improve weapons (creating speciality arrows for hunting animals and fighting enemies, etc.).To hunt successfully, Arthur needs to have a bath occasionally, to help mask his scent from potential prey and to clean his blood-and mud-soiled clothes.Failure to bath will even result in nonplayable characters commenting on the character's filthy state, much like they will comment on a thin and sickly horse that has not been fed and groomed regularly by the player.This is reliant on the systems that govern the appearance and condition of the game world, as well as the systems that regulate the character's physical attributes (health, stamina, and Dead Eye).As with most games, the game compels the player to conduct certain initial tutorials to understand how these systems work, but in a very poignant way, these are often well integrated with the story and character development, as Kallie Plagge (2019) points out in his review of the game: A lengthy series of story missions early on introduces you to some of the ways you can spend your time, including hunting, fishing, horse-rearing, and robbery.There are a lot of systems, and covering the basics takes several hours.While they're not so cleverly disguised as to not feel like tutorials, the actual learning is paced well in its integration with the story, and the missions also acquaint you with the characters and the surrounding area.For example, the fishing "tutorial" has you taking young Jack Marston out for the day, since John is not exactly great at fatherhood.Jack is pure and sweetand incredibly vulnerable to all the gang's wrongdoings-and the mission is memorable for it.
Hence, even in learning how to utilise the in-game systems, the player is enmeshed in both the world and in the narrative.Some aspects of this realism were negatively received by critics.While Matt Reynolds recognises the complexity and technical achievement of the slow realism of the world, such as when skinning an animal and "you see the whole thing from the moment you saw through the skin, pulling it off the animal's flesh right up to the dead carcass swinging and going rotten on your horse's saddle" (2018), the reviewer views many of these mechanics as "a chore", allowing the player to experience things from the protagonist's perspective in a way that cannot be achieved in one's immersion in a novel.Plagge similarly criticises managing Arthur's weight (which has an impact on his stamina and health) as "superfluous rather than conducive to immersion" (2019), and some reviewers complained that the game had no effective "fast travel" system (Meikleham 2018;Takahashi 2018).The game does have a system by which travelling between two points can be done faster, but it is still lengthier than similar systems are in other games, and it can take some time and effort to unlock.Other mechanics that irked reviewers-but which are arguably central to the game's narrative enmeshment-included the controls (of the character and of his horse), the comparative slowness of looting the bodies of enemies for valuables, and the time taken by animations such as when skinning hunted animals.What is clear from the reception of the game is that the level of detail and realism in the game world were appreciated in some instances, but not in others.
My reading of the game's purposeful enmeshment of the player in the narrative counters the criticism against the detailed world.I am not denying some (or even many) players might have found the unrelenting slowness and repetitiveness in service of achieving a semblance of realism annoying or disruptive to their enjoyment of playing the game.However, I agree with Bertz, who writes that the game's "several new mechanics that require you to care for Arthur Morgan, his horse, and his weaponry impart a sense of realism that grounds the experience" (2018).Furthermore, it makes you experience the game-and, by extension, its plot and moral logic-in a way that is much more similar to what is experienced by the character.In fact, I would assert that the ways in which these mechanics operate were deliberate choices on the part of the game developers, as the game is supposed to slow down the playing experience so that the player can take in the more subtle and nuanced aspects of the narrative and characterisation (such as those discussed in the section above).The mechanics in the game serve what Katie Salen and Eric Zimmerman (2003, 383-84) refer to as the "emergent narrative": When interactions within a complex system are coupled, it means that the elements of the system are linked recursively.
[…] The elements in the system act together to perform in ways that single elements cannot.A player's moment-to-moment actions […] are linked to all other actions taken over the course of the game [resulting in] narrative patterns over the entire course of the game.
In RDR 2, the narrative recursion of the actions taken through game mechanics probably becomes most noticeable at the point in the narrative that Arthur learns he has contracted tuberculosis from one of the gang's debtors, and that he will ultimately succumb to the disease.The impact on the character, and, by extension, on the player, is felt not just narratively, with Arthur leaving a doctor's office mulling over his actions as an outlaw and contracting the disease as a consequence of his immoral choices, but also through the game mechanics.From this point in the game onwards, Arthur will become thinner and will develop a sometimes-debilitating cough, with the player unable to increase his weight by any noticeable measure.This will negatively impact his health in that he is more susceptible to injury, and the food, drink, and health tonics previously used to bolster his attributes of health, stamina, and Dead Eye have a greatly reduced effect.
As a result of events in the game, often ones in which the player would have had an active part, sometimes even through choices made, the range of the player's agency is curtailed.Importantly, there is nothing the player can do to avoid this.Here, one can perceive again the careful integration between the game world and the narrative (especially for encounters such as the ones with the Downes family, discussed above), showing how the realism and complexity of the game enmesh the player in the narrative experience.It is notable that the mechanics (and the effectiveness of different interventions, like tonics) are not static in the game.This means that a player is refused easy mastery of the game mechanics to comply with easy goal completion.What worked once works less effectively the next time, hinting at the weakening of the character that the player may also experience.This influences both the playing and the affective experience of the game on the player.

Conclusion
I have argued that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a complex video game.This complexity is vested in the interlinked nature of its technical sophistication and narrative maturity, which ultimately allows the player to experience narrative enmeshment in the game.The player's ability to embody the playable character and protagonist of the game in his quest for redemption heightens the dramatic effect of the story of the Van der Linde Gang, broadly speaking, and specifically of the lot of Arthur Morgan.The game is open to some level of control by the player over narrative and narrated time, giving the player far more authorial command over the handling of time within the narrative experience.
Players thus have an opportunity to reflect on many aspects of this Western tale, including its characters and their relationships; the morality of certain choices and actions; and the consequences, culpability, and effects of these-all within a richly imagined, historically authentic American West at the turn of the nineteenth century.
At the same time, the game pays homage to the genre of the Western, which has been ubiquitous in both the American and the global popular imaginary since around the middle of the twentieth century.Yet the tropes and sometimes problematic imagery of this genre are not uncritically reproduced in the game.Although it is not without faults, RDR 2 depicts what one could say is a more "unvarnished, unillusioned account of [some of] the daily realities of Western life" (Langford 2003, 33).The player is therefore left distinctly impacted by the game's story, while also being aware of the palimpsest of myths that lies at the foundations of some beliefs about the history of the US, including the idea of Manifest Destiny, the impacts of colonialism and slavery, and the lingering effects of these horrors long after their so-called official ends-within the bounds, of course, of what is possible in a popular form such as a video game.
Like film for over a century, and literature for millennia, the comparatively new form of the video game reveals new possibilities for the ways in which stories can be told, but also read, watched, and experienced.Indeed, with the increased technological advancement that has resulted in technically and narratively complex stories in video games, the form itself should rightfully now be considered on a par with literature and film in its ability to move and affect its audience, without necessarily offering, as many would believe, simplistic narratives that are void of innovation or the ability to enmesh the player.As Keith Stuart adroitly points out, for multiple generations, gamers' "route through games, just like [their] route through books, through movies, through sports [they] played or watched, has shaped them" (2022b).Video games have advanced to a point where they can equal their narrative counterparts in film and literature, perhaps even achieving a level of narrative enmeshment in the story yet unattainable by the other, older forms of storytelling.
These include a note with a child's drawing after a talk given by Compson at a church Sunday school and a photograph of a family given as "a token of appreciation for your assistance in the recovery of my Property [sic]" by one Colonel Joshua Nixon of the Ascension Plantation, dated June 7, 1855 and calling Compson "a cunning old dog and a credit to this community".There is a letter to Compson that offers condolences after the death of his wife, and another from Colonel Nixon, dated April 2, 1870, explaining that there is no longer any work for Compson "down here at the plantation", thanking him for the help his "pappy and his pappy's pappy gave [them] before", and stating "these are trying times for all of us.You are in our thoughts and prayers".A note from Compson's son asks him to stay away from his grandson, as "none of us want nothing to do with ya".Another letter dismisses Compson from a job due to "numerous complaints from customers and fellow employees alike" and stating that "there's just no place for a man like you at the Central Union Railroad Company." Compson's Stead is set within the fictional state of Lemoyne, which, based on its geographic features and the presence of the city Saint Denis (a recreation of historic New Orleans) in the state, corresponds closely to Louisiana, incorporating some features and elements of other southern (and formerly Confederate) states.The player can access Compson's home and, through investigation, discover several items that reconstruct his life.8This is whatCalleja (2011, 135)describes as the "affective involvement" of the player in a game.
It was fifty lashings yesterday and fifty more to come.I don't think I can take any more.Man said he was doing his job.Funny kind of employment if you asked me, but I suppose you ain't.Light's fading so that's it for now.I do hope I live to see the end of this War and Justice win out.June '64.Arthur mumbles "God …", as it dawns on him what Compson's "way of living" and "career" were.A ledger on some crates just a metre or two away confirms it: Compson was a slave catcher.Arthur opens it at a list dated 1856, with names and rewards for slaves that had escaped and had been caught and returned by Compson.There can be a slowness to this entire scene and the discovery of who Compson really is, as the slave's diary and Compson's journal will be read out loud by a voice when the player opens them.Players can skip through this to rush to finish the mission but taking more time will result in what Arthur discovers having a far greater impact on the player's understanding of this world and the characters that inhabit it.took pride in my work.They, they, they took it away.Pissed on my legacy."To this, Arthur responds, "Old man, some jobs ain't for saving … and some legacies … they are for pissing on."Arthur throws Compson's ledger into the fire, with Compson shouting in dismay, "What are you doing?That's, that's my history."He grabs the gun from the fire, and tries to fire it at Arthur, but the gun no longer works.He mumbles, "Damn you.Damn you," as he weeps pathetically over the fire.
Returning to Compson, who is camping on a hillock, one hears him talking to himself as one approaches the tent.His tone is both resentful and is marked by a kind of apologism and historical revisionism: "They forgot about us … just when they needed us, they threw us away, like … like shit on their boot.Times wasn't perfect, ain't saying that … it's just … It's all … it's all gone to hell … Wrack and ruin … wrack and damned ruin."Confronted by Arthur, who is clearly bristling with contempt, Compson asks, "Don't you understand?Those bastards, they changed everything.I was a good worker.I Mrs Downes: "Okay then, so just forget about me and the guilt you're carrying, because no good can come of that for either of us.All you can do now is decide the man you want to be, for the time you have left.Help someone who can still be helped, or help yourself."Arthur:"I suppose you're right."MrsDownes: "Or hang yourself, for all I care."Arthur:"You're right to dislike me.I ain't looking for that to change."AsArthur again offers her money, and she again refuses, he insists that he "ain't looking for forgiveness.It ain't about that.Don't forgive me, just take the money and get outta here, please.I know I ruined your life.I suffer for it every day, but don't let yourself get killed for ... for pride.I seen it kill too many folk."Mrs Downes and her son take the money and depart.It again bears mention that this encounter is optional for the player, and yet, by seeing this final encounter with Mrs Downes and choosing to help her, further depth is added to the emotional weight felt by Arthur and the player for Arthur's misdeeds.Following this encounter, the rest of the narrative unfolds, and Arthur ultimately dies.Later, the player can learn from the in-game newspaper that Mrs Downes and her son became successful business owners.