GTA V’s iconic trio of protagonists in Michael, Franklin, and Trevor were a game-changing addition to the Rockstar formula. While the upcoming GTA 6 has a similar idea with the duo of Lucia and Jason, Red Dead Redemption 2 opted to focus on one sole protagonist in the form of Arthur Morgan.
While the return to a single playable character—for the most part—wasn’t an issue for the vast majority of fans, it was a worry for Rockstar. As Rockstar North co-lead Rob Nelson told TroisColeurs, many developers were worried that players would see the return to one character as a downgrade.
“We always look back at the last games and think about how to evolve on them and move them forward,” the developer said. “And so, with GTA V, with three protagonists that were connected but individual in their own way, and then going to Red Dead Redemption 2, which was obviously Arthur’s story, we were slightly nervous people were going to be bored with just one protagonist.”
Nelson explained that multiple people did have the expectation that the open-world Western would offer more than just one playable character. As a prequel focusing on Dutch’s gang, there was an expectation that players would be able to jump between Dutch, John, and others, but that was never the plan.
“We did have people ask, ‘are you going to be able to switch between multiple members of the gang?’” Nelson recalled. However, now that Red Dead Redemption 2 has been such a monumental success, the developer explains that the worries surrounding the option for a sole protagonist “feels funny now”.
While three protagonists may be more immediately exciting than one, Nelson explained that Arthur Morgan “worked as a character” and the decision to focus entirely on him gave the team a chance to “really drill into his story”. While GTA 6 is moving to have two protagonists, the work the team did with Arthur’s solo story is having an impact on the studio’s next game.
“We wanted to take the depth that we were able to add into the world of Red Dead Redemption 2 and the ability to interact with the world in a much more significant way,”Nelson said, “but then also this sort of emotional connection that people end up having with Arthur. Is there a way that we bring that into GTA, and how could we do it? So, we had played around with different ideas; we knew we wanted to come back and continue playing with the idea of multiple protagonists.”
In the years since its release, Red Dead Redemption 2 has become one of the best-selling games of all time. While Rockstar were worried that many fans would be bored by the cowboy adventure, it’s heralded by millions as one of the best games ever made. Crucially, it also has one of the best stories in a video game as well.
