Is the completely made up, best-the-fans-can-do-title Red Dead Renegade confirmed? The Red Dead Redemption 2 ( RDR2 ) rumors continue to fly after Rockstar Games followed up yesterday's teaser tweet with another that dispels all rumors about GTA V DLC . The new tweet shows seven figures standing against a sunrise (sunset?). It’s definitely RDR2 related (or a Red Dead Redemption remake?) Speculate away:
— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) October 17, 2016
Reddit has been losing its collective shit, of course , with fans putting their best guesses out about what the new Red Dead from Rockstar will be called. Spoiler: there’s a lot of Rs. Red Dead Revenge , Red Dead Retribution and Red Dead Renegade are popular theories given the betrayal suffered by John Marston in 2010’s Red Dead Redemption . Doubly so due to the game's epilogue featuring Marston’s son, Jack, killing one of the men responsible for the crime.
So let me throw my cowboy hat in the ring and posit a Red Dead Seven title theory. There's seven figures in the image, and anyone with even a passing knowledge of Westerns knows of The Magnificent Seven (especially thanks to the godawful remake currently in theaters). It'd be a nice homage to the films that inspire the game. And a Revenge story featuring Jack Marston and a gang of Renegades getting violent Retribution would fit the existing narrative and title theories.
There’s also the chance it’s a prequel involving John Marston’s former gang, or even a remastered version that grants the Red Dead Redemption PC release the Master Race is so thirsty for. The best case scenario is both: a confirmed RDR2 release that also comes with the news a remastered Red Dead Redemption will be released in the meantime to keep the hype train running full steam ahead. It is backwards compatible now , so they must have seen a surge of interest.
Of course, this is all speculation until Rockstar confirms the game. But let's not let that stop us! Because, like many of you, I've got some pent up feelings about RDR2 . I love the franchise. I think most of us did. And now we've had six years to build hype in our minds . So what could we see next?
For starters, I think we're getting a release sooner rather than later. Look at Fallout 4 . Bethesda stayed silent for years, and then released the game within a year of the announcement. And the new Red Dead is experiencing the same hype. We've been waiting for years and the longer Rockstar waits the more we’ll pick things apart. Instead of throwing scraps to anxious fans, and run the risk of long term PR mistakes, I think Rockstar will mimic Bethesda and come through quickly once the official RDR2 release announcement is made. I wouldn't even rule out a surprise 2016 launch. It'd be unprecedented, but that's kind of Rockstar’s thing.
In terms of what kind of game RDR2 will be, I'd point fans to The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt . On the surface it seems crazy, but hear me out. The open world horsey-ness is exactly what I’d expect from the new Red Dead . Galloping from town to town, city to cave, taking bounties off of wooden boards and encountering murky ethical dilemmas on the road. Replace the swords with guns and the armored goons with cowboy goons and I think you see my point. And, since The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt is, in my humble opinion, the best game of this console era , I think a new Red Dead that models itself on that game world will live up to the considerable hype.
There are some potentially disastrous outcomes too. Mainly, that what we’re seeing is an image for an online only RDR2 experience. Rockstar has been making all the money off of GTA Online microtransactions , and many fans blame the runaway success for the lack of GTA V single player DLC and the until-now-non-existent RDR2 . So a gang of seven cowboys could be a hint that we’re headed for an online-only, shared world shooter experience. Again, I hope for a The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt experience that is all about the single-player, but what’s a hype train without a few unfounded fears?
All we can do is follow Rockstar’s social media accounts, post our crazy rants on reddit and elsewhere and keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow is the day we get a trailer for Red Dead Renegade - the all-new entry in the bestselling franchise with a special Red Dead Redemption remaster pre-order bonus. Or we just wait, like we’ve been doing for the past six years.
Are you on the RDR2 hype train yet? Too jaded to get happy and anticipating a microtransaction screw job? Wanna argue about console exclusivity, too? Let us know in the comments!
