AWS outage
Oct. 20th, 2025 10:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
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Edit: all services are running as of 16:12 CDT, but there is definitely still a backlog of notifications to get through.
Edit 2: and at 18:20 CDT everything's been running normally for about the last hour.
That being said, what I did see of the first segment was just a couple stray huhs before it was over. The fact it just... ended like that within 2 minutes of me clicking (and no real jokes) suggests that they might not have tried too hard at the start.
The show is getting more craftier with replicating the older look.
It’s interesting because the Krusty segment took place in ‘95 (7th season) and the segment looked like one of those ancient YouTube rips of a 2002 episode.
I’m not sure who on the modern staff got hyperfixated on this in the first place, but it’ll be interesting if this approach makes its way into Simpsons Movie 2.
Krusty segment with Idris was the relatively more acknowledgeable one. The show has toyed around with “Simpsons, but plastic” more than once already, so there’s not much for me to do besides stare at the screen.
No particular segment to me was joke heavy. They give you less and less to talk about every year so.. I don’t know. Maybe I’ll throw on an older Treehouse of Horror to watch so that I can laugh and actually feel some human construct emotion.
It’s my obligation as an atheist to be smug about the implication that Christianity’s suddenly been hijacked when it’s always been a hateful conservative threshold.
This, in turn, is shot down with the fact it’s MAGA now specifically. Here’s the thing..... we’ve suffered Trump’s campaign for a fucking decade now, basically.
Separation of Church and State means as much to me as the second amendment did for that buzzard who took a neck shot for the second amendment. Hence why I applauded the premiere in the first place.
General consensus: Present day, still one of the best DLCs of all time.
Vast majority, yet again: The greatest zombie game ever produced.
For myself? It has stayed the quintessential Halloween experience each and every year.
Downloadable Content hadn’t taken off until this era of gaming with Xbox 360.
Rockstar Games had already been instantaneously ahead of the curve with Grand Theft Auto IV’s Episodes From Liberty City. (The Lost And Damned/The Ballad of Gay Tony)
This was also an era of gaming - - and really just a general statement on ‘09 and 2010’s pop culture; Everything was zombies...
There were people who couldn’t stand Walking Dead and all the oversaturated zombie stuff... but still couldn’t dispute Red Dead’s high quality with this expansion pack.
- - - - - - - - - -
Episodes From Liberty City set in force a complete narrative saga for GTA IV, often crossing over Niko’s story until TBOGT brought a more lighthearted conclusion.
Undead Nightmare... separate universe... alternate timeline. That whole spiel.
But in the same breath, Undead Nightmare takes place spot-on at the end of Redemption.
The approximate timeframe being after Dutch’s death, but before John was killed.
EFLC was more or less produced with the intent of “yeah, of course you’ve played Niko’s story already.” Only, you could eventually buy a separate disc of those expansions, and not even have to previously own Grand Theft Auto IV. Though, it’d be very weird, and selling the experience drastically short if you did.
Undead Nightmare’s a shameless direct sequel. It provides additional closure and a completely different badass story for a protagonist who was already beloved by this point.
It’s a healthy mix of not taking itself too seriously and also understanding key things that made Redemption entertaining.
Like yeah. This has zombies, undead wildlife like the already existing bears + cougars, Chupacabra and Sasquatch you can hunt.
But I LOVE what really sets it apart from Redemption’s usual grit would be the knockoff Vincent Price narration at the very beginning. I’m more appreciative of that now than when I first played in 2010.
The beginning gives you a lengthy cutscene with John enjoying the company of Jack and Abigail.
Redemption’s ending was so focused on the gut punch of Marston losing himself after only just getting his family back. So it’s a very nice thing to get this brief glimpse of John cherishing what’s ideally his paradise in the moment.
I’d say if Undead Nightmare overall truly was John Marston’s purgatory and hell, then what you see of him and his family alive as a unit was his heaven.
Angelic music playing when John’s zoning out, interrupting Jack’s foreshadowing. I love that because the foreshadowing from the contents of Jack’s books was important for the main game, but here it is not. To the player, John had already died. So it’s an unsung detail for him to not even take in the bad this time around. He doesn’t need to hear how the story ends, he’ll be guided toward it in short time.
The first undead to make the scene, and the one to alter the timeline was Uncle.
A cowboy who just left the ass-end of the 1900s isn’t gonna know what in the fuck a zombie is. John just sees his freeloading tenant eating the shit out of his wife’s neck and kills the old man in self defense.
By the time both Abigail and Jack are infected, John trades his gun for a rope and ties both of them up.
Played for good laughs. They’re tied up whilst howling for blood and he leaves plates or steak and fucking orange juice before boarding up the bedroom and embarking on a cure.
You’re given the same motivation of saving the wife and son like in the main story. Except in these circumstances it’s not a hostage situation, and John has the comfort of knowing exactly where the two are while he’s out in danger.
Edgar Ross for that matter doesn’t exist as far as you can tell. For where it counts, anyway.
The circumstances of John’s death stay the same, but John’s mortal enemies are not given the satisfaction of tormenting or even clouding his judgment while stuck in this dimension.
The only point where the mask nearly falls off are when John’s testing the barriers with failed results.
The aftermath of Dutch is simply referred to as “that Van Der Linde operation.” Generic soldiers might be aware of it, but it’s something that mostly exists in the corner of John’s mind.
John makes one joke about Bill Williamson, and only then was he treated like he was from another planet.
The villains of the past weren’t needed to be put to rest, but much of the key cast from the original still returns. Just with very limited material.
Bonnie MacFarlane upon revisiting her ranch will mention the trouble in West Elizabeth. She’s subliminally talking about the attack that happened to John.
The missions with the returning characters are all structured like Stranger encounter tasks, and that’s the most underwhelming aspect, story wise.
You can tell Rockstar had the bandwidth and the coding to pull off a fun game mode, but there’s a significant lack of budget where you’ll just be doing things with John, and not having the time for any back-and-forth dialogue or teamwork in missions.
I complained about Landon Ricketts last time and he’s arguably even worse here. You give him undead bait tonic as well as some dynamite and that’s literally it. Suddenly all the shit and indifference he had for John is absent, albeit the smug is more deliberate and noticeable. Of course the cutscenes were entertaining, but in some cases like with Ricketts, all it would end with would be one or two cutscenes. They just didn’t have all the money in the world to do what they really wanted, and that problem becomes prominent the more you play through the campaign.
The worst would be Nigel West Dickens, one of the most fun characters returning to sell fake elixir to the citizens...... and all you do for him is collect flowers you can already find in the base game. It’s such needless and barebones time waste when you know just from the actual missions you had done with Nigel before that it could’ve been way more exciting.
This horror story wouldn’t be complete without Seth Briars. He fits in more than naturally and manifests plenty of the surrealism being shown. Seth implements gameplay objectives that already needed to be fulfilled, but the mission setup was at least done more tastefully.
I didn’t understand at first why the zombies played cards and danced with Seth besides absurdity sake, but then it clicked how often he’d talk kindly to the bodies he was exhuming. John naturally saw Seth as insane (and he was), except Marston himself overlooked being responsible for plenty of bodies reaching cemeteries in the first place. I think Seth made it a point somewhere that he was the only one giving those poor bastards company in a long time. Which yeah, demented Ed Gein serial killer behavior. But if anything, the undead make Seth less lonely and more alive.
Most of what you’re doing with or without story missions would be saving every last town from zombie herds, cleansing graveyards and rescuing survivors from further attacks.
Money currency does not exist in DLC, and you realize quick how scarce ammo can be when there’s no shootouts and no merchants to back you up.
Cryptic doomsday graffiti on the town buildings range from literal context of zombies taking over, to just stuff left over from Marston’s personal dire. Dutch’s last words being one of the graffiti choices.
The honor and fame system is gone entirely, guess it was more convenient when John was among the living.
Rockstar’s satire blended in swimmingly for the genre leap.
The townsfolk that previously respected and admired John were now timid idiots blaming the outbreak on Jews and foreigners. A good handful of on-screen deaths are a direct result of them all being such dumb motherfuckers.
A fan favorite sidequest was R* delivering on past speculation from Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. GTA players who attempted hunting for Bigfoot in the forest would find Sasquatch in Undead Nightmare for real this time. The achievement was called “Six Years in The Making” because it was on the dot six years after San Andreas had released. A meme in the Rockstar world ever since!
So much from amateur zombie films had been embraced.
The music was always a strong hallmark for Red Dead, so you get a good dosage of Pulp Fiction style surfer rock.
In spite of any shortcomings, it’s played very straight like an old Halloween special should.
The cause of the curse is revealed to have been egotistical Abraham Reyes taking an Aztec artifact from its burial so he could obtain immortality.
The original game had Reyes go from being a funny asshole to someone who would starve and kill his citizens in the years to come, so this was a way to dial that back a little and still keep him cartoonishly on brand.
The final mission stopping Reyes (Bad Voodoo!!) and advancing in the catacombs to return the artifact just feels nice replaying every year.
For gameplay purposes, you’re obviously not going to buy a DLC with zombies and then finish it with what you paid for being gone.
But you do get the satisfaction of John Marston singlehandedly ending the apocalypse and returning to his family in loving arms.
- - - - - - - - - -
[On a Pale Dead Horse]
Again. Gameplay purposes.
The plot ends on an ambiguous few months of normalcy before John’s eventually killed, and Seth takes the artifact precisely as Abraham did before.
John being buried with holy water that protected his soul.
Despite the artifact still being stolen with no way of once again returning it, Aztec gods have not forgotten John. Everyone left alive can only see Zombie Marston as the human he was before death. Only the undead can recognize that he too has left the ways of all flesh.
It’s a great way to end off, even if most would just reload a save game where John is still alive.
Does leave you with some... interesting implications about the ‘back to normal’ phase with the world that you can’t really see.
When John returned to Jack and Abigail, the wife and son had no recollection of not being with the living besides going a little crazy. John’s words to calm them down supposedly worked once their curse had been lifted.
So that leaves you to wonder if the people who survived still have their memories of the curse intact, or if they’d only recognize the vast amount of bodies Marston had left. If it would all just be a way of going full circle to blame John for murders.
Not too clear how much time John had left in those last few months, but a grace period nonetheless. Suppose for the original that you never had to do the last mission right away.
It’s stayed in my top 5 since its release in 2010, and I wanted to post in full about it awhile ago, but it’s a fairly exhausted topic.
Most games by Rockstar, I’ve picked up per its release date. The last, Red Dead Redemption 2, arriving when everything became all digital anyway, so it was the mere click of a button. Not in the case of the original title, where I’d roll over to the shit-pit that was GameStop and grab something where the physical cover alone was enough to solidify a ‘wow.’
My last replay of this campaign was sometime after my one and only playthrough of the sequel back in 2018 - - really 2019 on count of how late in the year 2 came out.
This time around, I’m revisiting after a very extensive replay of Grand Theft Auto IV (2008).
GTA IV specifically was very much the blueprint for both Redemption’s world, and just how the story of John Marston would be delivered. Both titles brought on a high definition era and redefined many of its qualities.
There would be no John Marston without Niko Bellic, so I’m going to focus a lot on that aspect instead of the sequel that simply expanded on something that had already existed and thrived for years.[New Austin Chapter]
“We die alone, but we live among men.”
IV and Redemption begin with our lead hero exiting a boat, exhibiting very different, yet equally sinister slices of the supposed “American Dream.”
John Marston isn’t given the same luxury of wanting revenge. He’s ordered to enact such a thing for Bureau agents not wanting to get their hands dirty.
John already had his life of crime, something he left long ago. Only through sudden intimidation and kidnapping of his loved ones was John forced to confront his past head on.
In contrast to the predecessor, Red Dead Redemption’s introduction barely wastes any breath. A simple, stand-alone depressing stroke of a piano is the choice of music you are first greeted with. The end of the west.
John doesn’t mutter a single word until you get to the gameplay. For the first few minutes, you’re left with train passengers discussing good and evil, alongside aviation.
Ultimately, you couldn’t ask for a more appropriate start to this adventure.
In spite of what’s at stake, Marston’s in control of the narrative. John’s motives and ambitions are all heard from John’s mouth as he’s riding horseback. You never get it second hand, and that’s immediately what defines him as a protagonist.
Something that’s stuck with me forever since first playing was John initially confronting former friend Bill Williamson at Fort Mercer. You’re naturally used to the Rockstar main lead being vulgar and snippy on the automatic, but here you’re given someone who genuinely wants the best out of the situation.
John’s former gang, the Van Der Linde gang, wasn’t something they precisely mapped out for you from the beginning. It’s meant to be a subject that only expands as you go along. For the sake of the beginning, Bill Williamson is the big and bad.
Most of the GTAs begin with a betrayal, or lead up to a big betrayal in the following acts. And while it’s something that still happens in this game as well... central betrayal had already happened off screen.
Bonnie MacFarlane: Red Dead Redemption’s introductory guardian angel and tutorial guide.
Given their charming chemistry and the fact she’s the first lady, let alone first loyal acquaintance John’s shown to have in RDR... the player would naturally reach the conclusion that they’d be a great couple. And I’m glad the relationship was never reduced to such a thing.
Bonnie’s voice isn’t always the most pleasant to listen to, but she is a part of the more positive female portrayals in games. She’s entirely honest and keeps to a lifestyle that doesn’t ‘condemn’ her. Let alone how happy she is with it, even when she knows the business has problems.
GTA IV either had commentary on misogyny, or otherwise simply had misogynistic humor. A good foil Niko had would be his best friend’s sister. She grew up in a house full of Irish gangsters for a family. Her key source of function in the plot was how she looked at someone else who’s fucked up, and the killing didn’t impress her.
Roman Bellic gets to a point where he pleads for his cousin to give up the violence and vengeance; Kate McReary’s the one who knows pleading doesn’t work. Kate’s a positive portrayal as she’s the only one to point out Niko’s bullshit to his face multiple times. And she does this while respecting Niko Bellic the person, not Niko Bellic the killer.
You get A LOT more of this in Red Dead Redemption.
Niko’s so invested and praised in contract killing all around Liberty City that he develops an ego by the time he’s barely stepped foot in the central island.
ALL of the Redemption characters brush off John Marston’s bounty hunter & gunslinger skills. And I do mean every single one. In his world, any man can do that. Thinly veiled threats are muttered from time to time, but Marston typically doesn’t consider himself as anything special. With or without the reputation of an outlaw.
The player doesn’t fully know yet about Marston’s already existing farm in Beecher’s Hope.
John helps out MacFarlane’s Ranch by any means. Even climbing and jumping inside a burning barn to free all of the trapped horses. In doing this, Marston doesn’t ask anything from Bonnie, other than to be a friend and potentially help his own business in the future.
John goes from owing 15 dollars for the doctor bill (lol) to being someone the MacFarlanes are in tremendous debt towards, just out of loyalty.
Bonnie can’t help in the Williamson pursuit, but she does direct you over to Marshal Johnson in the town of Armadillo.
By the time you reach Armadillo, at least back then... that was your first go at exploring the map early on. You’d have no idea how big the world truly is. The mountain path leading into the town by itself was fucking beautiful, even now. Forget the sequel. Games today seriously struggle maintaining the art direction of something close to decades old.
Redemption’s towns and regions nail exactly how it’s like in the old movies. I think that’s a key difference that helps. With Number 2, you’re playing a blatant hyper realistic western shooter RPG. Here, you’re playing something timeless, and you’re playing a Clint Eastwood flick all at once.
Marshal Johnson, again, adds to the immersion. He’s played off very much identical to how he would be played in any random spaghetti western.
You could say I have a better understanding of Marshal and Marston’s dynamic now compared to launch. He had more reason to be skeptical of Marston than other characters. He makes it known. I always enjoyed the comradery but I understand it’s not purely for comradery sake.
Probably says something that with corruption and deadly gangs leaking about, this former gang member was the best thing to have happened to the town, as well as the region in a long time.
Strangers (and Freaks) was a gameplay element first featured in GTA IV that made its way here. Became the norm for HD era Rockstar.
GTA IV Strangers, you’d just find a random character on the street, drive them somewhere or have a scripted gunfight, and you’d be done.
Red Dead, basically I could do without being forced to play Liar’s Dice, or be forced to grab some random herbs in the middle of no where. All to really just get one extra cutscene.
There are a couple Strangers that are so obscure that the casual player would’ve never known they existed. There’s one where you buy the freedom of a Chinese slave and then wait a couple days before you find him high on opioids.
John helps people in Red Dead because he wants to be useful with a head on his shoulders, although Red Dead gets about as cynical, if not, more cynical than IV sometimes.
Two people stranded in the desert. One thought “God” would help her, the other so stubborn about going by his own directions that he puts a gun to your head so you won’t help him. At least one of them was definitely very dead after repeat encounters (starved), but John always just left with his tail tucked tight. If you were getting help from Niko Bellic, it’s almost not an option. I think Niko can be more persistent, and John often reaches the conclusion that some, like himself, are beyond saving.
Red Dead Redemption debuted with this edge of an honor + fame system. Halfway into all of my past playthroughs of this game, I’ve had John be regarded as a gunslinger and a hero. By the end, NPCs around towns will know and respect John Marston’s name. Nuns will gift him. One guy I saved found me at another time and gave me 54 dollars just because he wanted to.
I’ve never known anyone - a single person - to have ever played John with low honor. The system’s more or less there to encourage as well as reward you for being good during gameplay.
Marston encounters a figure known only as the Strange Man; Top hat with mustache and elegant suit. Not of this world. He’s a figment of the afterlife who’s tallying John Marston’s sins.
Besides some of the world’s most powerful foreshadowing, this was an impressive feat for Rockstar to play around with supernatural elements.
I’m always fascinated by the harshness of Strange Man’s encounters. 100 good deeds from John Marston inevitably fails outweighing just one massacre. John’s alive in the moment, and yet his life is remarked as already gone when speaking to this entity. Nothing about it is over-the-top or overtly antagonistic, which is part of why it’s so damn chilling. Phenomenal “look in the mirror” storytelling that actually works.
Marston & Johnson’s attempts at apprehending Williamson had shown to be messy.
While the game paints this picture that Bill Williamson’s an uncultured half-wit... his gang is shown to break into innocent people’s homes. Raping the women and hanging/mutilating the men.
The women that survive take righteous anger in the Marshal Johnson.
There’s also the separate event where John saves Bonnie MacFarlane from being hanged by Williamson’s men in a ransom trap. Was never too fond of that mission, but understand why they did it.
The tortured women of Ridgewood Farm provided a more substantial stance on John being delusional that his past way of life would never have always resorted to that.
John will describe his time in the Van Der Linde gang in the same robinhood esque fashion, but also suppress Dutch’s brutality as it hits too close for comfort.
John Marston had to band together a team to stop Bill’s terrorism, and this is where the chapter takes a much crucial lighthearted derail.
Besides the support of the Marshal, you gather the allegiance of a snake oil salesman (Nigel West Dickens), a literal madman exhuming bodies at cemeteries for treasure (Seth Briars), and a drunken Irishman known only as... Irish.
The story advances where Bill Williamson, now on his own, flees to Nuevo Paraíso to reunite with Javier Escuella; the other wanted ex-member of the Van Der Linde gang.
John Marston’s going to Mexico...
The music that plays during battles of this whole chapter in general is still out of this world. Real heavy on the sax!
John Marston arrives into the town of Chuparosa. (My favorite destination in the entire game)
Landon Ricketts is a vain, prolapsed anus.
He’s the in-universe folklore legend who simultaneously has the most obnoxious fucking self-absorbed opinion of himself.Just because Landon’s modeled after Lee Van Cleef and can handle himself doesn’t mean he carries any actual wisdom.
Ricketts moved and retired to somewhere that had been more convenient for him to settle quietly,
He says all this unwarranted catty shit to John out of his own insecurities. All the big talk, and mind you; Landon Ricketts is no where to be found when the Revolution really pops off. He’s around and in your ear for a whopping 3 missions and then fucks off into nothingness.
You’re supposed to value the dynamic of this duo when I don’t believe either truly enjoy the company. John very much knows right away that Landon’s an entitled asshat who can’t handle being a wash up. At least Marston works on a goal without begging you to know his name is John Marston.
Landon Ricketts makes scarce, not before introducing you to Luisa Fortuna. A teacher and a noble woman amongst the rebels. She will be important later.
John’s real first order of business in the Williamson/Escuella pursuit was reaching the town of Escalera and seeking help from the Mexican army.
Marston meets with Vincente De Santa, as well as Colonel Agustin Allende.
Allende was a sadistic, genocidal rapist of a military leader, with De Santa being an equally morally bankrupt accomplice as the Colonel’s captain in command.
There’s enrichment to be had with this part of the game as you’re really seeing the psyche of evil, and how a government rooted in evil tend to treat their own side shitty.
Allende and De Santa are men who laugh in your face, smile and only speak of promises that they’d never intend on truly delivering.
Only, De Santa’s shit-eating grin typically goes right away the second Allende yells at him like a dog.
The other army captain, Espinoza doesn’t at all hide the fact he’s got no respect for De Santa.
These men at the end of the day are all responsible for killing hundreds of rebels and burning their homes, and then you have this short stubby fascist with an eyepatch who hates his rival captain’s homosexuality. They’re all just very mean pieces of shit that have somehow existed as a function for that long.
In the grand scheme of things, Javier Escuella was Allende’s vital muscle for quite some time, and you were foolish to believe the Colonel was going to give that up. Whether or not Allende could deliver on Williamson and Escuella wasn’t the point. He was never going to.
John is lead on for awhile longer. Realizes on his own that he was killing undeserving, throwing fire bottles into houses just for him to not be respected.
Meeting with Luisa Fortuna reveals the true hardships of honest rebels during your violent escapades with their common enemy. Luisa’s father was killed. Her underaged sister, you have to escort out of the country with bullets flying everywhere. Like many others, the Fortuna family home would not be seen standing much longer.
You’re tasked with saving Reyes from his arranged execution on the grounds of El Presido.
Army officials dead. Reyes now allied with Marston.
Something very amusing about the time spent with De Santa and Reyes is seeing two smarmy guys speaking ill on each other.
Luisa has this cruel running gag at her expense that she’s never made aware of. She has you break Reyes free, thinking the two will eventually marry when they claim their freedom. Abraham when left alone can never remember Luisa’s name. If she’s not “Laura” she’s “a peasant girl with a tight cunt.”
In spite of the cruel gag, Luisa isn’t any less of a genuinely honorable person in this story, and I’ve always been more than happy with such.
Abraham Reyes is dark comedy in general. You’d think good and evil would be set in stone for this whole chapter, but being with this rebel leader takes you to this sharp nihilist turn. The best motivational speaker towards freedom is a simple womanizer who’d have a gold statue of himself if he could.
One thing John found troublesome. He speaks to Reyes about his motives. Marston’s past life in the gang. His former leader, Dutch’s descent into madness. Abraham obtains first-hand knowledge of Dutch’s horrible ways, and propels to wanting to shake Dutch’s hand. Abraham by himself shouldn’t go unmonitored, but John vaguely seeing another Dutch in the making is, well... yeah. It’s fucked.
You meet back with De Santa some odd days later where him and Allende deliver “good news.”
Bill Williamson and Javier Escuella captured in Chuparosa, which definitely isn’t a trap. Yep. It’s a trap.
Turns out going against government’s orders would get you killed. But credit where credit’s due... fucking Abraham Reyes saved Marston’s life with a rifle in hand.
Espinoza’s immediately killed by John ahead of the betrayal... and eventually De Santa meets his end at the cemetery of Sepulcro. A good thing Seth wasn’t there to take his badge and uniform.
Surprisingly, suddenly the rebels aren’t so weak in the fight after all.
And unlike the army... Reyes is the one to deliver on the location of Javier Escuella.
It’s a bitter reunion, but John finally gets to confront Javier for being left behind in the past. While you can’t evade what needs to be done, some semblance of closure is there.
Javier’s death will bring on the first appearance of bureau agents Edgar Ross and Archer Fordham since the very beginning of the game.
John was not at all happy with what had happened. However, this just left unfinished business with Bill Williamson before the work in Nuevo Paraíso was done.
The war had reached its climax in Escalera.
Burnings, bodies on the street, gun squads. No matter.
Luisa was a casualty and hero of Mexico, even if Abraham kept calling her Laura.
You use the army’s own gatling gun against them with glorious victory.
Williamson and Allende flee the Colonel’s mansion, only this time - - no one was getting away.
In a last ditch effort after the wagon breaks down, Agustin Allende takes his sword and “captures” Bill Williamson for you to claim.
*Allende dies from Marston headshot*
“Alright, John. I’ll come quietly...”
*Bill falls from the shots of John’s cattleman revolver*
At last, the Revolution was won, and the journey in Mexico was now complete.
Abraham Reyes becomes the new leader, and soon-to-be dictator of the land.
While disheartening that things might not really change for the better after all, John still urges Abraham to use his powers for good before bidding farewell.
The game obviously doesn’t end here, but this chapter high and low is the undisputed peak. It’s the one part of the game you really get to soak in and enjoy. Of course, I’m biased. I’m Salvadoran and so the Spanish was much appreciated. A great dive into culture that the original westerns, ie the source material otherwise shittily executed.
I’m sure I’d feel the same way still if I was actually born in the United States to boot.
Even though most of the chapter’s characters were assholes... that alone doesn’t make them bad characters. I didn’t like when GTA TBOGT called me a four letter word that I’ve been called before while walking around my own neighborhood. So this made up for that. I applaud them refraining from easy below-the-belt stereotypes and instead applied negative attributes that were constructive as well as coherent to the plot.
John Marston rides off away from Mexico into the sunset.
The Colonel’s body laying deserted in the middle of the trail...
- - - - - - - - - -
[West Elizabeth]
“Our time has passed, John.”
Marston’s back to where it all started in Blackwater, answering to agent Ross and Fordham.
Back in the United States for a minute, and already a swift patriotic kick in the ass.
Dutch Van Der Linde.
The brains of it all gone haywire.
Dutch is the last target.
Going after Dutch was something John already knew by the previous chapter.
Nonetheless, the tone here is understandably grueling.
After his last two brief encounters throughout the ordeal, Edgar Ross finally spews out his diatribe on salvation, and says everything to remind John of what scum he is. Not at all grateful that gangs were eliminated and a tyrannical government from another country was dismantled just so two men were taken down like asked.
Accompanying Ross... you get a new aged high powered pistol... and a car! That only they can drive! Womp womp!
John had spent his time only describing Dutch as someone who had ideals in a past life and simply went mad.
In spite of that, Dutch Van Der Linde’s infinitely more crafty and opportunistic than the game has been letting on.
Dutch saw what the US government had done to Native Americans and formed a new gang in the forests of pissed off men who wanted their land back.
It’s a very grotesque line of fire you see RD playing with.
What the United States did was already heinous enough. Then you have this 50 year old lunatic in long johns who’s getting enjoyment and sport out of the bloodshed.
It’s in some ways worse than what the rebels back in Mexico had to deal with, because at least plenty of the rebels would rise above the torture and win the movement even temporarily.
But what Dutch is doing only leaves you with hundreds of natives being killed for his benefit.
It’s the ugliest scenario they could have conjured up.
I think mainstream Red Dead audience gets too caught up in the idea of “Dutch gone crazy” and not maybe that this was always entirely who he was to begin with.
Dutch uses these men to rob the Bank of Blackwater.
Strange Men reminded John a long time ago about a Heidi McCourt, who was shot in the head by Dutch during the Blackwater Massacre. An innocent bystander described to have had her own eye hanging from a thread, with her brains against the wall.
After all those years, Dutch returns to this town to destroy more people’s lives.
When ever John & Dutch meet together face to face for the first time in ages during the heist, it ends, again, with another poor lady taking a shot to the head. Another cowardly, yet successful escape for Dutch.
How does Marston witness the same awful things a decade apart, and still reaches the conclusion that this wasn’t always an absolute monster? I’ll always believe John tried to do good even with previous ties. It’s only him routinely making excuses where you don’t fully get it. He did that shit even with Bill.
This is shorter than the chapter before, as the game understands that Marston’s tale needs wrapping up.
Your quest for Van Der Linde is accompanied by a cocaine addicted Professor MacDougal, and Nastas, a federal informant from the reserve who saw the evil in Dutch.
A little dark humor, mostly one sided racist banter for MacDougal to bash Nastas and his people as savages.
Incase you didn’t know, Rockstar Games is very... very British.
GTA evolved to have accurate portrayals of different cultures. Between the lines, GTA San Andreas was written by DJ Pooh (Friday). And when San Andreas returned for GTA V, Franklin & Lamar’s actors have gone on the record saying they had to improvise and completely change the scripts to something that didn’t stink of London slang.
Professor MacDougal annoyed some of the fans, but you can tell Rockstar had too much fun going over his shit the same way they often tackle their own American experience via GTA radio stations.
Everything’s brought to a seeming close when the Bureau agents, American soldiers and Marston advance toward the snowy mountains of Cochinay with military weaponry to eliminate Van Der Linde once and for all.
This had all the makings of stellar battles as before, except it’s nothing too pleasurable.
Any joy to be had when ultimately confronting Dutch is squandered by Dutch’s overall message, and suicide.
“When I’m gone, they’ll just find another monster. They have to, to justify their wages.”
I don’t share the sentiment of sympathy for Dutch the way other players do.
It’s possible for me to hate what he did, and also detest the work of the government agents.
John regroups with Edgar Ross, and that gunshot to Dutch’s already mangled corpse was just self-fulfilling tastelessness from a busy body of an office clerk.
Nonetheless, the dirty government work was over and the routinely spoken reward had arrived.
Marston’s told to get back to his family on his farm in Beecher’s Hope...
- - - - - - - - - -
[The Last Enemy That Shall be Destroyed]
John finally had his wife and his son back. Abigail and Jack Marston. Back in his arms once more.
No more bounty hunting.
No more disastrous threats.No more senseless murder.
Instead of shooting people, John now uses the same rifles to keep crows away from his corn, and to hunt for the family’s food.
An old kook named Uncle (no one’s actual uncle) was a leftover from the Van Der Linde gang who did no real killing. Thus, was under the radar of the Bureau and Pinkertons.
Uncle had lived with the Marstons for years at their ranch, almost like a grandfather. He’s a side of the harsh past that was actually good natured. Just comically lazy.
Uncle had watched over the ranch for John all this time, which meant things ultimately sucked for keeping business afloat.
John & Uncle encounter rustlers, and the player’s given an option to pursue them or leave them be
Upon letting the rustlers run off, alive....
John: “I’m done fighting a fight that ain’t mine.”
Uncle: “You really have changed.”
This was, in my eyes, the most underrated exchange in all of Red Dead’s storyline.
It negates everything that suggested John Marston was perpetually doomed.
Everything he did, and the most gratifying feeling was to let a few nobodies live as free as them, regardless of wrongdoing.
John brings Jack along for the hunting, all around the woods Dutch had previously lingered.
John struggles ensuring his boy that all the troubles of before are over. Needless to say, the bonding’s very crucial for the both of them. These missions are much more easygoing, but it’s the uncertainty that drives them. Fighting so long to be free, and the stress doesn’t fully vanish when you are.
Like promised long ago, Bonnie MacFarlane helps John with the ranch.
Revisiting MacFarlane’s Ranch with both the wife and the son.
Those farming tutorials from the very beginning of the game make their way back, and John couldn’t be more happier because it’s the life he wanted. A mundane but long haul reward for the player with these missions.
There’s dialogue on the journey back home with materials where Abigail doesn’t think they’ll get away free.
Now, when Kate McReary expressed doubt in the same exact way during GTA IV’s conclusion... that meant Kate’s death. Within seconds.
But here, as time went on, you’re left with the plausibility that maybe things can be safe.
Regardless, any player of GTA IV who moved on to the following R* should’ve been wary right as Abigail said that. Problem being that Red Dead’s tragedy had a little something else in mind.
Before: The ultimate consequence was losing someone the protagonist cared about.
Now: “The Day John Marston Stopped Shooting.”
Everything at Beecher’s Hope was finally perfect and content.
When you’re playing the final act for the first time, you don’t even notice that Uncle is outside the barn window scoping out the army men emerging from the hill.
By the time John knows, there’s absolutely no time to act.
Jack’s ordered to go inside with his mother.
John: “Well, old man, looks like things is about to get settled once and for all.”
Uncle: “So it seems.”
Edgar Ross sends the US Army to kill one man in broad daylight.
This was always going to be the outcome, but John wasn’t wrong in his naivety that this wouldn’t happen to him. He did everything he was told until he made himself one loose end.Jack Marston, aged 16, previously not being brave enough to shoot a bear... takes his rifle and picks off mercenaries.
No time left to spare, John Marston guides his family to safety.
Abigail and Jack escape the property through the back of the barn with the remaining horse.
To make it clear there would be no running after this,
- - - - - - - - - -
[Remember My Family]
The year is 1914.
John, Abigail, Uncle... all buried over the hill of Beecher’s Hope.
Strange Man had told John that it was a “fine spot.”