Red Dead Redemption 2 takes place in an alternate history

[Deleted member 92121]

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Absolutely sensational. I also caught Macallister and Waxman in the game, very fun references. I love the map, but the scale would mean humans in RDR are giants

I REALLY wish they wouldn't have mentioned New York and California. It was really disappoint to see evidence that this was not one big Rockstar universe.

Anyone else think they mentioned New York too much? It's like they wanted to make really clear that this was not the world of Liberty City. A lot of the characters that end in New York, or come from new york would make more sense coming from more western big cities, like Chicago or St. Louis.

 

[dianaswordofsappho]

Absolutely sensational. I also caught Macallister and Waxman in the game, very fun references. I love the map, but the scale would mean humans in RDR are giants

I REALLY wish they wouldn't have mentioned New York and California. It was really disappoint to see evidence that this was not one big Rockstar universe.

Anyone else think they mentioned New York too much? It's like they wanted to make really clear that this was not the world of Liberty City. A lot of the characters that end in New York, or come from new york would make more sense coming from more western big cities, like Chicago or St. Louis.

I always thought that liberty city was New York after it got its name changed?


Also I’m willing to bet that Anglo-american relations are worse in this timeline because of a state with the name of New Hannover

 

[Tim Thomason]

I'm also amongst those who am loving this history. I usually assume that Red Dead is a prequel to GTA, so am a little sad to see there aren't references to GTA locations (like a San Andreas off the coast of California, or a State of Liberty carved out of the Northeast somewhere), but that may have been too much, and I understand the disconnect.

The enlarged map of the states is similar to what they did in Runescape novels, where we have to imagine that the in-game geography is stylistic, and the states are much more reasonably sized and self-sufficient than they appear.

The way these new states and territories are formed, and the large geographical differences (most of the odd borders would be rivers, I assume), brings to mind all sorts of intriguing ideas, from the Gadsen Purchase to the Texan (New Austin?) Revolution to the Louisiana (Lemoyne?) Purchase to the Spanish Conquest to perhaps Native American cultures that may have formed alongside the Flat Iron "Lake" (really, a bay). I would really like to see more.

Is that a Red Dead Revolver reference with the Arizona/New Mexico/Mexican triangular border?

 

[Roberto El Rey]

I'm also amongst those who am loving this history. I usually assume that Red Dead is a prequel to GTA, so am a little sad to see there aren't references to GTA locations (like a San Andreas off the coast of California, or a State of Liberty carved out of the Northeast somewhere), but that may have been too much, and I understand the disconnect.

I considered that, but this map alone took me almost eight hours and I didn’t have the time to do the rest. That, and I honestly don’t believe that the two series are meant to take place in the same universe, what with the frequent name-dropping of Manhattan and California.

The enlarged map of the states is similar to what they did in Runescape novels, where we have to imagine that the in-game geography is stylistic, and the states are much more reasonably sized and self-sufficient than they appear.

Yep. I kind of felt that I had to do that, because the states in RDR map are so minuscule compared to actual states that they wouldn't even be visible on a map of the country if drawn to scale.

The way these new states and territories are formed, and the large geographical differences (most of the odd borders would be rivers, I assume), brings to mind all sorts of intriguing ideas, from the Gadsen Purchase to the Texan (New Austin?) Revolution to the Louisiana (Lemoyne?) Purchase to the Spanish Conquest to perhaps Native American cultures that may have formed alongside the Flat Iron "Lake" (really, a bay). I would really like to see more.

Actually, none of the odd new state borders are rivers. They're all formed by impassable mountain ranges designed to keep the player within the confines of the game map. Your in-game character can swim, so I guess the designers feared that if they used rivers to define the edges of the map, the player would be able to swim across and enter the great unknown.

As for your point about the different geography, much of it arose out of necessity, since I had to place Lemoyne over the site of OTL Louisiana. And Flat Iron Lake really is a lake--according to this game map which I traced for the wikibox, there is land on the other side of Flat Iron Lake. Since it is connected to the Mexican state of Nuevo Paraiso (portrayed in Red Dead Redemption 1), I figured that the other side of the lake must be in Mexico, and therefore I did not include it in this map.

Is that a Red Dead Revolver reference with the Arizona/New Mexico/Mexican triangular border?

Not an intentional one, I've never played Red Dead Revolver. But since it's there, sure! It's a reference to Revolver.

 

[mattep74]

I spent almost two months on AC Odessey and then i started playing RDR2 around Christmas and finished within a month and that include me beeing on a ski vacation 6-10 of January.

 

[Odinson]

 

[Odinson]

I don't know if the map is accurate at all, but I thought it was interesting

 

[Odinson]

I considered that, but this map alone took me almost eight hours and I didn’t have the time to do the rest. That, and I honestly don’t believe that the two series are meant to take place in the same universe, what with the frequent name-dropping of Manhattan and California.


Yep. I kind of felt that I had to do that, because the states in RDR map are so minuscule compared to actual states that they wouldn't even be visible on a map of the country if drawn to scale.


Actually, none of the odd new state borders are rivers. They're all formed by impassable mountain ranges designed to keep the player within the confines of the game map. Your in-game character can swim, so I guess the designers feared that if they used rivers to define the edges of the map, the player would be able to swim across and enter the great unknown.

As for your point about the different geography, much of it arose out of necessity, since I had to place Lemoyne over the site of OTL Louisiana. And Flat Iron Lake really is a lake--according to this game map which I traced for the wikibox, there is land on the other side of Flat Iron Lake. Since it is connected to the Mexican state of Nuevo Paraiso (portrayed in Red Dead Redemption 1), I figured that the other side of the lake must be in Mexico, and therefore I did not include it in this map.


Not an intentional one, I've never played Red Dead Revolver. But since it's there, sure! It's a reference to Revolver.

I have a theory (because I just don't like the idea of Mexico's coast being so messed up that it's under an alt Louisiana) that the land on the other side of the river is either a bisected Louisiana/Texas (after much of the interior of the state sinks)

Or, it's a series of barrier islands like on the coast of North Carolina.

 

[Odinson]

Also I’m willing to bet that Anglo-american relations are worse in this timeline because of a state with the name of New Hannover

Well according to the game map that comes with the disk, New Hanover was established as a state in 1797/98

 

[Tiro]

I'm not sure this is the perfect place to post this query but it seems reasonably appropriate to ask it here rather than open a whole new thread for a single query SO:-

- Quite recently I composed an email to one of my friends based on the conceit that it was actually a telegram sent out from RED DEAD REDEMPTION country; going by the documents I used as a rough model, this would require a time stamp and that started me thinking on what Time Zones the various States & Territories should fall into. In the end one went with the idea that it made more sense to assign Time Zones by analogy (in other words I asked myself "what state(s) would this part of the map happen to be based on?") and arrived at the following conclusions:


AMBARINO is, of course, on Mountain Time (a blatantly obvious joke is none the worse for being exactly that!).

WEST ELIZABETH, NEW AUSTIN & LEMOYNE are on Central Time (the latter mostly because St Denis is so clearly a ringer for New Orleans).

NEW HANOVER is the only State that really gave me pause for thought - while the Heartlands are, by name and by the nature of their inspiration, Central Time territory Roanoke Ridge is quite blatantly sited on the Atlantic seaboard which suggests Eastern Standard Time ought to prevail; I am inclined to suggest that the state is therefore split down the middle (with Central Time on one side of the line, Eastern Time on the other) but worry that might be copping out just a little.


May one please ask if any other fans of the game have thoughts on the subject?

 

[Odinson]

I'm not sure this is the perfect place to post this query but it seems reasonably appropriate to ask it here rather than open a whole new thread for a single query SO:-

- Quite recently I composed an email to one of my friends based on the conceit that it was actually a telegram sent out from RED DEAD REDEMPTION country; going by the documents I used as a rough model, this would require a time stamp and that started me thinking on what Time Zones the various States & Territories should fall into. In the end one went with the idea that it made more sense to assign Time Zones by analogy (in other words I asked myself "what state(s) would this part of the map happen to be based on?") and arrived at the following conclusions:


AMBARINO is, of course, on Mountain Time (a blatantly obvious joke is none the worse for being exactly that!).

WEST ELIZABETH, NEW AUSTIN & LEMOYNE are on Central Time (the latter mostly because St Denis is so clearly a ringer for New Orleans).

NEW HANOVER is the only State that really gave me pause for thought - while the Heartlands are, by name and by the nature of their inspiration, Central Time territory Roanoke Ridge is quite blatantly sited on the Atlantic seaboard which suggests Eastern Standard Time ought to prevail; I am inclined to suggest that the state is therefore split down the middle (with Central Time on one side of the line, Eastern Time on the other) but worry that might be copping out just a little.


May one please ask if any other fans of the game have thoughts on the subject?

I never actually thought about it, good question.