RDR2 changed my life so much it basically became the last game I played or cared for. After falling absolutely in love with the atmosphere of the game, I took up hiking and wanted to see bueatiful locations in real life.. I then started taking photos of my hikes and fell in love with photography as well... 5 years later I run my own business now doing landscape photography, with side photo shoots for others outdoors. I owe so much to this game. I'll be 40 this year, and with my kids, wife, and my business, I hardly have time to play games these days. The feeling when I play RDR2 now is unlike anything I can describe. Thanks for reading this far!
It's also the last game I ever played. Having kids and work it's almost impossible to find time, but I'm glad I finished up my gaming days with my favorite game ever.
As some one from Oklahoma i can say that the heart lands are based on Oklahoma and the Cornwall oil mine is most definitely based off of 1 of many oil mines in the area infact Oklahoma had a big oil business and a oil rush plus a lot of native American history that lines up with the Wapiti tribe
I can def agree as someone from arkansas. On my mothers side my ancestors were cowboys and on my fathers side my ancestors were native Americans and its very cool seeing both sides getting recognized through media such as rdr.
Wish that in the epilogue colter would be reestablished as an active settlement. Or maybe if there was rest stop in the wilderness like Minnie’s haberdashery in the hateful right
@@filmsbyhen I've said that from day one! Wish they had added something like the haberdashery. Considering that there are so many nods to real life figures and western fiction in the game, it would have been SO cool to get a nod to The Hateful Eight. Or even to some other Tarantino westerns.
Hey, I watched most of your videos and I had some entertaining hours with them. I have a suggestion, though, if I may: videos like this one could benefit a lot from a slower pacing in my opinion. There is so much beautiful imagery, but as soon as I'm about to take it in, you jump to the next chapter. Keep up your work, it's appreciated!
Very cool! As a European I am not really familiar with how American states have 'sterotypical' landscapes, so it's cool to see the RDR2 map being matched to the real world! I really wish to visit the US one day :)
I think the Heartlands is my favourite region of the map. Even in real life I always like wide open spaces, where you can see for miles in any direction. I always thought Hennigan's Stead and MacFarlane's Ranch from the original game was inspired by 'Of Mice and Men', which is meant to be somewhere near Soledad, California.
Cholla is pronounced "CHOY'-uh", its a cactus found in the Sonoran Desert. In Spanish, the letter ll is pronounced like a y. Cholla is often called "Jumping cactus" for how easily it will leave its own parts, covered with strong quills, in the skin of the invader. They are all over the map in Cholla Springs in the game as well. In fact, this is really what got me hooked on RDR(1) a dozen years ago: it felt like I was back home in the desert west of Tucson, in Avra Valley (near old Tucson)
Awesome video, it really shows that you put your research into this! I actually think that grizzlies east us also partly inspired by wyoming backcountry. Not only does the rockies go through wyoming but if you search up wyoming island lake you will find mountain scenes looking almost identical to those surrounding the lake were hamish lives.
Ive been to all 50 states, and I would say this is a really solid video, and I agree with many of these, but there are quite a few I have differing opinions on- 1.For Amberino's huge waterfall I would actually say this is based on bridal falls or other various large CO waterfalls. 2. Citadel rock more closely resembles all those limestone rock formations you find in the great plains region of the USA, mostly notably Scottsbluff. 3. Little creek big valley is weird because it connects West Elizabeth to Amberino, mount Shann is likely based off of a Cascade loner mountain, while the range on the other side as you previously mentioned is 100% the Rockies, the valley itself is actually modeled off of Colorado. I agree with everything else
I come back to this game regularly and I think a huge reason why is because of the environment. Kansas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, Arkansas, and that region of America is rarely depicted in any kind of media. Let alone a game. To enjoy a setting faithfully recreating those kinds of places and making it as vast of a section of RDR2’s world is something I’ll always enjoy, and I don’t think it’s likely to happen again. It’s really sad how everyone including rockstar as a developer acknowledge and joke about how they abandoned the game to focus on GTAonline. The potential for DLC content is really a big what if for me. If R* had split and dedicated a third of their resources they did to GTAonline since 2018 RDR2 would be seen as something transcending the medium of gaming (more than it did) and be a legendary piece of fiction and culture. For all of their flaws, Bethesda succeeded with making Skyrim a game that will be seen in history as a touchstone piece of fiction for generations to enjoy. People mock all of Skyrim’s re-released versions but they exist because it’s still profitable. R* dropped the ball completely on being able to enjoy that same privilege for Rdr2. They could have been supporting something they produced and doing pretty minimal work to benefit from their customers satisfaction and trust with one or two DLC expansions. As insult to injury the story of RDR2 is SO good that it would take the place of a game like Skyrim in the bigger picture of video games and storytelling narratives having the potential to be as universal of an art as movies or paintings, sculpting, photography.. whatever.
Great video and great research! Just a constructive idea for the next ones: perhaps it would be a great idea for you to slow down a little bit, showing places in RDR's map and then showing places in the USA's map (just as you did with the Rocky Mountains in the very beggining) with their names, etc. In this video everything seems too fast-paced, it is a little bit hard to follow everything
1:58 this waterfall here looks a lot like Snoqualmie falls in Washington State, (specifically the right side waterfall in the game) interestingly, it is a taller waterfall than Niagara falls too! It also sits at the foothills of the Cascade mountains similar to how in game the waterfall is more at the foothills rather than up in the mountains. Snoqualmie falls also often has 2 streams falling down, depending on hoe much water there is. It looks like Rockstar just took a picture of Snoqualmie falls and mirrored it(flipped it). The water fall on the left is 100% Yosemite falls. Look it up, you'll see it starts with a big wide waterfall, splashes on the ground in a little pool and then keeps going down in a smaller thinner stream. 100% EXACTLY like the waterfall on the left in RDR2. It also makes sense for it to be Yosemite Falls, because that waterfall in game is also near the hot springs/geisers which is based on Yosemite. The one on the left also kind of reminds me of Colonial Peak Falls, Washington - The Tallest Waterfall in the contiguous USA (48 states). It is extremely tall, and there is many many different parts of the waterfall, it is so tall you cant actually see the whole waterfall at once, so there is a couple spots of that waterfall that reminds me of this one, especially the one on the left. But it is obvious RDR 2 based that waterfall on Yosemite falls 100% especially considering the geisers hot springs are nearby which are based on Yosemite.
06:00 - Interesting maps, but I don't think it's important to imagine how the RDR2 universe USA would look like. All I am interested in is what places the rich RDR2 map was inspired by. This you covered very well! Great video!
I think of western Montana and Wyoming in Ambarino, but I can see Colorado there too. I see a lot of Nebraska and eastern Wyoming in the Central part of New Hanover, which makes sense with Valentine resembling Cheyenne and other livestock towns in that region. However, Roanoke Ridge is definitely more modeled after Appalachia, not so much the Ozarks. Those hills are very west Tennessee and West Virginia.
Id argue that places surrounding Annesburg strike me as that I am exactly where Im from in Central PA. the surrounding mountains are effectively just like Allegheny county. No terribly interesting terrain, just trees, grass, some waterfalls, creeks, rivers. Same tree species, animals, hill terrains, people from PA would most likely agree with me also considering Annessburg gives off old Pittsburgh vibes.
@1:46 The canyon walls there and a few other places in this state are the same style as the walls of Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park in Colorado.
Great video but just to be pedantic for a second, Mt Hagen is further south than that one 2:23 (this specific mountain range overlooks Colter and Spider Gorge runs alongside it, and is notable for its jagged peaks). Mt Hagen however is disconnected from the others, south of Lake Isabella as a standalone structure. Anyway, love the details of the real life inspirations and and insight.
Another great video! Personally I like to think of the states in Red Dead as the early versions of states, so Lemoyne would eventually become Louisiana, New Austin would bevome party Texas and partly New Mexico I guess, and West Elizabeth becomes split between different states also. So perhaps in Red Dead there are less states to begin with and some states split into different ones, but others like New York were already a thing, at least in name alone, but perhaps the New York mentioned in the game is an early version of what we know as New York in real life and it will later form as what we know as New York. This is all just speculation of course, but it helps me to make sense of the map more.
I'd argue that Big Valley near the Little Creek River is less Yosemite and more Grand Teton NP. Donner Falls looks a lot like the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River, which would make sense considering its proximity to Cotorra Springs.
Really good video thanks man. Fantastic references and you clearly have an understanding of the geography which, being from Australia, is really helpful. USA has some of the most beautiful terrain in the world. I think R* did an excellent job bundling it all together. Shame they didn’t include Mexico etc.
I always thought Roanoke Ridge was more of a stand in for Appalachia, more specifically the West Virginia/Virginia area. There is a Roanoke, Virginia which is in the mountains.
Would you do something exploring the turn of the century American politics in RDR2? (i.e. reconstruction, indigenous american policy, corrupt mayors, the rise of corporations, etc.) ik its kinda broad but I feel like there are definitely some interested things to explore
I just recently moved to New York City, but riding around in Cholla Springs makes me miss my home back in Arizona. I much prefer the heat of the Sonoran. 🌵
The Serpent Mound in Roanoke Ridge is very similar to the actual Serpent Mound in southern Ohio, an ancient American Indian burial ground. I've been there many times, and the game does it justice.
Personally I always thought Roanoke Ridge was based more on Appalachia, considering the name Roanoke is heavily affiliated with that area and the fact that the Appalachians were full of coal mining towns like Annesburg strengthen the resemblance.
I thought that for the longest time, I even mention that in my previous historical inspiration video, but a bunch of people corrected me and honestly geographically the Ozarks make more sense. Plus there was a mining industry there too
@@filmsbyhen Pretty sure the naming for Butcher Creek & Beaver Hollow/Holler was inspired by Butcher Hollow/Holler in Kentucky, the home place of country singer Loretta Lynn. Her biggest song opens with the line "I was born a coal miners daughter in a cabin on a hill in Butcher Holler" so it's not deep lore. One of the cabins in the centre of Butcher Creek resembles her childhood home, but to be fair a lot of cabins look like that.
Alright so here’s my “criticism:” You have great cadence, word choice, and dialogue, and it makes every video a joy to watch, which is especially refreshing since they’re original ideas 6 years after the game’s release. Just about every conceivable topic in the game has been beaten like a dead horse, but this breaks the mould (mold?). That being said, you could do well to do every state as its own in-depth video, discussing more geography and inspirations. I think I speak for everyone when I say that would be delightful, entertaining, and could offer so much content and insight into the game. Thanks for doing a great job.
@@kalinridenour It's like the old saying goes... "Time flies when you're -having fun- calling in sick to work four days in a row so that you can mash a 91-hour RDR2 bender, being an absolute psychopath to every last person you meet on the trails!" 🙃
Van Horn is very much like the old city of Natchez, MS, or at least the area of Natchez referred to as "down the hill", and kind of north west of there is much like the hills and hollars of Kentucky with it's cave system, much like the big cave near the Elysian Pool.
As someone who is 44 years old, i can only say this. THERE IS ONLY WORLD BEFORE AND AFTER RDR2. Nothing can compare with that game on equal level. Great video.
Lowkey wish you covered Nuevo Paraiso since there's most likely never gonna be another chance to discuss RDR's Mexican geography since it's just 1 state in 1 game
RDR2 has given me more than I ever expected from a game. I found a family. One that I never had as a child. I didn't cry at my grandmothers funeral, but I lose it when Arthur dies. So much so that I can't even play Chapter VI anymore. I try not to go past Chapter III or on occasion Chapter IV. Just because of the emotional toil it takes on me to lose men and women that I have grown to love. They all mean more to me that actual people in real life. I never have to be alone again as long as I have them. An interesting note is that here where I live there are 3 town with the same name as 3 in RDR2 and are quite close to each other. We have Blackwater, Rhodes, and Valentine. If we get any new towns and they are called Annesburg, Colter, or Lagras, I'm moving there. Because at some point Arthur will come riding through and *I WANNA MEET HIM* lol.
The real world Mississippi River and State of Louisiana are reference several times throughout the Red Dead series. Louisiana is said to be the real-life state from which Natalie Kelley is home to in the Revolver universe. With the release of Red Dead Redemption II confirming the Lannahechee being located in the State of Lemoyne in this universe, confirms the case of retcon, with all previous mentions to the Mississippi River since Red Dead Redemption being retconned as Lannahechee mentions. Texas co-exists with New Austin in the Red Dead Redemption canon, even though New Austin is directly based on the State of Texas. With New Mexico only being canon in Revolver, it could indicate that New Austin is a stand-in for New Mexico Territory.
I think the area just east of Calumet Ravine including the unnamed mountain is a close resemblance to the Wind River Range in Wyoming. I agree with pretty much everything else.
Lemoyne seems to have distinct notes of Florida as well as Louisiana. But a big difference between Saint Denis and New Orleans is Saint Denis is not a coastal city. Surely West Elizabeth is named after West Virginia, supposedly named for "The Virgin Queen", Elizabeth.
In my opinion, RdR2 actually appears more visually appealing than real life, not necessarily in terms of crispness and detail, but there's something about it that makes it look better than the images you showed in the video.
I think it's the "haze". There's some sort of hue all around, that changes from place to place, along with an excess of particles...gives all locations a bit of a magical feel.
Exactly, it's also about how the environment appears; it's cuter, more perfect, rounded, smaller, with fewer imperfections than real life, and I love the color palette..@@ThisHandleFeatureIsStupid
This is gonna sound ridiculous... But this video told me that, as a British person, I'd been pronouncing Yosemite wrong my entire life💀 I always pronounced it "Yo-seh-might", not 'yuh-sem-atee" as you did. Had to pause, open a new tab, had my "hold up" moment right there haha
as a californian my fav state in the game is west elizabeth as it reminds me of california so much(atleast the mountain part). but it leaves me wondering what rockstar's actual california would look like if west elizabeth already has tall trees and big valley. i guess for rockstar, california would just be the coast and beaches?
Texas is in new Austin and only in new Austin, Texas is not in the Great Plains in my opinion, I made a map drawing where I think most of the states are
how do people think roanoke ridge is the ozark mountains, its obviously the appalachian mountains 1. It gets very foggy 2. Butcher's creek is similar to appalachian culture 3. theres one long ridge, like appalachia, unlike ozark 4. annesburg is very similar to pittsburgh, or other appalachian coal mining towns 5. appalachia is a much more relevant region to base an area off of also in big valley there's also grand teton
