The Real-Life Towns Behind Red Dead Redemption II

I've been saying since the original game that someone on the development team had to be inspired by my area (grew up one town over from Pittsburg, right on the edge of the Black Diamond Mines.) My house was a 5 minute walk from the historic Williamson Ranch, once owned by Bill Williamson, and a few streets down is the old run-down barn that remains of McFarlane Ranch. One of the main roads through town is Balfour, and I shit you not I went to high school with a kid named Ciaran Duffy (different spelling, but pronounced the same ) The shoutout to Pittspurg in this video just makes it weirder

Like for a part 2 covering Rhodes, Tumbleweed, Armadillo, Butcher Creek, colter, and Lagras!

Fun fact: Originally in RDR2's development, Saint Denis was originally supposed to be named New Bordeaux. If that sounds familiar, that's became that was the name of Mafia 3's fictionalized version of New Orleans. So when Mafia 3 developers, Studio 13, contacted Rockstar to inform them that the name New Bordeaux was already taken, Rockstar agreed to change it to Saint Denis.

This 10 minute video about a fictionalized United States is more informative than my hour long US history class

This is what I love about RDR2. There are so many historical references to both period history as well as more recent events that many can often fly over a person’s head and go completely unnoticed. History nerds can go absolutely crazy with this game, nerding out at the smallest of references. Some in-game mysteries can be solved by simply looking at real life history.

Saint Denis blew me away when I first arrived. I've always had romanticized New Orleans from that time period due to films like Interview with the Vampire and when I first arrived in Saint Denis in game it was night time. It was so unlike any other place in the game and was one of the moments where I fell in love with the game some more.

One year I took the family on a road trip through Colorado and we visited Old Bent's Fort. I was stunned at how it looked EXACTLY like Fort Mercer from the original Red Dead Redemption. My kids were amazed at how I could guess what was waiting in each room of the fort before we even entered those rooms.

Valentine certainly takes inspiration from Ogallala and Valentine, Nebraska. Ogallala is very similar to Cheyenne in terms of function but smaller and was the most dangerous town in NE in the late 1800s. Valentine NE is nestled along the Niobrara River and South Dakota (where there was a large population of Sioux) so the scenery is similar as well as its name. It was a town that didn’t really get its feet under it until 1884 which also coincides with the games timeline as we see Valentine is well established in 1899 and still growing.

I think Red Dead 2 is a perfect example of justifying a small open world by making it extremely detailed and deep. On the scale of states, towns and cities in real life the game map is ridiculously tiny, but in terms of being a playspace full of content and things to explore it works perfectly.

I’ve played RDR2 three times now, and too this day its still one of my favorite games. While watching this video I could still remember the feeling I had when I came across some of these towns. Specifically Strawberry and St. Denis, in both cases I came across them early on while exploring the map in chapter 2. I was immediately enamored by Strawberry while in St. Denis I felt like completely uncomfortable and I couldn’t get out of there fast enough. For me that shows how amazing the world building and immersion this game provides. By the way you forgot to mention the “red dust bowl” of Rhodes 😅. Great vídeo 👍🏼

using the django ost is literally perfection

Love the video, been waiting on something like this for a while. One other thing to add to Strawberry and its location is Mt Shan being inspired by Mt Shasta in California. The real Strawberry is not near Shasta, but Shasta does have quite a few resort towns around it. A lot of mysteries in RDR2 can be found on or around Mt Shan, whereas the real life Shasta is the American capital of missing 411 cases, paranormal sightings, and so on. Just another cool set of detail that makes me love this game.

Never thought so much solid, detailed information could be packed into an almost 11-minute video!! Absolutely incredible job, sir. You have my respect for the research, presentation, and format haha. Watched it the whole way through and my attention was never lost! Even the historical pictures that you offered for comparison were phenomenal. Take it easy after that! 🤝

I like just hanging out in the towns wandering around. I did it this morning and the game was already set to morning. I was walking around in first person watching all the town folks yawning and waking up too. The realism is amazing

Annesburg may be based off a Cali mining town but I live over here in coal country PA (Appalachian mountain range) and the similarities between that region of the map and my region irl back during that time is 150% spot on based off of all the photos I’ve seen and stories I’ve heard over the years, my point is I’m still gonna claim Annesburg as a representation of Appalachian PA/WV, plus it’s on the east side of the map lol 👍🏼

I grew up in California and West Elizabeth is where I go when I’m feeling nostalgic. The northern part of the map reminds me of Mariposa County, and down towards Strawberry it reminds me of Lake Tahoe area. (I’ve actually passed through Strawberry, CA once on the way to go snowshoeing at Donner Lake) Tall Trees is so obviously a parallel to Big Trees, CA where they have a lot of gigantic Sequoias. And While it’s easy to compare the Great Plains in the game to the irl counterpart, it reminds me so much of the hills in the California Valley, you might see in Kings County up to El Dorado County. California is too crazy to live in these days but my goodness to I miss how darn beautiful the nature is in that state

Lannaahechee is pronounced "Lan uh HAH See". When you go fishing with Javier in Ch3 Javier pronounces the CH and Arthur corrects him, noting even though its spelled with a CH, it is the S sound. Funny because he had just gone off on the German guy he rescued ("how did someone come up with them words???") and now he's an etymologist extraordinaire!

That was a great video man, Keep up the great work. I love red dead 2 so much for it's story and world building, it's one of the most immersive gaming experiences one can have.

Really appreciate the work that went into this video. Lots of researching. Thank you for bringing it to us!

Would like to take the time to say your writing is excellent. Informative, concise, interesting and seamless links between one town and the next. Great video