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Red Dead Redemption 2 might have the world's best video game rivers, according to YouTuber Any Austin, who's been tracking the geography of virtual worlds for years now.
Any Austin set his sights on The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom last year and discovered all the waterways are actually one giant, interconnected river that never reaches the sea. He's also analyzed GTA 5's electricity grid and found it to be pretty realistic.
More recently, Austin created a methodology to find out what the cities of Skyrim feel like in real life, and, spoiler alert, it turns out Duluth, Minnesota is a shoe-in for Windhelm. Now, it's the rivers of the Wild West that are under scrutiny. So, how do they measure up?
Since Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game with such minute attention to detail that even horses' balls shrink in the cold, it should be no surprise that a lot of effort has been put into its rivers. Unlike Skyrim – which came out seven years and a console generation before Red Dead Redemption 2, to be fair – rivers have different rates of flow even in small sections based on how deep or shallow they are and how they bend.
The river that passes by Saint Denis is fed by a huge waterfall, and Austin praises the game for how diverse its waterfalls are. There are wide ones, narrow ones, and teeny tiny ones that simply emphasise a sudden drop in altitude in a river.
There is one feature Austin believes to be an egregious mistake in the river system, though. The Lower Montana river that passes by Thieves Landing splits into two just before joining the San Luis river that flows out of Flat Iron lake. Austin explains the way this bifurcation happens isn't realistic as one path would take on more water than the other, leading to the lesser used section drying up rather than staying full with water.
However, a commenter who claims to be a geologist says this feature is entirely realistic and could simply be the result of a man-made channel created to ease navigation. They speculate the original path is the upward bend and it will eventually dry up, but that could take 1,000 years or more.
There is a strange naming convention where the Lannahechee river becomes the San Luis river, though. In real life we'd only use one name as it's the same river just with a lake in the middle, not two separate rivers. Other than that gripe, though, Red Dead Redemption 2 gets top marks for its waterways.
I do truly love spending time meandering in Red Dead Redemption 2, and after this video I think I'll reinstall it and take Arthur for a stroll along some river banks. The ol' boy deserves some nice views.
Or, if you're not feeling as sentimental as I am, you could check out some of the best open world games that you can explore for yourself.
