It turns out, corpses actually decompose in Red Dead Redemption 2

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Three years after release, Rockstar’s rootin’ tootin’ yarn continues to surprise

Red Dead Redemption
(Image credit: Rockstar)

Almost four years after Red Dead Redemption 2 launched in 2018, Reddit user AllanRosckof, recently discovered that corpses in Red Dead Redemption 2 actually decompose. Gnarly.

The game has always been a technical and storytelling tour deforce, raising the bar for what players expect from an open world, and it turns out we are still discovering its secrets.

When out roaming the game’s vast plains, our Reddit ranger returned to the sight of an NPC he’d killed, only to discover that it had begun to rot. It turns out, if you kill an NPC or animal outside of a town, NPC corpses can be subject to four surprisingly detailed levels of decomposition. In an even more impressive (and grizzly) touch, this decomposition takes place over the course of several in-game days, taking a fresh fully-fleshed corpse all the way to a spindly skeleton. Here’s an impressively grim visual depiction of those stages – you’re welcome.

question_about_npc_decomposition_how_long_does_it from r/reddeadredemption

With many on the Red Dead obsessed subreddit missing this intricate little detail, it begs the question: what other tiny secrets is this open world opus hiding up its dusty sleeves?

It’s this kind of attention to detail that makes Red Dead Redemption 2 arguably the most impressive mesh of systems and mechanics in video games. When killing an NPC in town, another NPC eventually carries away the deceased on a stretcher, yet out in the wild, your poor victims are left for carrion. Despite the launch of sprawling adventures like Cyberpunk 2077 in the years since, the genre still has yet to beat this 2018 gem when it comes to immersive world-building.

Thankfully, this isn’t the last that fans will see of the franchise. Publisher Take Two confirmed in a recent earnings call that Red Dead Redemption 3 is currently in the works. Before you get too excited though, there was an eight year gap between the original game and its 2018 sequel.

 When you're done discovering all its secrets, here are the best games like Red Dead Redemption to play next. 

 

 

Tom Regan
Tom Regan
Freelance Writer

Tom is a freelance journalist and former PR with over five years worth of experience across copy-writing, on-camera presenting, and journalism.

Named one of the UK games industry’s rising stars by Gamesindustry.biz, Tom has been published by world-leading outlets such as: Fandom, The Guardian, NME, Ars Technica, GamesRadar, Engadget, IGN, Techradar, Red Bull, and EDGE.