Grab a comfy saddle — ‘Red Dead Redemption 2’ campaign clocks in at 60 hours

By Steven Petite October 15, 2018

Lengthy stories should come as no surprise to anyone who has played an open world Rockstar Games title, but Red Dead Redemption 2 will set some crazy records. In an interview with Vulture, Rockstar co-founder and head writer Dan Houser said players can expect a 60-hour campaign.

In an era when open world games typically throw everything at the player but the kitchen sink, it’s easy to feel skeptical of long runtimes. According to Houser, “superfluous” content has been removed from the story. Recently, Rockstar shaved five hours from the game by eliminating one of Arthur Morgan’s love interests. On top of that, Rockstar cut entire missions that it felt weren’t up to snuff.

Judging by some of the eye-popping stats provided in the interview, players will find and experience new things even as they get deep into the Red Dead Redemption 2 story. Rockstar brought in a staggering 1,200 actors for motion capture and voiceover sessions (700 actors have lines). Every person you come across in the game went through motion capture. All told, there are 300,000 unique animations and 500,000 lines of dialogue. Given those figures, it’s no surprise the game’s script clocked in around 2,000 pages, and that only encompasses the main campaign.

In the interview, Rockstar said it’s currently shooting motion capture sections for Red Dead Online ahead of its arrival in beta form in November. Houser also touched on the possibility for a “Red Dead Redemption 3.” Yes, we know RDR 2 hasn’t even arrived yet, but hey, it’s not far off. Houser said a third game would be possible “if this one does well enough and we think we have other interesting things to say.”

It’s been more than eight years since the first Red Dead Redemption and five years since the launch of Rockstar’s last release, Grand Theft Auto V. Basically, what we’re saying here, is that if a third game happens, don’t expect it any time soon.

Thankfully, we won’t have to wait much longer to play a new Rockstar game. Red Dead Redemption 2 launches October 26 on PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. For an in-depth look at Red Dead Redemption 2, check out our complete news roundup.

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Steven is a writer from Northeast Ohio currently based in Louisiana. He writes about video games and books, and consumes…

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