With Red Dead Redemption 2 right around the
corner, we here at Suggestive Gaming figured
now would be a good time to go over the story
of the first game to catch up.
So let’s take a look back at John Marston’s
story before we go back to his early days
later this year.
Also, make sure you stick around, because
afterwards we’ll take a look at the non-canon
Undead Nightmare expansion, as well as the
game’s precursor: Red Dead Revolver.
Without further ado, this is What You Need
to Know about the Red Dead series.
Our story begins in the year 1911, where in
a town called Blackwater, the FBI have taken
former outlaw John Marston.
Marston is offered a political pardon, as
well as his family’s safety, on the condition
that he brings down the other members of his
former gang, starting with a man named Bill
Williamson.
Marston travels to Fort Mercer to appeal to
Williamson, who sics his men on Marston in
turn, berating him for his turning on the
gang.
Marston reaches for his revolver, but is shot
by one of Williamson’s men.
Presuming him dead, the gang leave Marston’s
body to rot.
However, a few hours later, a rancher named
Bonnie MacFarlane happens across him and takes
him to her ranch to recover.
After repaying the MacFarlanes by helping
around the ranch, Marston meets up with a
band of unlikely partners, including a US
Marshall, a con artist, a treasure hunter,
and an arms dealer, and the group stage an
attack on Fort Mercer.
The group attack the fort, only to find that
Williamson has fled across the border to Mexico
to seek help from another former member of
their gang: Javier Escuella.
Marston follows him to Mexico, and meets a
Mexican Army Colonel named Agustin Allende.
Allende informs Marston that he has captured
both Williamson and Escuella, and will deliver
them if John helps Allende and his army end
an ongoing rebellion.
After receiving Marston’s help, however,
it is revealed that Allende had lied from
the beginning, and he tasks his right-hand
man Captain Vincente de Santa with executing
John.
De Santa is interrupted by a group of rebels,
along with their leader Abraham Reyes, who
save Marston and kill Allende’s soldiers,
but are unable to capture de Santa before
he escapes.
Reyes promised Marston that if he helped take
down Allende, the rebels would help him find
Williamson and Escuella.
The group kill de Santa, and holding true
to their promise, find and capture Escuella.
Escuella reveals that Williamson has been
informed of Marston’s uniting with the rebels,
has hired Allende to protect him.
The rebels, along with Marston, storm Allende’s
villa, killing his soldiers and cornering
him inside the villa.
After the rebels break in, the two attempt
to escape in an armored carriage, which Marston
and Reyes are able to stop by killing its
driver.
After this, both Williamson and Allende are
killed by Marston and Reyes.
Reyes then leaves to advance on the capital,
and John returns to Blackwater to meet with
the FBI.
There, the two agents, Edgar Ross and Archer
Fordham, inform Marston that his job is not
complete until he helps them hunt down the
leader of his former gang: Dutch van der Linde.
Marston and the FBI wage several battles with
Dutch and his new gang, and eventually they
and the US Army storm his hideout.
Marston eventually corners Dutch, who warns
him that the government will always find a
new “monster”, and to avoid capture, he
kills himself by falling off a cliff.
With his mission complete, John is allowed
to return to his family at their ranch in
Beecher’s Point.
He settles down with his wife Abigail, son
Jack, and family friend “Uncle”, and swears
to keep himself, and his family, away from
trouble; abandoning his outlaw life for good.
However, just as Dutch had warned, Ross double
crosses John, leading a large group of FBI
and Army-men to attack the ranch.
After Uncle is killed in the shootout, John
tells his wife and son to leave while he stays
back to defend the barn.
John and Abigail share a kiss, and the mother
and son ride off.
John exists the barn to face Ross and his
firing squad.
Attempting to kill as many as he can in his
last moments, John is eventually shot dead.
As he falls, Ross watches, lighting a cigar
to celebrate the death of the final member
of Dutch’s gang before he and his men leave.
Abigail and Jack hear the cease-fire, and
return to find John’s lifeless body, realizing
that his sacrifice would keep them safe.
They bury him on the hill overlooking the
ranch, next to Uncle.
Upon his grave they inscribe “Blessed are
the Peacemakers”.
Three years later, Abigail passes away, and
Jack then sets his sight on tracking down
the man who killed his father.
He eventually finds Ross, now retired, and
challenges him to a duel.
Jack fires first and kills the man, avenging
his father's death and leaving the rest of
his story untold…
While this is the end of John Marston’s
story, we are given another one, albeit a
completely original and non-canon one, through
the “Undead Nightmare” expansion to Red
Dead Redemption.
It begins with the Marston family in their
home during a storm, discussing the fact that
Uncle has not come home yet.
However, right on cue, Uncle arrives, infected
with a zombie virus.
John runs to fetch his gun, but while he is
gone, Uncle bites Abigail, infecting her with
the virus.
John shoots Uncle and tends to Abigail, but
she becomes Undead and attacks Jack, turning
him Undead as well.
John hogties the both of them and leaves them
behind to go to Blackwater to find a cure.
There, and throughout his search for the cure,
he encounters various characters that he met
in his “actual” journey, all who he helps
with their various supernatural problems.
He eventually follows leads down to Mexico,
where he meets the Mother Superior in a nunnery.
After helping her save her town, she sends
John to fetch her an Undead.
He does so, and she pours Holy Water on it,
which causes it to erupt in a blue flame.
Mother Superior sends John with Holy Water
to clear out a nearby graveyard, and upon
returning from the task, she tells him a woman
informed her that the cause of the Undead
plague was because of something Abraham Reyes
has done.
John finds Reyes, but he is now Undead and
trying to kill a woman.
John kills Reyes, and the Woman informs him
that Reyes, trying to find a means of immortality,
stole an ancient Aztec mask, starting the
plague.
The two return the mask to the crypt it was
stolen from, and in doing so, the Undead are
returned to normal, and John makes his way
back home.
There, he finds that Abigail and Jack are
back to their normals selfs.
Months later, Marston has been killed.
However, Seth Briars (the aforementioned treasure
hunter), digs up the mask once again, causing
the plague to return.
This raises John from the dead as well, however
since he was buried with Holy Water, he returns
with a human soul, allowing him to prolong
his life.
While not connected to the story of John Marston
or Dutch’s gang, there is one other “Red
Dead” game: “Red Dead Revolver”.
For the sake of completion, let's take a look
at the precursor to the Red Dead Redemption
series.
In the 1880s, Nate Harlow and his partner
Griff strike gold in Bear Mountain.
The two celebrate by creating a unique pair
of revolvers for themselves, each inscribed
with a scorpion.
Later, however, Griff is captured by the Mexican
army.
He offers General Diego of the Mexican Army
half of the gold in Bear Mountain to spare
his life.
Diego agrees to this, and sends his Colonel
Daren to kill Nate at the instruction of Griff
to claim the other half of the gold for his
own.
Daren tracks Nate to his farm and shoots him
and his wife, killing them.
Nate’s son Red, however, retrieves his father’s
revolver and shoots off Daren’s left arm,
causing him to flee.
Years later, Red, now a bounty hunter, takes
out a gang led by an outlaw named “Bloody
Tom”.
Attempting to transport their bodies to claim
the bounties, Red is attacked by another gang
and their leader “Ugly Chris”.
Red and the town’s sheriff, O’Grady, survive
the attack and defeat the gang, but Red must
then take the sheriff into town to find a
doctor to tend to his wounds.
In the town of Brimstone, Red is tasked by
it’s Sheriff Bartlett to take on some bounties.
After doing so, Red learns from the Sheriff
about the town’s Governor Griffon, who owns
Bear Mountain.
Red, aware that his family was killed over
the gold there, sets out to learn more but
is roped into a fight in which he is forced
to kill several patrons, leading to his arrest
by Sheriff Bartlett, who reveals to Red that
General Diego and Colonel Daren are still
alive.
Bartlett releases Red, who travels to a location
where Diego’s supply wagon is station.
After destroying it, however, he is captured
by Daren, who imprisons him to with in his
mines.
There, Red meets a soldier known as Buffalo
Soldier and his cousin Shadow Wolf.
The three are freed and Red attack’s Diego’s
fort and kills Daren.
However, Shadow Wolf dies due to wounds sustained
during the battle.
Buffalo Soldier goes to Governor Griffon to
inform him of Red’s plan, but Griffon reveals
that he knew this all along, and captures
Buffalo Soldier for his helping Red escape.
Later, Red intercepts a train carrying Diego’s
gold, and a battle ensues between Diego and
Red.
Critically wounded, Diego pleas with Red and
offers him the gold.
Red declines and kills Diego, avenging his
parents’ deaths.
Later, Red learns that it was in-fact, Governor
Griffon who led Diego to his parents to spare
his own life.
He attacks him at his mansion with the help
of the Sheriff and some townsfolk, and eventually
kills him in quick-draw fashion.
The Sheriff warns Red to leave, as killing
a government official is a hangable offense,
and offers to pay him, but he refuses the
money, instead telling the Sheriff to give
it to the townspeople who helped him.
Finally, Red retrieves Griffon’s revolver,
finally bringing the two together once again.
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