Rockstar has never been shy about taking inspiration from the real-world when designing their game worlds, and Red Dead Redemption 2 is no different as one player highlights in a Reddit post comparing some of these locations. The game's iteration of the American Old West is chock-full of landmarks and locales for which players can easily discover the inspiration with a quick search online. However, one player went to the trouble of saving their fellow Red Dead players time by sharing images of four real-life locales and their respective analogs seen across the game's fictional states of New Austin and others.
The image compilation was shared on Red Dead Redemption 2's official subreddit by user SigmaWhoLoveModernity, focusing on four of the more eye-catching landmarks Rockstar created inside the game. Sigma included images of the real locations under the game locations to let other users see how Rockstar's take compares to the real places and landmarks thanks to the game's photo mode.
First was the mountain range in the fictional state of Ambarino, the game's northernmost state, which Sigma compares to the Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming. The state gets a little more love from Sigma with a comparison of Red Dead Redemption 2's Cotorra Springs to Yellowstone National Park, which stretches into Montana and Idaho as well. Arizona also gets some attention with the game's Mesa Del Sol which serves as an analog to the striking Monument Valley and its towering sandstone buttes.
However, some players may argue the most significant of the locations Sigma chose is Braithwaite Manor, given its importance to the game's story. The manor acts as the home for the one of the Van Der Linde Gang's key rivals, the Braithwaite Family, who play a major part in the gang's final days. As for the game's real-world inspiration, Oak Alley Plantation is still standing after nearly two centuries and is a protected historical landmark in Louisiana.
Those are just four of the many places across Red Dead Redemption 2's world that draw clear inspiration from iconic locations across the southern and western US. Cities such as New Orleans, Blackwater, and Tombstone alongside locations including Yosemite and American Stonehenge are just a few of the places not mentioned in Sigma's post that players can find matches to in the game's world. The same is true for many of the game's characters, such as Professor Marko Dragic, who serves as the game's version of Nicola Tesla.
Given Rockstar's tendency to design game worlds with inspiration taken from real-world locales, the trend is likely to continue into the studio's next game, which was recently confirmed to be Grand Theft Auto 6. It simply becomes a question as to where the game will be set, whether its revisiting beloved cities such as the New York-inspired Liberty City or someplace entirely new.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is currently available on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.