Red Dead Redemption - Characters

Poor Mr. Marston, he’s really got it rough in this game. All he wants is to capture one man and then get his family back. He wants to settle down to the life of a farmer and grow old with his wife. He tried to leave this life of violence behind him, but life has a way of catching up to you. Now he’s stuck dealing with a highly obnoxious cast of characters.

First, there’s Bonnie McFarland. She’s the “women trying to make it in a man’s world” character. She’s not the most annoying, but she tends to be highly opinionated on things that she doesn’t actually know about. I find it funny that she’s basically insulting Mr. Marston about his past while not actually understanding the history or details of it. I wasn’t too surprised when I eventually found a gang trying to lynch her. They had her strung up by neck and if it wasn’t for the interference of Mr. Marston she would be dead right now.

Bonnie is the cause of some of the stupidest missions in the game, namely, herding. On more then one occasion you have to heard cows for this woman. I hate herding cows. It’s slow, it’s boring, and it’s dumb. All I want to do is shoot the cows and take their meat. It would probably sell for a good bit.

There’s the Marshall in Armadillo. I like him, he’s actually competent. He’s trying to help control the gangs and keep the peace, but he knows that he’s out-manned by the various outlaw gangs in the area. He has one of the more gruesome missions in the game. Some ranch has just been attacked and you ride out there with the Marshall to try to help. When you get there and look in the barn you get a pretty horrific sight. The women strewn across the ground was bad, but it was the guy hanging naked from the rafters that made me do a double take. Rockstar didn’t hold back at this point and I applaud them for it. The scene had a much stronger impact because they were willing to go the extra mile on this.

That leads me to one Nigel West Dickens. Mr. West Dickens is more the type of character that you encounter on a regular basis, a moron. He’s a snake oil salesman. He uses fancy words to sell people his magical tonic that will cure every ailment known to man. Needless to say this doesn’t go over well with people. You have to protect the moron on a regular basis as his loyal customers try to take off his head.

Mr. West Dickens is important storywise since it’s his plan that eventually gets Mr. Marston into Ft. Mercer. I just wish I could have shot him and gotten away with it. Mr. West Dickens eventually introduces Mr. Marston to two other idiots who eventually help you out, Irish and Seth.

Seth has pretty much gone insane at this point in his life. He robs graves and he likes to talk to the corpses, claims that they’re better company then the living. Seth eventually ends up being the distraction in Marston’s Ft. Mercer attack, but first you have to help Seth find a treasure map. The treasure story line is pretty lame and the whole ends up being a glass eye. I think it’s supposed to be a metaphor for keeping things in perspective or something.

Irish is, well Irish. He’s drunk, he’s got an annoying accent and he’s always trying to get Marston killed. Irish is supposed to get Marston a machine gun. The fact that he eventually does is highly amusing to me, especially since the machine gun is in the bottom of a mine shaft. No idea why it’s down there or what the miner’s plan to do with it. There’s no personal story for Irish, he’s just a lousy drunk and I really wanted to shoot him.

Once you’ve dealt with all of these characters it’s time for the raid of Ft. Mercer. But I’ll deal with that section later.