Chapter Summaries

Zhang Yi and Song Ren discovered that Red Dead Redemption 2’s “Farm Life” environment theme included playable farm management, while Chen Xu planned to expand the game’s future Online Mode with farms, businesses, and personal spaces. Players began tending their farms and speculating about what the theme suggested for Red Dead Redemption 2.

• Zhang Yi explored the “Farm Life” theme and found an invisible boundary separating its small farm area from a distant town.
• Song Ren told Zhang Yi to open the Battle Pass, which explained the farm-management features and provided $500 in starting funds.
• Chen Xu planned future Online Mode features including estates where players could farm, raise animals, and operate businesses.
• Players started clearing weeds, planting crops, and raising livestock in the theme, and Zhang Yi wished he could breed pigs with Song Ren’s.
• Players and game industry designers began speculating about Red Dead Redemption 2 based on the new theme.

Atrai promoted its Western-themed game, prompting Nebula Games to release a trailer for Red Dead Redemption 2 that revealed the Van der Linde gang, its struggles, and the game’s period setting. The trailer ended with the title, leaving players eager to learn more about the game.

• Atrai released a trailer showing a cowboy confronting a local tyrant, then promoted characters from its Western-themed game.
• Nebula Games announced Western minigames for Farm Life, including blackjack, Texas Hold'em, dominoes, and Five Finger Fillet, frustrating Antolini when he saw that Nebula had released them first.
• Chen Xu posted a video link with the message “Nebula Film Studio Proudly Presents,” prompting Antolini to suspect a deliberate response to Atrai’s promotion.
• Nebula Games’ trailer showed Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang planning jobs, robbing a city, and facing mounting conflict.
• The trailer showed Dutch urging the gang to trust him, then shifted from snowy wilderness to a prosperous town before revealing the Red Dead Redemption 2 logo.

Players debated Red Dead Redemption’s criminal protagonist, story, and gameplay as Chen Xu’s team developed its open-world activities and cinematic scenes. Chen Xu responded to players’ most popular questions on the Official Blog.

• Players discussed Red Dead Redemption’s Western setting, its outlaw protagonist, and whether its gameplay would use separate stages.
• Chen Xu tested Arthur Morgan’s interactions and reviewed the game’s detailed activities, including quests that could disappear if players killed their NPCs.
• Chen Xu directed the team to use cinematic camera angles and music for key story sequences focused on Arthur’s journey.
• Chen Xu read players’ discussions about the game’s potentially tragic story and stage-based gameplay, then responded to the two hottest topics on the Official Blog.

Chen Xu revealed that Red Dead Redemption would have a seamless open world and multiple endings, while Antolini dismissed the claims and prepared atrai’s competing game, Beautiful World. Beautiful World launched on January 15, one day before Red Dead Redemption, whose preloading began as players and the industry watched the two games compete.

• Chen Xu announced that Red Dead Redemption would offer a seamless open world, varied gameplay, and multiple endings based on whether players became good or bad.
• Antolini studied Nebula Games’ Western Environment Theme, guessed that Red Dead Redemption’s seamless world relied on hidden loading tricks, and remained confident in Beautiful World.
• Nebula Games added Western newspapers to the Environment Theme, where players could learn about the era and find clues to Side Quests.
• Red Dead Redemption announced a January 16 release date, and atrai scheduled Beautiful World for January 15.
• Beautiful World launched on January 15 as Red Dead Redemption opened preloading, while players and game companies watched the competition.

Dai Jiezou entered Red Dead Redemption to judge it against Atrai’s Beautiful World, which had already impressed him with its Western setting and gameplay. The game’s opening placed its story in 1899, as the age of outlaws was coming to an end.

• Players debated whether to buy Red Dead Redemption or Beautiful World, and Old Dai argued that Atrai’s game had the advantage of proven quality and a bestselling novel behind it.
• Old Dai, whose full name was Dai Jiezou, decided to try Red Dead Redemption so he could assess it firsthand before arguing online.
• He entered Huanyu VR and noticed that the game connected to its themed environment, then criticized its roughly two-minute loading time.
• After tending to his Farm while the game loaded, Old Dai entered Red Dead Redemption and read its opening text about the decline of gunslingers and outlaws in 1899.

Old Dai began playing Red Dead Redemption 2 and followed Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang through a blizzard to a farm, where they fought criminals and discovered a woman trapped in the basement. After Micah accidentally set the farm ablaze, Dutch and Arthur brought the woman with them as they fled.

• Arthur Morgan led Dutch and the gang through a blizzard to a farm where they could shelter.
• Arthur and Micah found the farm’s murdered owner and fought the criminals occupying the property.
• Arthur learned that the surviving O'Driscoll had plans to rob a train and chose to let him go.
• Arthur and Dutch rescued a woman from Micah in the basement after an oil lamp started a fire.
• Dutch and Arthur left the burning farm with the woman, who temporarily joined the Van der Linde gang.

Old Dai played through the Van der Linde gang’s early days in the snowy mountains, as Arthur rescued John Marston and Dutch organized a raid to gather supplies and prepare for a train robbery. After the gang returned with dynamite and a captive, Kieran, Arthur went hunting with Charles, leaving Old Dai to continue experiencing the gang’s slow-paced life.

• Abigail asked Arthur to find John Marston, and Arthur and Havel rescued him while learning about the failed Blackwater robbery and Dutch’s killing of an innocent woman.
• Dutch reassured the gang and planned a train robbery, so the members raided an O’Driscoll outpost to obtain dynamite.
• Old Dai used Arthur’s Dead Eye ability to kill four enemies during the raid, and the gang brought back Kieran as a captive.
• Arthur accompanied Charles on a hunting trip for supplies, and Old Dai reflected on the game’s unhurried depiction of everyday gang life.

Dutch led the Van der Linde gang to rob Cornwall’s train despite Hosea’s concerns, then moved the gang to Horseshoe Overlook and set out his plan to save money and buy land in the West. As free exploration opened up around Valentine, Old Dai was captivated by Red Dead Redemption 2 and told the group chat he had forgotten about Beautiful World.

• Hosea warned Dutch that robbing Cornwall’s train was risky, but Dutch insisted the gang needed money and led Arthur and the others to the ambush site.
• When the detonator failed, the gang jumped from a bridge onto the train and stole bearer bonds.
• After the weather warmed, Dutch moved the gang southeast to Horseshoe Overlook near Valentine and promised they would save money, head West, and buy land.
• Arthur began writing in his journal as the game opened free exploration, and Old Dai explored Valentine and admired its Western setting.
• Old Dai recommended Red Dead Redemption 2 in the group chat, then joked that Beautiful World should not look for him because Nebula Games might misunderstand.

After reaching Valentine, players discovered that Red Dead Redemption offered a vast seamless world filled with independent activities and lively NPCs beyond its main story. Streamers and players explored it in wildly different ways, leaving game designers and media astonished by how much the game contained.

• Players left the snowy mountains for Valentine and discovered the Western World’s enormous map, random encounters, upgrades, and many activities.
• Game designers recognized that the world functioned independently of the main storyline, with subtle guidance and NPCs who acted on their own.
• Streamers played Texas Hold’em in a tavern, sometimes turning their losses into shootouts with the law.
• Other players robbed a prison wagon and embraced outlaw life, while many others hunted, fished, or enjoyed the scenery.

Old Dai played through the Van der Linde gang’s troubles, from rescuing Micah after his arrest to hunting with Hosea. When Arthur received a letter from his former love Mary asking him to save her brother, Old Dai accepted the mission.

• At Horseshoe Overlook, Arthur beat the sickly debtor Downes for Strauss, then argued with Strauss about lending money to desperate people.
• Lenny returned to camp and told the gang that Micah had been arrested in Strawberry after killing two men.
• Dutch sent Arthur to rescue Micah while taking Lenny to Valentine, where Arthur and Lenny drank and stumbled through a drunken night.
• Arthur blew a hole in the sheriff’s office basement to free Micah, who then fought his way across Strawberry and killed an old acquaintance’s family.
• Arthur hunted a Brown Bear with Hosea and later received a letter from Mary asking him to rescue her brother from a cult.
• Old Dai chose to accept Mary’s request, and Arthur set out to help her.

Old Dai played through the gang’s train robbery, their flight from Pinkerton Agents and Cornwall, and their move to a new camp near Rhodes. The chapter left him intrigued by the gang’s vividly contrasting members and curious about what would happen next.

• Old Dai learned how Kieran, Trelawney, and Sean fit into the Van der Linde gang, then watched the gang welcome Sean back with a celebration.
• John Marston proposed using an oil tanker to rob a train, and Arthur and the gang carried out the robbery, though they made little money.
• Pinkerton Agents approached Arthur with a bribe, and Cornwall later led armed men against the gang, forcing Dutch to relocate.
• Arthur and Charles rescued a German family while searching for a new camp, and the grateful family gave them a gold bar.
• After moving to Rhodes, Arthur, Dutch, and Hosea found Trelawney in a prison wagon and helped the sheriff capture escaped prisoners.
• Sadie joined Arthur on a supply trip and showed her fighting skill when she shot a gang member, triggering a roadside battle.

The Van der Linde gang’s feud with the Grays and Braithwaites ended in Sean’s death and Jack’s kidnapping, prompting a violent raid that led them to Saint Denis. As they settled near the city and sought Bronte’s help, Arthur reunited with Mary and befriended Eagle Flies, while the gang’s troubles continued to mount.

• Dutch used the Grays’ and Braithwaites’ feud to profit, while the O’Driscolls and Pinkertons ambushed Arthur at a supposed peace meeting and left him badly wounded.
• The Grays attacked Arthur and the gang in Rhodes, killing Sean, and the Braithwaites kidnapped Jack.
• Dutch, Hosea, Arthur, John Marston, Charles, Bill, Lenny, and Havel stormed the Braithwaite estate, learned Jack had been sent to Bronte, and burned the house.
• After Pinkerton Agents threatened them, Dutch moved the gang to an abandoned manor near Saint Denis, where Dutch and Arthur found Jack in Bronte’s care.
• Arthur recovered Mary’s heirloom and declined to leave the gang with her, then joined Rain Falls and Eagle Flies in stealing Cornwall’s bills, where Eagle Flies saved his life.

After the Saint Denis bank robbery ended in disaster, Arthur and the surviving gang members fled to an island before returning to America, where Dutch’s leadership grew increasingly volatile. Arthur learned he had terminal tuberculosis while he secretly tried to help rescue John Marston from prison.

• Kieran’s mutilated body was brought to camp, and the gang fought off an O’Driscoll attack before Dutch insisted they rob the Saint Denis Tram Station.
• The Tram Station robbery proved to be a trap, so Dutch proposed killing Bronte and robbing the Saint Denis bank; he later drowned Bronte in the Swamp.
• Pinkerton Agents ambushed the bank robbery, killing Hosea and Lenny, capturing John Marston, and forcing Arthur, Dutch, and the others to flee by ship.
• A storm wrecked the ship, and Arthur washed ashore on Cornwall’s sugar-cane island, where he reunited with Dutch’s group and helped free the slaves before returning to America.
• Dutch abandoned John after suspecting a gang traitor, while Arthur and Sadie decided to rescue him; Susan killed Molly after Molly claimed she had informed on the gang.
• Arthur collapsed on his way to meet Sadie, and a hospital doctor diagnosed him with tuberculosis.

Arthur Morgan spent his final days trying to help others and protect John, Abigail, and Jack as Dutch’s gang collapsed around him. After exposing Micah and helping John escape, Arthur died alone on a mountainside, at peace with his redemption.

• Arthur rescued John with Sadie, challenged Dutch, helped struggling strangers, and drove Strauss from camp as the gang fell apart.
• Arthur and Dutch joined Eagle Flies in conflict with the military, where Dutch abandoned Arthur and Eagle Flies was fatally wounded saving him.
• Arthur helped Sadie settle her score with the O’Driscolls, then rescued Abigail and learned from Milton that Micah was the traitor.
• Arthur returned to camp and exposed Micah as John came back, but the Pinkertons attacked and Micah killed Susan.
• Arthur gave John his hat and urged him to escape, then fought Micah while Dutch turned away and left Arthur behind.
• Arthur saw a deer as the sun rose, smiled, and died after accepting that he had completed his redemption.

Song Ren and countless players were devastated when Arthur died in every ending of Red Dead Redemption 2, and they flooded Chen Xu’s Official Blog with complaints. At Nebula Games, Chen Xu saw a fan comic mocking his games and reassured players that the final ending would satisfy them.

• Song Ren cried as Arthur lost his horse, gave John Marston his hat, and died on a cliff, then left the game to protest on Chen Xu’s Official Blog.
• Players argued over Arthur’s four endings, especially his deaths at Micah’s hands, and complained that the promised happy ending never came.
• Ruan Ningxue showed Chen Xu a fan comic portraying him as a cowboy aiming at characters from his games and, ultimately, the players.
• Chen Xu posted that players should savor the story quietly because he believed the final ending would satisfy everyone.

Song Ren played through John Marston's epilogue as John built a peaceful life with Abigail, Jack, and former gang members before joining Sadie and Charles to confront Micah. Dutch shot Micah, and the money they found revealed that Dutch had kept enough for the gang to leave long ago, as the outlaw era came to an end.

• Song Ren continued the story as John Marston worked at a ranch, but an old enemy forced John to kill in front of Jack, leading Abigail to leave him.
• John bought Beacher's Hope, built a Farm, and learned that Mary Beth, Reverend Swanson, Pearson, Tilly, and Karen had found new lives.
• Uncle helped John locate Charles, who joined the Farm after revealing he had buried Arthur on a scenic mountain; John also learned Strauss had died without betraying the gang.
• Sadie helped John earn money and pay off his loan, and Abigail returned; John proposed to her with Arthur's old Ring.
• Sadie told John she had found Micah, so John rode with Sadie and Charles to the Great Snow Mountain, where Dutch shot Micah during their standoff.
• John and Sadie found a chest of money Dutch had saved, while Dutch left without a word and the end of the outlaw era became clear.

Song Ren replayed Red Dead Redemption 2 as Arthur Morgan while players explored hidden locations and speculated about a sequel or DLC. Chen Xu planned to continue John Marston’s story in future DLC, and the game earned near-universal perfect reviews.

• Song Ren began a second playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2 as Arthur Morgan and explored the Western World.
• Players discussed Armadillo Town, Tumbleweed Town, Mexico, and the gang members’ unresolved fates on the forums.
• Chen Xu planned to bring John Marston’s story to players in future DLC but waited while the game’s online mode was still unreleased.
• Gaming media outlets praised Red Dead Redemption 2, with every reported score reaching at least 9.5.

Antolini tried Red Dead Redemption 2 and recognized how its nuanced story and integrated open-world systems surpassed Beautiful World. With Beautiful World crushed by the competing release, atrai struggled while Nebula Games celebrated.

• Antolini watched Red Dead Redemption 2's growing buzz and unanimous perfect reviews overshadow Beautiful World, whose scores ranged from 5.5 to 9.
• Antolini compared the games' portrayals of the Wild West and saw how Red Dead Redemption 2's morally complex characters and changing-era setting gave its story greater depth.
• Antolini played Red Dead Redemption 2 through the end of Valentine and admitted that its realistic details and integrated open-world systems outdid Beautiful World's gameplay design.
• Antolini accepted that atrai had been crushed by Red Dead Redemption 2, while Nebula Games celebrated.

Nebula Games prepared a Spring Festival sale and limited VR theme giveaways based on its game franchises. Chen Xu announced the offers, and players reacted with excitement and surprise at the New Year-themed Jushan Mental Hospital reward.

• Chen Xu planned discounted games and in-game items for Nebula Games’ Spring Festival sale.
• Nebula Games prepared VR theme scenes as cumulative-spending rewards, including a festive Jushan Mental Hospital theme for players below the spending thresholds.
• Chen Xu explained that the scenes would help test VR gameplay and build experience for possible future ports, though he had no plans to bring Warcraft or WOW to VR yet.
• Chen Xu announced the sale and theme rewards on his Official Blog as players prepared for the New Year.
• Players discussed the discounts and cumulative rewards, then reacted with surprise to the New Year Special Jushan Mental Hospital theme.

Nebula Game Platform launched its seasonal sale and gave players a multiplayer VR theme connecting environments from several Nebula Games titles. Song Ren and Zhang Yi explored the festive locations, ending their tour in the impressive Stormwind City.

• Nebula Game Platform discounted older games and gave players an Outlast VR theme, which Song Ren invited Zhang Yi to explore with him.
• Song Ren and Zhang Yi entered Jushan Mental Hospital and found its familiar horrors transformed into a cheerful Spring Festival celebration.
• They discovered that the VR theme linked its locations, then traveled by sedan from Jushan Mental Hospital to Astera from Monster Hunter: World.
• Song Ren and Zhang Yi explored Firelink Shrine from Dark Souls and traveled to other game environments through their themed transitions.
• They arrived at Stormwind City from Warcraft and admired its scale compared with the other VR locations.