Everyone's Confused By This Red Dead Redemption 2 NPC

When NPCs attack, it can be an overwhelming situation. In a game like Red Dead Redemption 2, where your reputation will follow you and influence how people react towards you, it can sometimes be difficult to contain a violent situation. However, sometimes, you may find that you have absolutely no say in the matter. Even though most of Red Dead's NPCs follow a set series of rules and behavioral guidelines, there are moments when the script appears to be thrown out entirely.

That's what Reddit user DMarlow310 encountered recently while playing RDR2, and they have shared the video of this wild encounter that must be seen to be believed. After stepping through the saloon doors, Arthur Morgan tells off an angry NPC who responds by throwing a few punches. While Arthur attempts to blocks the blows, another NPC from the other end of the building comes running over and pulls out a knife. The new challenger sneaks up behind Arthur's attacker and plunges the knife right into the man's neck. As a woman screams and runs down the stairs, the killer leaves the scene, his job apparently all done here.

Reddit users are trying their darnedest to figure out what could have caused this violent outburst. NPCs will often make snide comments toward the player character, depending on the player's reputation in the game. It should be noted that it's not unusual for several NPCs to get involved in a fight, but it's not normal for things to escalate quite as quickly as they did here. It's also very strange for the second NPC to have gotten involved at all, considering how far away from the action he was. One user suggested that it could be that the NPC was trying to run to the player's rescue. Since the player was attempting to block the punches and not throwing any in return, it could be that the NPC only saw the attacking character as the sole threat.

Other Redditors have shared their stories of similar experiences when NPCs went violently rogue. One user accidentally bumped into an NPC while heading to take a bath, setting off a shootout that ended with that NPC being killed by the owner of the game's Valentine hotel. Still, none of the stories have the bizarre build of this one. In other words, sometimes the NPCs in Red Dead are a bit touchy, but they're rarely this intense.

One user even bemoaned their playthrough's lack of assistance from crazed NPCs, writing, "I had four NPC guys jump me in Valentine just for sitting on my horse too close to them I guess? Would have been great if any other NPC helped me with that scuffle."

Honestly, there are so many weird aspects to this video. Just look at the way Arthur Morgan is animated when he walks through the saloon doors. Arthur appears to cross his arms and grab each door knob with the opposite side's hand. It's utterly bizarre, somehow setting in motion the events to come. Maybe that arm cross is a special code to let any nearby psychopaths know it's time to do a bit of stabbing.

As another Reddit user points out, a female voice can be heard in the distance shouting a swear word just before the unexpected attacker heads over. This has led some to believe that the knife-wielding man could be a bouncer or local security of some kind. The woman's voice could have been a patron of the bar alerting the man to the danger. Still, a knife straight through the back of the cranium seems like an extreme response to some good old-fashioned bar brawling.

Granted, while it's upsetting that this random murder took place for seemingly no reason, this knife-happy cowpoke is far from the scariest NPC in Red Dead Redemption. Just a few weeks ago, several players of Red Dead Online encountered a supernatural being roaming the dusty trails: an unkillable two-headed skeleton was picking fights with every poor rustler to come near it. That creature was clearly created by some spooky Red Dead hackers, though. 

This seems to be a bizarre little fluke in the game's code. At least, we hope it is. If the NPCs in Red Dead are just slowly deciding to turn on the players, the usual hootin' and hollerin' of life on the range may turn into a scream. Honestly, the Red Dead Redemption franchise is already full of creepy moments without having to add in the fear of deranged NPCs raging in the streets. After all, that's what we have Grand Theft Auto's NPCs for.