The Real Reason We Never Got To Play This Red Dead Redemption 2 Mission

Red Dead Redemption 2 was released in 2018 to considerable praise from fans and critics alike. The game boasted a notably massive file size, but it appears as though Rockstar Games used every bit of that storage to its advantage. From rounding up bounty heads to doing chores on the farm, Red Dead Redemption 2 offered a well-rounded experience of being an outlaw in the Old West. That's why it may surprise fans to learn that there was plenty of content that was developed for the game that never saw the light of day.

In an interview with GameSpot, two of the actors from Red Dead Redemption 2 detailed a mission that was ultimately cut from the game. According to Roger Clark, who voiced Arthur Morgan, and Benjamin Byron Davis, who played Dutch, the game originally featured a mission involving a tussle on a moving train.

Clark explained, "There was one that got cut that was kind of fun where we take out some Boston bounty hunters on a train."

It's not clear where this mission would fit into the narrative of the game, but it does sound like it would have been extremely fun. In fact, Davis told GameSpot that it was the one sequence that was cut that he really missed.

"We spent a lot of time on that. That was going to be ... oh, I hate that that got cut," Davis said. "It got cut because I guess they couldn't get it up to snuff."

Basically, the mission was more or less deemed extraneous and must have involved some moving parts that didn't quite work with the rest of the game's mechanics. Davis' reasons are a little vague, but it seems that Rockstar tends to chuck things that aren't quite working. That way, the overall product will benefit from having the best bits kept in.

Davis continued, "When you're working with Rockstar, you really never need to worry. Because anything that doesn't work, they don't use it. The amount of good things that they let go of is ... well, that's too much information."

In other words, there may be a whole lot of Red Dead Redemption 2 missions that we will never get to see because they weren't completed. While it sounds like the two actors finished recording all of their dialogue for some of these cut sequences, Rockstar ultimately decided to go with the portions that apparently worked much better. 

While it's good to know that the scene was ultimately cut for the sake of quality, it is a bit of a bummer. The lack of this train mission is actually indicative of a problem that many fans have had with Red Dead Redemption 2 and another Rockstar Games release, Grand Theft Auto 5. Despite the presence of robust online experiences for both games (particularly Grand Theft Auto Online), there has been nothing in the way of single player DLC experiences for either title. This has come as a major disappointment for fans who want to see more of their favorite characters outside of the story told in the original campaign modes.

Compounding this frustration is the fact that fans were very close to getting what they're asking for, only for Rockstar Games to pull the plug at the last minute. At least in Grand Theft Auto 5's case, Rockstar very nearly added multiple single player story expansions. One of these would have included a storyline with GTA 5's protagonists fighting zombies, much like the original Red Dead Redemption was expanded in the non-canon Undead Nightmare. This was nixed in favor of focusing on fleshing out and improving Grand Theft Auto Online, which proved to be the bigger moneymaker in the long run.

Red Dead Redemption 2 fans are still hoping for new content, to the point where they have organized a petition stating this desire. It's difficult to tell future stories with some of the characters (considering how the game's ending played out), but some fans have suggested that Rockstar could tell some interesting side stories set within the same time period as RDR2.

Unfortunately, it's looking less and less like Red Dead Redemption 2 will ever get those new missions that fans are clamoring for. At the very least, this interview does reveal that Rockstar has some cool ideas that could maybe be revisited in the future. Perhaps we'll see a version of this particular train job play out in a future sequel or the rumored remake of the first Red Dead Redemption. Only time will tell, cowboys.