Red Dead Redemption Cut Content

This is a list of content cut from Red Dead Redemption during development.

Characters[]

Existing Character Changes[]

John and Abigail^{[citation needed]} were appeared much younger than in the final version.
Bonnie and her family's last names were MacFarling.^{[citation needed]}
Many cut bounty posters were left over in the game files for characters including Enepay, Helaku, Kosumi, Nashoba, and Hassun from Dutch's Gang, Diego Bocanegra (which features his unused hat model), Franciso Aragon, Rafael Vallerino, Victor Ortega from the Mexican Army, Outlaw on Horse, Outlaw in Blue, and Outlaw in Brown of Bill Williamson's gang, The Tudisco Kid, and John Marston as well as Abraham Reyes who sports an unused goatee.
- Julius Grimes and Slink Bradshaw, despite appearing as bounties in the final game, have unused versions of their posters leftover in the files. The poster that is used for Slink depicts him with an unused beard.
The Tudisco Kid was supposed to be a member of Williamson's gang, yet is never used as such and only ever appears in multiplayer.

Story[]

Originally, the main character was meant to be the son of Red Harlow.

Missions[]

Cut Missions[]

There is a cut Stranger mission where John Marston comes across a little person somewhere in the world and he remarks at how he doesn't have any friends, so John decides to go find a friend for him. He comes across a drunk man who tells him that there are an ugly woman and a giant somewhere in the hills. John decides to go after the latter. When John encounters the giant, he doesn't want any visitors and John fights him. John wins and convinces the giant to go find the little person. John goes back to the little person and finds that the giant has killed a woman. The little person wants John to kill the giant, at which point John is left with the choice to kill the giant or not. It appears that the concept of this mission was remade and turned into a Stranger mission "The Smell of the Grease Paint" featured in Red Dead Redemption 2.^[1]
Mother Superior had her own stranger mission in which the player would retrieve four missing relics and return them to her. Although the mission is not in the game, the dialogue files for it can be accessed by inspecting the game code.^[2]

Existing Mission Changes[]

As evidenced by text leftover in the subtitles for the mission, it seems that originally in "The Last Enemy that Shall be Destroyed" Abigail was going to be kidnapped by one of the members of the army, leading to John having to save her. John would also grab his rifle from the kitchen and was given the choice to run away, fight, or surrender which may have resulted in a mission failure. Edgar Ross also has unused lines for the mission.

Locations[]

MacFarlane's Ranch was called "Hennigan's Ranch" at one point and also "MacFarling's Ranch".
A much earlier version of Armadillo can be seen in a short video shown at E3 2005 for the game. Another more finalized version can be seen in a trailer for the game where the train station is completely absent.
In Blackwater, there were a few buildings along the east shore. It's unknown what they did, but one appears to be a factory based on the smokestacks. The building outside of Blackwater also had a different color at one point.
The Morningstar steamboat was originally intended to serve as a floating casino. Evidence of this can be seen in the "Life in the West" pre-release trailer, and also in the dialogue exchanged between Marston and Elizabeth Thornton during the Stranger mission "The Wronged Woman", wherein she says "I knew his frequenting that gambling boat would be the death of him." In the final game, the boat disappears before the player gains access to West Elizabeth.
Las Hermanas Church was supposed to have a bigger interior but was cut from the game. The church itself has left over window holes in the unused part of the interior however on the outside no windows are present.

Animals[]

In the normal Red Dead Redemption, bats were meant to be able to be hunted and skinned as bat wings remain leftover in the files.
The Sasquatch could be found in the normal Red Dead Redemption, just like in Undead Nightmare.^{[citation needed]}
Cows, Buffaloes, and Bulls were intended to be rideable at one point in development; this functionality ended up being reused for Bonzo, Super Bull, the American Buffalo and Albino Buffalo in Multiplayer.
Some mounts can only be ridden using mods, with a notable instance of this being the Dead Horse in "Spare the Love, Spoil the Child" as the horse was given infinite stamina in Undead Nightmare. Another instance is the male horse who appears at the end of "We Shall be Together in Paradise" as the horse is replaced with another after the cutscene ends.

Weapons[]

Some weapons were supposed to appear but were left out of the game or unused. These weapons include Walker Revolver (Colt 1851 Navy), Top Break Revolver (Smith & Wesson No. 3 Russian Model), a Melee Shovel, weaker version of the Cattleman, a Creedmoor rifle, Flintlock rifle,^[3] Bow, and a Lantern that would have been both holdable and used as a throwable explosive. The Melee Shovel is assumed to have been re-used for treasure hunting and digging in general instead of being used as an actual weapon. The lantern weapon itself was re-purposed as a fake weapon in a mission or of the such or so at least that's what it shows in the scripts for the game. It can also be assumed it had another re-purpose throughout the game; being the moveable lanterns that can explode when shot.
Dual-wielding appears to have also been cut from the game, as no character ever uses two guns at once.
The Explosive Rifle was originally called the Anti-tank Rifle.^[4] The weapon still uses that as the code name for it, however, the Anti-Tank Rifle was never finished and in later updates and DLC it was replaced with the Explosive Rifle.
All weapons have unused gold models that are similar to the Golden Guns, albeit with various differences to the final game.
- The model for the unused golden Henry Repeater features a forearm piece despite the normal version of the gun lacking one, this oddity can also be noticed on the icon for the weapon.

Outfits[]

John is unable to obtain the US Marshal Uniform and Bureau Uniform but these outfits do still exist for him and can be seen in pre-release screenshots,^[5] alongside his Military Uniform^[6] which was reused for Undead Nightmare.
The US Marshal and Bureau Uniforms originally had sheriff's badges as can be seen in the icons,^[7] a texture,^[8] and some pre-release screenshots.^[9]
The Bandito Outfit was supposed to sport the double bandolier, as shown on its model and icon.
In trailers and pre-release images, John can be seen without his signature hat. This is possibly due to it being removable at some point in the game's development, although this is unconfirmed. It should be noted that in the original inventory icon for the Elegant Suit and a pre-release screenshot,^[10] the hat is not present although this was changed in an update.^[11]

Items & Provisions[]

Cut Items[]

Double Bandolier - As the name implies, the player could have had two bandoliers instead of one. There is a glitch in the game to obtain this item, however.
Horse Lantern - This would have likely been placed on a saddle to provide light.^[12]
Bat Wings - It was originally possible to hunt and skin bats to get this provision.
Sacred Relic - Intended to feature in Mother Superior's cut mission.
Train Ticket - It is possible this item was intended to be used in order to board trains.
Sheriff Badge - It is completely unknown what this item would have done, but it may have allowed Marston to be treated like a lawman when wearing it.
Gold Pan and Gold Nugget - Marston may have been intended to pan for gold at some point.
Penny Dreadful - It is completely unknown what the purpose of this novel was.
Scripture Book - Possibly had something to do with Mother Superior's mission.
Adrenaline - May have given the player boosts in energy or deadeye.
Tequila - A bottle of Tequila the player could store in their satchel.
Horse Deed - Every horse in the game is either one, two, or three stars. This deed, however, features no stars at all.
Treasure Box - Unknown, but may have been involved with treasure hunting.
Whiskey - A bottle of Whiskey the player could store in their satchel.

Existing Item Changes[]

Bait originally used meat for its icon picture.
The Nosalida Package appears to have originally been a bottle of Opium.

Vehicles[]

The Automobile and Armored Truck were programmed as drivable by the player but that feature was cut in the final game.
There are three rafts and a canoe in the game which feature limited functionality to be driven by the player. The first raft is marked as a vehicle but lacks any drive functionality. The second raft is Irish's used in "We Shall be Together in Paradise", albeit on a scripted path. It lacks a proper seat and thus will drive off without the player. The third raft is used in Multiplayer co-op missions on a scripted path, while the canoe seems to be entirely unused and only has an enter prompt for the passenger seat.
A few wagons in the game, whether they can be accessed by normal means or not, have back seats that could have been accessed by the player but were cut from the final game.

Multiplayer[]

There are a good bit of cut multiplayer titles still left in the game, they can be seen alongside some more info here.
There are some cut killfeed strings for when the player is killed by animals. Some of these are never supposed to be seen, but some can actually occur albeit only under extremely specific conditions. You can view the killfeed strings here.
With the release of the Hunting & Trading Outfits DLC, some files were added containing a few beta Undead Multiplayer models. Very few players ever saw these original models, as in order to see them it is required that one player has Undead Nightmare installed, while the other does not. Selecting either Zombie Marston, Poe Boll, or Sarah Reese while owning Undead Nightmare will allow these beta models to be viewable by players who do not have Undead Nightmare.

Test Objects & Development[]

There are remnants of development still left in the games files,^[13] such as missions tester, test missions, test animation files, test objects,^[14] strings for the debug menu, developer keyboard binds, test races for multiplayer, etc. Most of the test scripts cannot be used because they contain cut code that the game executable no longer supports in the game.

HUD[]

Upon receiving a bounty, the black paint splash was not behind the reward. Also, it would mention what the player was charged with.
Dead Eye Targeting had a different reticle after being activated.
Originally, the weapon wheel was not present, only the weapon icon next to the Heads-up Display.
Many of the game's font was changed at some point in development.
The UI for Dead Eye looked different in the beta.
Originally the HUD had a different design, along with different fonts shown for dialogue, and Poker.
- When Wanted, the HUD would show what the player is charged with.
- The map radar had a rough design and was bigger.