Red Dead Redemption 2 has a grim secret that's been staring us in the face

Red Dead Redemption 2 is quite literally the gift that keeps on giving with its exquisitely detailed open world.

Fans have been unearthing hidden tidbits of lore, open world encounters, and map secrets for several years now. This we’ve all come to know.

I’m sure you, like me, are imagining that at some point soon, we’ll run out of such secrets to uncover. That’s simply not the case though. They just keep on coming.

This particular discovery concerns one grim secret linking all of Red Dead Redemption 2’s major locations.

We all know that Red Dead Redemption 2 is a game with its fair share of violence. As reported by GameRant, Reddit user MrRetnuh noticed that every major location featured in the game has been the site of a massacre. I did say it was grim.

Take a look at some of our favourite Red Dead Redemption 2 viral clips from over the years.

“Fun fact, in the story, there was a massacre in every city,” MrRetnuh began, although I’m not sure this fact is particularly “fun”.

“I was playing the story for the third time and I noticed that in each city, there's a story mission where we end up killing everyone.”

MrRetnuh then listed the massacre in Strawberry, the bloodbath in Valentine, Sean’s death in Rhodes, the massacre in Saint Denis, Dutch’s killing of Cornwall prompting chaos in Annihilation, and the Van Horn massacre.

“And they wonder why the Pinkertons keep finding them,” joked Khris_Ivanov05 about the rather obvious trail of bloodshed.

“I mean, what’s the point of Rockstar making these amazing towns if they’re not going to have you fight your way through them?” added Andrado.

It’s a solid point. Whilst a peaceful and violence-less Red Dead Redemption 2 sounds quant and relaxing, it might not exactly make for the most thrilling game.

Black_Knight_7 summed up my own thoughts when playing the game: “I just played for the first time and I was like, ‘For a bunch of guys tryna stay under the radar, we are leaving bodies everywhere.’”

Let’s hope the game’s next unearthed secret is mildly cheerier.