Red Dead Redemption’s endingāwhich, heads up, I am gonna spoil hereāis famous for a reason. Gamers are a cosseted bunch, and it was (heck, it continues to be) very rare that an open world didn’t stick you right back in the protagonist’s boots after credits rolled, so you could go mop up whatever side quests and activities you hadn’t done yet.
RDR bucked that expectation when it straight-up killed poor ol’ John Marston at the end. Sure, you could still keep playing as his son Jack, but the guy you’d come to know and love over tens of hours of playtime was cold in the ground. It hit like a sledgehammer, and it’s still tough to play through the game’s ending even now.
Turns out, though, that Rockstar would have liked to subject you to that emotional trauma even earlier. In a chat with Lex Fridman, Rockstar co-founder (who has since departed the company) Dan Houser said that he would’ve really liked to break your heart in GTA 4. “I would like to have, at the end of GTA 4, killed Niko,” said Houser, with what I can only describe as a bit too much relish.
Why didn’t he? Because unlike RDR, killing off Niko just didn’t quite gel with how Rockstar had set up GTA 4. “You know, the game doesn’t work like that. So it was this thing where we hadn’t done it, thought about doing it, hadn’t done it, and then going ‘Let’s do it’ [in RDR].”
Which makes a degree of sense, I suppose. There wasn’t really anyone else in GTA 4 it would have made sense for you to play if Niko had carked it. His cousin Roman wasā¦ not really cut out for the gangster lifestyle, he had no kids, who was left? Brucie? Little Jacob? Actually, maybe a Jacob game would be kind of fun.
I can’t help but think Rockstar probably just didn’t feel quite confident enough to do something like kill your character when GTA 4 released. Sure, it had put out a whole bunch of games people lovedāSan Andreas is still, probably, my personal favourite GTAābut it was GTA 4 that really established its narrative bonafides. I can’t help but think the plaudits it got for GTA 4’s story gave its writers the boost they needed to feel confident enough to waste John Marston in 2010.
After all, Houser does recall that “people were really upset and angry at us for doing it [in RDR] because they didn’t think it was going to happen.
“It was a big risk from a technical perspective for us to do that,” says Houser, “and then it worked. So I think that was something that was veryā¦ full of fear [for Rockstar], and it worked out okay.”
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It’s interesting to hear about Dan Houser’s initial vision for Niko Bellic’s fate in GTA 4. The creative process behind such iconic games often involves tough decisions, and it’s fascinating how those choices shape the story’s impact. Red Dead Redemption’s ending definitely left a lasting impression on many fans!
It’s definitely fascinating! The tension between narrative choices and player expectations really shapes the experience. Niko’s story could have taken a darker turn, much like John Marston’s in Red Dead Redemption, which adds depth to the discussion about character arcs in open-world games.
I completely agree! It’s interesting how the fear of alienating players can shape storytelling in games. In the case of GTA 4, it seems like they opted for a more ambiguous ending, which ultimately left room for interpretation and discussion. Itās a delicate balance that can make or break a gameās impact.