A Red Dead Redemption 2 player recorded a scene in which Charles Smith, a Van der Linde gang member, unexpectedly vanished after engaging with Arthur Morgan. The gamer documented their meeting in a video in which Charles vanishes behind a moving waggon during the story mode of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Red Dead Redemption 2 has a large open environment with a variety of NPCs to interact with. The characters in the Wild West environment are subject to gameplay constraints according to Rockstar Games’ open-world concept. One such condition that comes to mind is the ability of NPCs to reappear. In particular, if an NPC dies in the game, they will not return and will be replaced by another NPC. This has sparked debate about how NPCs despawning in Red Dead Redemption 2 affects immersion in Rockstar Games’ western game. With this in mind, a player recorded video of a known NPC despawning right in front of them.
Reddit user intoner1 posted a video of Charles Smith disappearing after conversing with him in Red Dead Redemption 2. The exchange is brief: Charles has been following Arthur Morgan of the Van der Linde gang for some time, and the player quickly dismisses Charles. Once that moment is passed, a waggon passes by at the conclusion of the interaction, separating the two. However, after the waggon passes through, Charles is no longer present, as if he has departed the region entirely. The video was captioned by Intoner1 as “Coolest despawn I’ve ever seen.”
If Arthur Morgan has been missing from camp for an extended period of time, Van der Linde gang members can go on treks to find him. Charles is one of the characters who can go out and find Arthur (other members who can go out and find Arthur include Bill Williamson and Javier Escuela). This can happen throughout Chapter 3, as intoner1 mentioned in one of their comments.
Furthermore, when referring to Charles’ disappearance in the video, parallels to Batman and Jason Bourne were made in the comments. These characters behave similarly, appearing to vanish after interacting with others.
While murdering NPCs in Red Dead Redemption 2 may cause some troubles, seeing rare despawning moments like those in intoner1’s video is refreshing. It’s a lighthearted exchange that defies the game’s realism guidelines. The game is recognised for delivering some problematic results in terms of despawning characters, while gamers have already reported these issues in single-player mode and Red Dead Online. Whether it’s by design or not, it’s a probable moment that can occur in the game.
