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How Red Dead Redemption 2 created the perfect base camp
Here’s why Van der Linde Camp is so impressive, and how you can make the most of it.
On Monday, October 30, Rockstar Games announced that Red Dead Redemption 2 had made $725 million in worldwide retail sell-through during its first three days: nearly three-quarters of a billion dollars.
It's a masterpiece, but a difficult one that challenges the player's expectations. To draw a science fiction parallel, this is Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey, not George Lucas' Star Wars. Whereas Lucas bent over backwards to maintain viewer interest, throwing in rapidly edited fight scenes and space dogfights at every turn, Kubrick filmed at a glacial pace; he showed a single ship docking for five minutes.
This forced the viewer to slow down, surrender to the filmgoing experience, and appreciate the details. The same is true with Red Dead Redemption 2, a game that moves at a granular crawl. And deliberately so: the franchise took visual inspiration from Sergio Leone's "Dollars Trilogy," and now, it's matching the pace of those films as well.
Rather than creating a dopamine feedback loop, where every task has a quantifiable incentive and feeds into a superhero narrative, Red Dead Redemption 2 does the opposite; it emphasises the mere acts of living and surviving as accomplishments. Your reward for doing everything properly is not some god-like finishing move or game-breaking advantage; it simply becomes a smidgen more difficult to die, though you can still do so, often unexpectedly.
And by doling out less, Rockstar Games makes you appreciate everything more. You begin to take pleasure in the smallest activities, things that you would normally breeze past in other games. And nothing encapsulates this ethos better than Arthur's Camp, which he shares with the other members of the Van der Linde gang. Here we break down one of the most important elements of the game.
Dutch van der Linde watches over his camp and his cash box
© Rockstar Games
What the Camp is used for
The Camp is a collection of wagons and tents in an isolated forest clearing; many of the game's missions start at the Camp. It’s Arthur's hub, where he can go to eat and to improve his gear. To do either, go to the provisions wagon. Pearson, the gang's cook and jack of all trades, will make a big pot of stew every morning, which will be ready to eat around noon. He'll also upgrade your satchels to carry more valuables, ammunition, and supplies if you can acquire perfect pelts for him to use. Pearson can also use these pelts to decorate the Camp. Leather tablecloths, for example, give the entire camp a cleaner, more rustic appearance and boost camp morale
Arthur can also go to Camp between missions to pick up ammunition, food, and medical supplies, which can be found at Arthur's wagon, Pearson's wagon, and Strauss' wagon, respectively. Near Dutch's tent is a metal collection box; this is where you donate to the camp's funds.
It's up to you if you want to give all your money or none at all, and the effects of donating are not immediately apparent. But after the first five missions of Chapter 2, you'll be able to access the ledger next to the box. And this is where you can pay for some of the most consequential camp upgrades: to ammunitions, food, and medical supplies. You can eat salmon instead of biscuits. You can stockpile repeater ammo in addition to revolver ammo. And so forth.
But here's a tip: before you do any of that, flip to the back of the ledger. There are three important upgrades that take top priority.
The first is to upgrade Dutch's lodgings, which costs $220. That unlocks the ability to upgrade Arthur's lodgings, which costs $325. Paying that will unlock a fast travel option, with which you can transport yourself to any major landmark you've previously visited. It'll save some time in a game that's already pretty lengthy.
You should also prioritise the leather working tools for Pearson, which cost $225. This will unlock additional crafting upgrades for the rest of the game.
Lastly, consider doing chores. There are six of them: there's a tree stump near Strauss' wagon where you can chop wood; there's a supplies wagon with two bags of grain laying near it. You can carry both of those bags (two separate chores) to Pearson's wagon; near the same supplies wagon are two bales of hay. Carry those bales (two separate chores) to the horses. And lastly, around the back of the supplies wagon is a bucket of water. You can carry this over to the wash basin near Pearson's wagon.
These chores provide some of your earliest Dead Eye upgrades.
Resting your weary bones after an epic rescue
© Rockstar Games
What the Camp means
There's lots of things going on at Camp which have nothing to do with upgrades, or leveling, or anything that significantly impacts the game's mechanics. Plus, by carefully looting and foraging on your missions, you'll have always have enough supplies and ammo. Outside of necessity, you'll never have to deal with any of the Camp people you don't want to.
But therein lies its brilliance: because the Camp work is inessential, it's paradoxically freeing. If the game required you to chop wood every morning and hunt every afternoon, players would balk at the restrictiveness. But by simply leaving the options there, and attaching the barest of rewards for choosing them, there's no pressure to complete them. You'll find yourself doing them more often than not.
There's a pride that comes with doing something by choice, rather than being forced by The Plot. You take a sense of ownership in this game – over your appearance, your horse, and your Camp – that is unprecedented.
There are entire Camp narrative sequences that are voluntary, but greatly enrich the game. After a particularly daring rescue mission, for example, the camp decides to throw a late night party. Everyone gets drunk around the campfire, sings songs, and chit chats into the night. It'll last until morning; most Camp members turn in at a decent hour, but others continue drinking and are staggering about when the sun rises.
Other game developers might have presented this party as a series of cinematic cutscenes. But Rockstar provide something more immersive; you can walk wherever you want to in the camp and take in the party from different vantage points. Some of the gang members might be sitting around the campfire, singing songs. Others might be at a table, swapping stories. And others might be by their tent; perhaps they're not in a partying mood. You determine what you see instead of the game.
This is how outlaws throw a party
© Rockstar Games
There's important characterisation during these sequences as well. Should you decide to find Dutch, he's sitting in his tent, hunched over, with his arms on his knees. While he encouraged everyone else to party, he cannot be as carefree. Such is the nature of responsibility. Heavy is the head that wears the crown.
Could you have skipped this entire party and went to bed in your tent? Yes, and you wouldn't have suffered greatly for having done so; there’s no practical outcome, no upgrade to be earned, no trophy to be acquired, for singing and drinking with your fellow outlaws until the crack of dawn.
But again, due to the non-linear, low pressure stakes, you might find yourself sitting by the campfire, comfortably sharing silence with your NPC buddies, instead of staking out the next homestead to rob.
Living, both in real life and in Red Dead Redemption 2, is routine punctuated by high points. And it's the juxtaposition between them that makes the high points burn that much brighter.
