The highly anticipated Red Dead Redemption 2 was released recently, and a few unfortunate players have learned the townspeople will get their revenge if you shoot a dog.
The sequel to the Western-themed action-adventure was released yesterday (October 26), meaning a lot of people no doubt spent their Friday evenings working out what the new game has to offer.
One player, Dean Takahashi, had the privilege of playing the game on PlayStation 4 ahead of its release, and learned the creators at Rockstar Games had made it possible for players to shoot dogs.
Sharing the unfortunate experience with Venture Beat, the player explained:
On more than one occasion, I accidentally pulled the R2 trigger in the PlayStation 4 Pro version, rather than the L2 trigger. In this case, I was supposed to pet the dog, who was sitting on a wooden sidewalk.
Instead, I shot it by accident. (Let it be known I would never intentionally do this, in real life or in a video game).
Following his accidental shooting, Dean learned animal cruelty was a crime in the world of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Bystanders in the game witnessed the event and one ran off to get the sheriff, who asked the player’s character to leave the town.
Dean obeyed, but didn’t walk away fast enough, so the sheriff began to fire at him. Being in the fictional world where shooting authority figures, or anyone for that matter, isn’t that big of a deal, Dean began to fire back.
He took down the sheriff as well as an entire mob of computerised characters who came to get their revenge on the dog-killer, and attempted to flee the disastrous situation on his horse, but couldn’t figure out which of the animals in the Western town was his.
During the delay, in which he looked for his mighty steed, Dean learned killing the mob of characters wasn’t enough as another dozen members of the town had already gathered to avenge the dead.
The gunmen eventually took down Dean’s character, but he came back from the dead in a way only video game characters can, unharmed apart from bullet holes in his jacket and a large bounty on his head.
Dean explained how he paid off the bounty, but the characters in the game still held a grudge against him.
He continued:
I figured that would be enough. But as I walked through town, the townspeople reacted negatively to me.
One said, “We remember what you did.” Even though my weapon was holstered, I wasn’t welcome at the stable in that town.
“Oh, it’s you,” said the stable owner.
Dean isn’t the only player who’s regretted accidentally killing a poor pooch in the game, as another player tweeted their despair after panicking when they tried to save themselves from a dog’s attack:
Thankfully a lot of players have managed to keep tabs on which button does what, and have given the dogs the love they deserve:
Hopefully no one else will shoot one of the faithful animals – though if they do, they’ll have to be prepared to run from the angry mob which will be quick to pursue them.
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Emily Brown first began delivering important news stories aged just 13, when she launched her career with a paper round. She graduated with a BA Hons in English Language in the Media from Lancaster University, and went on to become a freelance writer and blogger. Emily contributed to The Sunday Times Travel Magazine and Student Problems before becoming a journalist at UNILAD, where she works on breaking news as well as longer form features.