The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild and Halo Infinite aren’t the only games that feature characters flying through the air thanks to their physics engines. One Red Dead Redemption 2 player saw just how powerful the game’s horses are and how hard they can push back against Red Dead‘s gravity in a hilarious clip shared on Reddit.
Posted to the sub-Reddit r/RedDeadRedemption, user u/Masanen captured what seemed on the surface to be a relatively mundane interaction in Red Dead Redemption 2. The player approached a traveler in the wilderness trying to calm his horse down only for the horse to be startled by the player and give its owner quite the kick. However, instead of being knocked back a few feet from the kick, the NPC quickly flies past the player and down a nearby hill.
The clip just goes to show how open-ended the sandbox in Red Dead Redemption 2 is and how, while the game features plenty of scripted moments and sequences, there’s a lot about its world that’s simply an unscripted simulation. It’s moments like these that give the game a lot of its charm and help make each player’s experience feel truly unique to them thanks to Red Dead‘s constant emergent narrative moments.
Some commenters noted that there was a way to save the man, should the original poster ever encounter a similar situation, by heart-breakingly shooting the horse before it can have the chance to give its owner a kick. While that won’t do the player’s honor level any favors, however, one single horse death likely won’t be the deciding factor between having low and high honor levels unless the player was riding the line between being a true outlaw and a helpful cowboy. That said, the physics interaction was so abrupt and funny that it seems like it might be worth it to just let the man fly and leave after a few chuckles.
While these sorts of interactions are common in Red Dead Redemption 2, it seems as if Red Dead Online is where the bulk of the engine’s physics manipulation is going on among players looking to goof around and have some fun. Unfortunately, updates for Red Dead Online are delayed until further notice while Rockstar begins to put some serious work into fixing the mess that is Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition. Given just how many issues the remastered collection has, it seems like Red Dead Online players might be waiting for any future updates.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.