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This Red Dead Redemption trivia quiz has 60 free questions with answers and covers the whole series: the 2010 original and John Marston's forced manhunt through New Austin and Mexico, the Undead Nightmare zombie expansion, Red Dead Redemption 2 and the slow collapse of the Van der Linde gang, and the 2004 Red Dead Revolver that started it all under Capcom. Questions range from the ones any player will get (what year the first game is set in, who leads the gang, what the slow-motion aiming system is called) to the ones for people who read the journal and the credits: the ferry heist town, the island the gang wash up on, the alligator, the Aztec goddess, the studio that ported the game to Switch, the record-breaking opening weekend and the 100-hour weeks behind it. Every answer was checked against a reference source before publishing, and each question shows its citation once you have answered, so use it for a game-night round or to find out how much you really absorbed across two hundred hours in the saddle.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In what year is the original Red Dead Redemption set?
1911
The date matters: it is the tail end of the frontier, with motor cars and federal agents closing in. The sequel jumps back twelve years to 1899.
Q 02Which studio led development of Red Dead Redemption?
Rockstar San Diego
The studio began life as Angel Studios and was renamed after Rockstar bought it. Its 180-person core team pulled in Leeds, New England, North and Toronto for a total workforce of over 1,000.
Q 03What is the slow-motion targeting mechanic in the series called?
Dead Eye
It debuted in Red Dead Revolver and lets you paint several targets before firing. In Redemption it levels up as the story progresses.
Q 04How many former gang members is John Marston forced to hunt down in Red Dead Redemption?
Three
Bill Williamson, Javier Escuella and finally the gang's leader. The government holds his wife and son as leverage until the job is done.
Q 05What is the fictional Mexican state John crosses into during Red Dead Redemption?
Nuevo Paraíso
The crossing is scored by José González's 'Far Away', a moment critics singled out as one of the game's best. The state is caught in a civil war between Colonel Allende and rebel Abraham Reyes.
Q 06Which rancher nurses John back to health after he is shot at the start of Red Dead Redemption?
Bonnie MacFarlane
He repays her with ranch chores, herding cattle and breaking horses, while planning the assault on the outlaws' stronghold. She is voiced by Kimberly Irion.
Q 07Which stronghold do John and his allies storm to break Bill Williamson's gang in New Austin?
Fort Mercer
They win the fight but find Williamson has already fled to Mexico. The assault uses a Gatling gun hidden in Nigel West Dickens's wagon.
Q 08Which legendary gunslinger teaches John to shoot better when he arrives in Mexico?
Landon Ricketts
Ricketts, voiced by Ross Hagen, is an ageing celebrity shootist living in Chuparosa. He also features as a playable legend in the multiplayer.
Q 09Which Bureau of Investigation agent forces John to work for the government in the first game?
Edgar Ross
He keeps his side of the bargain and then leads the raid that kills John anyway. In the epilogue Jack Marston tracks the retired agent down and shoots him in a duel.
Q 10How does Dutch van der Linde die at the end of Red Dead Redemption?
Steps backwards off a cliff
Cornered, he warns John that the government will never leave him alone, then falls to his death by his own choice. The prophecy comes true within the hour.
Q 11In what year is the first game's epilogue set, when Jack rides out to avenge his family?
1914
Jack was voiced by Josh Blaylock as a teenager. His turn to the outlaw life is the game's bleak point about the cycle of violence.
Q 12Who composed the original score for Red Dead Redemption?
Bill Elm and Woody Jackson
Jackson found there was no real 'Western sound' in 1911, so he leaned on 1960s film scores such as Morricone's Dollars trilogy. He returned alone for the sequel.
Q 13Which José González song plays as John rides into Mexico for the first time?
Far Away
Q 21Why does John rise from the grave with his soul intact at the end of Undead Nightmare?
He was buried with holy water
That makes him a revenant rather than a mindless zombie, which is how the non-canonical story lets you keep playing as him after the plot ends.
Q 22Which weapon added in Undead Nightmare fires zombie body parts as ammunition?
The Blunderbuss
Other additions include holy water and undead bait. Mythical creatures to hunt include Sasquatch, El Chupacabra and a unicorn.
Q 23In what year is Red Dead Redemption 2 set?
1899
It won Best Song in a Game at the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. The sequence is often cited as one of gaming's great musical moments.
Q 14How many 2010 Spike VGA awards, including Game of the Year, did Red Dead Redemption win?
Four
Ten nominations became four wins: Game of the Year, Best Song, Best Original Score and Best DLC for the zombie expansion.
Q 15How many copies did the original Red Dead Redemption sell in its first three weeks?
Over five million
A Rockstar source told Joystiq it needed four million to break even and the publisher expected to lose money. It has since shipped over 25 million.
Q 16Analysts put the original game's combined development and marketing budget in what range?
$80-100 million
That made it one of the most expensive games ever at the time. Development lasted more than five years and drew complaints about twelve-hour days and six-day weeks.
Q 17What is Rockstar's proprietary game engine, first used on Table Tennis in 2006?
RAGE
The Rockstar Advanced Game Engine also runs the Grand Theft Auto games. Euphoria and Bullet handle extra animation and physics on top of it.
Q 18Which studio handled the 2023 Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 port of Red Dead Redemption?
Double Eleven
Rockstar had reportedly shelved a full remaster after the poor reception of the GTA Trilogy Definitive Edition. A Windows version followed in October 2024.
Q 19In Undead Nightmare, what turns out to have started the zombie plague?
A cursed Aztec mask
Abraham Reyes stole it from some catacombs and became a zombie when he put it on. Returning it ends the plague, until Seth Briars steals it again after John's death.
Q 20Which goddess reveals herself to John at the end of Undead Nightmare and gives him a horse of the Apocalypse?
Ayauhteotl
She had guided him disguised as an ordinary woman. The four horses are War, Famine, Pestilence and Death, each hidden somewhere in the world to be tamed.
The story opens with the gang fleeing into the snowy mountains after a heist gone wrong. The epilogue jumps forward to 1907.
Q 24Which actor plays Arthur Morgan in Red Dead Redemption 2?
Roger Clark
He won Best Performance at The Game Awards 2018 and later narrated the audiobook of Red Dead's History. Recording sessions for the game began back in 2013.
Q 25The Van der Linde gang's troubles in Red Dead Redemption 2 begin with a botched heist of what?
A ferry
They are forced to abandon their money stash and flee the town where it happened. That stash is what John finally recovers in the 1907 epilogue.
Q 26How many fictional US states make up the world of Red Dead Redemption 2?
Five
New Hanover, Ambarino and Lemoyne are new; New Austin and West Elizabeth return from the first game, redrawn for the earlier date, with Armadillo emptied by cholera.
Q 27Which real city is Saint Denis, the former French colony in Lemoyne, modelled on?
New Orleans
Lemoyne's bayous and plantations stand in for the Deep South. The gang's bank job there goes disastrously wrong and costs them Hosea.
Q 28On which island do Dutch, Arthur and the others wash up after their ship to Cuba sinks?
Guarma
They end up fighting for enslaved locals against sugar planter Colonel Fussar. Tahiti was where Dutch had promised the gang they would escape to.
Q 29What disease is Arthur diagnosed with in Red Dead Redemption 2?
Tuberculosis
He catches it after beating a sick debtor early in the story. The diagnosis reshapes the final chapters into a meditation on what he can still put right.
Q 30Which gang member is revealed as the Pinkertons' informant in Red Dead Redemption 2?
Micah Bell
Agent Milton names him just before Abigail shoots Milton. Dutch nonetheless sides with the traitor over Arthur in the final standoff.