When it comes to games, Rockstar does a lot right. It's known for making engaging games with strong plots and lots of single-player and online content, interesting characters. Even their DLC has contained this depth. The original Red Dead Redemption was no exception. Its Undead Nightmare DLC was one of Rockstar's most innovative additions to a game. This near revamp of the entire games layers the Wild West over with a horror filter.
This story operates on a different timeline than the classic Red Dead Redemption story. While it does focus on John Marston, Undead Nightmares features new storylines and side-quests, the most memorable and haunting of which is the story of the last Sasquatch.
The side-quest "Birth of the Conservation Movement" begins when John is told by an old frightened, slightly crazy frontiersman that there are Sasquatch about and that they are dangerous. The man tells John that “down in Manzanita Post, they ate a little girl.” Following this conversation, John sets out on a hero’s quest to kill all the savage Sasquatch he can find.
During this quest, some players might notice something a little bit off about the Sasquatch enemy: they don’t fight back. For a creature so big and apparently vicious, they are pretty easy to kill, and all they do is run away. That is, until the last one.
Once John has killed the required six Sasquatches to complete the mission, one more will appear and speak to John. This creature is found under a tree, mourning and, like the others, doesn't fight back. In fact, the creature asks to be shot. John says he will and that he has to. After all, the Sasquatches are dangerous monsters who eat human children. But this Sasquatch explains to John that his kind only eats berries and mushrooms, or at least they used to.
Here, the creature breaks down. His family is gone, his whole species has been killed of by a maniac and, facing the prospect of having to go on along, he begs to be killed too. The cutscene ends, and the mission is complete. After the mission, the Sasquatch will remain underneath the tree, and the player can choose whether to kill him or leave him alone.
For a game as violent as Red Dead Redemption, this quest is particularly morbid and jarring. Many of the game's quests are fairly straightforward in their morals. You can choose to do something good or bad, and there are few tricks. But here, the player genuinely believes they are doing the right thing for the community up until the end. The player doesn't question the mission, as none of the other missions really have you questioning your actions. You are given a mission, and you complete it. But after hearing the Sasquatch's sad story and having to confront your own role in the needless slaughter, you are forced to stop and think about what you've done after it's too late.
In the end, it doesn't matter whether the Sasquatch hunter who set you on the quest was lying or also thought they were dangerous. It doesn't change what has been done. "Birth of the Conservation Movement" is the type of side quest that reminds the player that the world of Red Dead Redemption can be just as deceiving as the one we live in. Sometimes things aren’t always black and white, and the monsters aren't always who they appear to be.