Red Dead Redemption 2 isn’t getting updates anytime soon, with Rockstar Games focusing on the latest outing for Grand Theft Auto. Still, the fan base for the Western classic has continued to grow. The genius of RDR2 is that it markets itself, since it’s filled with secrets and mysteries that players want to discuss.
Seven years after its release, most of RDR2‘s mysteries have been solved, but there’s still part of the beloved video game that haunts fans. While Rockstar might shed some light on this whenever Red Dead Redemption 3 arrives, for now, the only thing that players can do is speculate.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s Open World Is Hiding Secrets
Red Dead Redemption 2 has a vast open world for players to explore, and there are all kinds of strange secr.et.s scattered across its map. As an example, players near the Lemoyne rails at the right time can see a Ghost Train, and some players may have a UFO sighting.
Because Rockstar Games created a huge open world that’s teeming with life, there are some locations players may pass by without a second glance. One of those places is Pleasance, a town that’s hidden on the map but is located in the Scarlet Meadows region of Lemoyne state.
While the town might seem unassuming, anyone who takes a closer look will discover that something has gone very wrong here, and the name Pleasance isn’t exactly appropriate. Pleasance is seemingly abandoned, but there are gravestones that populate the ground, and it seems like many have perished in this haunting place.
Red Dead Redemption 2’s Pleasance Is Fill With Hidden Details
As players explore Pleasance further, they’ll start to uncover some of the secrets that lurk there. There’s a graveyard on the church grounds, and many tombstones have inscriptions that explain how the people died.
Apparently, many residents of Pleasance didn’t die a natural death, and strange, unsolved murders appear to have plagued the town. Some died of gunshots, while others were killed by knife wounds, and many of these murders wiped out entire families, a sign that they may have been targeted killings.
Dig deeper, though, and Pleasance starts to seem even stranger. A series of murders would be bad enough, but all of these deaths happened around the same time. This was a massacre, and there’s no sign that anyone knew how it began or who the culprit is.
It’s possible that these deaths drove people away from the town, with many fleeing for their own safety. What’s strange is that in most cases, people seem to have left all of their belongings behind, like they were trying to flee before it was too late.
However, if players investigate Pleasance further, they’ll start to uncover evidence that the town was struck by a plague. There are still quarantine zones where the ill were kept, along with religious messaging suggesting that people were infected because of sins that they committed.
Another popular theory is that the plague may have played a role in the murders. Perhaps people began to kill off the infected to keep the plague from spreading further. If people believed the plague was caused by sin, they may have wanted to punish the sick for bringing this blight upon the town.
What’s strange is that there’s no sign that this plague impacted other nearby towns. That’s led many players to believe that something supernatural might be going on. The original Red Dead Redemption had a zombie-themed DLC, and there are other satanic and strange findings throughout the game, along with signs of cults.
One theory is that Pleasance was a godless town and that its residents were tempted by the devil. There are no crosses in sight, and the town’s schoolhouse has been burned down. Maybe the people of Pleasance were brought down by some sort of terrible sin.
Players Desperately Need an Explanation for Pleasance in RDR2
Players have been speculating about Pleasance for years, and while there are lots of fan theories, there’s no official answer in sight. However, there are some clues as to how things went wrong in Pleasance, and most of them link back to something religious.
One of the most obvious examples of this is a large snake on the outside of the town. Some RDR2 players think this reptile is meant to represent the snake in the story of Adam and Eve. In that tale, the snake is actually the devil attempting to corrupt the first humans.
Perhaps the devil has visited other towns in snake form and successfully corrupted the people of Pleasance. That would explain why people started murdering each other, and it could even explain the plague, but that theory doesn’t answer the question of where the people of Pleasance went.
RDR2‘s Pleasance, both thematically and literally, to a real town abandoned town in Ohio. This village has earned the nickname Hell Town, and some rumors say it was run by Satan worshipers. There’s also an urban legend about a chemical leak there, which could have caused the plague.
Rockstar Games has made some of the best open-world games of all time, and the company frequently takes inspiration from real-world locations to make its games feel more alive. While it’s definitely plausible that Pleasance is based on Hell Town, the geography of RDR2 doesn’t line up with this theory.
More recently, there’s an even darker theory about Pleasance that’s beginning to build momentum. This theory argues that the people of Pleasance weren’t evil at all but were killed off in a witch hunt. In this theory, there was nothing satanic in Pleasance, but outsiders believed the people had made a deal with the devil.
While the supernatural theories about Pleasance are creepy, it’s far more harrowing to think about an entire town being wiped out because of the prejudice of outsiders. Like the real-life witch trials, the town could have been torn apart by a hatred for anyone different.
The truth is that fans will probably never get an answer to what happened in Pleasance in Red Dead Redemption 2. Rockstar designed the town in such a way that all kinds of theories feel plausible. Players have had a lot of fun debating over what happened there, and an official answer might ruin the magic of it all.
However, considering that RDR2 players still haven’t stopped talking about Pleasance, it’s possible that Rockstar will return to the town when they finally release the next Red Dead Redemption game. Maybe they could travel further back in the past and show what Pleasance looked like before things went wrong.
Since Grand Theft Auto 6 has been delayed to 2026, any new games are a long way off, but it’s safe to say that players won’t get bored of discussing Pleasance anytime soon. Not only is Red Dead Redemption 2 the best Western in gaming history, but it’s also created one of the greatest video game mysteries.
Red Dead Redemption 2
- Released
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October 26, 2018
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
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Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
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Rockstar Games
- Engine
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RAGE