Red Dead Redemption 2 updates are probably never coming – despite creating one of the most convincing, rich, and evocative open worlds of all time, Rockstar, for some reason, seems content with letting it drift away, like a ball of Valentine tumbleweed. But that doesn’t mean the game is finished, as RDR 2’s passionate modding community continues to find new ways of breathing life into the western.
Case in point, Vestigia, a gigantic new overhaul of RDR from modder no12, and their dedicated team of collaborators. The product of more than a year’s work, this is a complete overhaul of Red Dead Redemption 2’s single-player world, improving the weather, wildlife, and pedestrian behaviour systems, in an attempt to make Rockstar’s underloved masterpiece even more plausible and real.
The mod is broken into four modules, essentially serving, according to no12, as “four mods in one”.
Firstly, it addresses the weather, changing the temperature, and rain and sun transition systems, so that downpours last longer, and transform more gradually into cloud, cold, and then sun again. The visual module also focuses on weather, but on how it looks more than how it behaves. Elements like fog, low clouds, and dust storms are now rendered in more detail, and their time cycles have been altered meaning they may last longer, or only occur in specific regions.
Flora has also been addressed, so there is thicker underbrush in forests, and the terrain in general is more reactive to Arthur’s presence – jumping into water, for instance, generates more bubbles and foam.
The fourth module, however, is the most substantial, as it increases the pedestrian limit in towns or cities (like Saint Denis) to 255, and also adjusts their AI so that they are more likely to interact and talk with each other, making for a more lived-in and realistic open world. Vestigia also overhauls Red Dead’s creatures and wildlife, placing more birds in the sky, and ensuring that animals only spawn in locations where it would seem to make sense. In the past, we’ve seen rabbits, deer, and wolves all in the same small field by New Hanover. Though this makes them easier to hunt, it’s a little jarring if you really want to throw yourself into Red Dead’s world, so Vestigia could be a good solution.
Red Dead Online Red Dead Online $19.99 Buy now Network N earns affiliate commission from qualifying sales.
The mod is available to download for free, and it would certainly work well with some of the others we’ve looked at lately, including a revamp of Red Dead Redemption 2’s law system, and some extra nasty death physics.