Animals in games have always held some significance to us players over the years in how we’re attached to them or how much we hate them in some cases. Like the goddamn dogs with the Capra Demon in Dark Souls but it is fun to kill such creatures, at least in Dark Souls’ case. Meanwhile, Red Dead Redemption 2 dogs are very friendly most of the time and you can even pet them. However, if you are an A-hole and kill these animals, you will face some consequences.
Townsfolk will hunt you down for gunning their dogs in the street, although who the hell would do such a thing? Pet it, that’s actually an option.
This reminds me of the Riverwood chicken from Skyrim which was secretly a poultry diety for the town, at least that’s the best guess I have because for killing them, you’ll be cut down by the entire town.
Red Dead Redemption 2 brings a similar system for its animals. A player “Dean Takahashi” shares his experience with gunning down a dog in the town of Valentine.
On more than one occasion, I accidentally pulled the R2 trigger in the PlayStation 4 Pro version, rather than the L2 trigger. In this case, I was supposed to pet the dog, who was sitting on a wooden sidewalk. Instead, I shot it by accident. (Let it be known I would never intentionally do this, in real life or in a video game). When I did this, we all screamed in shock.
Jeez, Dean, there’s a big difference in shooting a dog and petting it.
He proceeded to explain how the law of the town, as well as its own citizens, came to avenge the good boy. One thing led to another and Dean was gunned down, ironically like a dog in the streets. After revisiting the town, he also noted that the folk remembered what he did, and still weren’t ready to forgive him.
Personally, I’ve been going around petting every single dog out there in the cruel west. Because without a doubt they’re all good boys. And honestly, if you shot at them with the intent of doing so, shame on you.
