The coolest in-game art is in Arthur Morgan's journal in Red Dead Redemption 2, and no you can't convince me otherwise
There's a lot I could rattle on about when it comes to Red Dead Redemption 2, but one of the features that really stuck out to me when I first played was Arthur's journal. It's pretty easy to ignore for the vast majority of the game, but when you stop to flick through the pages, it's astounding how much time and effort has gone into creating this record of his life which just ticks away in the background while you focus on the real gunslinging cowboy adventure.
Welcome to Character Select, a weekly column where PC Gamer takes a look at the art and cosplay created by you. Each week, I'll highlight a few of my favourite pieces, spotlight and interview creators and artists, or generally just chew your ear off about the talents of the gaming community.
I think a lot of players who have poured hours of their time into an adventure with the Van der Linde gang would agree, too. This journal isn't just an in-game concept art book, it makes Arthur feel more real, more relatable, and the experience more personal. How often do you catch yourself doodling on the corner of a page, or thinking to yourself that you'd like to capture a memory without having to take a photo of it? More often than you realise, I imagine.
No two journals are the same either. Arthur will sketch things as you encounter them in your playthrough, so while the actual artwork will remain the same, the situation which triggered the drawing won't. Meaning if you and one hundred other players sat down and compared the pages of your journal with one another, the odds of them being identical are next to none. In a way, this really does make it feel like you've created it yourself, vicariously through Arthur Morgan.
I've played a lot of games where art is a driving force, like Été, Chicory: A Colourful Tale, and Passpartout to name a few. They're all very sweet and help you produce Bob Ross-style paintings, but what I love most about Arthur's journal is that it does feel like the sort of thing you could produce yourself. And trust me, I've thought about it. I'd love to sit down and attempt to sketch my way through Blackwater and Valentine, to varying levels of success. I am by no means an artist, but some of Arthur's less-detailed sketches I'm sure I could somewhat recreate.
Obviously I'm not the only person who has thought this either. A quick search pulls up an uncountable amount of people sharing sketches of their favourite horse, or mission they've completed, all inspired by Arthur's doodles. User KyleKringle even uploaded a Short to YouTube showing their own pocket-sized sketchbook filled with wildlife drawings and landscape sketches before sharing "Red Dead 2 is ripe with inspiration, not the least of which is Arthur himself."
This initial short eventually developed into a series as well, spanning 28 parts and recreating almost the entire journal by hand, including sketches of all the critters you stumble across on horseback and the portraits of characters like Hosea and Sadie. Although it's been a few months since the last Short was uploaded to the channel, the series alone is enough inspiration for me to pick up a pencil and try some sketches out for myself.
I don't doubt there are players out there who have sat and created their entire journal by hand too, and I frankly wish I had the patience or attention span to do that. I'd love to sit and flick through the pages in real life rather than via my screen, which isn't an impossible ask given Reddit user u/sheilastmaria shared a 460 page PDF of every page in Arthur's journal seven years ago so you can create your own. So I guess if you're not looking to get into sketching, bookbinding might be the next best step.