Yesterday, Rockstar Games gave the world an inside look at two dozen characters from the upcoming Red Dead Redemption 2. Today, the company provided new details on the future smash hit’s plot points.

Art director Josh Bass (Rockstar San Diego) and director of art Aaron Garbut (Rockstar North) conducted an exclusive interview with The Hollywood Reporter. We already knew that the infamous van der Linde Gang would take center stage from previous reports. In the interview, Bass explained Rockstar’s reasoning for making Red Dead Redemption 2 a prequel to the previous title.

“Dutch’s presence loomed over the original Red Dead Redemption, and his influence on events was a big inspiration for the setting and direction of Red Dead Redemption 2. We all wanted to know more about him and the gang—what was it like riding in that gang? What led them to the events of the original game? What happened to them along the way?…You get to see that gang, including Marston, at the peak of their notoriety and at the very moment things begin to fall apart.”

Thankfully, this won’t be a cookie cutter gang. Rockstar has ensured that the relationships between the protagonist Arthur Morgan and his cohorts have a natural feel. According to Bass, it “isn’t like anything (Rockstar has) done before.” Given some of the recycled characters from GTA campaigns, that’s extremely refreshing to hear. We also learned that all 23 revealed characters are in the van der Linde gang. That puts GTA V’s bank heist teams to shame. Bass also confirmed that players will only take on the role of Morgan, unlike GTA V’s multiple protagonists (“This is Arthur’s story.”)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=331&v=pqRnpbbOhgU

The crafting of all of these characters directly results in near total immersion in Red Dead Redemption 2. Most games carry that dream through development, but few achieve it. However, Rockstar made immersion its primary goal, and Garbut explains just how they attacked it.

“It’s the sense of life the game has that most sets it apart. When you first enter a town and you see the townspeople going about their business, building houses, selling papers, hanging out, you can instantly tell that we’ve never experienced this detail in an open world game before. Where you see a a shack on a hill and you know there is something interesting for you there, maybe you will break in and stumble onto a mystery, or meet the owner and end up getting tangled in something. I think that’s when you can tell that its new territory, when you are not even sure if what you’ve done was a mission or not. When all the systemic parts of the world come together with our scripted content in the right ways, it’s kind of incredible.”

That’s a good way to make a play forget they’re in a game. It’s hard to imagine Red Dead Redemption 2 rivaling GTA V’s bottom line, but Rockstar has put the time in to make it a possibility. This game could shatter everyone’s expectations.

Bass and Garbut also discussed the game’s time period as essential for world building. In 1899, America entered an era of expansion and industrialization that helped make it a super power. As a result, many of the old ways died out, which perfectly reflects the gang’s eventual collapse. “There’s not much room in a rapidly modernizing world for the gang’s way of life,” Bass explains. As America finds its new path, so too will Arthur Morgan have to forge his own.

You can (and should) read the full interview here. Red Dead Redemption 2 launches on October  26 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. Players can preorder the game and its Special Editions now.

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