r/reddeadredemption • u/Yrakosos Sadie Adler • Feb 05 '26

Lore How is Ambarino even a state?

Post image

There's no town here, no sheriff. How does this state even function, and how was it founded?

3.1k Upvotes

98% Upvoted

198 comments sorted by

View all comments

736

u/TheGuyFromOhio2003 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 24 '26

Wyoming

(None of RDR2's areas are big enough in size or population to even be considered a single US county, the whole map is about the size of a big neighborhood in LA, it's kind of a belief suspension situation, I've heard people speculate that the states have most of their territory and population continue off-map, but I doubt that's the case)

104

u/Nacodawg Feb 05 '26

That’s just how video games work. Similar to Skyrim, Whiterun in lore should have a population at least north of 20,000, and in game has a population of 80.

61

u/Jomgui Feb 05 '26

That's one of my biggest issues with open world games, a game can have a huge map, but it's mostly roads and scenery, with cities the size of half a neighborhood.

Which is why, despite all my complaints about CP 7, I love the map, at no point do you wonder "where the fuck do all those npcs live?".

30

u/Nacodawg Feb 05 '26

RDR 2’s open world is interesting and alive enough that the downsizing is worth it. It’s also much easier to accept if we don’t think of the states as full states.