Red Dead Redemption Players Argue About What the Point of Guarma Was

This post contains major spoilers for Red Dead Redemption 2.A post by a fan of Red Dead Redemption 2 has kicked off discussions in the community about the meaning and purpose of Guarma, a location in the game. A divisive section of the main plot in Red Dead Redemption 2 is set on the fictional Caribbean island.

One of the most memorable things about Red Dead Redemption 2 is the sheer scale of its open world. Already one of the largest and most immersive open-world games around, the size and breadth of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s game world actually unfolds slowly, in time with the gripping narrative. Even while some parts of the game’s massive map are enough to hold entire other games on their own, there are more regions that don’t even open up until later in the game, like the island of Guarma.

It is Guarma and its position in the Red Dead Redemption 2 story that prompted discussions of its place in the Red Dead Redemption 2 narrative. For those unfamiliar with Guarma, Arthur and company arrive on Guarma by accident in Chapter 5. Shipwrecked while trying to escape to Tahiti from yet another job gone badly wrong, their short time on the island is spent under heavy restrictions, with limited supplies and threatened by dangerous guards. The crew get involved in a local rebellion, and once finished, they’re unable to return to Guarma, except by exploiting some funny Red Dead Redemption 2 bugs to fling themselves over. Complaints about Guarma prompted Reddit user Big-Sheepherder-9492 to wonder if players complaining about it truly understood its place in the narrative.

Red Dead Redemption Fans Discuss Guarma and Its Lost Potential

Big-Sheepherder-9492 argued that while the Guarma chapter could’ve used some improvements, the events of Chapter 5 play a critical role in underlining the themes of the game. The detour on Guarma ultimately puts the lie to Dutch’s constant reassurance that a life of peace is always just beyond the next heist. As Big-Sheepherder-9492 puts it, “Tahiti doesn’t exist” in the story of Arthur Morgan and the Van der Linde gang, and “there’s no reality where this band of killers settles down and becomes farmers.”

Though many players agreed with the defense of the Red Dead Redemption 2 Guarma chapter, a few chimed in, saying that there’s a good chance that Rockstar originally planned for Guarma to be a much more expansive part of Red Dead Redemption 2. They said that originally, Guarma would’ve been an accessible destination, with unrestricted free-roaming and more quests. Unfortunately, the scope of Guarma was reduced, as Rockstar didn’t have time to fully flesh it out.

In retrospect, Guarma does come across as a restrictive departure from the rest of the game’s usual pacing, perhaps indicating that there really was more to Rockstar’s original vision for the location. Whatever those plans were, though, the chapter does pay off in resonating with the rest of the narrative and manages to make its mark on the larger story of Red Dead Redemption 2, despite its shortcomings as a pure open world experience.