Actor of John Marston criticizes screams in Red Dead Redemption

Rob Wiethoff, voice actor and interpreter of John Marston in Red Dead Redemption, decided to play the classic Rockstar game for the first time — 15 years after its original release in 2010. During the stream of the PC version, Wiethoff humorously and critically commented on various aspects of the game, revealing technical details of the development that explain, among other things, why his character yells even when riding calmly next to someone.

"John is yelling at people, sometimes for no reason [...] I remember they said: 'You need to deliver your lines in a way that can be heard even if you're galloping next to a freight train in a storm.' So you had to yell loudly because you needed to make sure the other character could hear you," Wiethoff revealed during the gameplay.

The actor explained that, at that time, Rockstar Games did not yet have the dynamic mixing technologies that now automatically regulate dialogue volume based on the distance between characters. "Back then, everything was recorded in the studio. We didn't have the current system, which understands the distance between characters and adjusts the volume automatically," he said. "In the second game we recorded everything twice. In the first one, just once."

Red Dead Redemption, originally released for PS3 and Xbox 360, is known for its open world with dynamic weather, day and night cycle, and cinematic narrative. The absence of versions for PC was criticized for years, until in 2023 Rockstar released a remastered edition for PS4, Switch, and later for PC.

During gameplay, Wiethoff also demonstrated live cowboy skills: when reaching the tutorial of the iconic Dead Eye mechanic, where the player slows down time to shoot accurately, he completely ignored the system and hit a hat in the air without any help from the tool. "Go for it, shoot!," he shouted before firing. "Oh ho hooooo, I thought I missed," he celebrated.

Although the moment is fun, it also reinforces how the original voice acting in the first game ended up sounding artificial in calmer situations. With the technological advancement between Red Dead Redemption and its sequel, released in 2018, these details were adjusted — making the dialogues more natural and less exaggerated.

Wiethoff's curiosity in exploring his own work many years later also shows the distance that often exists between interpreters and the final products of games — and how the technical evolution of the industry directly affects the narrative experience.