Red Dead Redemption 2 Gets Free Nostalgic GTA 4 Throwback
Topics: Red Dead Redemption 2, Mods, Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption, GTA, Grand Theft Auto
Featured Image Credit: Rockstar Games / 14N001st
Topics: Red Dead Redemption 2, Mods, Rockstar Games, Red Dead Redemption, GTA, Grand Theft Auto
A new mod for Red Dead Redemption 2 has given the game a nostalgic GTA IV throwback.
Perhaps this is just my millennial kid brain going whirr right now, but Grand Theft Auto IV remains one of the most nostalgic games in 2026.
With it having a rather huge leap in technology and graphics from earlier GTA games, many fans of the series have longed to return to some of the technical achievements of GTA IV that they feel were lost in GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2.
One of these is the use of the Euphoria physics engine, a game animation middleware which animated the characters across many games which utilise RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine).
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In simple terms, it replaced standard, pre-determined animations (such as those seen in earlier GTA games) with more reactive movement and behaviours.
You can see this in GTA IV with the famous ‘ragdoll’ animations seen when characters fall or get hit by a weapon.
Most famously, the character would try to grab at nearby objects to try and break the fall.
Beyond that, it also made under-the-hood calculations like having characters realistically shift their weight or balance, or dynamically stumbling and tripping if knocked over.
Although Euphoria is baked into the source code of RAGE, and is thus also present in GTA V and Red Dead Redemption 2, it was noticeably a lot different in GTA IV which is what many fans feel nostalgic for.
This is why there tends to be more meme videos surrounding GTA IV's physics engine than there does for its sequel, or Red Dead Redemption 2.
Since Euphoria’s more bizarre behaviour was toned down for later releases, one Red Dead Redemption 2 modder has sought to reinstate the grab nearby objects while ragdolling.
The creation, titled “Euphoria Grabs” by modder 14N001st, adds back those famous grabs into the game.
Despite the relatively simple change, the mod allows the characters populating Red Dead 2’s world to feel much more realistic and alive.
Some of the new behaviours added with the mod include the player being able to hold onto a ledge with two hands and climb back up. If a limb is shot, you’ll stop holding on, and the duration of each hold can be adjusted manually.
You can also trigger a manual grab as a player, which is something that many acrobatic players may come to appreciate with more ways to get around the game world.
Altogether, it should be a fun way to approach playing Red Dead Redemption 2 if you're a player who gets into a lot of fights or does a lot of parkour.
Rockstar never really intended for the game to behave like this, but it’s impressive in the way that modders have tweaked the game to suit these new kinds of playstyles.
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