Red Dead Redemption 2 modder recreates John Marston’s iconic Macfarlane’s Ranch safehouse


Red Dead Redemption's Bonnie MacFarlane beside Arthur Morgan.

Despite a large section of the community having already held a funeral for Red Dead Redemption 2’s online element, the game’s single-player experience is still going strong thanks to modders.

With interesting mods, such as those that allow you to take up the life of a wild west hitman or run your own moonshine business without going online, still being produced on a regular basis, these valiant modders are clearly still fighting to make Rockstar’s wild west adventure relevant.

Now, one modder has decided to cater to those who’re looking to feel a bit of nostalgia for the first Red Dead Redemption game, having updated the interior of the shack that serves as John Marston’s first safehouse to match how it looks in 1911.

Are you eager to reminisce about the halcyon days of helping out around the MacFarlanes’ ranch?

The mod that does this is called ‘Mac Farlane's Safe House’ and is the work of modder RedMaxBR. A lot of their previous work has also revolved around trying to bring RDR1 locations into RDR2 using a map editor, with the likes of Mexican towns Chuparosa and El Matadero already having received recreations.

This time, they’ve taken on the task of restoring the inside of John Marston’s shack on the MacFarlanes’ ranch in New Austin, which the cowboy spends a lot of time in while recovering from being shot by Bill Williamson.

While this cosy little abode does exist for you to visit in vanilla RDR2, with this mod installed, you can let the nostalgic vibes wash over you as you stare at the bed and junk provide the setting for Mr Marston’s miraculous recovery.

That said, getting inside the shack may prove a bit more difficult than you remember, with RedMaxBR recommending that you use kostas96b’s ‘Portals’ in order to set up a means of entry.

You’ll also need to grab LMS’ ‘Lenny's Mod Loader’ and any requirements of either of those mods in order to load up the edited map and get everything working as it should.

Regardless of whether you’re currently giving old John the strangest bout of Deja Vu anyone’s ever had by taking him to this location four years too early, make sure to follow us for coverage of some interesting mods for the likes of Skyrim and Fallout. You can also check out our mods of the month for November.

For more articles like this, take a look at our Gaming News, Red Dead Redemption, and Action and Adventure Games pages.