Red Dead Online

Players can use camps, either individually or as part of a posse, to rest, access their wardrobe, craft, cook, and fast-travel.

Red Dead Online is the multiplayer component of the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2.[3] Played from a first or third-person perspective, the game is set in an open-world environment featuring a fictionalized version of the Western United States.[4] Player progression in the single-player story does not affect the multiplayer game. Upon entering the game world, players customize a character and are free to explore the environment alone or in a "posse" group. Players can partake in organized activities with or against members of their posse, or against other groups. As players complete activities throughout the game world, they receive experience points to raise their characters in rank and receive bonuses, thereby progressing in the game.[3]

Camps can be set temporarily set up throughout the game world, either for an individual player or a posse, where players can rest, access their wardrobe, craft, cook, and fast-travel. Horses are the main forms of transportation, of which there are various breeds, each with different attributes. Players must either train or tame a wild horse to use it. Increased use of a horse will begin a bonding process, which can be increased by cleaning and feeding it, and the player will acquire advantages as they ride their horse. Players must insure their horse so it heals over time and cannot die.[5]

Dispersed throughout the game world are story missions in which four players complete tasks to advance the game's narrative.[5] The game world also features events in which up to 32 players can partake individually or with a posse group.[6] Event types include a deathmatch mode devoid of firearms and a race mode by horseback. Players are notified when a competitive event begins somewhere in the game world and are given the option to immediately travel to the event. Alternatively, players can join specific events at will. Outside of events, non-player character ("strangers") in the game world offer missions, such as contract killings or camp raidings.[3] Up to four players can join a temporary, ad hoc posse group for the duration of a game session. Alternatively, for a fee, up to seven players can join a persistent posse that regenerates when its leader comes online. Within a persistent posse, players can customize the group's style and track player stats. Friendly fire can be disabled so that teammates do not injure each other.[3] If two players continue to kill each other, the game presents two optional modes: parley, in which the players are alone for ten minutes without weapons; and feud, where the two players partake in a three-minute shootout.[5]

Red Dead Online adds several new systems atop the single-player mode's gameplay. In addition to in-game cash, which can be used for supplies, Online adds gold, a second in-game currency used to purchase luxury and special items. Players acquire gold nuggets by completing challenges and can convert 100 nuggets into gold bars. Rather than having to travel to a town's store, online player characters can order supplies anywhere from a handheld catalog. The orders become available for pickup in any town's post office or the player's camp. Online also introduces "ability cards", in which players can activate one active and three passive powers for their characters. Players receive these cards by rising in rank or direct purchase, and can then upgrade the cards with in-game currency or experience points.[3] Red Dead Online uses the Honor system from the single-player story, measuring how the player's actions are perceived in terms of morality. Morally positive choices and deeds like helping strangers and abiding the law will add up to the player's Honor, while negative deeds such as theft and harming innocents will subtract from the player's Honor. Some story missions can only be initiated if the player's Honor is at a particular level.[5]

The story takes place in 1898, one year before the events of Red Dead Redemption 2. The player takes on the role of a silent protagonist who is arrested for murder and imprisoned in Sisika Penitentiary. Six months into their sentence and awaiting execution, they are assigned to a work detail. The prison transport is intercepted in transit by a group of well-armed men who free the prisoners. Their leader introduces himself as Horley and escorts the player character to his employer, the widow Jessica LeClerk. Jessica tells the story of how her husband Philip was murdered by his business partners Jeremiah Shaw, Amos and Grace Lancing, and their outlaw accomplice Teddy Brown to gain control of his share of the business. The player character was arrested for the crime as a matter of convenience. Jessica claims to be the only person who knows of the player character's innocence as the caliber of bullets used to kill Philip did not match the caliber used by the player character. She lets the player character go with her blessing provided that they help her take revenge on Philip's killers.

Horley sets the player to work assisting the sheriffs of Blackwater, Valentine, and Tumbleweed in apprehending wanted criminals and how the player handles decides their honor. If the player chooses an honorable path, their work attracts the attention of US Marshal Tom Davies, who enlists the player in locating notorious bandit Alfredo Montez. Knowing that Montez will continue to kill indiscriminately but lacking the evidence to prosecute him, Davies suggests that the player character bring Montez in dead rather than alive. The player apprehends Montez, which earns them a reputation with the Marshals as being reliable. This, in turn, allows them to work with the Marshals in finding Teddy Brown as the Marshals are coming under pressure from Shaw and the Lancings to leave Brown be. The player leads an assault on Fort Mercer, incapacitating Brown and killing his gang. Jessica questions him about Philip's murder and he claims sole responsibility for it. Jessica rejects this and executes him. Alternatively, if the player chooses a dishonorable path, Horley introduces them to bank robber Samson Finch. Finch is looking to put together a gang to carry out a robbery he has spent a year planning. He had been intending to rob a group of industrialists until he was betrayed by his partner. Finch has the player form a posse and attack the Fort Wallace garrison, killing his partner and thwarting a rival robbery plot. Disguised as dispatch riders, the gang rob a merchant bank in Saint Denis and make off with bearer bonds.

With Brown dead, Amos Lancing and Jeremiah Shaw try to finalize their takeover of Philip's business by coercing Jessica into signing a forged contract. Jessica, Horley, and the player mount a posse to confront them, which ends with Jessica shooting Lancing in broad daylight and Shaw fleeing after being confronted by Horley. Horley recovers the forged documents while the player and the posse protect Jessica and eventually escape out of town. Jessica laments the missed opportunity to confront Grace Lancing as she has now been declared a fugitive, but settles for knowing that Grace is now a widow too.

Red Dead Online was developed in tandem with the single-player story.[7] Though Red Dead Online and Red Dead Redemption 2 share assets and gameplay, Rockstar views them as separate products with independent trajectories, reflected in its decision to launch the multiplayer title separately. The development team took lessons learned from the multiplayer of Red Dead Redemption (2010) and apply those with the best elements of Grand Theft Auto Online (2013), particularly in regards to introducing narrative elements to a multiplayer title.[8] The team also seeks to translate elements of the single-player story to Red Dead Online, overhauling them for an online space.[7] Producer Rob Nelson felt that, while the team's experience on Grand Theft Auto Online helped with the foundations of Red Dead Online, the differences in the game's direction, pace, and scale demanded a different overall approach, slowly leading the player into the world with smaller steps instead of the fast pace of Grand Theft Auto Online.[7]

Red Dead Online's public beta opened on November 27, 2018, to players who owned a special edition of the base game, and then progressively opened to all owners.[3][lower-alpha 1] The progressive release was a choice by Rockstar to mitigate any major performance issues by the influx of players.[9] Rockstar added and adapted several game modes during the game's beta stage,[10] and made changes to the game's balance and economy.[11][12] Player progression in the public beta carried over when the beta ended on May 14, 2019. Red Dead Online implements microtransactions by letting players purchase gold bars for in-game items such as weapons and cosmetics. Rockstar had adopted a similar approach for Grand Theft Auto Online.[2] Rockstar closed the game for two hours on June 4, 2020, to honor the memorial of George Floyd.[13]

Red Dead Online received criticism at launch for its in-game currency rewards for activities, with players complaining that they were too low for the cost of goods and upgrades.[22] Some players calculated that a single gold bar could take an estimated eight hours to earn in the game.[23] Rockstar agreed to re-balance the game's economy following complaints.[11] Similar complaints also emerged about the griefing taking place in the game;[24] Rockstar fixed these issues by making player visibility dependent on their proximity and behavior.[12] The Verge reported that several users who played as black characters had been targeted by griefers posing as Ku Klux Klan-inspired clans or slave catchers who often called them racial slurs.[25]

IGN's Luke Reilly praised the game's co-operative story missions, noting that the game's player versus player modes typically have a skill imbalance. Reilly lauded the technical improvements made throughout the game's updates, though noted that some remained.[26] Matt Martin of VG247 found the game to be more enjoyable than Grand Theft Auto Online, from both a technical and gameplay perspective. Martin criticized some balancing issues, but attributed them to the game's beta status.[27] The Verge's Andrew Webster found Red Dead Online's battle royale game mode more tense than games such as Fortnite due to the smaller player count and slower playstyle.[28] Kotaku's Heather Alexandra wrote that Red Dead Online was "gamier" than its single-player counterpart, specifically in seeing the realistic towns transformed into deathmatch levels.[29] John Saavedra of Den of Geek criticized the simplicity of the story missions, writing that the free roam missions are a better way to "break up the monotony" of traversing the world.[30] Jordan Oloman of Eurogamer appreciated the improvements made to the game by May 2019, particularly praising the quality of the story missions, but felt that players needed more purpose within the game world.[31]

Red Dead Online was nominated for Best Multiplayer Game at the 2019 Golden Joystick Awards.[32] Take-Two reported that the game hit peak players in December 2019 following the release of the Moonshiners update.[33]