Red Dead Redemption IIs online mode is now up and running and its looking just as good as the rest of the game.
Games Inbox: Whats your favourite thing about open world games?
Move over GTA Online, Red Dead Online is here. On Tuesday, 27 November the online, persistent element of Rockstars Red Dead Redemption II was switched on, allowing players to lead full virtual lives in its lush, unforgiving, and stunningly convincing version of America on the brink of the 20th century. So no matter what turmoil there might be in the real world you can now escape it all by camping beneath the stars, going hunting and fishing, and robbing trains.
It would be a major disappointment, and surprise, if first impressions of Red Dead Online were anything other than positive, but thankfully thats not the case. Currently, Red Dead Online is tagged as being in its beta stage, initially only open to those who purchased the Ultimate Edition of Red Dead Redemption II but opening up to more players each day of the week – depending on when they first started playing the single-player – until everyone can join in on Friday.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Initially, the PlayStation 4 version was the first to go live on Tuesday morning, followed by the Xbox One version at about 6.30pm; its reasonable to presume that roll-out will be replicated for the full beta launch on Friday.
Initially, Red Dead Online offers few surprises. As is customary for online versions of existing games, it forces you to develop a new character from scratch – so you start off by thinking of a name, then negotiating an impressively comprehensive character generation exercise. You can choose to be male or female, and you are given fine control over every conceivable physical aspect of your character, from basics like age and body shape through to hairstyle and complexion.
Once youre happy with how your character looks, youre presented with a tiny bit of adjustment leeway for the attributes of health, stamina and Dead Eye. Then its time to head back into Red Deads seductive game world. You first glimpse your new character in a jail cart, being transported to do hard labour near the town of Valentine. Happily, three (surprisingly well-dressed) characters hold up the cart and free you.
Youre given an emaciated horse (a default type called a Scrawny Nag, which is always available even if you lose your main one) and invited to follow a character called Mr Harley. He escorts you to a rather posh camp where you are introduced to Jessica Le Clerk, who gives you a brief but comprehensive exposition of Red Dead Onlines underlying storyline – yes, as if Red Dead Redemption IIs storyline wasnt sufficiently long and convoluted, Rockstar has written another story for Red Dead Online.
Advertisement
Advertisement
Essentially, Jessicas husband was murdered by one of his business associates – big men in Blackwater – who, evidence suggests, were precisely the same people who framed you for murder and caused your recent incarceration. She will bankroll you while you track them down, work out which one of them was responsible and then take him or her out. As in the single-player game, you can dip into the story missions at your leisure but in Red Dead Online there is a near-bewildering variety of other activities – comprising solo, co-operative and competitive – which you can jump into at any point.
Le Clerk and Harley sort you out with a free outfit and basic weaponry, and what turns out to be a whirlwind, tutorial-like intro which lasts for about 90 minutes. Youre introduced to a sort of general factotum, an old geezer called JB Cripps, who heads off to set up a camp for you. But first, you must take out the inhabitants of an existing camp in the nearby bayou – a classic early-stage Red Dead Redemption II exercise, since they dont put up much resistance.
There you find a treasure map which leads you to a treasure chest full of gold, valuables, various useful items, and a token for an ability card. At which point, you discover you have a total of four ability slots (essentially perks), which will unlock as you level up. But first you get to pick your choice of Dead Eye token and are given a choice between three cards offering different buffs; we opted for the one which let us tag targets. Abilities can be upgraded once you level up, and what you can buy at general stores and gun shops is also tied to your level.
Advertisement
Starting to explore the game world, it becomes obvious that Red Dead Online has a fairly typical, role-playing style experience point system, which rewards you for trivial tasks such as riding for a certain length of time, shooting people, and so on – and yields large chunks of XP when you complete missions. The levelling up, at least initially, seems pretty swift; completing any mission more or less instantly levels you up and after a few hours with the game, we had made it up to Rank 7.
Back in the intro, we headed out to find Cripps at our camp, which can be extensively customised with new visual themes, more elaborate tents (when unlocked), and the like. Catching up with Harley, he hints that missions can be picked up from postmasters in stations, while a scoundrel called Clay Davies offers up your first story mission.
This proves to be a pretty standard effort involving riding into the familiar surroundings of Rhodes, killing a bunch of guards at a stable, and then riding a horse back to Davies. The Red Dead Online twist though, is that you can play it as a four-player co-op mission thanks to a very quick and simple matchmaking option, which instantly provides three cohorts.
The mission doesnt encourage much in the way of actual co-operation, but it was nice to earn some XP, at one point, for reviving a downed colleague. But the real purpose of the mission is to reward you with a half-decent horse and new accessories like a saddle. All of which brings the intro portion of Red Dead Online to a close and allows you to select Free Roam, with a starting point in various different regions, from the main menu.
Advertisement
During the course of the intro an additional mechanic reveals itself: the honor (excuse the American spelling, but its in context for the game) system. Your honor rating will be varied according to what you do in Red Dead Online – kill a load of randoms and it will tend towards the badass end; spread a bit of philanthropy and help out damsels in distress, and you will develop a good reputation. Rockstar promises that certain missions and activities will only reveal themselves to you if your honor rating is within a certain range. So Red Dead Online will, to an extent, tailor itself according to how evil you are.
Strangers, familiar from the single-player game, abound and will give you one-off missions, but you will also encounter random missions as you ride around. You can also, of course, indulge in all the leisurely hunting, fishing, and exploration you desire. But in Red Dead Online, you can also jump straight into more structured multiplayer exercises.
Those are dotted about the map, but you can also access specific forms of them straight from either the in-game or main menu. From there you can Posse Up by either building a posse of your own (consisting of up to seven players) or join someone elses. This allows you to take part in a plethora of multiplayer missions and challenge rival posses to your hearts content.
You can also jump into shoot out or race series, which are competitive multiplayer events. Both series have various game modes – particularly the shoot out ones – including team and solo options. Youll find plenty of series PvP action on the map, but you can also jump straight into them via the menu, which provides playlists of continual series action.
Red Dead Onlines vast map is both familiar (presuming youve played the single-player game) and different – it contains cities like Rhodes and Blackwater, and all the environmental variety you could hope for, but also feels like it has been compressed, with all the towns and cities moved closer to each other.
First impressions suggest that Red Dead Online is just as good as the single-player game. From the off theres not a sign of any bugs or performance problems, although that could change when Red Dead Redemption IIs entire fanbase becomes able to play on Friday. But thanks to GTA Online, Rockstar has plenty of experience when it comes to running major online operations, so hopefully there will be few issues when the switch is flipped.
More: Gaming
And even at this early stage (theres no indication yet when Red Dead Online will officially emerge from beta) theres plenty to do, with a similar wealth of content to the single-player game.
And yet Red Dead Online hasnt abandoned its essential character: its altogether slower and more content to leave you to your own devices than GTA Online. The prospect of living an online life in Rockstars vision of the not-quite-as wild-as-it-used-to-be West seems just as alluring as the story mode.
Formats: Xbox One (reviewed) and PlayStation 4
Price: £59.99
Publisher: Rockstar Games
Developer: Rockstar Studios
Release Date (single-player): 26th October 2018
Age Rating: 18
By Steve Boxer
Advertisement
Advertisement
