Red Dead Online is a 2019 action-adventure game developed and published by Rockstar Games as the online component of Red Dead Redemption 2. After several months in beta, it was released for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in May 2019, and for Windows and Stadia in November 2019. A standalone client for the game was released in December 2020. In Red Dead Online, players control a customizable silent protagonist who is freed from prison after being framed for murder, and tasked with taking revenge in exchange for proving their innocence. Set in 1898, one year before the events of Red Dead Redemption 2, the game comprises story missions where up to four players can complete tasks to advance the narrative, as well as various side missions and events.
Like the single-player game, Red Dead Online is presented through both first- and third-person perspectives, and players may freely roam its open world. Gameplay elements include shootouts, hunting, horseback riding, interacting with non-player characters, and maintaining the character's honor rating through moral choices and deeds. A bounty system governs the response of law enforcement and bounty hunters to crimes committed by players. Players traverse the open world alone or in a posse of up to seven players, with or against whom they can partake in organized activities. Developed in tandem with the single-player game, Red Dead Online was viewed as a separate product despite the development team's wishes to translate the single-player's elements to a multiplayer environment. They took lessons learned from Red Dead Redemptions multiplayer mode and Grand Theft Auto Online.
Red Dead Online was praised for its mission presentation, co-operative events, and technical improvements, though it received criticism at launch for the balancing of gameplay and in-game currency, which later updates addressed. Like Grand Theft Auto Online, the game received updates adding new content, including selectable roles to earn additional rewards. Reception to post-release content was generally positive, with praise directed at more significant additions, though the lack of new content over time led to some criticism and backlash. Rockstar withdrew development resources by 2022 to focus on the development of Grand Theft Auto VI.
Gameplay
Red Dead Online is the multiplayer component of the 2018 video game Red Dead Redemption 2. Played from a first- or third-person perspective, the game is set in an open-world environment featuring a fictionalized version of the United States. Player progression in the single-player story does not affect Online. Upon entering the game world, players customize a character and are free to explore the environment alone or in a "posse" group. Players can participate 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. Camps can be temporarily set up throughout the 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 can respawn. 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 teammates do not injure each other. If two players continue to kill each other, the game presents two optional modes: parley, in which the players cannot interact with each other for a short period of time; and feud, where the two players partake in a three-minute shootout.
Dispersed throughout the game world are story missions in which four players complete tasks to advance the game's narrative. The game world also features events in which up to 32 players can partake individually or with a posse group. 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 events, non-player character ("strangers") in the game world offer missions, such as contract killings or camp raidings. 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. Most story missions impact Honor, and some can only be initiated if the player's Honor is at a particular level.
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, and tokens, which are earned by unlocking role ranks and can be used to purchase role-specific 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 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 and experience points.
Synopsis A Land of Opportunity The narrative 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, their prison transport is held up by a band of hired guns. The group's leader, Horley (Larry Bull), escorts the player to his employer, the widow Jessica LeClerk (Lisa Datz), who reveals the player was unfairly accused of murdering her husband Philip, who she suspects was actually killed by his business partners: banker Jeremiah Shaw, landowners Amos and Grace Lancing, and Grace's brother, outlaw Teddy Brown (Daniel Stewart Sherman). Jessica enlists the player's help to avenge Philip's death in exchange for proving their innocence, and allows them to leave.
After the player is provided with a camp and some work, they meet with Horley in Blackwater; he advises them to work with the local sheriffs and earn some money while he investigates Philip's murder. Eventually, Horley tells the player to seek work with either U.S. Marshal Tom Davies (Mike Keller) or mercenary Samson Finch (Julian Rozzell Jr.), depending on the player's honor level. If the player has high honor, Davies enlists the player's posse to join the hunt for Mexican bandit Alfredo Montez (Emilio Delgado); with low honor, Finch has the player's posse prove themselves for an upcoming job by helping him rob a factory during a labor strike and exact revenge on his former partner, who is protected by a corrupt garrison.
After either series of events, the player's posse meets with Horley and Jessica to help them kill Teddy Brown, who is hiding out with his gang near the abandoned Fort Mercer. With the assistance of the local authorities, the player's posse besieges the fort and eliminates Brown's men before capturing Brown himself, who is swiftly killed by Jessica. The player then continues working for either Davies or Finch, helping the former deal with retribution from Montez's gang, or assisting the latter with a bank robbery in Saint Denis.
Meanwhile, Amos and Shaw try to finalize their takeover of Philip's business by coercing Jessica into signing a forged contract. Accompanied by Horley and the player's posse, Jessica meets the two men and their bodyguards in Blackwater. When Amos denies any involvement in Philip's death, an enraged Jessica shoots him dead with a pistol hidden in her purse. The player's posse retrieves the contract from Shaw, and escorts Jessica and Horley out of Blackwater. With only Grace left to be dealt with in order to avenge Philip, Jessica vows to do so one day, and laments that her vendetta has led to both her and Horley becoming fugitives. She then thanks the player's posse for their help and informs them that the evidence clearing their name will be delivered, before leaving with Horley to go into hiding.
A Life of 'Shine A Life of 'Shine is a story chapter added in December 2019. The player character is introduced to "Lightning" Maggie Fike (Stephanie Roth Haberle), who once controlled the moonshine trade in Lemoyne but disappeared after falling afoul of revenue agents led by the ruthless Reid Hixon. Maggie convinces the player to finance her new operation and help her take revenge on Hixon. The player rescues Maggie's nephew Lem (Jordan Bondurant) from the revenuers, drawing the attention of the Braithwaite family, who have turned to moonshining and recruited Maggie's former cook Danny-Lee Caton to oversee production. The Braithwaites threaten retaliation after the player sabotages their moonshining operation, while Hixon learns about Maggie's revived business and ambushes the player and Lem on a job. To deal with both of their enemies simultaneously, Maggie arranges a supposed peace meeting with the Braithwaites and anonymously tips off Hixon. At the meeting, Hixon arrests the player, Lem, and Danny-Lee, but they manage to escape after Lem detonates an improvised bomb using the moonshine in his wagon. With Lem's help, the player kills Hixon and captures Danny-Lee, bringing the latter back to Maggie, who allows him to leave on the condition he vanish forever. The player then returns to producing moonshine with Maggie and Lem.
Development Red Dead Online was developed by Rockstar Games in tandem with the single-player story; the development team considered both single-player and multiplayer while creating the world but focused on the former. 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 applied those with the best elements of Grand Theft Auto Online (2013), particularly in regards to introducing narrative elements to a multiplayer title. The team sought to translate elements of the single-player story to Red Dead Online, overhauling them for an online space. Producer Rob Nelson felt, while the team's experience on Grand Theft Auto Online helped with the foundations of Red Dead Online, the differences in 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.