Gaming
Games
What Red Dead Redemption 2 Online needs to top GTA
GTA Online is a phenomenon, but Red Dead Redemption 2 can seize its multiplayer mantle. Here’s how.
Open world, wild west adventure Red Dead Redemption 2, then, has a lot to live up to. We still know very little about the single player, and even less about the online modes, but it’d be madness to think Rockstar aren’t planning on repeating GTA Online's money printing, attention sucking success. It will be massive, engaging and epic. But to beat GTA it will have to be incredible. We think that’s more than possible – here’s what Red Dead Redemption 2 Online needs to be the new king.
A Western take on GTA’s heists
Imaging rushing to rescue someone from the train
© Rockstar Games
GTA Online’s heists took their sweet time getting into the game, but now that the co-op mode has arrived, the experience of joining forces with a group of likeminded folk to carry out a raid, or bust someone out of the joint, is hard to top. Given the popularity of Destiny 2’s raids, which can take up to around eight hours to complete, it seems as though people are well and truly up for some challenging co-op modes. What if, then, GTA Online heists were remade in Red Dead Redemption 2’s world, only ramped up in scale? What if the heists weren’t just robberies, but kidnappings, showdowns or rescues, like having to save someone who has been hog-tied to railroad tracks before the train arrives? Just thinking about heists in a Western movie-like environment has us drooling with anticipation.
A Battle Royale mode
Riding horses, 100 people at a time
© Rockstar Games
Right now, the most popular thing in the online gaming space is PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds (PUBG, for short). This battle royale game has taken the entire industry by storm and topped 15 million sales on Steam, with a concurrent player count of two million. That makes it more popular than Dota 2 by some margin.
Dropping 100 players into an open world that begs to be looted, and engaged with, would be perfect for Red Dead Redemption. Games like Fortnite have added a Battle Royale mode very quickly, and it’d be madness not to think that Rockstar are at least considering it, if not actively developing a similar mode within Red Dead Online. We’re praying this happens, as it’s almost guaranteed to do well, and would be a blast to play. There’s already a battle royale mode in GTA Online, in the form of Smuggler’s Run, so we’re sure this will happen, only with a Western twist on the tried and tested recipe for a chicken dinner.
The return of Undead Nightmare
At a time when video games zombies felt all played out, Rockstar came along and said “but what if they were zombie cowboys?” and we were in love all over again. With a bit of luck, the developers will bring back something like the classic Undead Nightmare DLC, or perhaps go even bigger and crazier and go for a tie-in with hugely popular TV show West World. Imagine: a bizzaro world where Red Dead Redemption 2 morphs into a futuristic park for rich adventurers that’s set in the…yep, Wild West. It’d make perfect sense (or as much as real zombies do) and would be exactly the kind of ludicrous extra content that Red Dead’s Undead Nightmare did so well.
Horse racing, poker, hunting, and more
We’re hoping that, similar to GTA Online, Red Dead Redemption 2’s online contains a large open world we can inhabit with our friends (and enemies). We want plenty to do that is, perhaps, less “generic video game open world” and more “Rockstar”. We’re hoping for horse racing, hunting competitions, poker tournaments, and, perhaps most of all, we’d love a Mexican standoff-style multiplayer option. It’d be great to see Rockstar take some inspiration from movies like Butch Cassidy And The Sundance Kid, and alter the visuals to a sepia tone as you try to break out of a hideout against hordes of enemies.
Clans and events would be great fun, as would vendettas
Shhh, we’re hunting bears… together.
© Rockstar Games
While Destiny 2’s raids are popular, the appeal of getting into a like-minded clan and riding off into the sunset together is strong. It’s hard to think of too many other settings that lend themselves to the idea of “gangs” better than Red Dead Redemption 2. Also, in modes where we’re battling each other, let’s borrow the idea of a vendetta. If you’re constantly falling victim to the same player, why not put a bounty on their heads and encourage others to wreak vengeance, so you don’t have to?
Also, what if you could outfit your gang in their own gear, with monogrammed chaps, or cowboy boots and spurs that all look the same? Imagine: you’ve an artistically minded clan member and he or she has created a really cool design to go on your gun holster. Use that! Personalisation and representation are vital in a modern game, so Red Dead Redemption 2 should let us look however we want to. This is the age of the hat economy, after all.
Keep away from loot boxes, and keep treating us with respect
One of the most surprising things about GTA Online is how honest it is with players when it comes to micro-transactions. There are no hidden costs, and if you do like the online mode enough to want to spend real money on it, it’s a pretty straight conversion as you’re buying “in-game currency”. There are no loot boxes, no blind buys, and nothing feels gated off to you. This is especially important in the wake of the Middle-Earth: Shadow of War controversy, where the loot box backlash has reached fever pitch. If Red Dead Redemption 2’s online is to be a success, this kind of straightforward honesty needs to continue. A player who feels happy with an online game’s economy is one who will return time and time again, and ultimately, that’s what the team making the game, and the fans playing it, will want to do.
Bring the game to PC, become the people’s champion
This may be wishful thinking, but it would be great to see Red Dead Redemption 2 making its way to PC. We all know the Xbox One X and PS4 Pro are capable of incredible visuals, but they can’t compete with the highest of high-end PCs, and the ingenuity of the PC modding community. While we don’t expect an online mode to allow for mods (GTA Online does not), just bringing the game to Steam (or similar) would be monumental for people who prefer to play their games that way. Given the architectural similarities when developing for the modern consoles, it’d be a real shame not to see it running in 4K at 60fps on our gaming PCs. The ball is in your court, Rockstar.
