Red Dead Redemption 2 is easily one of my top games to come out of 2018.
Its core gameplay, story, and overall atmosphere was incredible. Just like GTA V, once you beat the story, Rockstar offers a free roam online mode to sink some hours into.
I originally played RDO on the PS4, however, it recently launched on Steam as a standalone game with an initial price of $5 (later jumping to $20). Not being able to say no to such a low price, I picked it up on Steam and sunk some more time into it, curious as to where the game stood from a content standpoint.
Just like Red Dead Redemption 2’s story, RDO’s core gameplay and mechanics are great. They are simple and satisfying. The gunplay and horse riding are great and help to immerse me into the world when I’m playing.
Performance-wise, RDO runs well. Load times are significantly better than GTA V: Online, and the game runs better for me than GTA V does, despite the age difference. That being said, the map does have less going on than GTA V, so that would be expected.
Can You Bring Your Character from PS4/Xbox One Over to PC?
This was such an incredible feature in GTA V: Online. I still play on PC with the original character I made on my Xbox 360, and I love that Rockstar made that happen.
Sadly, this is not the case with Red Dead Online. You will have to create a new character if you are migrating from PS4 or Xbox One.
Content and Story
RDO does have its own online story, and it has grown significantly since launch.
At this point, there is a main story that is a few hours long for the good honor standing, as well as a different story that is the same length for a bad honor standing.
The actual story itself, however, is nothing incredible, especially when compared to Red Dead Redemption’s story. But it is interesting enough to keep you playing and earn your experience and cash.
There are also 5 different roles that you can gain experience in that have unique missions to do.
Once you play the missions mentioned above, the content begins to feel lacking.
There are, at this point, still no heists in the game. This exact issue caused a lot of negative feedback for GTA V: Online until they finally started pumping heists out.
There is also still no player/gang housing that you can purchase and upgrade. Both of which are major focuses of the Red Dead Redemption 2 storyline.
The overall online experience begins to feel empty after you pump 10 to 20 hours into it.
Grinding for cash and gold gets very old, very quickly. While there are missions, much like GTA V: Online, to me, the bread and butter of a Rockstar online game has always been the free roam and interaction with other players.
Free Content/Benefits
One thing that I absolutely have to give Rockstar credit for is their current Benefits section in the game.
Rockstar has been regularly giving rewards under the “Benefits” menu in game.
It can be anything from experience for a role, a free poncho, to 50% off a weapon.
They also often give out free money as well, which is always great. Recently, when I started playing, I even got $1000 cash for linking my Amazon account, which was a great help to starting back up.
A lot of these benefits do come from linking your Amazon Prime account with your Rockstar Social Club account, but with nearly everyone having Amazon Prime these days, I wouldn’t consider it too much of a paywall.
Microtransactions
The game has a microtransaction currency in form of gold bars.
In short, these suck. Currency like this almost always does as it can quickly ruin any game.
That being said, it doesn’t completely hinder the game. Gold bars can be earned in-game (although incredibly slowly) and most items can be bought with cash once you reach the appropriate level.
Wrapping Up
RDO definitely has potential to be a great game to jump into with friends or even alone.
That being said, they really need to step up in dishing out content that has some longevity.
Player/gang housing and heists would be a great start, but even then the game will definitely need more if it wants to come close to having the lasting power that GTA V: Online has.
