Red Dead Online - the open world of the Wild West online

Red Dead Redemption 2 is one of the best games of recent years. It's a Western-style mix of action and RPG about dramatic adventures in the open world of the Wild West, has collected a bunch of prestigious awards, grossed over $700 million in just its first three days of release in 2018, and sold over 30 million copies. Red Dead Online, which originally came with it (later it was also released separately), is pretty much the same thing, only with a different storyline and with the ability to freely explore a huge open world with other players (although you can do it alone) or to compete and play against them. This multiplayer version of RDR 2 has also become very popular. What does it represent, how and what can be done here, what a beginner should pay attention to in order to get accustomed at first - about all of this we tell in our detailed review.

First of all we need to mention the unique open world of the game - it is the main thing that is in the original Red Dead Redemption 2 and in Red Dead Online. Because the vast majority of the hundreds of hours that you will spend here, you will not be sitting in saloons (although there too), prisons and police stations, not to perform linear missions, but to freely explore these beautiful lands of the virtual Wild West.

Back in the first Red Dead Redemption the authors of GTA were showing us an example of the open world, but in the sequel they have raised the bar even higher. Here we will see the full-fledged ecosystem, where about 200 different species of animals, fish and birds live in different biomes. They all behave differently, so the process of hunting them is also unique in its own way, but always very detailed and realistic, right down to the fact that you can ruin the skin. The meat, if not delivered quickly to where it needs to go, also begins to spoil over time. And this is important because you have to eat to increase your stamina.

In addition, there are many cities and towns where people live, which can react to the player's actions quite realistically and in different ways. Witnesses of our aggressive actions will immediately run to report to the right place, and you can try to shoot or catch, stop and threaten. And stagecoaches, lawmen, bandits, hunters, commoners and other players scurry along the roads. Almost every character has his own routine and his own lines.

Some of the random encounters tell interesting stories and play out non-trivial skits. They may get into trouble, as well as ask you to run certain errands. And it's up to you to help them or not, or simply to kill and rob. This affects the level of honor of the protagonist. And this in turn affects the attitude of other people and the discounts in the stores. In general, in Red Dead Redemption 2 and Red Dead Online we see one of the most large-scale, realistic and alive open-worlds, that have been realized in the game.

When you first enter the game you create your character, choose his gender, appearance, name, and after that...no, you don't run off at once (or rather, don't gallop on the right horse, horses in Red Dead Online are your second legs!) to freely explore the Wild West world described above, but start performing the first introductory story missions. Yes, just like in the original game, Red Dead Online pays quite a lot of attention to the story, which is served with colorful clips - colorful characters, non-trivial missions and expressive dialogues are attached.

And it all starts with our character, who finds himself in prison, being transported to correctional work, but on the way he is released and brought to the camp to Jessica Leclerc. She is the one who ordered our release, knowing that the player character is not to blame for her husband's murder. She blames his business associates for it - and, naturally, it's up to us to help Jessica find the killers and get back at them. But first we must work for the sheriffs of the three towns.

You can perform such missions in a squad of two to four players. And many missions involve a moral choice, and this choice affects the level of "honor" of your character. It seems simple - if you don't kill for nothing, look after the horses, help your allies, you get "good" karma, but if you mess around and disturb other players, your honor level will start to decrease. Another issue is that in many missions we are asked to make not always obvious moral choices that will raise or lower our "karma".

For example, in one of them, the customer will ask for the release of his wife, who has been captured by bandits. And then it turns out that she herself ran away to the leader of the "kidnappers" because they have love, and generally a bad husband. So what do you do - take her by force and take her to your husband or help the couple, protecting her from the other mercenaries, whom the husband sent for the girl? The players in the squad vote for one or the other option and make a decision together.

In the end, depending on your "honor", two additional storylines open up. If the karma level is high, we will be asked to help U.S. Marshal Tom Davis find the notorious bandit Alfredo Montes, and in the process we will find the killers of Jessica Leclerc's husband. If honor is low, however, we will have to work for bank robber Samson Finch.

In principle, you can go through both campaigns - there are always people in the open world who are willing to raise or lower your character's honor level for a fee, so you can try both campaigns. It's worth it - both feature interesting, colorful missions that never boil down to just shooting enemies, the ability to rob banks (what's a western without that?!), storm fortified forts, interact with colorful characters and get well-deserved rewards.

In addition, the level of honor can be raised or lowered by performing alone or in a squad with other players on the tasks of the so-called "strangers". These are the characters you can meet while travelling the world of Red Dead Online. Among them there are completely new characters, as well as the old acquaintances from the original Red Dead Redemption 2 - so you will know about their further destiny. Meetings with strangers are always accompanied by introductory clips, and then you will be offered missions for every taste - capturing or releasing hostages, robberies, escorting caravans, stealing people, wagons, horses, paid murders, hunting for the heads of criminals and animal skins.

You can even get in touch with the local Italian mafia and run their errands to withdraw from the circulation of capital - these are unique banknotes, whose value would increase if they were concentrated in the hands of serious people. It is clear which ones. In addition, the mobsters will offer to help them eliminate the popular Senator Rickard. That is, as you can see, this is not the usual MMO's one-time quests (although there are some), but the whole mini-stories, accompanied by a good director and colorful characters. And besides, almost always these tasks are burdened by some additional conditions - for example, often you have to complete the task in the allotted time. And if you do such tasks not alone, but in co-op with other players, the conditions and enemies become even more difficult.

What is all this for, besides raising or lowering your "honor" level? Well, naturally, in order to pump up your character, get new levels and earn money. There are a total of 100 levels. As you reach new levels you increase your health and stamina, you open additional weapons and modifications to them, recipes for making various useful things, new types of equipment and clothing, new horses and items for them.

Yes, we need to say that you need to take care of your horses in Red Dead Online separately - they are not the only transport, that will help you to get to the necessary place easier or escape from the pursuit. It is also the equipment - you can put the skins and the carcasses of the animals and the criminals that you catch on your horse.

So it is important to take care of them, feed them, dress them by buying some cooler and nicer saddle, stirrups, bridles, and so on. If you do all this regularly, there will be a growing level of trust between you and the horse - and this increases its characteristics, which, by the way, vary from breed to breed. The more groomed, fed and content she is, the less fatigued and more able she is to withstand injury in battle. You can even have your own stable where you can keep up to 10 racers - you can view them, equip them, buy things for them and so on.

Also, as you gain new levels, new opportunities to improve your camp become available to you. These are the camps that you set up for yourself and your squad at various points on the map. Camps allow you to rest, browse through the items in your closet, and craft items. They are also used as fast movement points.

Finally, increasing your rank and earning experience points is necessary in order to activate and improve the so-called "ability cards" of your character. For example, the "Sharp Eye" card allows you to gradually regenerate health while in the corresponding mode. To it, you can also activate three cards with passive powers, improving the action of the main - they open at level 10, 20 and 40, respectively. Thus, they allow you to deal more damage during the "Sight" action or mark all the targets. These abilities are pumped for money or experience points - there are three levels, and each level increases the characteristics of the card.

All purchases, a huge proportion of which, of course, are various closet items, hats, suits, holster, and so on, are made for two types of currency. Dollars are earned the usual way - for completing tasks, participating in various activities, buying/selling items and so on. Yes, they can be simply taken from the pockets of people killed by you or by someone else. But more rare and valuable gold bars are earned, including, for the money you spent in the built-in store.

Some items and features are sold only for gold. Although in principle it can also be earned without much investment of real money - you need to regularly enter the game and perform a few simple daily tasks (deliver the sheriff so much then the criminals, collect an en number of necessary items such as mushrooms, umbrellas and so on, the list of tests is constantly updated), to participate in special events and activities and receive awards for it by mail. Yes, even just for achieving a new level you can send a treasure map, finding that you also get dollars or gold bars.

The most profitable way to pump up and fill up your purse - is to buy a seasonal "Bandit Pass" for gold (so you join the club "Agile Shooter"), which gives more free and paid rewards for daily tasks, for entering the game, for participating in events and so on. So it pays off quickly enough and fully justifies its existence.

All of these numerous classes, challenges, and tasks are organically arranged in the "role system", which appeared in Red Dead Online after the global update "Trades on the Frontier". In fact, this is such an analog of classes and professions, except that you can at any time develop in any role, receiving for this unique rewards, things, equipment, currency and special, related to this role abilities - for example, it may be the ability to spin a revolver or swing the card "Aiming Eye". By the way, all the roles are also separately pumped - you can always see your progress in mastering each and what rewards for this very progress you have already received, and which are still to be earned. New items become available after every 5 levels of the role.

At the same time, all the professions allow you to communicate with charismatic (and there are no others!) Charismatic characters and run their errands. For some, they even created their own mini-campaign with a set of interesting missions.

What are the roles here? First came the profession of the trader - we become a partner of the famous hoarder Cripps, who makes various goods from the skins and carcasses we catch while hunting, and then we distribute them to buyers, nervously clutching our weapons and waiting for the moment when someone will try to attack and rob us. That is, in fact, thanks to this profession, chaotic hunting and poaching became a steady profit. In addition, pumping the role of the trader, you can buy a hunting wagon, where you can put large and small carcasses, tusks, skins and other hunting trophies - and this, according to knowledgeable and experienced players, can dramatically change your hunting style and make this activity even more profitable. Not to mention the fact that the process of hunting in Red Dead Online is very fascinating and carefully designed - we've already talked about different biomes and a lot of animal species, which behave differently and require different approach to them, in particular, different baits.

But developing as a bounty hunter, you'll gain access to an improved lasso, which allows you to reliably capture wanted people. Well, everything is clear here - get the sheriff or take the task of catching particularly dangerous criminals from the bulletin board and go after their souls. And you get paid more for those caught alive, not dead.

Classes are quite monotonous in nature, but every time dynamic. Criminals rarely walk alone, so you have to fight with their underlings, and then also chase the "head" trying to escape - the lasso is just right here. In addition, there are missions for hunting legendary cutthroats, and there is much less monotony: as a rule, these are special choreographed missions.

Next came the role of a collector, who earns by exploring the world and looking for its unique rare artifacts and rarities - it can be and rare herbs, and covered with dust bottles of whiskey 50 years ago. To make them easier to find, you can buy special cards. Then you collect collections of rarities and sell them to a fortune teller named Madame Nazar. She pays more for complete collections than for individual items. If you like exploring the world around you, which, as we said, is especially good in Red Dead Online, then collector is the perfect choice.

Also you can master the profession of naturalist. Here you also will have to explore the world, but in order to find a certain animal and take his blood samples. This is necessary to the local environmental activist, who, of course, asks not to kill the animals, but to put them to sleep and gives them for this purpose sedative ammunition. There is a special interest in finding and putting to sleep rare legendary animals.

However, you don't have to put yourself to sleep - as soon as the game appeared the role of naturalist, so immediately brought here and smuggler, ready to buy rare skins and parts of legendary animals to make from them various cool clothes. So here, too, appears a difficult moral choice. And with consequences. After all, if you start killing instead of putting them to sleep, the eco-activist will get really angry and even attack the player.

Finally, there is the profession of "moonshiner" - the only one today, access to which must be bought for gold. But it's worth it. First of all, there is a really interesting mini-campaign with story missions. Secondly, being engaged in underground distilling, performing tasks to reduce the cost of reagents, delivering "hot" products and shooting off stubborn taxmen, you can eventually....open your own underground bar and start making a profit from it.

But that's not all there is to do in Red Dead Online. We've already mentioned that here you are free to perform tasks in co-op with other players who are part of your squad. And in the permanent group you are allowed to customize its style and tactics (for example, you can turn off "friendly fire"), as well as to monitor the statistics. After the emergence of the role system, periodically began to appear special events that involve the joint efforts of players on the server - when, for example, to repel the attacks of bandits on the train with your cargo.

But in addition to this with other users can and compete in various modes and events, which in Red Dead Online just a lot. Simultaneously on the server can be a maximum of 32 people - this makes the meetings with other players are more rare, but memorable. For example, you can take part in archery competitions, in capturing trains and delivering horses, in races, when you still have to shoot on the fly at targets, collect some weed racing, photographing animals, competing, who gets more points for it (the steepness of the angle and the frame is valued here).

There are also more aggressive modes - you can fight against each other or in a mode every man for himself (deathmatch), deliver dynamite to enemy bases, to participate in battles for territory. There is even its own "Battle Royale" ("King of the Mountain"), where you are only allowed to use bows and tomahawks as weapons. In general, the game likes to put such interesting restrictions. For example, you may be invited to participate in a "selfie for yourself" battle, where all firearms are forbidden.

Modes and conditions of such competitive entertainments are often changed and updated. But even without them you can interact with other players. If PvP (i.e. Player vs. Player) mode is enabled, this interaction can be particularly fun or sad. When you're carrying valuable cargo on another mission and you meet another user, you immediately get tense. You never know what he's going to do, so you prepare for the worst, just in case.

But it will be something to remember. Experienced Red Dead Online regulars can tell many stories about how sniper duels were arranged, how they threw dynamite into saloons, where other users were resting. Or how in the same saloon an unknown player, quietly drinking his whiskey, came to the rescue when an inadequate visitor broke in and started throwing his improved lasso at you.

By the way, if two players kill each other on principle for a long time, they will be offered to deal in two modes - either have a three-minute firefight, or have a 10-minute negotiation without weapons.

As you can see, Red Dead Online is a big, rich game that offers a lot of opportunities and adventures in the vast open world. But here you should keep in mind that this is not Red Dead Redemption 2. Here there are less plot events and you are more on your own. You need to be prepared to find your own entertainment (there is a lot of choice), as well as a certain routine associated with the repetition of the same actions - especially when it comes to the pumping of roles.

On the other hand, it gives useful rewards (many of which are also valid in the main game) and allows you to enjoy with other users a huge open world, which is almost unparalleled in other games. If you're ready for that, Red Dead Online is definitely worth a try. Especially because there are several useful changes in the project. The same system of roles appeared, the social component became healthier (for example, you can enable a security mode, so you won't get the nerve of inadequate users), the in-game economy improved - the prices were reduced and the process of earning gold was facilitated.

So now - it's time to try Red Dead Online. The main thing is to follow some simple rules. The main thing - as quickly as possible to find friends and form a squad, preferably a permanent, which may include up to seven people. It costs money, but the permanent unit is automatically restored after the leader returns to the game. Also, it's better to buy insurance for your horse right away - in this case, after its death you can return the horse immediately and for free, instead of waddling to the nearest stables. And don't disregard the story quests - it's the surest and fastest way to get used to Red Dead Online and start earning money and experience. Finally, remember that the items bought in the catalogs of stores can be picked up in the camp in a special box, at the post office or in the piece bags of your horse.

Red Dead Online is, of course, a unique game. Here there is a place for free activities and competitions with other users, and for well-staged story missions, and for meditative quiet exploration of a large living world, analogues of which, we repeat, it is difficult to find in other MMOs. It is encouraging that the authors are responsive to criticism, constantly support and develop the project, reduce prices, arrange sales, introduce new mechanics and events - in general, do everything to prevent the game turned into a milking for squeezing time and money from users.