Have you ever met a cheater in Red Dead Online? I have – a few times, in fact. The latest encounter came at the worst possible moment, after I had spent an hour painstakingly hunting animals to fill up my wagon with pelts. I had set off on a trader mission across the map, opting for a risky long-haul voyage that left me open to attack.
Red Dead Online
- Publisher: Rockstar Games
- Developer: Rockstar Studios
- Platform: PC, Xbox One, Xbox X/S, PS4, PS5
- Launched: Beta November 2018, release May 2019
- Monetisation: Included with Red Dead Redemption 2 or £17.99 for standalone mode. Microtransactions for premium currency.
A potential shootout with a player was a risk I could accept: combating an invisible god-like assailant, however, was something I really hadn’t signed up for. Out of nowhere, I was transformed into a flying saucer. It didn’t take long for me to realise what was happening – Red Dead Online is notorious for its cheaters, and one of them had decided to spend their evening targeting me.
It turns out that driving a wagon as a spaceship is quite difficult. The ship was so vast that it obscured my view, and the glow from its lights made navigating the pitch-black desert almost impossible. Using my mini-map to steer, I somehow made my way to my destination, but my ordeal wasn’t over quite yet. I had some bandits to deal with.
What followed was the most ridiculous shootout the Wild West has ever seen. I lumbered around as a spaceship, one arm sticking out the side, and blasted my way through dozens of thieves. I had nearly cleared the ambush when the cheater decided to intervene once more, and I was flung up into the air. As I orbited the Earth like an actual spaceship, I sighed, resigned myself to my fate, and shut down the game.
Frustrated by the loss of an entire evening’s work, I turned to Rockstar Support in the hope of getting my lost currency back. “Unfortunately, we cannot reimburse the missing payout for the mission since we do not have any records of this event taking place,” was the response I received. Giving out a little in-game currency would have cost Rockstar literally nothing, so I was initially surprised by this reply. Yet on reflection, the whole incident – including Rockstar’s seeming indifference towards helping a player – does embody the problems that Red Dead Online has been unable to shake over the years. At its core, Red Dead Online’s world offers a startlingly intricate wilderness simulation, and provides a brilliant stage for roleplaying life on the American frontier. But a spirit of meanness pervades the design of its multiplayer systems, nearly all of which funnel the player towards buying premium currency. Problems with griefing, technical issues and cheating have often remained unresolved, or have been left to linger for far longer than necessary. It’s a shame, because there’s plenty to like about Red Dead Online – and I only wish Rockstar had done more with this potential.
Earlier this month, of course, Rockstar announced that it will no longer introduce any major new updates for Red Dead Online. The developer confirmed that it had been steadily moving resources over to GTA 6, and that new Red Dead Online content will now be limited to small events and experience improvements. So in short, if you’re looking to get into Red Dead Online in the year 2022, what you see is what you get. But is that experience one worth having? Well, sort of. It depends entirely on your approach to playing.