In ‘Red Dead Redemption,’ the Wild West Is a Refuge

Roles in RDO offer players different paths of progression that lead to unique missions, items, and special skills like being able to identify moonshine hideouts or identifying rival trader wagons that players can decide to go after. The roles available in RDO include bounty hunter, naturalist, trader, collector, and moonshiner.

Another point of interest from the “Blood Money” update, is that unlike past updates, there will be no prerequisite item that players will need to purchase in order to unlock the new missions and content. This allows players who may not own every piece of DLC, or some who may not have had the same experiences in game to play together without having to “catch up” or spend more just to enjoy the new material. Sam, who was able to pull her best friend into playing RDO, shared a stand out memory from her own time playing one of the legendary bounty hunting missions that is currently in game.

“One time me and my best friend were completing a legendary bounty together that was set deep into the swamps near Saint Denis, it was a mission that I had tried previously and mentioned [to my friend] ‘Just be careful around the water, okay,’ The mission was to hogtie the bounty and of course take them into custody, so when we had successfully tied up our bandit we had the job of trying to get him onto our horse. The next minute all I can hear is my friend screaming down the microphone and her character running as fast as she could away from an alligator. I would have helped if I could’ve stopped laughing!”

While the development team shapes the official future of RDO, the community around the game, and the whole series, continues to grow and pull in new players. With Twitter accounts like Red Dead Online News, a fan driven account with 31,000+ followers, and Madam Nazar IO, a Twitter account that helps players find the randomly appearing NPC in Red Dead Online, it’s not surprising that players of both the base game and the online component might take different things away from the game, such as the replayability of the main story or the unique narratives available in Red Dead Online.

But for a few players, one thing that consistently draws them back into the world of Red Dead Redemption is the story. Jon Norris, a marketing consultant and fan of the game, shared that it was a combo of several elements that really helped him to connect with Red Dead. “I think it’s the combination of all the story elements. My grandpa loved westerns so I watched a fair few of them growing up, and being able to explore such a beautiful and fleshed-out universe with all the classic western tropes was very cool and nostalgic. Obviously having a great story and, for my money, one of the all-time great video game protagonists in Arthur, just made it all the more special.”