I have been playing 'Red Dead 2' online for quite a bit now with a few friends of mine, usually in a group of three or four people and while the online mode can provide some fun at times, more often though is the feeling of disappointment when being constantly kicked out of a session. The online is still a work in-progress and I understand that, however, were I draw a line is when the servers are so bad that staying in a session for more than an hour feels like a miracle at times. I've always loved Rockstar Games for giving us some of the greatest games of all time but rushing the release of the online mode was not a good idea.
The online mode doesn't only suffer from bad servers, it also suffers from an empty world. The world in the campaign constantly felt so alive, like something was always happening or something big was on the horizon. You couldn't travel from the snowy mountains down to St. Denis without making several stops whether it was some side quest, hunting, fishing or simply taking in the world as a whole. Of course, a lot of these are things you can do in the online as well and when you actually get a chance to do those things, that's when the online provides some enjoyment. However, when you are constantly being chased by a posse for whatever reason or being harrassed by another online player, the enjoyment quickly begins to fade away. This is by no means the fault of Rockstar Games and I recognise that. However, in 'Grand Theft Auto V' Online if you want to just be in a session with friends or be alone, you could do that. 'Red Dead 2' online simply doesn't provide that same luxury and that's where I feel let down by Rockstar.
Private sessions are feeling more crucial every time I play the online simply because some players cannot restrain themselves and will just go into any town, shoot up the entire place and then some more. Back to the point of the world feeling empty in the online, you have AI in the online roaming around the world which is fine but that's it. The AI are never doing anything interesting and nothing exciting is ever happening. For example, in the single-player there were times when I'd come across complete strangers that are either being attacked by animals, taking photos of the landscape, asking to be saved from snake venom, or simply asking for a ride home because their horse ran off. I've been playing the online since its release and nothing of the sort ever occurs. You still get attacked by some wild animals but this becomes tedious when it starts to feel like the only thing keeping the world "alive" in the online. The online just expects players to populate the world but even if they did, it's not like the players in the online have much to do other than ride their horse, kill other players or play missions to make money.
That's where my next problem comes in. The economy in this game is just awful. I get it, it's around the 1890's in the online and so the economy is a tough one, I understand that and it was more than tolerable in the single-player even before reaching the end and receiving that whopping 20K. The online maximised the prices of almost everything massively, leaving players unable to enjoy the online and focus more on grinding to make at least a hundred dollars. Keeping in mind that making a hundred dollars in the game can at times take up to 3-4 missions in which each mission usually takes about 10-15 minutes. For a fair amount of people, that isn't a long time but for others, it feels like a long time because they're busy with other things in life whether that be a job, family or school.
For a lot of people who are going to make the arguement that the online is a free mode and should be appreciated as such, here's the facts. Just because something is free, doesn't mean it's good. For those who make the arguement that this is a beta, think about this. Rockstar Games had years in developing this game, years in which they planned out the story AND the online which means what we are seeing in the beta right now, this is most likely how the online will be for a while. This is all mainly so that microtransactions could play a factor in the way that a player gets his "wealth" in the online. The same issue lies with 'GTAV' online, and proof of that is that Rockstar have already implemented microtransactions into 'Red Dead 2' online within a month of releasing the online rather than focusing on updating their servers or implementing a better economy that allows players to enjoy a bit of the online.
This isn't me saying that I don't believe that 'Red Dead 2' online is ever going to improve but I do believe that the state is in right now is just not fun. An online game is always meant to provide a level of fun because that's the incentive most players want. I do hope that it improves because 'Red Dead Redemption 2' as a whole was my favourite game of 2018 so I really do not want to see this go down.
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