Major Red Dead Redemption 2 Online update coming spring 2019
Will include new hostility system, offensive and defensive playing style options
The next major update to Red Dead Redemption 2’s online multiplayer mode, Red Dead Online, will arrive in the spring of 2019.
Among other features, the update will include a new hostility system, offensive and defensive playing style options, fresh missions and dynamic events.
Outlining the upcoming changes in a blog post, Rockstar Games said the hostility system “builds upon the anti-griefing measures added in February with smarter and responsive features that keep players immersed in the world through confrontations and PvP action”.
For example, when a player inflicts damage on someone, they’ll immediately be marked as an enemy to the attacked player. Players who are attacked will also be able to defend themselves without receiving bounties or hostility increases.
Rockstar said of the new offensive and defensive playing style options: “The Offensive Playing Style is much like the current Free Roam play as we know it while the Defensive Playing Style is a more evolved version of the Passive Mode concept, designed for Red Dead Online’s more grounded experience – giving players more flexibility in how they interact with the world and at the same time de-emphasizing hostile contact with other players.”
While defensive players will be able to target and be targeted in free aim, they won’t be able to deliver or receive critical hits. “There are several other adjustments that come with the Defensive Playing Style, all of which are built to work seamlessly with systems like Hostility and Bounties to keep all players rooted in the world,” Rockstar added.
The studio said additional features of the update will include:
- More A Land of Opportunities Missions: continue Jessica LeClerk’s search for revenge as you explore the path of a Gunslinger or an Outlaw
- New Free Roam Mission givers and mission types: Red Dead Online is set in the years before the single player story so expect to encounter a range of new and familiar faces as you traverse the frontier
- The introduction of dynamic events: fight off ambushes, initiate rescues, defend folks in need and more as you travel across the world
- All this, plus updates to the character creator, restructured Daily Challenges that eliminate hostile gameplay in Free Roam and introduce streaks for bigger rewards, the return of another classic weapon, the LeMat Revolver from the original Red Dead Redemption, and much more.
Red Dead Online, which is currently in open beta, comes with every copy of Red Dead redemption 2, Rockstar’s first game built from the ground up for the current generation of consoles.
According to publisher Take-Two, the game achieved the biggest opening weekend in the history of entertainment, with over $725 million in retail sell-through during its first three days of availability. The company claimed in February that it had shipped over 23 million copies of the game to retailers.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is also critically acclaimed — alongside fellow Rockstar game Grand Theft Auto V, it’s the joint-highest rated Xbox One and PS4 title, according to review aggregation site Metacritic.
Take-Two said in February that Grand Theft Auto V, which originally launched on Xbox 360 and PS3 in 2013, had shipped over 100 million units. It reached $1 billion in retail sales faster than any entertainment release in history, according to the publisher, and continues to generate significant revenue through its online component, Grand Theft Auto Online.
