progress report on the games we just can’t quit
Red Dead Online
Developer/publisher Rockstar Games (Rockstar Studios) Format PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release 2019
We recognise something familiar in the players we encounter in Red Dead Online:an aimlessness, which sometimes takes the form of impromptu carousing in a darkened tavern, but just as often results in unprovoked murder. Of course, the latter generally follows the former, as if every player committed to enacting cynical frontier violence at point of sale. The ambient uncertainty that surrounds these chance meetings extends to the game itself. Like all service games, Red Dead Online was made to be without an end. But did it ever begin?