Red Dead Redemption 2's Online is a Scam (no, the entire PC release is a scam)

my guy - and horsie horse

Remember Red Dead Redemption 2? That next-generation console release with the pretty snow and the horse pooping with the guns and the slow-mo cowboy. It did really well, and sales were at 25 million last August. Imagine what it’s like now. Especially after Rockstar decided to re-release the game on PC on two different platforms. First on the Rockstar Games Launcher and, soon, finally on Steam. This is after being released on both PS4 and Xbox One. But purchasing on the Rockstar Games Launcher means you don’t own it on Steam, and vice versa. If this seems like bullshit to you, you’ll be delighted to know that this is just the tip of the iceberg in ways that Rockstar absolutely scams the customer out of every possible dollar.

“We want to get as many repurchases of this game as possible,” is what the executives at Take Two Interactive must be saying with these decisions. It really does look like they are staggering as many releases of this game as possible so someone who has already bought this game before will buy it again because of a new platform or update.

With all of that out of the way, I can talk about how, yeah, the PC port is fine (other than having to use your keyboard and not your mouse to navigate any shop menu or map at all), but despite the improvements already made, the online mode of RDR2 is still designed to waste the players’ time until they finally give into microtransactions.

Wanna become a Bounty Hunter in Online? You have to pay 15 Gold Bars in order to get a Bounty Hunter’s license. Why? You don’t have to do that in the single player to do bounties. You can only get a Gold Bar until you’ve gotten 100 Gold Nuggets, which are tediously and slowly drip-fed to the player as they do missions and activities. Or just pay $13.49 for 25 Gold Bars even though you only need 15. That’s the minimum option!

Wow, look at all these cool bounties — too bad i have to pay with real-money currency in a game i already paid $80.00 CAD for

So why play? Well, if you’re starting at the very beginning (without the Special Edition) you will have the beginner revolver and rifle for potentially your first ten hours of gameplay. At least, that was my experience. The best part about that is how all the NPC’s you have to kill and fight all have the next (or next after that) tier of rifle and can two-shot you while you desperately try to make any money at all.

Even if you manage to make a little bit of money to upgrade one of your weapons from hunting or missions, you’ll realize that it’s already disappearing because of the game’s very design brought over from Single Player.

Your four cores plus your Horse Cores must be maintained with food and potions bought from the General Store, so you’re losing tens of dollars already. Plus if you want to run a posse you are paying a fee to maintain your camp every in-game day.

Still wanna buy Red Dead Redemption 2? Be my guest. But first you are going to have to go to their website and decide between the 3 editions. (click on ‘er!)

Look at all those bonuses with the higher price tags! We can even press that little “Compare all editions” button to show us what we’re missing if we don’t buy the most expensive edition. (Hint: A lot of them would be accessible with cheat codes.)

You know, paying extra money for cool outfits sounds like a decent deal to me. Even 120 dollars. A Bank Robbery Mission? That sounds pretty good. Plus… Free Access to Additional Weapons and Rank Bonuses. Oh, and a horse that’s faster than peoples’ who paid less for the game. Also, someone’s going to have to define “Gameplay boosts” for me.

Rockstar’s starting strong here by letting the player know that in their game, the only way to really have fun is to just give us more money.

You, as the player are going to have a grand old time if you buy this Special Edition, pretty much destroying anyone else who is new at the game while progressing at an actually reasonable rate. And what if you already own the Special Edition on Xbox One and want to buy it on PC? There is no possible way to transfer that game that is worth $120. You are gonna have to buy it again. #getdestroyed lol.

I, uh… yeah. Stick to single player. 😎
(And if you were thinking there was gonna be single player DLC, there’s not. Thanks Rockstar.)