The lack of content for Red Dead Online is in stark contrast to the abundance of content that GTA Online receives. The title makes Rockstar loads of money, and it is constantly adding new content for players to play through. Ever since its release, GTA Online has gotten multiple large scale updates that have added loads of new things, like business ownership, heists, a casino, super yachts, and loads of vehicles. Red Dead Online has received little content since release, and that needs to change with the addition of some large-scale features.
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This article will have some SPOILERS for Red Dead Redemption 2.
Purchasable Ranches
One feature that Red Dead Online would benefit from would be purchasable ranches. The wild west is known for the amount of ranchers that traversed it, and the game should let players live out their ranching dreams. In the epilogue of Red Dead Redemption 2, players spend some time building up a ranch as John Marston. Red Dead Online should let players do the exact same thing and let them run their own ranch. This would provide players with a form of housing aside from their camp and give them a place to show off to their friends.
The ranch buying feature could be similar to the house buying feature of GTA Online. It would allow players to customize the inside of the ranch and the various parts of said ranch. Players could either purchase land that they could fund a ranch project on, or they could build prebuilt ranches that dot the landscape. This would give players a reason to grind out money and make the world feel more lived in as the various buildings dotting the land would actually be utilized.
Train Heists Whenever
It seems impossible to have an old western themed game and not let players rob trains at will, but alas that is the situation with Red Dead Online. In single-player, players can rob trains as much as they want. However, in Red Dead Online there is no such option. If players want to rob trains then they have to gather enough Capitale so that they can launch the train robbery opportunity. While this lets them rob a train with friends, it feels very limited compared to the single-player.
The trains that players can board in the free-roam of Red Dead Online do not contain any valuables for players to collect. While allowing players to constantly rob the trains may be an annoyance for those waiting to ride the train, it would help liven up the world a little. In GTA Online, players can rob gas stations when they are in the mood. Red Dead Online should let players do the same thing with trains and further expand it to include banks, stores, and everything in-between.
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Business Ownership
One of the biggest features in GTA Online is the ability to own businesses. Players can own nightclubs, bunkers, warehouses, arcades, meth labs, forgery offices, and so much more. A lot of the updates to GTA Online have contained new businesses for players to spend hours earning money through. They can be a pretty fun form of content for those who want some free-roam activities and those who want to become a crime lord in the streets of Los Santos. This seems like content that would carry over well to Red Dead Online, but it has not made an appearance.
Red Dead Online is supposedly a land of opportunity for players to exploit, but they are not able to run their own businesses in this land. If Rockstar added the ability for players to buy shops, inns, saloons, even train stations then the game would feel more alive. Players would be traversing the map to complete jobs for their businesses, and they would be competing with others to try and make as much money as possible. There would be a reason to keep coming back as the businesses would need the support.
Mexico and Guarma
Right now, Red Dead Online is locked to the main world from the single-player campaign. What did not make the cut was the island of Guarma that players take a pit stop in during the story. Red Dead Redemption included parts of Mexico that also did not make the transition to Red Dead Redemption 2. While Red Dead Online is not short on land for players to explore, adding some more never hurts. Rockstar spent some time constructing Guarma for the campaign, and it would be a shame for it to not make the cut for Red Dead Online.
More Specialist Roles
The biggest feature that Red Dead Online has to be the specialist roles that players can progress through. These roles operate like jobs and give players something to strive for. Currently, the game includes Bounty Hunter, Moonshiner, Naturalist, Trader, and Collector. Each role as their own unique place in the world and players are able to switch between them whenever they wish. While these roles help immersive the player in the old west, Rockstar should expand on this feature and add even more.
These roles cover some major parts of living in the old west, but they also leave many on the table. Maybe some Red Dead Online players want to spend their days as an entertainer going from town to town singing ballads. Maybe someone has a passion for the ranch life and wants to progress down a rancher specialist role. Maybe a player wants to be a beacon of justice, but a Bounty Hunter is too cruel for them, so they take up the role of Sheriff or Lawman. Adding even more roles to the game gives players more content to progress through and gives them more options for how they want to tell their own cowboy story.
Red Dead Online is in desperate need of some new content to revitalize it and Rockstar should deliver. It has the chance to be just as popular as GTA Online, Rockstar just has to give players a reason to log back in. Take-Two is aware that fans are angry by the lack of content, and maybe something will change in the future. For now, players will just have to wait and hope for some new content to come to the old west.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
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