Red Dead Online is actually kinda brilliant.
I hate GTA Online, really hate it, I think it's a terrible multiplayer game. That doesn't mean it doesn't have its moments of greatness and a lot of fun can be had, but I think it's a terribly designed and executed multiplayer game, but because of the GTA brand and the amount of effort that Rockstar puts into their singleplayer games, it piggy backs on all of that which makes it still popular and enjoyable for some people. I was prepared to hate Red Dead Online. When they first announced it, I was ready to shit on it, I think I did shit on it in the first thread after it got revealed, I was ready to dump on that game. I joined the beta or w/e and my bias was fulfilled, it was shit.
But I gave it a second chance about a month ago, kinda randomly, I had finished the single player, I thought the single player was the best game I'd played in years, and one of the most fulfilling gaming experiences I've ever had, and I decided ... y'know ... I hate GTA Online, but I loved Red Dead Redemption 2 and I think there's enough here where I might enjoy myself. And, honest to goodness, I think the game is kinda brilliant. Flawed in many ways, for sure, some grindiness too, but... I think it does a great job of capturing what's fun about "Red Dead After Game," the missions are actually pretty good, it's not as convoluted and bull shit as GTA Online, the community is shockingly very good... there's not many griefers, not many assholes, 90% of the time strangers in the world aren't assholes it's amazijng... and 5% of the time they're actually awesome. One night, a group of super high level posse took me under their wing and I rode with them for like 3 hours doing missions and bounties, and random shit, and it was amazing. This would have never happened in GTA Online -- they would have just stood around griefing me for hours (or, realistically, 5 minutes, because I would have quit the game). The recent 'Frontier Pursuits' stuff gives you a tooonnnn of collectibles, ambient side quests, and pointless / meaningful shit to do, and the main online story mode is actually really good, surprisingly fun, and also easy to complete with random players (good luck doing anything with random players in GTA Online).
I still think there's plenty of time for Rockstar to ruin the game. THey'll introduce flying horses with lazer rockets soon for $9000 gold, when their next shareholder meeting is coming up, but until then, Red Dead Online is kinda brilliant and I find myself wanting to play it all the time.
