Red Dead Online: From BETA to RUINED 

Rockstar should be ashamed for neglecting such a good game…just sad 😐

back in 2019 on christmas day, right around the moonshine release, me and about 5-6 of my best friends all hopped on RDO and just hung out, drinking, listening to the holiday music in game for hours. None of us had family to celebrate with at the time and it just worked perfectly. Still one of my favorite gaming memories of all time

One aspect that shocks me about how Rockstar handled the RDO situation is that for a company that concerns so much about return on investment, they left money on the table by stopping their support of RDO.

Honestly, here’s what I would have done to fix this: 1. Train heists 2. Bank heists 3. Base of operations on a riverboat to plan and execute heists alone or with friends with purchasable upgrades like private poker games, private ammo shop, private weapon shop, and so on. 4. Mexico 5. Moar horses, including holiday themed ones like a ghostly horse for Halloween. 6. Finish the story mode with a mission to kill the last target in Sisika prison. 7. Vehicles like carts, armored carts, Gatling gun carts and so on. 8. Guarma map and Gun runner role. 9. Moar weapons from around the world like the martini rifle, European pistols, Mexican rifles, and others. 10. The Riverboat heist with Dutch so that we finally know what happened.

It was an Epic Game and Experience. I will never understand why they let it die. Thank you for all you have done and continue to do for this community. Your videos are equally as memorable for me as the game itself. 👍🤠

The beta days feel like yesterday but also a million years ago. I would say less than 1% of current players now actually played during the beta.

I really like the role system. They could still do so much with it. The biggest problem with RDO is the extreme focus on pvp. The fact that you can't do pretty much anything without the risk of other players screwing with you is a major drawback for casual players. You know, the people with full time jobs, lives and, most importantly, money to spend. I've played a lot of FO76 and once they got away from the pvp, the game started to get a LOT better.

This is the only game that made me say “Wow this is just something else” the graphics, gameplay, side missions just every little detail they put into this game was something I never played before. It was so addicting just to hunt , explore places & have encounters with random strangers. Glad I was living in the moment at that time.. just crazy they didn’t take it serious or put anything into it much after

It's not ruined.... But it's nowhere at its potential either. We have all played hundreds of hours here.

2018... so weird, feels like yesterday.

I actually miss the beginning days of RDO. Good memories.

Yea Rockstar lost me as a fan and customer. They abandoned Red Dead Online while giving us nothing we wanted. We got 0 heists, 0 train robberies, 0 content we actually wanted and Rockstar really dropped the ball and just showed me how little they carried for my favorite franchise that Rockstar makes. I hate gta and have since the game had an over head view.

I think Maggie (in the Moonshiner story) was definitely one of the best characters introduced into RDO. The whole Land of Opportunities story was okay, but I think it didn't really cause players to be invested as the story was really Jessica's story, rather than the players. With Maggie, we were given the back story, but were more involved and immersed in bringing her enemies to justice. It also rounded off nicely and then, of course, we were left with the Moonshiner role, so there is that link which is ever present in the game, whereas Land of Opportunities is largely forgotten about. Excellent video and despite Rockstar pretty much abandoning us faithful Red Dead players, I still have a great fondness for the game and do enjoy dipping into it from time to time. As for story mode - I think it is probably the best I have ever played, and having played it through at least three times now, I still feel the emotions from the game - the transition from the relatively fun and carefree nature of the gang at the start - despite the seriousness of their predicament - to the collapsing of gang loyalties and the ultimate almost unravelling of Dutch's sanity toward the end is compelling and almost disturbing as the game reaches its conclusion.

The initial collector role and the unlimited daily challenge streak combo was so op

I haven't played in 2 years but if rockstar would bring everything in to the game that has been discussed and stay in top of new content, fixes etc, I would pay a subscription fee and buy gold. The game is too good to just "let it sit". Even though I don't play, I still follow cat and keep up.

I still play RDO occasionally and I still enjoy levelling up my roles, hunting, fishing etc. The PVP is something I've never been interested in with Rockstar Games, in GTA Online I prefer just minding my business and just doing jobs, earning money, shopping etc. This had so much potential and I hope if RDR3 has a online mode, they take the best parts of RDO and GTAO and make an amazing western online game. The grind with GTAO gradually increased over the first 5 years so it didn't feel as grindy until later on but with RDO it was grindy from the start which wasn't great for everyone just starting out.

This was honestly a nice trip down memory road, strangely enough 😂 Thanks a lot, Cat. You are, and always were, the best Red Dead content creator. I remember how detailed your weapon breakdowns were. I was part of your first 5k subs, and I'm super happy to see where you are now. It's a shame that they left this game out to dry. Fingers crossed for some sort of comeback one day 🤞🖤

I remember Christmas 2022 with all the snow, me and my friend were relatively broke and were were just playing call to arms in colter all night. It was so fun and that was probably when I was at my peak of rd. it also helped that we hadn’t finished all of the blood money missions so we still had a ton of content to complete.

Thank you for the video. It was nice to see the progress of the games development and fixes. I am not sure of the future for the online game but I still continue to enjoy the beauty of its open world and content available. Your videos have made it even better by helping me become better in it, I can’t thank you enough!

I was there in the pre ordered online days. I played online for awhile, when the roles came, did all the roles maxed em out than I realized nothing else was coming. This online had so much potential. Could’ve been beautiful and way more fun.

This made me so nostalgic. I have a lot to say about this but will save it for later. But I remember all of these as good times, even the early empty days of RDO, and thought the community was a bit too harsh on the game too early in its "development". My best gaming memories are from RDO, so it was heartbreaking to see it end.

PVP Cat, this video made me reflect on things my wife and I have enjoyed most about RDR online. We loved most of the content you highlighted in the video but the part we have appreciated most is all the great videos with tips, stats, livestreams and sharing news with the community that YOU have provided. Whenever you post a new RDR video we put it on our TV in the living room so our family can all watch it. We still do that to this day. Thank you for everything Cat. When you start with other games we will make a genuine attempt to join in IF it's a genre we would ever play.... GTA, hard pass. LOL I wish you the best and brightest future for you, your family, and your channel. We will remain your fans.

The saddest part to me is that I know they've abandonned RDR2, so any hopes of a 60fps/Next-Gen patch is really lost. I'd give anything to re-experience that game again in 60fps, I really struggle to play it these days with it at 30. This year is the 5th year anniversary, if it doesn't happen this year, it's never happening.

This video unlocked so many memories :') I havent play the game in months, in which i still have a cowgirl/bounty huntress since beta days that i kinda miss :') I met new and amazing people (and i still have contact with them on discord), i was under a big ass crisis in college around 2019 when "frontier pursuits" arrived, so that helped to have my mind in a "relaxed mood" after all the tests/exams and shit that happened that year... it was like a "revival" for me, and also I learned more english by playing with other people, since my country speaks spanish Thanks cat, maybe one day i will give her a properly goodbye :')

I played this game to death with a group of friends. Had a blast. I've clocked a total of about 5 minutes since R* announced they weren't developing the title further. Although I don't have a TON of complaints about the title, I hadn't realized how much of a role 'hope' had played in that enjoyment until the announcement.

i played alot of the red dead online and what killed it for me was the amount of trolls in the game, i had insanely overpowered players chugging tonics that were basically bullet proof, there only goal was to chase me around spawn killing me i even tried hiding in stores and the knew how to throw bombs inside the safe zone to kill me.

Played RDR religiously as a kid and even beat undead nightmare a few times over. Got RDR2 when it came out my sophomore year of college but was in a fraternity, gf, honors student, etc. and never found time to play it. Fast forward to January 2023 and I finally got the itch to beat the campaign and loved it. Just last month I finally got into online and truly enjoy it and have since found your channel. Needless to say, this video crushes my spirits a little lol but I have some buddies I play with and have been having a great time

One day I was playing red dead online and this guy was on a mic walking by me in valantine and said"don't mind me,I'm just boot-scoot n boogin". It's little stuff like this that make this game worth going back to.

i recently played it again with friends for a few days and it sucks. you cant even go to the stable anymore cause its bugged. but it still can be fun with friends.

Fun fact about the daily challenge streak. There is a special poncho you need a streak of 50 days in a row that is completely unobtainable now. The true sign of Red Dead OGs

2:06 I know this is relevant to the video, but that was hilarious when the guy went flying when you were fighting him

RDO is one of my all time favorites. I had years of fun but it's over now after 580 levels. I'm on to Elden Ring.

I think the part i hate most online is that the 3 main storys cost a fuck ton of gold for a beginner

Great video man. I miss this game so much :(

You unintentionally helped my gaming experience, massively. I used to play on the PS4 a few years back and recently, I just bought a new gaming PC and since I've been playing, the game just didnt feel right or look as good and I couldn't pinpoint why. Everything just felt... dry and dusty, if that makes sense. I just happened to notice how vibrant your colors were and... boom, it hit me. It was my PC's default color settings! I changed some settings and now every game I play is more vibrant than ever. Everything is looking so good. A thumbs up for that! You da man.

Played from day one, pre ordered because I had loved every other game Rockstar had made so I knew I would spend a lot of time with red dead, joined a really big posse, made friends with a few of them and we left to form our own smaller tight knit posse, I was over 20 000 miles away from my family so these guys were who I spent my holidays with, so many huge wars, so many late nights having deep talks and talking about what we would like to see in the game, during the pandemic it felt like such an important part in my life, I stuck through the whack economy nerfs, not having any animals for months, not having any information from Rockstar, I didn't drink or gamble or do anything like that so every payday I'd put a 25$ card on to get gold and support the game, I saw how long they had milked gta so I assumed they would be adding content for much longer than they did.. towards the end it felt like they prioritized new players experiences by giving them deals and free tickets for shit I had bought when it first came out, we all started losing passion and now I haven't talked to any of the gang in a long time, can't help but think about all the possibilities of hopes and dreams we had for this games, I remember thinking that people who were giving up were being pessimistic and didn't know Rockstar like I did, they had made so many of my favorite games, I thought they were the best, they had do much passion for their games and stories and now being one of the biggest companies with millions they have so much potential but somewhere along the way they lost their souls, thing is I'll probably still buy gta 6 or any title they make and do the same thing over again but my feelings have definitely changed about Rockstar and how they treated the online has even left a sour taste in my mouth with the story mode as great as it is, I can't help but feel disappointed with them.

The game will always have the amazing story mode ❤

Back in the early days of RDO there were no ghost sessions me and friends had similar problems where every dip in the connection would just kick us. It was frustrating AF and everytime i spawned in am empty session i would jump for joy

Brilliantly done ❤ Many thanks for your time, commitment and keen observations! Be well 😊

This was my favorite game for a long time. Every day after work I’d spend hours grinding, exploring and trying to avoid griefers. The landscape and scenery was beautiful and even the npc’s weren’t too bad. This had so much potential to be something great. I get that they have “limited resources “ and developing grand theft auto 6 can’t be easy but the whole reason they have money to do that is because of the pay to win gold bars they got tons of people to buy.. even I spent money on gold bars a time or two. They basically wanted us to just keep giving them our money without them giving us anything in return and that’s not right. Rockstar creates some amazing worlds but as a whole they are really shady. They don’t see us as a part of their gaming family and community, merely customers.

This is your best Red Dead Online video. I remember all of this during my journey, it's so nostalgic. Thank you!

It's definitely fizzled down to new players, those who simply enjoy the online aspect of Red dead and a few griefers with nothing better to do. It's nice to ride by other people or to simply not be killed on sight. Yes the game could've been better but I'll always enjoy it for what it is. Gotta go glass half full rather than half empty

I remember early on, discovering a little spot in the swamps I could loop around to farm skins and feathers. It was pretty awful, but compared to the rest of the game it felt like a worthwhile money grind. They nerfed the sell values in half within weeks. I quit playing shortly after that.

What made this not so empty and alot of fun for me was teaming up with other players. I could get on and solo and enjoy it but it got MEH easily. But me and my ex played this heavily and eventually made a lot of friends off of it and with a full posse we could do missions easily fending off greifers. Once the new trades came out and we could escort wagons from A to B it was even more fun because the whole map roster would ambush us and we'd crush them. Best moments.

There are a few games that I love. And those games tend to be abandoned by their developers 😞😥

Yup, I remember fleeing back to my camp over and over because as soon as I left it everyone knew and would come after me. I remember the early Beta days exploiting the ringneck creek bug (still there) where you cast into it and fish just washed up along it. Get your 20 and sell them in Rhodes to make $. I also exploited the cougar-carcass-into-horse-stable bug and the other where putting a wagon over a treasure chest would allow you to open it over and over again to rack up gold (I think i got like 100GB)

Yep! Grew up with clint eastwood when I was younger and I even had a fake revolver that's lever hits a small white bullet that explodes (but does not shoot) to make a realistic bullet sound.

It’s hard to let RDR go especially when you shared moments with friends for years playing RDR online. All we need is some kind of closure or conclusion to end this game.

GTA 5 Online might be the best thing that ever happened to Rockstar financially. But it is the worst thing that ever happened to them creatively, considering everything that was cancelled in favor of more gta online content. GTA 5 expansions, RDR2 expansions, remakes, and maybe even more games that would have been developed if not for gta online.

Hi, I just returned to the game, do you think they will ever reopen the past club rewards, I mean do you think will reopen past battlepasses or whatever is called to grind it again?

I was so hyped for RDO when it came out. It was so bad that i quit entirely. The griefing, the varmint rifle meta, missions that gave $5 & .02 gold. You brought back memories lmao. I just recently gave it another go & i am hooked.

What this game really needed was some single player story expansion

For a game that had record breaking sales even up to 5 years after launch, if they dont come back and show this masterpiece the attention it NEEDS and DESERVES, I have lost all faith in humanity

Thanks for this video

Wow great work!

Rockstar and gtao fans were and still are so shortsighted when it comes to rdo, they see how buggy and underdeveloped rdo is and say it’s pointless to even try making the game good. But it’s exactly that, the reason WHY is not good is because rockstar didn’t bother to make it good, they should’ve done that to begin with, then they’d have a online mode way better than gtao.

The Good, The Bad and The ugly but most importantly the nostalgia 😔💔

i love revisiting the story mode every 2 years and just replaying it

This is a very good video!

I played RDR1's multiplayer almost every day for nearly 4 years, it was so good. I started RDO at the beginning and managed to accumulate a 500 day challenge streak before I realized that I was having exactly 0 fun playing the game. Most of the time it was literally logging in to complete 1 challenge just to keep my streak going. When I got to 500 days, I decided to pull the plug. I'm glad I did because about 3 weeks later they nerfed the daily challenges and I would've been pissed having my streak reset every 28 days. In a game about outlaws, they gave us largely-legal roles that amounted to having an online job. I got bored and moved on to other games.

What i felt playing rdr online was a great emptiness, the story of Arthur is soo great, and the world feels alive, the online is just bland

I remember the varmint rifle was overpowered, you could hunt birds for those fat stacks of cash while also ruining anyone in your path. Slow and steady with never without one was nuts.

This is a really nice post mortem of sorts of a video for RDO. I just recently finished RDR2 (easily one the best single player games ever made) and I am a veteran of GTA Online so I hopped on to see what RDO is about. GTA Online isn't all that good but it can be quite chill and I was expecting something similar. Unfortunately, what I found was even worse than what I expected. It was a... salvageable experience but since I am on PC the cheaters really just drove it home for me and I lasted for about a whole of 5 hours before just quitting. I have my ways of dealing with modders/cheaters in GTA Online but the way RDO is made it's frustrating to use those tools. I'm glad that somebody made a video detailing how it got to where it is

Thanks for staying loyal even when rockstar abandoned red dead

I've played for 7700+ hours now and am about to hit level 1000, but whilst I love this game deeply, I'm also looking forward to finishing and not having to deal with Rockstar anymore 🤣

Before he even said I definitely remembered the good old 22 varmint days that was wild

Can you help me with a bug? I bought the bounty hunter license or whatever online and when I go select a legend bounty it lets me do one and then it says I have to buy the license again

This felt like a walk down memory lane. I loved the Online side of RDR1 with the forever echoing "Gang Shootout" standoff for the PvP game modes which were fun, then Outlaws To The End and constantly added content. I didn't get to play in the RDO BETA but I was abusing my PS4 playing Online without PS+ so I could get the trophies (missed 1-2) for my Platinum. I joined Discord groups and got to really enjoy the experience before switching to PC. As you described, it's such a shame how this game with a hell of a lot of potential just went to waste. The players I've spoken with don't want PvP content. We wanted Rancher roles like John does, we wanted Horse Rustling/Stable roles, Bank or Train Heists, further role expansions, our own properties. We even wanted them to finish the Land Of Opportunities story, especially now that so many have discovered that Mrs LeClerk IS referenced in the Single Player story! For those who didn't know, have Arthur donate $10 to the woman in Saint Denis for the Veteran's Building then view the plaque as John in the Epilogue. It will say "Mr and Mrs LeClerk" a short way below Arthur's name. But... Rockstar joined the bandwagon of corporate company greed. Ignoring their fan base, not bothering to fix their broken content, not investing in a stable anti-cheat system (even free games like Fortnite and Fall Guys have one) and instead they go for cash grab antics, milking one game and abandoning the rest, slap the faces to RDR fans with the copy-paste RDR1 instead of a remaster and as TGG pointed out in a video the day I put this, Rockstar's CEO gets a doubled salary and went against what the company put in a statement back in 2021 to VGC; "What we've done differently than the competition is that we don't just port our title's, we actually take the time to do the very best job we can making the title different for the newer technology that we're launching on." ...so what are you doing with a 13 year old game being released to the "modern" PlayStation console? Sorry, I'm one very disappointed Red Dead fan right now...

It's not ruined. I am new to rdr thanks to the discount and I can play rdo solo, but somehow I brought my friends into it. Also I watched some of your vids about not doing the mistakes, but of course I did them. The first thing we did when joined sessions was pvp 🤣 then poker and like that we lost all the money, and we are starving 🤣 but is fun. The lasso is hilarious. Thanks for the vids it really helps the new players.

I don't expect an answer to this post and maybe it might even be strange. I'm playing the game in 2023 to complete Online. The weird catch is that I want to do it all in content release order. Could you at least go into more specifics of what was available in the original version of Red Dead Online? You said there was the Land of Opportunity missions and Stranger missions? It sounds like half of the story missions were in the game. What were the originals and which ones were added in the next update from base? Also, can you remember what Free Roam or PVP modes were legitimately put into the original version and do you think you can remember the added in ones?

God damn, u make me keep this online game in my mind, and on my constant game list. I love pvpcat. Thank u

wow, the nostalgia of hearing it’s evolution (or the lack of it) throughout the years really brought me back. I remember grinding so much to be able to purchase all the things coming out with new updates but now my character will just be eternally rich with nothing to spend the money on.

The average Red Dead player is not a kid. That would be GTA V.

Started with Naturalist update, heavily grinded dailies back then. The day they nerfed my streak was a sad day. But I did get to abuse the dailies and collector role pretty much to the point I could afford everything I wanted. Good times.

I got an IP ban from Rockstar just because I wanted to switch to play to story mode for a hour. I need help it says that it caused the servers to ''malfunction''. I am really confused, I read it on the internet. A IP ban lasts a month or even 2 and it just happened when I just bought a PS+ subscription Rockstar is really scamming people out there?

Imagine if rockstar did what the players wanted and sold red dead to another company that has the time to keep making content, would be a better place

Thanks for the detailed review, Cat .. I always enjoy your videos. Brought back some good memories despite Rockstar letting us down so badly. I remember how excited I was when they announced Frontier Pursuits. But then they just stopped adding content and no communication. Most of 2022 was such a disappointment for such an amazing game. 2023 doesn't look promising either. I play very rarely now, with no real incentive but I still love the game. Only hope Rockstar comes to their senses. I played Planet Zoo for awhile (Frontier is really great about content DLC) and now I am playing Hogwarts Legacy which is a fantastic game - so much content and detail. I am happy to return to RDO if Rockstar ever returns to paying attention to it and us players with a little TLC. ~ Kate

I just came from the most recent video. I played red dead Online since the very first day it released for ultimate edition players on ps4. I remember most of the stuff that went on in this game over the years. I enjoyed frontier pursuits and moonshiner dlcs. For me the no animal spawns started after frontier pursuits. I was looking forward to the trader role the most but this issue caused me to take 4 or so months just to rank up the trader role to max. I ended up enjoying the other roles way more than trader at the time. It’s unfortunate rockstar abandoned this game had so much wasted potential.

Yep. That's exactly how it went. My friends and I used to do what we called satchel hunting in the beginning, feathers, fish, small game and pelts. We lost so many pelts from getting disconnected, usually $100 and up. That was when I used to love this game.

I have always had one "hot" take about Frontier Pursuits: Expecting more updates of that scale was unreasonable. I never looked at that as a normal update, but the end of beta with the CORE GAMEPLAY being added.

For me, I didn't start playing RDO until much later. I had completed the main story twice and had about 300 hours in RDR2. All because I'd thought that it would be the same as GTA Online, which is just an ADHD random dumpster in my opinion. But it wasn't and now I have 600 hours in RDR2 and RDO combined.

I won’t forget hopping on a few weeks ago to start my journey to level 50 for the trophy. First thing I did was go and track down a better horse than the Scrawny Nag. And got super upset that I couldn’t tame a wild horse anymore.

Pretty amazing how I bought a real S&W M&P 40 shield a few years ago...and it was cheaper than the Mauser in Red Dead Online!

I actually like the current state. It’s got enough fun for not too much hassle. People are a lot more cool and non aggressive these days you can actually approach others without being shot instantly.

Read video. I remember when this first came out . Lobbies were full and it was Chaos. I Loved it

Starting out my friends and I had a blast hunting together and roving around, only for it to be repeatedly spoiled by disconnect after disconnect, removing all our progress immediately and taking ages to get back together in game. We quit bothering trying 3 days in.

I'm on it right now and it's so sad to see this masterpiece given up on

Thank you great value Rambo, did like your video

Ah yes, bird hunting in beta with the disconnects. That's why I did the cougar glitches, to compensate money I had lost from disconnects. I never "abused" the glitches, just used it for what I felt I was owed.

They should’ve just outsourced the development to a studio that would actually pour sweat and tears to this masterpiece…

The fact that we never got an Undead Nightmare 2 dlc or even some sort of update or events for RDO is such a missed opportunity. Its literally just a case of if Rockstar cant monetize the absolute shit out of something they wont commit regardless of player demand.

Nice content all this game need to bring is a stable and your own crib I think it would make the game better

first step rdo real dead when they change gold reward on daily chalannge !

Sad just sad

Dude I just started playing rdr online about 1 year ago and now I cant play it no more it says I need to get PlayStation plus and I literraly have the disc

Such a perfect storm from such an experienced studio, almost makes you think they were doing it on purpose.

From broken to ruined

I'm just disgusted with Rockstar. It's not the same "Rockstar" anymore, it's led by entirely different people now. "Rockstar" only cares about money now, not their fans or the games themselves anymore. Whatever gets them money, they leech onto it and disregard everything else.

I wish they had added an inviting board. Not just posse invite, but bounty invites, call of arms, life of moonshine etc.

I started playing online last week, and after my 3rd login, was griefed by some players that: were invisible, somehow made me phase through my horse and couldn't get back on, when I ran - they could teleport to my position, and were invincible. They surrounded my character and pointed guns at it, was it robbery attempt? Any way, after a 2nd respawn, I just quit. Pretty disappointing because those cheats are pretty extensive, and definitly shows that Rockstar isn't watching. May have to go godmode myself just to be left alone.