Red Dead Online, Rockstar’s other live-service game that isn’t as popular as Grand Theft Auto Online, isn’t dead. Well, not entirely. The online cowboy simulator just got a small update that adds a few creepy missions and promises more to come later.
The Week In Games: Reignited Rivalries And More New Releases
Released in 2018, Red Dead Online is the multiplayer component of Red Dead Redemption 2. It features a massive open world and lets players explore it, hunt animals, complete missions, collect gold, and participate in other Wild West activities like shootouts, robberies, and bounty hunting. While the game received numerous updates over its first few years, things have slowed down a lot since 2018. Fans even held a funeral for the game in 2022 after a long period without new content. But perhaps there might be some life left in RDO’s corpse.
On July 1, Rockstar Games surprised fans with Strange Tales of the West - Vol. 1. This new update for Red Dead Online adds four smaller missions to the game that involve creepy, weird, or spooky activities. The headliner mission asks players to sneak into the small town of Armadillo, seen in the original Red Dead Redemption, and grab some infected corpses for study. However, there are cultists and zombies, actual undead bastards, walking around the town.
But don’t get too excited. This ain’t Undead Nightmare 2. Instead, this mission is a small fetch quest. The zombies are cool, and maybe it hints at more coming in the future, but for now, it’s just a small diversion like the other new missions, including one that involves a steam-powered robot.
Still, it’s nice to see Rockstar updating Red Dead Online. While the game has continued to receive small updates and tiny bits of content over the last two years, this is the first time in a while that it actually feels like Rockstar is investing money into the game. This new update even got a trailer. The last time RDO got a new trailer was in October 2021! So that’s interesting.
The big question now is: Why? Why did Rockstar Games do such a relatively big update for RDO in 2025 after years of mostly ignoring the game? There have been rumors that RDR 2 is going to get a Switch 2 port and a PS5/Xbox Series update, possibly adding 60FPS. Last I heard, this update was planned at one point and could still happen, but Grand Theft Auto 6 is sucking up a lot of Rockstar’s resources and staff.
At the very least, the fact that this new update includes “Vol. 1" in its title is promising for RDO players. It seems to guarantee that Rockstar has more creepy and weird content planned for the future. For now, Red Dead Online lives...
.
English (US) ·