7 things we want in Red Dead Online

Red Dead Redemption 2 has been out for almost 2 years, with the game’s online multiplayer arriving not long after the initial release. Since 2018, we’ve seen the game make the jump to PC, as well as receive new Frontier Pursuits for players to unlock and level up.

For those that have spent many hours exploring the wild lands of Red Dead Online, much of what you can do has been done, leaving a wanting for more deep in the bellies of the game’s most avid players. That’s why we’ve put together this list of seven things we’d love to see in Red Dead Online—in case Rockstar needs a little friendly inspiration to kick things off.

New narrative missions

When Red Dead Online launched, it introduced players to a series of missions that helped shape our characters. Sure, the overall outcome didn’t really play that large of a part in the long run, but it was nice to know where we came from and kind of have an idea of what we were doing here. Unfortunately, that narrative runs out pretty quickly—despite having two available paths to follow.

We’d love to see Rockstar add new narrative missions to Red Dead Online. Not only would this help players get to the know the world better (it takes place sometime before the main singleplayer campaign), it could also help shed more light on the events that led us to end up locked up in prison at the start of the online tutorial. Since the original launch of Red Dead Online, Rockstar has added a couple of new missions, but the narrative contained within was short and over pretty quickly.

The Moonshiners update which dropped near the end of last year also added some extra missions, but like those before, once they’re done there isn’t really much reason to replay them. There’s still a lot of the world left to explore and dive into, and we’re sure Rockstar could come up with any number of ways to continue the narrative from Red Dead Online’s main storyline—we still haven’t completed our plight for revenge after all.

A better “Honor” system

The Honor system in Red Dead Online (and even in Red Dead Redemption 2) has been the butt of the joke for a while. You can gather up a group of friends, ride into town, and literally murder four towns worth of civilians and lawmen. Sure, your Honor gauge will drop, but earning back that Honor is as easy as feeding or even brushing your horse.

We get it, taking care of your horse is important. But rewarding us with Honor because we keep something that allows us to be a better outlaw in good condition? That seems a little bit… silly. We’d love to see the Honor system revamped completely. Make our actions matter. Allow the people of Red Dead Online to choose whether they want to be good or bad, and then make it take some work to change that outcome.

I shouldn’t be able to ride up, murder a small city, and then brush my horse’s mane all the way back to full Honor.

More clothing and outfit customization

Fashion might not seem like a big deal in the olden days where Red Dead Online takes place, but it’s actually one of the biggest things that players complain about. Over time, Rockstar has added new items to the catalog. Things like hats, boots, gunbelts, and so on down the list. However, a lot of times these items are somewhat lacking, or they don’t really fit the bill that players are looking for.

We’d love to see more outfits and clothing added to the game that give players even more ways to dress up their characters in unique ways. Yes, we understand that things were a bit more limited back then with how people dressed, but the amount of customization and unique items that Red Dead Online offers in comparison to Rockstar’s other hit online service, Grand Theft Auto Online, is just shockingly bad.

On top of new clothing, though, we’d also like to see the ability to customize outfits a bit more. One of the rewards for the Outlaw Pass No. 2 was a special outfit that matched Arthur Morgan’s iconic digs. Unfortunately you can’t mix and match the pieces to really set yourself up with a unique look, and some of the shirts and other items offered in outfits aren’t available as standalone items. Please, please let us customize outfits a bit more, Rockstar.

Property purchases and an actual “life on the range”

If you went into Red Dead Online expecting to be able to purchase property and actually kind of build a life for your characters, then you were probably quickly disappointed. There are no homes or ranches to purchase here, so if you want to show off how much money you’ve made, then you’re going to have to find some other way to do it.

Unlike GTA Online, which offers players various apartments and homes, Red Dead Online only really offers you a moonshiner’s shack. Sure, it’s cool, and you can build a bar underneath it, but at the end of the day it’s a far cry from the type of thing that many players are looking for. There are no options to live your life out on a ranch in the middle of the rolling hills of New Hanover. You can’t set up shop in the forested areas surrounding Strawberry. You will forever live your life out of Cripps’ camp.

We’d love to see this change sometime in the future, as there are plenty of places around the map that could make for good homes for people. This could also tie into another one of the things that we’re hoping to see more of in Red Dead Online, jobs and Frontier Pursuits. Imagine being able to purchase a ranch and then run your own farm from it. Yeah, it might seem mundane, but it would stack up quite nicely with the offerings of cocaine operations and other big business things from the GTA Online world.

New Frontier Pursuits

This is one that Rockstar has already been working on with the addition of things like the Moonshiner’s Shack. However, we’d still love to see some other options coming around the bend. At this point in time, most players have maxed out the leveling of all their Frontier Pursuits and are just whiling away the day running trade routes, collecting bounties, and making moonshine. There’s also the Collector’s pursuit, which is pretty much the best way to grind for money in Red Dead Online.

Given the setting, there are really a ton of things Rockstar can do with this one. Allow us to take control of and manage a ranch, or a big poker scene. You could even give us control of a struggling saloon and have us build it back up, buying upgrades along the way. The Moonshiner’s update kind of already offers this with the bar downstairs, but considering it doesn’t make any kind of money, Rockstar could expand it out even more.

There are tons of things that would make sense for Frontier Pursuits in Red Dead Online, and we can only hope that Rockstar continues to improve the game and add more as time passes.

Heists

There is no doubt in our minds that heists have been one of the best and most enjoyable parts of Grand Theft Auto Online. Big stakes call for big plays, and there just aren’t enough big plays happening in Red Dead Online. That’s why we would love to see RDO taking on these same kinds of multitask jobs. There are plenty of banks throughout the world that it could work—and we could even see them adding in a special train heist somewhere too.

There is one heist in Red Dead Online, but you’ll have to go through the games “bad” path in the main storyline to experience it. It’s a nice little mission with a good bit of build-up similar to the heist missions in GTA Online, but it’s ultimately a bit of a letdown when you finish it off. Still, at least we managed to get one heist in the game so far. Hopefully, we’ll see more down the line.

The ability to camp anywhere

One of the best things about Red Dead Redemption 2’s campaign was the ability to throw down your campfire just about anywhere. Unfortunately, this feature didn’t make the jump to Red Dead Online. Instead of being able to choose where you want to set up a temporary camp for cooking, or just to enjoy the night out in the woods while on a hunting expedition.

You can’t do that in Red Dead Online. Instead, you’re forced to use the Cripps’ camping system, which often leads to frustration and issues all around. It would be cool to see Rockstar expand the camping system to support more campsites and temporary setups, allowing you to further enjoy the beautiful and expansive world that has been crafted for you.

Of course, we don’t have any idea what kind of things Rockstar has in the works, and these features could very well already be on their way through various phases of testing. For now, though, we’ll continue to explore Red Dead Online as we pine for the features we’ve outlined above.

Josh Hawkins

Guides Editor

Joshua holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing and has been exploring the world of video games for as long as he can remember. He enjoys everything from large-scale RPGs to small, bite-size indie gems and everything in between.