Red Dead Redemption Multiplayer Preview

Shootout

First up we have Shootout which is simply a free for all around a set town, the game starts off (like all the multiplayer modes) with a shootout. You are all randomly assigned a kick ass looking model and the game pans into you all standing in a circle facing each other off.

You are told you are going to die but you must take [Random Player] with you. Then the game starts and all hell breaks loose, you quickly realise that the best option is to take out the best player first and then hopefully get under some cover before the bullets come your way. It’s a nice break into every game and the winner of the shootout gets a bonus to start the match with. Not that I would know…

Gang Shootout

In gang shootout you man up into 2 gangs and go all out in a typical deathmatch style mix up. This was possibly my favourite game type as you quickly realise that you can’t win this without a little bit of team work and it’s vital that you mix up your weapon choices and positioning to gain the upper hand.

The weapons we had at our disposal were pistols (powerful at close to medium range), rifles (great at medium to long range) and shotguns (my personal favourite at close range). You also get hunting knives and throwing knives… the latter just being overly powerful at the moment and I fully expect them to be toned down.

You could also find sniper rifles and more powerful pistols lying around the map along with your typical ammo boxes and some instant Dead Eye boosters.

Dead Eye is vital to dominating a game, once your Dead Eye meter is full you can click in the right stick which activates Dead Eye and adds a sepia film to the screen, you then just need to drag the cursor over an enemy and it will begin placing marks all over them. When you feel you have enough you click the right trigger and unleash the fury… the fury being a barrage of bullets which will land precisely where you have marked if the shot is still possible.

Gold Rush

Which is simply a free for all death math with the added incentive of gold bags being randomly placed on the map. To win this game you need to grab the gold and return it to the treasure chests also randomly dropped on the map. You can carry up to 2 bags of gold with each bag slowing your movement and making you a prime target for bastards like me to pick you off.

Case in point was when the top player in the group had 2 bags over his shoulder and was heading toward the closest treasure chest, I could spot him on my radar by the moving bag of gold and simply waited for him just in front of the treasure chest. As he arrived I drew my shotgun, took his head off and retrieved the gold for myself.

There is nothing more satisfying than hearing a groan man scream “F%*k you Gavin” in frustration across a posh boardroom.

Unfortunately he then found the sniper rifle and I spent the rest of the round picking up my brain matter off the floor.

Gold Rush is possibly the most unique of all the modes and was well received…

Next up we had

Gang Match

Or “Capture the Bag” where you are split into 2 gangs in two separate bases. Each gang has a money bag which the other gang needs to retrieve. In this mode they added in stationary Gatling guns and canons which pretty much meant that no one was getting anywhere near the other bag.

The game was apparently going to end when one team captured the enemy bag 3 times but after 10 minutes neither gang had a single bag and Sudden Death was announced.

Which meant that the next bag capture would be the winning one and that respawns were now disabled… wait what?

Apparently in Red Dead Redemption sudden death is pretty serious and this changed the game entirely, the chicken livered enemy gang hunkered down with sniper rifles and promptly took us all out to win the game. Stupid tactic loving prats.

This brought to an end our experience with Red Dead Redemption and we spent the rest of the time rotating through the same playlist trying out the modes a few times.

Conclusion

Before going down for this event I was speaking to a few key people and one of the statements that was raised was that Red Dead Redemption looks more like a single player game and there is a worry that the multiplayer portion of the game will just feel tacked on.

I did agree at the time but now I am happy to admit that I was wrong, very wrong. The multiplayer portion of Red Dead Redemption is awesome, when you sit back and dream what it would have been like to be a hero or villain in the Wild West you are dreaming of what I experienced earlier this week. It’s chaotic, engaging and addictive.

Far from being an added extra to an already very interesting game the multiplayer portion really does add weight to it’s cries for GOTY awards and legendary status. Whether there will be enough people playing MP to make it worthwhile purely from a MP perspective is something we will only find out after it’s release.

[Update] After Nick read through this he mentioned that possibly I wasn’t selling it well enough so here is a really quick round up. Red Dead Redemption’s multiplayer is a whole lot of fun and completely unique. You should kick yourself stupid if you never try it.

[As usual all images can be made life size by clicking on them]

Last Updated: April 8, 2010