The intro that follows is a gently paced series of cutscenes and tasks which set the tone for a lot of what follows. (Sorry about that, Helen Highwater.) On Xbox One, “Ravishing” Rick O’Shea is my boy. On PS4 I’ve opted for a broad-shouldered, redheaded woman with a scarred face and a bad attitude, presumably from a lifetime of growing up with a pun for a name. There are plenty of options here to create a character with a face that would stop a clock, thanks largely to the dental selections (which range from corn-kernel yellow to missing entirely). It’s not entirely unlike GTA Online’s character creator, though only a single character can be created and maintained at this stage. An introductory sequence lets us create a character – man or woman – from scratch.
Set just prior to the main story of Arthur and the Van der Linde Gang, Red Dead Online has its own tale to tell and casts us as patsies caught up in a grand, revenge-driven plot that has yet to fully unfold in the dozen-plus story missions that Rockstar has made available thus far.
Red Dead Online unfolds across the same exquisite world as Red Dead Redemption 2, which is all unlocked from the outset (even the parts that are temporarily inaccessible for story reasons in single-player).
