Everything you would expect to find in a multiplayer suite is here, plus a whole lot more. The standard modes start with a twist. Rather than tossing you into a map at random spots, Red Dead Redemption starts with an old-fashioned shootout. Each of the up to 16 players starts in a circle. When the countdown ends, smoke and lead fill the air. The last person or team standing then gets to run off and grab some pickups and camp out at a favorite spot while everyone else has to wait to respawn. It's a great way to kick things off, and just in case you can't pick a target, the game will select a suggested opponent for you. Standing around waiting for the gunfire to begin is almost as much fun as that first headshot you rip off when the time comes to draw.
I'll start our description of Red Dead's multiplayer modes with the standards. Deathmatch and team deathmatch style of games are included, of course. These involve running around frantically while pointing guns at other players and pulling the trigger to turn them into meat. Like other games, headshots are the key to efficiency and finding a good spot to camp near high-traffic lanes is a good strategy. Like the single-player game, you can build up a Dead Eye meter that gives you perfect accuracy temporarily, but in the online realm, it doesn't slow down time. Finding the chests that refill this gauge can be a huge boost to the skilled player.
Red Dead Redemption also offers a take on capture the flag. This one is called Gold Rush, and you can play it either with two teams or in a free-for-all fracas. I found the team-less variant to be total insanity and a heck of a lot of fun. Each bag of gold you grab weighs you down a little. When grabbing the maximum of two, you don't have much agility at all and that makes you an easy target for everybody else on the map.
There are a lot of gold bags in each round, and several rounds are usually played out before a winner is declared, which allows ample time for some strategic maneuverings. You can camp out inside a saloon between rounds, ready to shoot the first opponent that steps up to the gold just outside. Or you can grab a couple of bags and then sneak off around the outside of the adobe walls to take the long, safe way to one of the drop off points.
The team Gold Rush games vary wildly depending upon which map you're on. In one, a plateau with mounted machine guns at its base cut through the area between the two team's towns. To get across the wide open space, you're going to need a horse. Another map was so tightly constructed that it almost turned into a cover shooter. Poke your head up for too long and it was lights out.
I had quite a bit of fun in these more traditional game types. Red Dead handles well online, and the mix of old-school guns, horses, and huts makes for a great experience. The environments are breathtaking in both their scope and attention to detail – no matter how hard I tried I couldn't focus on the fight at hand whenever a small animal ran by. It became the new target. Sorry, team.
As great as the standard multiplayer modes are, they weren't even close to the star of the show. Red Dead Redemption's lobby system is much more than a simple place to hang out. It's massive and dynamic and puts almost any other open world game to shame.
Here you can form a posse and ride around doing many of the same things that the single-player game offers. Want to go hunting? Form a party and start tracking bears. Feeling a bit less aggressive? Go on one of the collection quests and start picking some herbs. Your posse of up to eight can even go hunt some bandits, storm a fort or pick a fight with some other online rivals who happen across your path. Just don't get too crazy unless you want a bounty placed on your head. Pretty much the entire world of Red Dead Redemption is open to ride across and interact with and when you're ready to enter a proper game, the leader can quickly drag everybody along with him into a match.
This online meeting space takes the lobby system in GTA IV to the next level. The world feels alive and interactive -- it's a true virtual sandbox. Random homesteaders will travel by. Birds fly overhead. Storms roll in and fill crevasses with water. The posse leader can place waypoints for the group, but I rarely followed them. The Red Dead lobby offered some of the most random fun I've had in a game in a long time. While trying to shoot a skunk, I learned accidentally that you can aim your gun at the horse you're riding. That's all I'll say about that.
On a lighter note, Red Dead Redemption's multiplayer also has a leveling system where players can unlock cool rewards. Those at the bottom of the ladder will be relegated to donkeys and mules to ride around on in Free Roam. Level up towards the cap of 50 by playing matches, completing challenges, going on collection missions, or completing little mini-quests and you'll get a magnificent horse...or better. I could not stop laughing at IGN Editor-in-Chief Hilary Goldstein riding around on a little donkey. Experience and leveling doesn't just unlock new horses. You can also expect to unlock new challenges, character skins, and playlists reserved for the elite.
The experience and rewards you've unlocked here only really affect the look and feel of the Free Roam. Things are kept on a level playing field in competitive matches, and it doesn't appear that things you collect or earn in the multiplayer will carry over into the single player campaign.
I'm pretty damn excited about Red Dead Redemption. You should be, too. The crazy part is that I'm not sure how much of the multiplayer game I've even been shown. My recent demo was filled with Rockstar representatives offering teases of, "Just wait until we show you the stuff we're still keeping under wraps."
Well? I'm waiting. Hurry up and let me see it.