I’ve spent quite some time with Red Dead Online’s latest update; the Frontier Pursuits, which brings the Collector, Trader and Bounty Hunter roles to the game. I’ve been through each role and seen what they have to offer new and old players alike.
The Bounty Hunter role was the first role that I got involved with. All three roles need an initial investment of fifteen gold, which is pretty steep. Even though gold is reasonably easy to come by, it’s still a grind and it is felt on one’s wallet. Add them all up and it is a big investment.
Thankfully though, it’s worth it. Each role has twenty levels that unlock a slew of useful and eye-catching items tailored for each. This includes useful items like the bolas for Bounty Hunters.
Life On The Hunt
The Bounty Hunter role is quite self-explanatory. Players approach Bounty Boards, pick a target and set forth to catch them or drag their lifeless corpse back to town. The missions are varied.
Some have players run to a camp or den, then scout for the target, while others have players hot on the tail of a target that is hightailing it out of town. There are some that even require players to lure the target out by causing mayhem on private property. It’s a lot of fun though, even more so with friends.
The hunts get progressively harder as players level up and often times a target would catch a stray bullet, while players fend off against the army of enemies that protect the target. This adds to the fun as it makes things more interesting.
I haven’t been able to try player bounties yet simply because it seems I’m thrown into servers with goody-two-shoes players. Nobody has a bounty valued over twenty dollars but I’ve heard it is a lot of fun throwing another player in jail.
Rinse & Repeat
This role features a lot of “rinse & repeat”-style gameplay. It’s Bounty Hunting; the point is to go fetch the target and bring them back. The game tries to vary it as best it can and no doubt Rockstar Games will find add new types of missions as time goes on, seeing as though they said they would like to expand on these roles in future.
It might be my lack of imagination but I’m not sure how Bounty Hunting can be expanded on. Despite it being the same thing over and over, it is a lot of fun. It’s a quick fix for fast-paced action in an otherwise slow-paced game. The addition of weekly Legendary Bounties that act sort of like story missions is a clever idea, which keeps players engaged each week.
Bounty Hunting is Dirty Work
The Bounty Hunting role adds a fun, fast-paced dynamic to the game. The wanted posters have that extra attention to detail and with often disturbing and funny descriptions of crimes committed by the targets. For example, one guy had a circus bear maul a bunch of people (…it’s a little crazy.)
These are weird and colourful characters that have ended up on these posters and it really captures that whole “Cowboy” simulator that Rockstar Games is trying to achieve. I’m interested to see how Rockstar Games plans on expanding on this role in future.
