Red Dead Online doesn’t take long for this world. After Rockstar announced last month that RDO would be receiving no more ‘major’ content updates, players have alternated between explosive violence and quiet mourning (opens in new tab). Some have given up the game altogether.
Obviously, including NPCs.
A recent bug, first documented on Reddit (opens in new tab), has turned Red Dead’s bustling metropolis and rolling plains into deserted ghost towns. Horses pull empty carts along the desolate roads, goods sit unattended at market stalls, and if you go into the countryside you won’t even find wild animals. It’s as if someone told them the game was doomed and they all ran in search of new jobs.
Judging by the comments, the bug has been randomly affecting players for the past week or two, plunging unsuspecting RDO fans into their own personal ‘Twilight Zone’ episodes as they wander around the map without any human lives. Looking for. It’s almost on the nose as a metaphor for the state of the game, which has always been a black sheep in Rockstar’s lineup even before Rockstar came out and said it wouldn’t get any more major updates. Of course, almost any game you can name it GTA Online (opens in new tab) will look more like an underachiever than a money-printing success.
It’s honestly good, both as an unintentional satire by the game’s own NPCs, and as a strange, terrifying experience that players find themselves drowning in without warning. Booting a game that’s able to recreate the indescribable ‘feel’ of living space in general and finding it completely devoid of life is a fun diversion. The Halloween-style driverless cars and the subtle jitter of running from street to street as you try – and fail – to find another living soul are just a creepy bonus.
For longtime players, however, it is another reminder of the inevitable fate of RDO. A lot of the comments are from sad fans, upset that Rockstar hasn’t fixed the bug after almost a week of trouble, and unfortunately reminded that—without major updates to keep people engaged—RDO The future of perhaps includes a lot of empty streets and missing familiar faces.
It’s not hard to guess why Rockstar isn’t prioritizing fixing such RDO bugs. Growth on GTA 6 means the company is currently putting any game that doesn’t make more money than a small country (opens in new tab). Not to worry, though, while Red Dead’s online component fades away, its excellent single player is as strong as ever, and modders continue to expand every day (opens in new tab).
