The Red Dead Redemption franchise has enjoyed a huge amount of success over the years, being the only other major Rockstar IP to rival the Grand Theft Auto franchise and carving out its own legacy in modern pop culture. A lot of this success can be attributed to the clear level of care and detail that Rockstar weaves throughout the Red Dead games, but this can lead to huge periods of downtime when fans are left wanting more.
Despite the lingering acclaim and success that Red Dead Redemption still maintains thanks to the release of RDR2, fresh content for the franchise has been few and far between in recent years. While this is fairly understandable as Rockstar gears up for the massively anticipated launch of Grand Theft Auto 6, there is still a feeling that Red Dead Redemption 2 did not achieve all that it could have throughout its post-launch life. These recent trends for the franchise are starting to change, however, with the closing months of 2024 bringing some excellent updates that hopefully spell brighter days for the IP going into 2025.
Red Dead Redemption 2: 10 Best Reasons To Go For A High Honor Run
Whether it's for moral satisfaction or just 50% off in all stores, here are some reasons to do a high honor playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2.
Rockstar Has Given Red Dead Redemption the Attention it Deserves to Close Out 2024
The legacy that Red Dead Redemption 2 possesses to this day is a testament to just how successful the game has been since its launch in 2018, with the title being considered by many as one of the best story-driven experiences to ever come from the gaming medium. With over 65 million copies sold and with the title controversially missing out on the Game of the Year award in 2018, the earlier days of RDR2 painted a bright future that many fans were expecting to maintain the tremendous momentum that the franchise had built.
Having said that, the post-launch life of Red Dead 2 has been quite dormant, with new developments for the franchise being few and far between since 2018. Many fans had hoped for a remaster of the original Red Dead Redemption in the wake of RDR2, for example, but this never materialized; instead, the game received ports to consoles like the Nintendo Switch. Rockstar also infamously continued its recent trend of not releasing any post-launch story DLC for Red Dead Redemption 2, after the wildly-successful Grand Theft Auto 5 faced the same fate.
While GTA 5 had the hugely popular GTA Online to fall back on to make up for this, Red Dead Redemption 2 is a much more story-driven title, with its lack of narrative DLC being all the more bizarre given the franchise's excellent track record with this kind of content. 2010's Red Dead Redemption famously featured the Undead Nightmare expansion, for example, which is considered by some to be some of the best single-player DLC ever made.
Red Dead Redemption and Red Dead Online Have Been at the Center of Some Exciting Recent Developments
Things also initially looked promising for Red Dead Online, with this potentially being a great conduit for post-launch RDR2 content, but this was quickly halted. In 2022, Rockstar surprisingly announced that RDO would not receive any more major content updates, leaving the game in a much weaker state while being completely reliant on seasonal events and community-made content.
Despite these recent pitfalls, the RDR franchise has been picking up a lot of positive momentum recently, with it being announced that a fully optimized PC port is finally coming for 2010's Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare on October 29. This marks the first time that the original RDR has ever been officially available on PC, marking the end of a 14-year-long wait for some players.
To compound this, a significant amount of effort went into the recent October update for Red Dead Online, with a range of brand-new challenges and cosmetics accompanying the return of limited-time modes based around Halloween. While there is still a long way to go for the RDR franchise to live up to a lot of the post-launch expectations that were built around RDR2, Rockstar is clearly taking a step in the right direction to finish off 2024.
- Released
- May 14, 2019
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- Rockstar Advanced Game Engine
WHERE TO PLAY
Step into the vibrant, ever-evolving world of Red Dead Online and experience life across frontier America.
Forge your own path as you battle lawmen, outlaw gangs and ferocious wild animals to build a life on the American frontier. Build a camp, ride solo or form a posse and explore everything from the snowy mountains in the North to the swamps of the South, from remote outposts to busy farms and bustling towns. Chase down bounties, hunt, fish and trade, search for exotic treasures, run your own underground Moonshine distillery, or become a Naturalist to learn the secrets of the animal kingdom and much more in a world of astounding depth and detail.
Join millions of fellow players in the American West, and experience a world now packed with years’ worth of new features, gameplay and additional enhancements.
