It is clear to see why so many players feel that Red Dead Online has been mishandled or underutilized by Rockstar. Despite the massive success of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s single-player narrative, the title’s dedicated multiplayer experience never quite reached the heights that many fans expected it to reach. Of course, the amount of attention and resources that Rockstar has been funneling into the Grand Theft Auto franchise in recent years has not helped Red Dead Online, although some renewed excitement was recently injected into the title.
Despite many players resigning to the concept of Red Dead Online not receiving any more major content, Rockstar recently added a surprising jam-packed update to the game. This update adds a series of new missions to Red Dead Online, most being centered around the occult and unnatural. One of these brand-new missions involves weaponized robots that terrorize the world of Red Dead Online, only adding some minor implied context to one of RDR2‘s most memorable quest lines.
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One of Red Dead Online’s Strange Tales Leans Into RDR2’s Marko Dragic Storyline, But Doesn’t Expand Upon It
These new missions for Red Dead Online are called Strange Tales, coming in the form of Telegram Missions. While this does not really constitute the kind of massive update that fans have wanted to see from the game, the premise of these missions is still unique and eye-catching enough. For example, these missions entail things like swamp creatures, zombies, mad scientists, and homicidal robots.
Fans also receive 3X Gold, RDO$, and XP throughout these new Telegram Missions, giving even more incentive for players to check out this new content.
Fans were quick to note how this new robot-centric Telegram Mission, named Strange Tales of Modern Science, echoes a lot of the same beats as RDR2‘s Marko Dragic Stranger Mission. Marko Dragic is an inventor clearly inspired by real-world figures like Nikola Tesla, with his RDR2 storyline seeing Arthur Morgan or John Marston help Dragic bring his very own robot to life. The sinister ending of this storyline is what makes it so memorable, with all signs pointing towards the fact that Dragic’s robot quickly turned on the inventor, killing him.
Players can famously find this robot hiding in the snow-covered mountains of Red Dead Redemption 2 following this mission, and Red Dead Online‘s new experiences certainly look like a direct continuation of this storyline. From the description of Strange Tales of Modern Science, the mission’s robots have the same hostile nature as Dragic’s creation, while looking essentially identical to the original RDR2 automaton. However, this is the only acknowledgement players get of the previous robot narrative. The new Telegram Mission could have offered some insight into this robot’s travels, or offered a canon fate for the automaton, but sadly the mission shies away from properly expanding on this storyline.
Despite This Missed Opportunity, RDO’s Strange Tales Could Be the Blueprint For Future Content
While this mission appears to be a direct continuation of RDR2‘s Marko Dragic storyline, Strange Tales of Modern Science fails to pull the trigger in terms of linking the two narratives. It is implied that this wave of violent robots came from a separate mad scientist, and it can only be assumed that this chaotic figure was deeply inspired by Dragic, though this is ulitmately just speculation. While game-changing content seems pretty unlikely for Red Dead Online, these missions could have been a bigger success if they committed more to directly anchoring themselves to the most memorable plot points of RDR2‘s side content where applicable.
The bizarre nature of Stranger Missions across franchises like GTA and Red Dead Redemption often results in some of the most engaging experiences that Rockstar games can offer. Red Dead Online has already shown it can blur the lines between itself and single-player through featuring characters like Sadie Adler, and a direct mention of Marko Dragic could have really added more intrigue to these new Telegram Missions. Despite the fact that single-player DLC for RDR2 now seems completely off the table, fresh Telegram Missions like Strange Tales of Modern Science could be the key to adding one last burst of narrative continuation to the popular game while breathing some much-needed life into Red Dead Online. This time around, though, it’s hard to get over the missed opportunity unvolving the robots.
Red Dead Online
- Released
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May 14, 2019
- ESRB
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M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Engine
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Rockstar Advanced Game Engine
- Multiplayer
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Online Co-Op, Online Multiplayer
- Franchise
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Red Dead Redemption
