Red Dead Redemption’s Multiplayer Free Roam is almost a MMO

Red Dead Redemption is a sandbox’ish Grand Theft Auto of sorts set in the 1900’s Western era.  It’s made by the same people who made GTA (Rockstar) And it’s being developed for consoles only from what I’ve found on their website.  Recently I wrote about MMO’s on consoles and how I felt that they shouldn’t be ruled out just yet.  Red Dead Redemption is doing something interesting to create an open world while at the same time catering to the desires of the console gamer.

Below is a video showcasing the open world gameplay that they’re introducing.

Essentially they’re taking what we now refer to as a “MMO” in terms of features and calling it “the lobby”. The catch here, I believe, is that the “open world” is still limited to something like 16 players. They do mention in the video that players who want to break away from the open world and participate in smaller scale activities can do so. Forming a posse (group) lets you do things together. They mention group content, solo content, exploration, PvE, PvP, mini-games, leveling, mounts, skills, and other common MMO elements and features. Essentially you’re able to play in this lobby-world as if it were the single player game. You can form groups of 2-8 (making it possible for 2 full groups within a lobby) to do the same activities you would do in single player.

Looks like a MMO and sounds like a MMO (aside from the limit on players), but it’s being marketed differently. The average console gamer probably doesn’t even know how close this really gets to being a mmorpg. Calling it “Multiplayer free roam” and limiting it to 16 players is almost like easing people into the idea. If this works, which I’m sure it will given the small scale, then why not take it a step further and make 32, 65, 100 person, etc. lobbies until you have the enormous virtual sandbox world open to everyone? I’m willing to be it’s just the beginning.

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  • Does not sound like an mmo to me. MMO=Mass multiplayer online.
    There is nothing MMO about 16 players, so its wrong to call it as such.

    It sounds more like advanced form of coop game to me.
    A better form, and a form where you can do more stuff than in other coop games. But still just coop.

  • I discovered this game a couple weeks ago, looks pretty interesting. To bad there’s no PC version so I won’t be playing.

  • Is the world persistent in any way? i guess, not that it matters really, since today’s mmos rarely have much persistence anyway.

  • Probably not persistent once the players within it leave. Working totally off of educated assumptions here, I think that the “lobby” is created by a player and it is then filled up to 16. It then functions as a MMO world does until it is emptied.

    Not quite a MMO, but it’s like creating a MMO world on demand for a limited number of players. Might be a first step towards something more ideal, or it might just be an interesting approach to the console’s mainstream approach to giving that style of gameplay.

  • Sounds every bit as much an MMO as STO or any other MMO that runs totally off instances with limited player capacities.

    This is more like Diablo in MMO terms I’d say. What would make, for istance, the Agency more of an MMO than this?

    Personally, I already had this preordered because a GTA game in the wild west is the way western games needed to always be done. It’s like the perfect fit. This multiplayer feature simply adds more greatness to what was already going to be a very sweet game.

  • I liked the look of the graphics. I would not call it an MMO either but moreso a western themed Neverwinter Nights instead of 6 players its 16. It’s splitting hairs I know.

    Looks good though. Interesting find.

  • Oh and also is this a twitch game or like a real RPG where stats&lvl make the difference if you hit/miss/kill. (ie can a lvl 5 kill a lvl 50?) If it’s twitch gaming then it also further removes it from an MMORPG in my eyes.

  • Honestly it looks sort of like a MW2 leveling system. Better guns/mounts/skins but not stats. I’m fine with that. The game looks promising assuming you can find a large enough online community to support it.

  • It’s twitch, but with a sort of lock on ability. They’ve had Grand Theft Auto games before where you’re skill with a weapon would increase your firing accuracy, but then others have been totally based on player skill too.

    Closer to Fallout 3 than Modern Warfare type gunplay I’d say.

  • I think this looked awesome, and I was going to mention it on the forums, beat me to it!

    First baby step of a console MMO.

  • This is exactly why I come to Keen and Graev’s on a daily basis. One to see what these two knuckle heads have to say about various games and two what my fellow gamers have to say. I enjoyed the video very much and I thank you for posting it. This is the first time I read about it. Awesome looking graphics and I am so tired of dwarves, elves, swords, spells and shields

    I’m a PC gamer from way back. To bad this game is not available for PC. Is it a true sand box MMO, obviously not but just maybe consoles are working their way slowly into the MMO market. Know I’ll have to break open my secret gaming bank and shell out some money for a xbox.

    After playing the various races in just about every MMO that has come out, I will be glad to play an Apache gun slinger. I can’t wait to slit some cow pokes throat.

    Keep up those comments coming gamers and K&G you guys know exactly what your doing. Thanks.

  • @Thomas,

    Amen.

    Looks really cool, actually has me thinking of buying it now seeing as I thought the first Red Dead blew, but this looks ALOT more promising. I’d had to see the population of the game though because I don’t have many friends that play on consoles and I’d hate to buy it and be lonely 🙁

  • Rockstar put thier GTA guys to work on this one. The first red dead wasn’t rockstars baby, which is why it sucked.

  • So basically it sounds like DDO .

    Even Global Agenda and APB is potentially like this. GA of course is missing some content [and aparantly the missing piece of puzzle will come out end of this month] but the “lobby” effect is pretty much there.

    In fact Guildwars is pretty much that too isn’t it?

    Either way if this means we can have a richer, more complex experience than that is possible in a large open world, so be it. There’s quite a few places where companies have done exactly this kind of “instancing” to create a more controlled and deeper experience…i.e.

    Age of Conan : Night/Day Story Line
    LOTRO : The Epic Quest Line
    DDO : Pretty much the entire game is based on small groups in highly detailed dungeons.

    Instead of running to the ends of the virtual word to find something interesting, there is certainly a place for making every little corner in a dungeon actually worth checking out….

  • DDO is a terrible comparison. It’s a smallish city lobby with various instances branching off.

    Free Roam is going to place the players in the wide open Red Dead world. If you’ve never played a GTA game, thier game worlds are wide open on the scale of any MMO. The Maps are massive.

    In strictly gameworld terms, this would be much closer to WoW or Everquest. Or for single player comparisions, like Fallout 3, Oblivion, or any other Bethesda offering.

  • This game is looking awesome and can’t wait for it, unfortunately have to wait for it on the PC. Ihave to disagree, the multiplayer just looks like co-op in a big environment. Sure there are some little hints of MMO in there, but nothing near close enough to make me think it is that similar to the MMO concept.

  • @Fursnake

    I do not think were saying it’s and MMO, but kind of deceivingly placing MMO aspects in a console game where MMORPG’s are bane. Hopefully, through this, the game companies can begin to see if a larger world would work on consoles or whether console players are really just on that 16v16-100v100 instance fighting. We’ll see…

  • The technology just isn’t there to support massive twitch games without huge visual and gameplay sacrifices. That’s also one of the main reasons why you still see MMORPGs with archaic combat systems that involve dice rolling, random number crunching, and target locking. Having a server detect direction input of ballistics or even melee attacks is just too much for one server with thousands of players.

    But, eventually, I think you’re going to see all MMORPGs adopt twitch-based combat almost entirely. Of course, there will probably be developers who make MMORPGs with the outdated and crappy combat systems they have now, simply for nostalgic gamers who prefer the ability to go comatose while playing, but it won’t be the main trend.

    Games like this, MAG, and just about any FPS or action game that is toying with co-op play on larger scales are testing the waters and technology. And, personally, I think marketing it as an MMO would be a mistake, as that conveys nothing but negative things to most gamers such as monthly payments, terrible combat, large grinds, and an incomplete product.

  • Might work especially with the very small player caps. I remember AOC tried marketing itself as an “online action Rpg.” That did not get it really far, people criticized it as an MMO and not an Online action rpg (whatever that is)

  • I think all of you are forgetting that the 360 has already had an mmorpg with hundreds in servers. Final Fantasy 11

  • i think that they are leaning towards a console MMO, and i have always said i would like to see one, but i think the player cap per lobby would have to be lower because if you have, oh, i don’t know, 300 people in one game over psn or xbl, it would be laggy, the graphics and sound would be sacraficed, and it would just take too long to get anywhere because there could be snipers behind any rock killing you as you walk by. But overall i would like to see where this leads to. i think that if we can get 300 or so people in a lobby on a console, without it being that laggy, people would be swarming stores to buy it.