When considering all the bugs and glitches that have injured and killed many players’ horses in Red Dead Redemption 2’s campaign, Horse Insurance immediately sounds like a must-have. Thankfully, players will have to buy Horse Insurance in Red Dead Online’s first mission, but the first purchase is free.
Purchasing Horse Insurance will give players’ injured horses the ability to recover automatically over time, while an insured horse that dies can be healed at a stable for no extra fee. Uninsured horses that die can also be healed at a stable, but a fee will be required. The only downside to purchasing Horse Insurance is that each horse requires its own insurance plan, and the costs correspond to the quality of the horses.
It’s also worth mentioning that if an opposing player kills a horse, they will have to pay the vet fee. So if players feel confident in their own riding, insurance may not be necessary. Still, having the ability to revive a horse is hard to pass up.
In addition to Horse Insurance, many other interesting features that are debuting with the launch of Red Dead Online include Ability Cards, Parleys and Feuds, and Posses. Ability Cards can be equipped and grant its user special “effects” or bonuses. Parleys and Feuds are two separate systems that can be triggered when two players are consistently killing each other. A Parley removes guns from the equation and invites the players to ’talk it out’, while a Feud is a three-minute shootout between the two in which the player with the highest score wins. Posses are essentially gangs that players can form (either permanent or temporary), and forming a Posse will also create Posse camp.
Although matching the success of GTA Online may be difficult, Red Dead Online has definitely been given the tools it needs to meet or even surpass that of Rockstar’s previous hit title. The amount of content available at its launch is setting Red Dead Online up to be a massive hit, and it seems to only be a mere glimpse of how much content Rockstar plans to release. While its future content holds is unknown, a recently found Undead Nightmare Easter egg could hint that the popular DLC expansion from the first Red Dead Redemption may be returning for an encore.
This is merely speculation, but an Undead Nightmare 2 may be exactly what it takes for Red Dead Online to surpass GTA Online. Although, this is assuming that Rockstar would implement it into its online mode, rather than just making it a DLC expansion.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now on PS4 and Xbox One.
