Red Dead Redemption

Free downloadable content is always a welcome addition, for the most part. Outlaws to the end is a fairly substantial package adding a whole new set of multiplayer options to help you rack up the experience points to those benevolent Legend ranks. It would be a perfect package, if not for the army of Trojans that sneak their way in aswell.

Red Dead Redemption was full of quirky glitches and bugs already and made the multiplayer, at times, almost unplayable. Ever since this DLC release however, it's really starting to narrow down your chances of getting a smooth run through the online world of Red Dead. But for now I'll focus on just why Outlaws to The End could have been a really appreciative bonus of content to an already hefty game.

OtTE gives you six extra cooperative missions as well as a handful of trophies and an absolute horde of new multiplayer challenges too. To access the missions you're to simple select it like any other playlist off the game modes menu, directed from freeroam. The six different missions are all varied enough with each missions either borrowing from one of the already established Hideouts from the multiplayer free-roam, or even some of the scenarios from the main storyline, now with more detail dived in to give your objectives more worth and of course a lot more length to them as well.

With up to four players maximum, you'll be sailing across the Mexican rivers on a raft, similar to the escapades of John and Irish just as they make their way to Mexico. You'll be raiding gang hideouts ala free-roam, but now with a great deal more turrets and cannons conveniently (or inconveniently) placed around to help give the environments a more fresh look to how you'll proceed. There's even different classes you can choose between before each mission to give you different weapon loadouts too. (You can't bring your own collection of unlocked weapons in the standard cooperative missions though the Advanced mode adds in all your weapons as an extra class to select)

Each missions may probably take up around 20-30 minutes on your first go, and with a huge assortment of challenges to root for - and not to mention the migraine inducing Advanced cooperative missions playlist - to stretch this DLC alot more than most might expect. The difficulty of it all is also much more than some simple hideout, which most can smoothly solo through. While they are still very doable with just two players, maximum success is definitely more likely with a full squad. You won't respawn when you die for example, instead requiring a team mate to revive, and will otherwise have to wait for a checkpoint to get an automatic respawn. If all players die too, it's back to the beginning. It has a learning curve that much is certain, but overall it gives a really tense and fun challenge that the multiplayer hideouts wouldn't ever match.

But then there's the glitches. Oh, the glitches...

Fortunately for me the cooperative missions themselves have worked well enough besides the occasional nuisance of being stuck in a loading screen. Though I have heard of people claiming the cooperative missions are what really took the brunt of the damage to the multiplayer. For me it was mostly through freeroam, with countless errors bugs all throughout. One such offender would have all players become invisible yet would still appear on my map. What's worse is that this infamous glitch now sporadically appears in the PVP modes aswell.

It's been a different tale for most, though everyone has plenty of reason to complain about the trojan glitches this DLC brought along with it. I wouldn't absolutely condemn this pack however, since if you're lucky you could at least have yourself with some damn fun cooperative missions, and free roam still works fine in a Private Mode at least.

With that said though, it's an insult to have a game not improve with its errors and bugs, but actually worsen through extra content. If this was priced I'd mark the score even lower, but because of what lies behind all the smoke, invisible kills and ghost walls, there is some really fun content that gives a great alternative to the PVP and hideout spamming.