Rockstar Games delivered the six free co-op missions for Red Dead Redemption that it promised. They're a blast if you can get them to work.
Red Dead Redemption is a new open-world action game from the creators of Grand Theft Auto. Released last month for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, it has a stellar single-player story that follows a classic Western story arc. The game's exceptional denouement is not to be missed.
Taken online, Red Dead lets players roam the same Western setting, taking on challenges with posses of friends – or going wild and taking potshots at other players.
I downloaded the free Outlaws to the End Co-Op Mission Pack for the Xbox 360 on Tuesday night and hooked up with an Xbox Live friend to give the game's six new co-op missions a go. But the first time we tried to fire them up, we found ourselves trapped in an endless loop of loading screens.
We MacGuyvered a fix by leaving the public free-roam lobby, starting up a private free-roam session, then jumping into the co-op mission. It was smooth sailing from there on out.
Rockstar says that it has since isolated and patched the problem in the DLC mission pack that was causing issues across all Red Dead Redemption multiplayer. But you'd never guess that things were hunky dory by the comments piling up on its forums.
Still, the six co-op missions are a blast. Each is a multi-step assignment that puts players into the same kind of Western action set pieces they experienced during Red Dead Redemption's single-player campaign. The missions also come embellished with ten new co-op Achievements.
Before the missions start, players pick a weapon loadout, choosign between arsenals that focus on long-range, close combat or all-around gunfighting prowess.
Our most sucessful run was during "The Escape" – a mission that saw us stealing a carriage full of weapons, raiding an encampment in Tumbleweed, then making a run for the border.
Others, we weren't so successful with.
"The Herd" tasked us with protecting twenty head of cattle from rustlers. It seemed like more than a two-man job. The rustlers shot us and our cows from the high narrow walls of Pike's Basin. A larger posse could easy send a man or two out in advance to clear the way before the cowpokes push the herd through.
There are checkpoints scattered throughout the missions, but they're not spots that let you pick up where you left off. Instead, the checkpoints let players who died in combat respawn if at least one player holds out. Failing these missions doesn't feel like the end of the world.
The missions come in a kind of playlist. You can opt to roll through the rotation, or vote to replay a tricky mission if you keep screwing up.
After an hour or two of late-night gunslinging, my partner and I called it a night.
"Geez," he said, "they sure did cram this game full of replay value."
Durn tootin'.
Images courtesy Rockstar Games
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