A living frontier to play in
Red Dead Online drops you into frontier America as your own character, with customization for how you look before you ever leave the first camp. From there you build a life: set up a camp, ride out alone or with a posse, and pick the work that suits you. Bounties, hunting, fishing, trading, treasure hunts, running an underground Moonshine distillery, or studying animals as a Naturalist are all on the table. The world runs from snowy mountains in the north down to southern swamps, with remote outposts, farms and busy towns in between, so there is always somewhere new to ride toward.
Playing with your friends
You can ride solo or form a posse, which is the game's way of grouping up with friends to explore and take on work together. The Steam features list Online Co-op and Online PvP, so your group can cooperate on activities like bounty hunting and treasure runs, and also run into other players who are working against you. Lawmen, outlaw gangs and wild animals are part of the opposition too, so a posse helps when a job turns messy. The store text notes you can battle lawmen, outlaw gangs and other players, which means fights can start from the world itself, not only from other humans.
Before you start
Red Dead Online is a third-person and first-person shooter with a violent, gore-tagged world, so expect gunfights and rough frontier content. It runs on controller as well, and the open world is large enough that travel on horseback is a normal part of every trip. The game is described as an MMORPG-style online world with years of added features and enhancements, so there is a lot to learn once you are in. One important note: this purchase includes Red Dead Online only. Red Dead Redemption 2: Story Mode must be purchased separately if you want the single-player campaign.