The standalone Red Dead Online is available now

Rockstar Games have released the multiplayer portion of Red Dead Redemption 2 as a standalone alternative for anyone who wants to play Red Dead Online, but not bother with the singleplayer story. Which, well, there must be some people who want that. I guess?

Of course, anyone who buys Red Dead Online can upgrade to the full game by buying Story Mode separately should they later feel the need. Red Dead Online is currently available for an introductory price of $5, but will be bumped up to $20 from February 15, 2021.

Its latest expansion is out now too, embiggening the Bounty Hunter class with 10 more ranks of progression, more items, skills, weapon variants, and horses as well as Infamous Bounties to hunt. Bounty Hunter missions are currently handing out double xp to boot.

An accompanying update brings the option to use the advanced camera on horseback, a 'gunspinning management' option in the menu, and "the ability to combine stubble with beard styles".

The standalone version of Red Dead Online is available from Rockstar Games, the Epic Store, and Steam, where it's currently sitting on a review rating of Mixed.

Jody's first computer was a Commodore 64, so he remembers having to use a code wheel to play Pool of Radiance. A former music journalist who interviewed everyone from Giorgio Moroder to Trent Reznor, Jody also co-hosted Australia's first radio show about videogames, Zed Games. He's written for Rock Paper Shotgun, The Big Issue, GamesRadar, Zam, Glixel, Five Out of Ten Magazine, and Playboy.com, whose cheques with the bunny logo made for fun conversations at the bank. Jody's first article for PC Gamer was about the audio of Alien Isolation, published in 2015, and since then he's written about why Silent Hill belongs on PC, why Recettear: An Item Shop's Tale is the best fantasy shopkeeper tycoon game, and how weird Lost Ark can get. Jody edited PC Gamer Indie from 2017 to 2018, and he eventually lived up to his promise to play every Warhammer videogame.