Rockstar focused on Red Dead Online, not Red Dead Redemption 2 single-player DLC

By Aaron Mamiit September 29, 2019

Red Dead Redemption 2 fans who are hoping for more DLC to further flesh out the game’s single-player story should not hold their breath as Rockstar Games is currently focused only on Red Dead Online.

The story of Red Dead Redemption 2, set in the tail end of the 19th century, focuses on Arthur Morgan, the lead muscle of the 23-man Van der Linde gang. Players are taken through a galloping ride of emotions as the plot unfolds, with their decisions shaping the story as they play through the game’s missions.

However, for those who could not get enough of Red Dead Redemption 2, it looks like the only choice is to jump into Red Dead Online.

In an interview with VG24/7, Rockstar Games’ lead online production associate Katie Pica revealed that the studio is prioritizing Red Dead Online, not single-player DLC for Red Dead Redemption 2.

“We’re 100% focused on online right now, because like I said, there’s just so much to do, and we’re just hoping to bring everything that a player can love about single-player into the online world, and fleshed out,” Pica said.

The plan for Red Dead Online is to keep adding content to expand its massive world. The Frontier Update, launched earlier this month, provides a glimpse of what Rockstar Games has planned for the future of Red Dead Redemption 2‘s online component.

“Our ambitions for our online games are just as high, and with Red Dead Online we are continuing to build and expand to match the world we created for Red Dead Redemption 2‘s story,” said Rockstar Games online producer Tarek Hamad.

The absence of further single-player mode DLC for Red Dead Redemption 2 may come as a disappointment for some fans of the franchise, especially after the massive popularity of the Undead Nightmare expansion for Red Dead Redemption. However, it looks like Rockstar Games is following its model for Grand Theft Auto V, which is now focused on GTA Online. That plan has resulted in massive success and shattered records to this day, so it is probably not a bad idea to try to replicate it with Red Dead Online.

Editors' Recommendations

Topics

Contributor

Aaron received a NES and a copy of Super Mario Bros. for Christmas when he was 4 years old, and he has been fascinated with…

Gaming

All Curveball locations in Dead Island 2

A pipebomb with kaboom written on it.

Your bread-and-butter method for dispatching the undead in Dead Island 2 will always be the strongest blunt or bladed melee weapon you have on hand. There's certainly no shortage of shovels, knives, gardening equipment, and even swords to choose from, but you can also mix things up with some throwable items as well -- and we don't just mean throwing your weapon. Curveballs, as the game calls them, are more like skills that can be equipped than weapons since they work on a cooldown timer rather than ammo. Your character can only hold two at once, but there are 13 in total to experiment with. You'll be given one by default, but the rest are up to you to collect. Here's a full list of all the Curveballs in Dead Island 2 and where to find them.
How to get all the Curveballs in Dead Island 2

We'll list off the Curvballs, their locations, and their effects in the order you should naturally come across them while playing Dead Island 2. If you miss one, you can always fast travel back to the area to collect it later. While you can only have two Curveballs equipped at any time, you can swap them out no matter where you are, so feel free to try them all out and change up your loadout depending on your current situation.
Meat Bait
Given as part of the story by Carlos in Emma's house, this lets you throw out a chunk of meat that explodes on impact into a pool of meat(?) that attracts all nearby zombies to it.
Shuriken
On your way to the Halperin Hotel, the Shuriken are lodged into a car door directly in front of you. Using these throws out three Shuriken in a horizontal spread that travels a short distance before falling. They don't do a lot of damage, but can stagger and even remove limbs if you aim them well.
Chem Bomb
This is the second unmissable Curveball and is given to you inside the Halperin Hotel to put out a fire. It is good for more than just fire control, though, since you can use it to make zombies wet and susceptible to electricity.
Caustic-X Bomb
Keep your eye out for "The Rav-Ages of Caustic-X" sidequest if you want to add this to your arsenal. Completing this quest will reward you with a bouncing bomb that deals some damage, but is mainly used for applying the Melting status on zombies and leaving behind damaging acid.
Electric Star
You'll be taken to the Brentwood Water Reclamation Project plant during the "Justifiable Zombicide" mission. While there, make sure to snag the Electric Star sticking out of the safety sign on the fence. If you missed it, you can also purchase it from Rodriguez later on. This Curvball is a straight upgrade over the Shuriken since it functions exactly the same, but is electrified.
Pipe Bomb
While going through the checkpoints between Beverly Hills and Monarch Studios, keep an eye out for an open crate with the Pipe Bomb in it on one of the tables. This is a basic timed explosive, so toss it into a group for maximum damage.
Molotov Cocktail
When you're brought into the Brentwood Sewer during "The Heart of Darkness" mission, the Molotov will be in the office next to the Filtration Access and Servicing room. If it wasn't obvious, this flaming bottle will light any zombie hit with it on fire, plus leave a lingering patch of fire on the ground.
Electric Bomb
This is another Curveball tied to finishing a sidequest, this time the "Jo's Rainy Day Stash" quest. Think of it as a Pipe Bomb, only replace the explosion with a dome of electricity that is great for stunning groups.
Flashbang
You'll need to pony up $2,500 and buy this Curveball from Rodriquez once you've completed the "Cremains of the Day" sidequest. What you get is a weapon that inflicts Traumatized on zombies, meaning they're stunned and available to be counterattacked.
Sticky Bomb
Bring Dougie at the Serling Hotel $1,500 and he'll part ways with the Sticky Bomb. This is just your old Pipe Bomb, but now it will stick to any surface -- or zombie -- it hits.
Bait Bomb
This is another item Dougie will sell you, this time only after you beat "The Search for Truth" main mission. For just $3,500, you can get what is essentially your Meat Bait and Pipe Bomb stuck together. Zombies will all close in on the bomb before it detonates
Nail Bomb
For the final Curveball you need to invest your cash in, you can buy the Nail Bomb from Ezekiel for $1,500. This is a simple explosive, but with the added benefit of inflicting Bleeding on anything it hits.
Military Grenade
Once you complete the "Boz Makes a Bang" sidequest for Hana, which you can only get after beating "The Rav-Ages of Caustic-X" and "Dez and the Mother of Satan" quests, you will be given the final Curveball in Dead Island 2. This high-explosive detonates on impact no matter what, which could be a good or bad thing depending on the situation. It isn't all that much more powerful than any other explosive, but the utility of it not having a timer makes it useful.

Gaming

How to get fuses in Dead Island 2

A group of survivors looking stressed and annoyed.

eThere are going to be tons of things blocking your progress when trying to escape LA in Dead Island 2. Aside from the, you know, hordes of zombies, you will find plenty of gates and doors that need power to open. Most can be worked around by installing a battery or circuit breaker, but some require something else. Fuses aren't required at any point in the main story, but instead are limited keys that hide away some of the game's best loot. If you've been spotting all these gates and garage doors taunting you to open them, but lack the fuses to do so, we'll tell you how you can get your hands on some in Dead Island 2.
Where to get fuses in Dead Island 2

Unlike batteries or circuit breakers, fuses won't be found anywhere on the map while exploring. Instead, the only way to get these electrical devices is to purchase them. Obviously, your local hardware store isn't open for business anymore, so your options are limited to the vendors you come across such as Carlos in Emma's house or Ezekiel on The Pier. No matter who you get them from, you're going to be paying a premium. Each fuse costs $1,500, and the sellers usually only hold a few at a time. Even if they had the stock and you had the cash, your character can only hold three fuses at a time before needing to spend them to get more.

Gaming

Dead Island 2’s Amazon Alexa voice commands are novel, but limited

Dani lights a cigarette as zombies attack her from behind in Dead Island 2 key art.

I’ve always found myself interested in new technologies that could possibly enhance how we play or experience games. Whether it’s a computing innovation like cloud gaming or new controller features like the DualSense’s Haptic Feedback and Adaptive Triggers, I love testing those things out. That’s why I jumped at the opportunity to try Alexa Game Control during my recent hands-on preview experience with Dead Island 2.
When Dambuster Studios and Deep Silver’s Dead Island 2 finally launches on April 21, it will be the first game to support Alexa Game Control. By connecting one’s Amazon account to the game, players can use the voice-recognition capabilities of Amazon’s virtual assistant Alexa to perform in-game actions like taunting zombies or equipping their best weapons. I was curious to see just how deep this went, but after some hands-on time, this first implementation of it proved to be little more than a novelty.

Hey, Alexa
Dead Island 2 players can toggle Alexa Game Control on when they first show up in Bel-Air after the game’s opening. It has a dedicated tab in the Options Menu where players can choose to enable or disable it, choose whether they want it to work automatically or with push to talk, set the voice capture threshold, and decide which microphone they wish to use.
After enabling Alexa Game Control, I immediately noticed a ring at the bottom-left corner of the screen. When I spoke, this lit up with blue and teal colors, like the top ring on an Alexa device, and text confirming whether it could do the action or not would appear. Not having to say “Hey, Alexa” also means it implemented itself into the game smoothly. At first, I tried to see if voice commands would work for basic things like walking, jumping, and dodging, to no avail. After this, I hopped to a save I had placed later in the game and opened its tutorial menu to see what Alexa Game Control could really do.
Reading its tutorials and lists of commands, the limits of Alexa Game Control became clear. It mainly provides quick shortcuts to save you a button press or two in the middle of playing. In Dead Island 2, Alexa Game Control has four main uses: setting waypoints, taunting enemies, triggering emotes, and switching weapons. The tutorial menus give a complete list of commands that work, although each wildly varies in its usefulness.
Oi, zombie!
The funniest use of this voice technology in Dead Island 2 is taunting zombies. Shouting something like “Hey, dude” or “Oi, zombie” to get the attention of enemies that hadn’t detected me always made me chuckle. It’s also occasionally useful; at one point, I got a bunch of zombies to walk into a large pool of acid and die after taunting them. While it takes the same amount of time as walking up to the zombie to get their attention, I see the potential in voice technology that lets you interact with the world like this.