Moonshining is Red Dead Online's best update yet, but the cost of content is starting to hurt
Since we last spoke, Red Dead Online has made the move to PC, and with the Moonshiners update has finally caught up to its console counterpart, wrangling it into submission with its 4K 60FPS lasso. This fancy new patch grafts in the second season of the much-loved Outlaw Pass, a new wardrobe worth of cosmetics and a brand new Frontier Pursuit to pursue in Moonshining, which introduces property ownership and a separate five-mission narrative.
A lot to dig into then! The boozehound business model is the main focus, and as you kickstart the new role you’re introduced to the baroness of shine, Maggie Fike, a woman scorned and left to fry in a burning shack by federal tax agents. You’re tasked with reclaiming her extremely illegal operation and seeking revenge against a trio of bad blokes. It might sound familiar if you’ve played through Online’s main story: a long-winded redemption song spearheaded by Jessica McClerk, the woman who broke your green behind out of Sisika penitentiary in the opening so you could avenge her dead husband.
Even so, this side story comfortably overshadows that arc across five meaty missions that ply the player with a refreshing approach to Red Dead mission design. Most importantly, the objectives in Fike’s campaign don’t so quickly dissolve into dissatisfying combat arenas.
The most effective is a gauntlet of a mission where you lay a tainted moonshine trap and fight through the flame-ridden swamp you summoned to a ruined castle, diving into muddy cover as turret fire rains down upon your posse. It’s a gritty moment of comeuppance in a narrative that compels you to care about its characters. Other fond memories include my crew commanding covert canoes through alligator territory, lobbing fire bottles at moonshine stills and fighting bears as we foraged for cursed recipes to poison rival supply chains.
Outside of resonant gameplay, Fike’s story happens to be steeped in a curious and obscure facet of American History, alluding to a time when federal agents came down hard on rural moonshiners after the American Civil War. You’ll steal boats and sneak into compounds to escape a sect of vicious taxmen led by the dreaded Agent Hixon. This historical context was developed in a fascinating anecdotal post over on the Red Dead Online subreddit, authored by a player whose ancestors were involved in the business of outlaw shine in Pennsylvania in the 19th century.
