Rockstar’s Terrible PC-Mod Nukes Red Dead Redemption 2 Steam Launch

• PC version of Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on Steam yesterday.
• The game currently has a ‘Mixed’ rating on Steam.
• Plagued by a raft of problems linked to the Rockstar Launch and performance issues.

The PC version of Rockstar Games’ cowboy epic Red Dead Redemption 2 launched on Steam yesterday. Much like its release on Rockstar’s own launcher and the Epic Games Store in early November, it hasn’t gone well.

A current total of over 2,000 reviews give the game a middling ‘Mixed’ score on Steam, bolstered by nearly 800 negative reviews.

Problems With The Rockstar Games Launcher

Echoing last month’s launch, much of the criticism centers on Rockstar’s launcher. Players report crashes when trying to launch the game, while others are unable to log in if they’ve recently changed the email address associated with Steam.

It appears Steam is communicating previous email addresses rather than newer ones. Players have even been prompted to buy the game when activation fails due to the issue.

All Too Familiar Performance Issues

Performance issues rear their ugly head once again. Poor frame rates, crashes, audio issues, and stutters appear to be commonplace, even on high-end gaming rigs.

Some players also report that running Red Dead Redemption 2 effectively breaks the Steam Overlay, making it unusable.

Using controllers to play the game is also causing its own brand of problems according to multiple reviews.

Others report that Red Dead Redemption 2 is gating access to graphical settings even when their PC meets the minimum system requirements.

The general sentiment is that Rockstar had a month to optimize and fine-tune the game before releasing on Steam. Yet, it appears they’ve fallen wide of the mark.

It’s almost enough to consider playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on Google Stadia. Playing at the click of a button without having to troubleshoot issues sounds pretty tempting, even if the game only runs at an up-scaled 1080p/60fps.