Royal Dead's online battle mode, Make It Count, is pretty good

Red Dead Online launched in beta on Tuesday, leaving Red Dead Redemption 2 Players explore the Wild West together. There's a story to be discovered, missions you can face and a chance to meet other players – or shoot them in the face – while roaming the world.

There is also a series of more traditional and competitive multiplayer modes called the Showdown series. At present, it is a trio of playlists, a rotating set of modes that includes the traditional types of death match, team death match and checkpoint play. There is also a separate play list for horse racing.

Red Dead Online also has its own interpretation of the royal battle genre and applies the rules of this genre in a fun way. One type of game, called Make It Count, involves depositing a group of players on a card in order to be the last person standing. But that does not spread a lot of weapons and items on the map that could make you more powerful. Everyone is at the same level in Make It Count.

Make It Count exists in two variants. In one, players fight with bows and a limited number of arrows. In the other, the players have only six throwing knives (and a regular knife), which eliminate a shot. These restrictions on weapons force many confrontations in Make It Count to be very close and personal – at least within reach of a bow and arrow.

As Battlefields of PlayerUnknown and FortniteRed Dead Online's Battle Royale mode will reduce the playing area in a given time, pushing players into narrower quarters. In addition to the tension of Make It Count, the fighting often takes place in very open outdoor spaces. I mainly fought other players in the Tall Trees woods and foggy swamps of St. Denis, with little or no structures to get in the shelter. The best you can hope for is to hide in the bushes or in the shade of a stable the strawberry town and hope you will not be spotted. But Rockstar also strongly discourages camping. If you stay still for too long, the game will warn you that it is about to expose your position on the map to other players.

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Rockstar amplifies the pressure with a stress-inducing soundtrack, a creepy groan of strings that gives Red Dead the impression of playing in a slasher movie. The Showdown series offers good music, but it does its best in Make It Count. And when another player is nearby, the controller vibrates so as to give the impression that your heart beats quickly when adrenaline strikes. It is extremely effective in increasing blood pressure.

I played in matches with only eight players and no less than 13, but do not rely on Make It Count to match the impressive number of players to other parts of the royal battle. And for now, it seems like the only way to play Make it Count is to show it in the Showdown show playlist, which means you'll have to play the other game modes (Shootout, Most Wanted , Hostile Territory and Name Your Weapon) to take advantage of Rockstar's position in the Royal Battle.

Fortunately, most of these other modes are also very good. Most Wanted plays with the death match rules, so players who have more victims also kill more points when they are killed – and their death toll is displayed over their heads. Name Your Weapon also plays with the score by giving each weapon in your arsenal its own score value. The more the weapon is tricky to use, the more points you will get by killing. For example, a kill with a tomahawk or your bare fist will yield more points than the easy-to-use rifle or the reliable shotgun.

The disadvantage of Make It Count is that it is not particularly interesting to watch. And Red Dead Online seems to often match me to the current Make It Count games, where I have to watch other people slowly trying to kill each other. Make It Count needs its own dedicated playlist.

This is where I am most interested in spending my competitive time in Red Dead Online. Rockstar promises updates to the online multiplayer modes of the game. So we hope the studio will experiment with more variations of the royal battle-inspired mode.