Guns go invisible. Horses go invisible. Your own cowboy hero goes invisible. These are some of the invisibility bugs we're hearing about from numerous Red Dead Redemption players, primarily in the game's multiplayer mode. Update: Rockstar comments
Kotaku reader Cairnius told Kotaku earlier today that the game's mulitplayer mode "was behaving extremely strangely, with avatars turning invisible, guns vanishing from peoples' hands, etc."
That reader isn't alone. Red Dead Redemption, the hottest new video game of the week appears to be afflicted by a bug or bugs that are turning very important elements of the game invisible. Do note that Kotaku can't verify how widespread the issue is but the multiple reports we're getting make this something we feel is best to share so people know what might be going on.
After the original publication of this post, we received word from Rockstar that the company is "really happy with how well Red Dead Redemption has been received by the community on both platforms so far. We're aware of the issues some people are experiencing on multiplayer and we're working hard to fix them."
Kotaku has received word from RDR gamers and seen others chronicling their bug issues. Those accounts include one from last night that mentions "minor issues such as weapons and hats disappearing ... [and] lost connections at an alarming rate" as well as a GameFAQs thread containing accounts of more than a dozen invisibility glitches in an hour as well as attacks by invisible cougars.
A YouTube search for "Red Dead Redemption invisible" produces more than 20 clips showing player characters and horses going invisible.
Players are reporting these glitches on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 copies of Red Dead Redemption, primarily when the game's multiplayer mode is activated. Some of them have isolated the problem to specific locations in the game's map. Stepping into those zones makes the player or horse flick away, going invisible, but still being controllable by the player. Imagine the problems in a multiplayer match, one gamers told us, when a player starts sniping others while he is in an invisibility zone and they are not.
One RDR player told Kotaku directly that he's seen four versions of the invisibility bug: one that makes the player's own character or horse invisible, one that makes the horse and guns disappear, one that just vanishes the guns and one that makes every players' horse and character disappear during a multiplayer session.
Red Dead development studio Rockstar Games already issued an Xbox 360 patch yesterday, on the day of the game's release, to address problems with system-link multiplayer.
Rockstar's new Western has received high praise from reviewers and strong buzz this week. Hopefully this bug is not widespread and will be fixed swiftly.
The company told Kotaku that it looks forward to fix these problems quickly and notes to all Red Dead Gamers: "if you're having issues please email RDRSupportteam@rockstargames.com. We are also actively on the forums helping people with any questions they may have about the game. Thank you all for your support and we look forward to getting a fix out as quickly as soon as we can."