Red Dead Redemption 2 players getting terrorized by two-headed skeletons

By Giovanni Colantonio Published February 10, 2020

The source of a bizarre new monster that appeared in Red Dead Redemption 2 over the last few days — two-headed skeletons that stalk and attack players — appears to be the work of hackers, not Rockstar.

Reports of the ghoulish assaults started coming in around Friday. Through the weekend, multiple players took to Steam and Reddit to post accounts of skeletons randomly popping into the game. The two-headed enemies will run up to players and attempt to fistfight them to the death. Despite being seemingly invincible, the creatures will run off when shot at.

Recommended Videos

Initially, players were unsure if the monsters were intentionally added to the game by Rockstar. It wouldn’t be a stretch to assume as the original Red Dead Redemption featured the Undead Nightmare expansion pack, which brought zombies to the western game. However, last year, Rockstar stated that new DLC isn’t its current focus with Red Dead Redemption 2.

Despite the plausibility, it appears that crafty hackers are behind the attack. In response to a Steam thread about the incident, one player mentioned that when a similar attack happened to them, they looked up and noticed a hot air balloon in the sky. The poster also included a screenshot of the player in the balloon who allegedly had a mod menu equipped.

The two-headed skeleton model didn’t appear out of thin air. The monster is visible in the game proper by traveling to Beecher’s Hope. The location contains an overturned circus wagon featuring the skeleton, which is said to belong to conjoined twins reflecting the game’s lore.

Hackers have terrorized the game’s community since the launch of Red Dead Online. Modding tools have been used to spawn all kinds of nightmares, such as hordes of animal carcasses that began attacking players last month.

Rockstar has taken action against cheaters in the past, but for now, players are telling one another to keep an eye out for hackers when the rogue skeletons appear. Players can report anyone they find suspicious, such as those looming overhead in hot air balloons during the attacks. While this can be frustrating for fans who just want to play the game in peace, it’s also the kind of weird experience that certainly keeps Red Dead Online interesting.

Topics

Giovanni Colantonio

Senior Gaming Editor

As Digital Trends' Senior Gaming Editor, Giovanni Colantonio oversees all things video games at Digital Trends. As a veteran…

Gaming

Red Dead Redemption is coming to Nintendo Switch and PS4 this month

red dead redemption switch ps4 release date key art

The original Red Dead Redemption is coming to two new platforms, PS4 and Nintendo Switch, later this month. It'll retail for $50 on both platforms.
Red Dead Redemption and Undead Nightmare Coming to Switch and PS4
Rockstar Games' open-world western game first launched in 2010 for Xbox 360 and PS3. It was critically acclaimed and a smash sales hit, creating a new franchise for Rockstar that could stand alongside the likes of Grand Theft Auto. It received a sequel, Red Dead Redemption 2, in 2019, but the original Red Dead Redemption remained stuck on older platforms outside of backward compatibility support on Xbox One and Xbox Series X/S.
That's why fans got excited when a rating for the game from the Game Rating and Administration Committee of Korea popped up. We've now learned that this rating is for new Nintendo Switch and PS4 ports of Red Dead Redemption by Double Eleven Studios. Red Dead Redemption will release across both of those platforms digitally on August 17, with a physical launch to follow on October 13.

It will cost $50 and includes the base campaign as well as the zombie-infested Undead Nightmare expansion; the Red Dead Online multiplayer is not included. This is the first time Red Dead Redemption will ever be on a Nintendo system, although it doesn't look like the port will have much in the way of Switch-exclusive features. That said, a press release does reveal that this will be the first version of the game to include Brazilian Portuguese, Korean, Latin American Spanish, Polish, Russian, Simplified Chinese, and Traditional Chinese localizations.
Red Dead Redemption comes out on PS4 and Nintendo Switch on August 17.

Gaming

Rockstar Games’ co-founder just formed an ‘absurd’ new studio

A man drives away in a boat with stolen money in Grand Theft Auto 5 art.

Dan Houser, a co-founder of Rockstar Games and one of the people behind the creation of series like Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption, has unveiled his new studio, Absurd Ventures.

Dan Houser was a stalwart figure at Rockstar Games since its founding and had a hand in the creative aspects of pretty much every game in the Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption series, along with other titles like Bully and Max Payne 3. Following an "extended break" following the release of Red Dead Redemption 2, as well as some controversy surrounding some reported issues with the game's creative development, Rockstar Games' parent company Take-Two Interactive announced that Houser had left the company in early 2020. He's had a relatively low-profile since then outside of serving on the board of a blockchain company, but now looks to be fully invested in Absurd Ventures, a company he technically founded in 2021.
Absurd Ventures is finally being revealed more publicly now, and Houser did so with an intentionally absurd announcement trailer and website with the tagline "Storytelling, Philanthropy, Ultraviolence." According to a tweet by Geoff Keighley, the actual main goal of Absurd Ventures is "building narrative worlds, creating characters, and writing stories for a diverse variety of genres, without regard to medium, to be produced for live-action and animation, video games and other interactive content, books, graphic novels, and scripted podcasts."
Absurd Ventures
It seems like Houser wants to make a creative think tank that can craft ideas that are then realized in a variety of creative mediums. It doesn't seem quite like any other game developer or movie studio out there, so it will be very interesting to see what the minds at Absurd Ventures are eventually able to come up with.

Gaming

The best weapon mods and perks in Dead Island 2

Dead Island 2 zombie

Ever since Dead Rising came onto the scene, it is almost mandatory for zombie games to include some kind of weapon-crafting system. The first Dead Island had it, and now Dead Island 2 does as well. This system lets you turn any ordinary bat or blade into an electrified powerhouse, flaming flurry, and much more. Aside from needing the materials to actually construct these mods on your weapon of choice, you also need to find their respective blueprint in order to craft it. Considering there are more 30 mods -- and even more perks -- in Dead Island 2, we don't expect you to go find them all and figure out which ones are best. You've got too many zombies to kill for that, so we've done the homework and listed all the best weapon mods and perks in Dead Island 2, plus where you can get them if you haven't found them yet.
Best weapon mods

Superior Melee Liquidator Mod
Any mod that applies the Liquidator effect to your weapon means it will start inflicting Caustic damage. While every element is useful, Caustic in particular is the top choice because there are very few zombies that are immune to this damage type. Because status effects build up based on continuous hits, this mod works best when attached to a weapon with a high rate of attack like a dagger or brass knuckles.