Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

There were many great games that came out during 2010 but one of my favorite was Red Dead Redemption. I found the game incredibly immersive and fell in love with the lonely Old West as did many.

I was a little skeptical when Rockstar announced Undead Nightmare, however, as at that time zombie-mania was at a high and I found myself disliking several zombie games already including Dead Rising 2 and Left 4 Dead 2. Well I’ve just finished Undead Nightmare and I can happily report the game is as awesome as Red Dead.

So, what’s going on in Undead Nightmare? Well the game should be considered a narrative arc; it takes place before the ending to Red Dead. During this arc something has gone terribly wrong and the undead have risen. Having no concept of zombies, as it is 1910, you can imagine the populace is panicking something fierce. When John Marston’s family become infected he sets off to find a cure.

You’ll quickly learn two things about Undead Nightmare; ammunition is very scarce and no-where is safe. Every town and bandit hideout you remember from Red Dead has now come under siege from the walking undead and it is within your own interests to help the survivors there.

By liberating towns you’ll gain access to a small amount of ammunition, a new weapon (including new ones not in Red Dead) and a place to save your game, fast travel or change outfits.  After a town is saved it’ll have about three days, game time, before it’ll be attacked again. It is best to go back and save them especially if you’re a trophy/achievement hunter. Due to this I found myself relying more on the in-game autosave as manually saving the game will advance time by six hours.

Saving different towns will also gain you access to the main story missions and Survivor side missions. There isn’t as many as in Red Dead but as Undead Nightmare is an add-on and not a full game so you shouldn’t expect it to be as long. Those missions are as fun as the original game though, even more if you’re a big zombie fan. Challenges also make a comeback and are just as fun as the original with a nice zombie twist. Besides hunting zombies in a variety of different ways you’ll also take a crack at hunting undead animals too.

Did I mention all of the animals from the original game are now undead as well? That includes horses and it’s here I have a small problem. You’ll start the game with a regular horse but if it dies you’ll end up with one of the ‘beautiful’ beasts you see to the left there. These are the most annoying of creations. They constantly veer off to the left no matter how hard you try to steer them otherwise. Considering the horse is the only mode of available transport in this game being stuck with one that has awkward steering is very irritating. You will have the chance to capture some mystical horses throughout the game but even they can die if you’re careless. Care for a little, under the table, tip? Sometimes you’ll see a survivor riding a normal horse… you know what to do.

Lets move onto the graphics; they’re basically the same as in Red Dead. The zombies are rendered very well and a headshot produces a satisfying gory explosion which is always fun. I really can’t say much about the graphics but I do have two criticisms. The first involves the rendering of fire; it could be much better. Comparing fire in GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption and I believe GTA IV comes out on top which makes me wonder why it couldn’t be recreated in Red Dead? Secondly, the map whether zoomed out all of the way or zoomed in all of the way is fuzzy. It can be hard to pick out details because of this and it’s even replicated on the compass. I know, I’m nitpicking at this point.

All in all Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is an awesome add-on to an already awesome game. Through games like this and GTA IV I’ve become a huge fan of Rockstar. If you enjoyed Red Dead you’ll enjoy this and if you’re a fan of zombies then you’ll really enjoy the rare combination of zombies and gunslingers.