It seems like more and more game developers are putting zombies in their game and Rockstar continues this new tradition in gaming with their release of Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Redemption.
In this new round of zombie killing DLC, you take Redemption’s main hero on a new single player quest to find a cure for the “fever” that is plaguing the town, the fever of course, being a zombie outbreak. In Undead Nightmare, everything you have grown to love about RDR is still intact. Everything from flower picking to just wondering around the town. This time, however, the town is burning and there are only a handful of survivors. In your quest to find a cure, you will encounter these survivors and help them kill the zombies wandering around.
The gameplay for the most part is unchanged. You go from mission to mission in search for the cure and have different weapons at your disposal to help you along the way. However, you have a limited supply of ammo as there are no shops for you to buy ammo. You can search the zombie corpses and hope to get some spare ammo but even that’s not a guarantee.
Since this an entirely new campaign, you do not start with the weapons you acquired in the RDR storyline. You are given a very helpful weapon in the form of a torch that allows you to melee zombies without using any ammo. So, you have choices on zombie removal but choose wisely. The good news on that part is you can find different weapons on the corpses. Also, in an interesting decision, the campsite has been taken out so no fast travel is available.
As with the gameplay, the look and sound of Nightmare have not been changed and all of the original voice actors make a return. The zombies kind of look a little odd. For example, I encountered a few that look like clowns. There are also different kinds of zombies you will encounter in your quest that require a different attack plan than your normal run of the mill zombie.
To spice things up a bit, you will also encounter zombie horses that have unlimited stamina and even have special powers. To find these beasts, just roam around and you will get a notification that there is something in the area.
As previously said, Undead Nightmare is a new single player campaign that takes place towards the end of Redemption. Thankfully it does not spoil anything. If you have not beaten the RDR campaign, you will encounter characters in Nightmare that you might not have met in RDR yet.
If you have beaten the 6-8 hour single player campaign in Nightmare and want more, well you’re in luck. Undead Nightmare includes two new multiplayer modes as well. The first, Undead Overrun, should feel very familiar — you and some friends (or strangers) team up against wave after wave of zombies until you’re overwhelmed. It’s pretty fun and seems like a decent way to rack up XP points for your multiplayer characters.
The second mode is found in Free Roam and actually has nothing to do with the undead at all. Titled Land Grab, you’re basically trying to secure seven different locations throughout the map. It’s available for anyone to play, but only folks with Undead Nightmare can initiate a game.
In all, Rockstar struck gold by releasing Undead Nightmare. It has a 6+ hour single player campaign (which is longer than some full-priced games), two new multiplayer modes, new horses, and more. So if you were looking for another reason to pop in Red Dead Redemption again, look no further than Undead Nightmare. Its great story and new multiplayer modes are a steal for ten bucks. And if you want all the previous DLC that was release and Nightmare, there is a DLC pack that has all for twenty. So what are you waiting for? There are zombies to be slain.
Review copy provided by publisher.
