Synyster Graves

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

by on Oct.30, 2010, under Xbox DLC

Carrying on with this week’s Halloween theme, I thought I’d review the new DLC by Rockstar for Red Dead Redemption. In all honesty, the recent DLC packs for this game haven’t interested me at all as there was so much weight on competetive multiplayer and that’s not the sort of gaming I like at all. But then I read about undead nightmare and it caught attention. There’s an entire single player storyline which you can play through as well as a new co-op multiplayer mode. But obviously the most attractive part of it was the zombies, plus it was interesting to see how they could feasibly pull off a zombie storyline in 1911.

First thing you notice from starting up the Undead Nightmare is how atmospheric the game is from the get go. It’s a parallel storyline to the RDR story whereby a mysterious plague has swept America and the dead have risen from the ground. Before you know it, the Marston ranch is overrun by flesh devouring zombies. The other thing you’ll notice is that ammunition is very scarce making have to strategically use it or face being overrun. And in my opinion, this is genius. RDR was a very competent sandbox game with fantastic immersion, but now Rockstar have actually managed to turn it into a survival horror. The music is fantastic and the ambient sounds are everything which a zombie game should be and to be honest I don’t think I’ve played as good an atmospheric game since I first put Left 4 Dead in the Xbox.

With missions including burning coffins, purging graveyards and helping survivors fend off the hordes of undead from their town, you have the authenitc RDR feel which you had throughout the original game coupled with a underlying paranoid horror feel to it. We have got zombie cowboys, zombie horses and even sasquatches, all things I’ve never seen in a game but I tell you what, it really does work very well. I am totally impressed with the attention to detail in this add-on and the initial premise of zombies during the colonial era did raise my eyebrows, but it has been executed with expert effect. 800 Microsoft points again is a bit steep from a mere add-on but considering how addictive and atmospheric this game is, I will say this is a must have for any zombie fans.

Just makes me wish they did this for Grand Theft Auto…

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