Before getting on with this review, let me tell you now that I wasn't happy when Undead Nightmare was first announced. Red Dead Redemption was and still is a brilliant game. It had that almost perfect mix of intense gameplay, strong narrative, interesting characters, plenty of content and open terrain to explore. When I heard that they wanted to put zombies in it, I started raging. "Who would spoil one of the best sandbox games I've ever played, by dumping hordes of the undead into it?! That's a terrible idea." After playing this DLC, I am glad I was so wrong…
As soon as the game starts, it is easy to see what direction the developers decided to take - the classic zombie flick, with all the humour and camp, but set in the Old West; or, to be more precise, Rockstar's take on the Old West. John Marston returns to his home on a stormy night to be greeted by his beloved wife and son. It only takes minutes for the narrative to become cheesy and throw the first zombie at you. Of course, Abigail and Jack (Marston's wife and son) are the first to get bitten and become infected. Marston hogties his family, fortifies his estate and leaves to embark on a journey to find a cure for the plague. That's basically what you will strive to accomplish for the rest of the game.
The game's campiness continues throughout its story. One ridiculous persona is introduced after another, including even more twisted reflections of characters returning from the original game. I say 'ridiculous', but I mean it in a good way. Red Dead Redemption was an awesome game, though it was pretty serious with the exception of Rockstar's usual comic relief every now and then. Undead Nightmare is a completely different tale. It doesn't take itself seriously, it's a parody of itself and the zombie genre, yet it is also a critique of America - shown in a very subtle way. It will make you laugh during its hilarious cut scenes more than a few times.
What about the gameplay? Well, the core mechanics remain similar - it is still a third person shooter that utilizes the same engine as RDR. However, some new elements are thrown into the mixture. Firstly, the most common new enemy is the zombie… and to kill zombies, you "gotta shoot 'em in the head". In addition to this, there are no open shops left in the frontier, so ammo is much scarcer and must be obtained through other, more dangerous and adventurous means. To progress through the main story missions and lower the general population of the undead in a specific area, graveyards must be cleansed at certain times during gameplay. This is done through burning coffins (whilst fighting off groups of walking corpses).
Each town or settlement of any kind is now almost devoid of people, with the exception of a few survivors in each zone. These are known as safehouses, but they must first be liberated from zombie control. Even then, it is best to keep them from being overrun every time the undead return to attack; as these safehouses are the only method of fast travel and manual saving available to the player. There are also two fortress-like safehouses, which are surrounded by high walls and can never be overrun. All of this is a nice way of introducing some slightly more survival horror oriented gameplay features, but since the zombies don't shoot back, another important mechanic from the original game: cover, has become completely useless (unless you wish to fight survivors, which isn't really beneficial to anyone but your enemy - the hordes of the undead).
I'm glad to see that Rockstar has successfully managed to transform its beautiful representation of the old American Frontier into a deadly, rotten, carcass-ridden, frightening and remote place, plagued by a zombie apocalypse. After all - the original RDR had a very strong atmosphere, so it was vital for this DLC to develop its own if it was to be successful. Thankfully, it does this exceptionally well. In Undead Nightmare, the world is much less populated. Furthermore, it isn't just the humans that have turned into zombies. You can now find undead animals and undead mounts in the Wild West. Even the random world events have been changed to suit the game's new setting. You may now find strangers sitting around camps, eating the flesh of deceased others; relatives crying over the bodies of their loved ones, only to wait for the corpse to rise and feast on them; competitive hunters who found a new hobby and are willing to bet ammunition that they will shoot more zombies in an area than you will; and much more.
As for the audio - everything is still superb, though not as great as that of the original game. Voice acting remains impressive and the writing is really quite humorous to say the least. Red Dead Redemption has a phenomenal soundtrack, and whilst Undead Nightmare tries to preserve this astonishing quality in its own way, it ultimately fails to do so. Don't get me wrong, the music is still very good. It is actually nice to see that instead of just leaving the old soundtrack (which would have been unfitting for the change of climate), Rockstar tried to remake it with a twist of the horror atmosphere in it. It does sound quite spooky at times and matches what this downloadable content is about, but it also removes a lot of the epic melodic pieces of the original background music, leaving the player with a much less remarkable aftertaste.
So, where does it all go wrong? Well, thankfully, it doesn't all go wrong. But Undead Nightmare ends up being a fairly repetitive add-on that isn't quite as entertaining as the initial material. Missions are much less diverse and action-packed (some of them are nothing more than fetch quests). Side quests are enjoyable, but there are nowhere near enough of them to fully satisfy anyone's desires. Distractions, such as the hunting and sharpshooting challenges of RDR, return and also have their own little twist added to them - but they are much fewer in number and ultimately less engaging than the original content. Characters are funny and the plot doesn't take itself seriously - which is good, considering what this DLC is supposed to be - but this leaves little room for anything innovative or vastly different to other zombie shooters to flourish.
Let's go over this DLC's offerings:
GAMEPLAY - 7.5/10
Whilst the fun gameplay system from Red Dead Redemption remains partially intact, new mechanics are overused in ways that soon get tedious.
STABILITY - 8/10
Some of the problems of the game's engine are still here, but overall, Undead Nightmare doesn't suffer from that many technical issues at all.
STORY - 5/10
The humour and campiness of the whole situation are executed exceptionally well… this and the characters are the only things that save the game's plot from feeling too simplistic and unoriginal.
GRAPHICS - 8.5/10
Red Dead Redemption was spectacular. This DLC hasn't added in a lot of changes, apart from an overall darker tone and a gloomy yellow sunset. Some more new visual features would have been nice.
SOUND - 8/10
The voice acting remains great, although much more cheesy this time around and the changes to the music are creative, but fail to surpass the first soundtrack in quality.
LONGEVITY - 7/10
The main story won't take you much more than seven hours to complete; if you want to do everything, there's around a good twenty hours of content here for you - as well as some additional multiplayer modes to enjoy. Although this sets a new standard for DLC, it is much less than what we got in Red Dead Redemption and less than what full expansions for other games have brought us in the past.
In the end, Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is a good addition to the RDR formula - but it also saddens me to say that it isn't much more than that. Rockstar Games obviously tried something new with this, and their experiment is successful - as they have managed to deliver a fun experience that is different to their usual products. It gives you bang for your buck, but there are some flaws packed in there as well. The Undead Nightmare Collection is a single, stand-alone retail disc that bundles together the "Undead Nightmare", "Liars and Cheats" and "Legends and Killers" DLC packs. It doesn't require a copy of Red Dead Redemption to play, but if you haven't played that yet, then you should go back and do so before buying Undead Nightmare. When all is said and done, Undead Nightmare is funny, camp, unoriginal, packed with plenty of content and quite repetitive.
OVERALL RATING - 7.5/10 (Good)
NEW GS RATING – 7/10