Important Note: I reviewed Undead Nightmare on the Game of the Year edition of Red Dead Redemption. I reviewed the main single-player game and the multiplayer in a separate review which you can find here.
Of all the expansions and DLC released for 2010s Red Dead Redemption, one of them stands out among the others. Rockstar could have gone a number of ways with a bonus single-player story mode, and the one they chose is quite interesting. Zombies have arrived in the Old West, and with them, comes a fresher version of old fun. . . and a batch of new problems.
The story is set during the homestead missions of Red Dead Redemption. When a horrible zombie apocalypse has swept across the Old West, it's up to John Marston to find the cause and put and end to it. In the process, he meets many of the characters from the original game, and even some new ones are added to the mix.
The return of many of the memorable characters from the original game is part of what makes Undead Nightmares' narrative fun to watch unfold. The charm has not worn off, and the characters are still creative and distinct.
However, the characters are the only thing that I found interesting about Undead Nightmares' story. The zombie theme feels shoehorned into the Old West setting, and the chemistry between the two from a narrative standpoint doesn't really feel like it's there. In addition, I found the ending to be somewhat of a let down, as towards the end of this medium length adventure, the story acts like it's building up to some kind of a big twist, but it never comes, and it just falls flat near the end.
Where Undead Nightmare shines at, is in it's gameplay. The gunplay and general controls remain the same, but with many new features added. In great contrast to the narrative, the gameplay mixes very well with the zombie theme. New weapons have been added, such as the Blunderbuss (a weapon that uses zombie body parts as ammo), a torch (which proves to be the most reliable weapon), Holy Water, Zombie bait, and more.
Ammo truly is scarce, which adds a level of stress to certain situations and makes the gameplay intense. This contributes to the games atmosphere, which is still stellar. I had chills for quite a bit of the time while playing, simply because it is quite a creepy game. The zombies are imposing, and sometimes rather terrifying, and all of this combined together makes this a very good survival-horror game.
Stranger missions return, with one particularly memorable mission where the player must find and kill several Sasquatches. Another where the player must capture a particular type of zombie for a former motion picture producer. It's quirky, but it's all in good fun, and adds to the experience. Bounty missions are replaced with a variant where the player is tasked with finding missing persons lost among the zombie infested landscape.
The ambient Challenges from the original game return here, with minor changes. The Undead Hunter Challenges require the player to hunt specific types of undead, with the first three challenges involving human undead, and the latter two involving undead wildlife. There are also Undead Sharpshooter Challenges, Undead Treasure Hunter, and the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. The latter is the most interesting of the challenges, where the player will randomly encounter one of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, and successfully capturing all four will complete the challenge sequence.
In addition to everything else, there is even an optional side-mission where the player can clear towns and settlements of zombies, and then defend from further attacks. If the player rescues a settlement from a zombie horde, saving the survivors, the settlement is considered "safe." However, it could come under attack again at any time, giving the player a choice of whether to defend the town or let it be captured. It's a dynamic system that is very fun and one of Undead Nightmares' best attributes.
The player can also clear out graveyards, by igniting coffins to send the zombies back to the graves from whence they came. This type of mini-mission isn't quite as fun as it's Red Dead Redemption counterpart (Gang Hideouts), but it's still entertaining nonetheless.
In addition to all of this, Undead Nightmare features it's own soundtrack, which, is truly very well made. The soundtrack and the tone of the world combine so well here, and it really adds to the experience just as well as the original.
The Verdict
Undead Nightmare has it's own flavors when compared to the original game, and sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn't. For the most part, Undead Nightmare is an immersive and engrossing experience, even if not as much as the original. It retains the gameplay, expands on it a bit, and all in all is a very good expansion. It doesn't always stay wieldy, but when it does, it does so very well.
The Good
- Great gameplay
- Enough new things to keep it fresh
- Definitely a good choice for survival-horror fans
- Atmospheric soundtrack
- Same quality in the characters
The Bad
- The story is rather unwieldy most of the time
- The zombie theme feels shoehorned into the setting