VIDEO GAME REVIEW: Red Dead Redemption- Undead Nightmare

Last Updated on July 23, 2021

Published by: Rockstar Games
Developed by: Rockstar San Diego
Release Date: October 27, 2010
Available on: Xbox 360; PS3

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INTRO: To be nice around Halloween (and undoubtedly to make a few bucks), Rockstar decided to release a zombie-themes mod of Red Dead Redemption, the fantastic GTA-style western game released a few months earlier. It isn’t a severely plot-heavy game, but you know what you need to know: zombies have infested your town and it’s up to you to stop ’em.

The company line: “Undead Nightmare introduces hours of a new single-player storyline and brand new multiplayer content. Seemingly overnight, a zombie plague ravages the once bountiful frontier, decimating the landscape and reawakening the dead. In towns, settlements and outposts throughout the world, the uninfected citizens are left to fight for survival against waves of the undead. John Marston must ride out into the vast and terrifying world and survive long enough to find a cure.”

GAMEPLAY:

Now, before you start asking me questions, I can tell you that this game does indeed warrant being released as a separate pack, and is undoubtedly fun. The game starts off with a bang, as a family member stumbles into our hero’s homestead and begins to raise a bit of hell as a member of the undead. Of course, it’s Marston’s job to wreck these folks. Now, if you haven’t played the original game, you should- it’s far more detailed and there’s more to do, but that doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy this one for what it is. The game plays in a way reminiscent of GTA games.

If you’re familiar at all with Rockstar’s previous open-world titles, then you should feel right at home with Red Dead Redemption. The game is constructed in a very similar manner, with the player having the option to partake in mini-games to earn extra cash as well as just mess around as much as they’d like. The biggest difference between Red Dead Redemption and Grand Theft Auto, though, is that, well, Red Dead Redemption is a Western set in the early 1900’s.

As a result of this, you mainly ride horses to reach your destinations. The horse-riding mechanics are done better than they’ve ever been done in any video game I have ever played, and that’s quite an impressive feat. There are also stagecoaches you can ride and use to fast-travel, but besides that, your main mode of transportation will be horses. By pressing up the d-pad, a horse will rush to your side and allow you to ride it at any given time. This mechanic reduces frustration and saves you from having to run around and look for a horse yourself.

Red Dead Redemption adds other mechanics to the mix as well. You can now stock up on provisions to carry with you, and collect a bunch of different items that you can sell at stores. You can pick various flowers, kill and skin animals, drink alcohol, read newspapers, and set up a campsite that can work as a way to fast-travel or just to save. This helps make the game feel more realistic than the GTA games, and it also adds a certain RPG element that is welcome and feels very much at home in the open-world environment.

Combat in Red Dead Redemption makes some changes to the formula. You work with a regenerating health system now, meaning that you don’t have to make repeated trips to the stores to restock on medical supplies after every mission, and this helps keep the game chugging along at a nice pace for sure. There is also a slow-motion deal called Dead Eye used to make precision shots and to take out enemies that you are having problems killing. In this mode, you aim at an enemy and wherever you’re aiming, a red X will appear. You hover until you get as many X’s as you can and then the game will fire rapidly at these X’s. At one point in the game, they change this mechanic to make the player tap the right-bumper to place the X’s in Dead Eye mode. While it’s necessary for some situations, it does feel a little weird that they altered one of the more frequently-used gameplay mechanics when they could’ve just started out that way in the first place.

Anyway, the idea in this game is to help out each little town and wipe out all the zombies within it. They become safe for awhile and you can travel there until zombies eventually return. It’s good to save these little towns and villages because they’ll upgrade your inventory to give you some fun, fun stuff like a rifle that shoots dynamite, a musketoon that disintegrates zombies with their ribs, and plenty of fun makeshift bombs.

The zombies aren’t tough from far away but once they get a hold of you if you’re outnumbered, look out. There are some special types too that you’ll likely rely on Dead Eye to take care of. This apocalypse has really added some weird things to the proceedings, like the four horses of the apocalypse! They’re really, really cool to look at and if you can catch them all you can ride a unicorn, which is a tough thing to find. Just be careful, because they’re easy to accidentally shoot from time to time.

Ultimately, this isn’t nearly as long as the original game and know that if you blaze through it, you might beat this one in a day. However, this game is one for completionists and it will take a long, long time to unlock everything in this one. There’s a ton to do through side quests, fun hunting missions (where you even hunt bigot!), lots of missing people and plenty of towns to explore. This is definitely worthy of your time.

Gameplay: 8.5/10

GRAPHICS:

This game made me realize once again how beautiful Red Dead can be. The characters and zombies look good and are animated well, but let me tell you, the landscape in this game is breathtaking and there’s a lot of amazing scenery to take in. There were several times when I’d just stop and look around at the world in front of me. It doesn’t often happen to me where I just stop and admire how nice a game looks but this is one amazing world they’ve built in Red Dead and it undoubtedly deserves your attention.

Graphics: 9/10

AUDIO:

This game has near perfect sound. The voice acting is amazing in almost every way. The music is, on the other hand, absolutely flawless. While it’s mostly nothing you haven’t heard from any western movie, it’s the use of the game’s soundtrack that really makes it stand out. Rockstar made not only an effort to make the game look good, but sound good in all the right places.

Audio: 9/10

FINAL VERDICT:

This is the DLC that every other bit of DLC wishes it was. Robust, fun, horrific and fully featured, this game deserves your time. The only real complaint is that this isn’t a super long game, but regardless, there’s still a lot to do. There are zombies everywhere today but there’s no doubt that these ones stand out amongst the crowd to show how truly fun they can be. 

Final Score: 8/10

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