Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is the final add-on for Rockstar’s five star rated Wild West adventure. Undead Nightmare adds a brand new zombie-filled single player campaign and two extra multiplayer modes, including a zombie survival mode. If you’ve read our Undead Nightmare preview you’ll know we were impressed. But after more play time is it the thriller we expected it to be? Or did it make us scream in horror? Read our Undead Nightmare review to find out.
Undead Nightmare will be the last Red Dead Redemption downloadable content (it’s also coming as a standalone disc from 26th November) to boost the highly-rated Western romp. According to Rockstar, Undead Nightmare was the culmination of fan demand. Red Dead fans wanted zombies, and Rockstar delivered. Undead Nightmare arrives simultaneously on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network for 800 Microsoft Points and £7.99 respectively.
But before you take the plunge, how does the package rate? Read on for our verdict on the Undead Nightmare single player and new Undead Nightmare multiplayer mode.
Single player
The Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare single player campaign sees the main game’s protagonist and gunslinger, John Marston return to to his loved ones. Before starting the campaign the intro sequence sets the scene. Marston “was ready for anything. Well almost anything,” the narrator tells you.
The scene is a cold dark, damp night with bellows of ominous thunder ruffling the sky. You can tell John notices something is amiss. His uncle bursts through the door. “You don’t look so good,” Marston asks his bloodied elderly uncle. After bashing his uncle on the head and escaping, Marston’s wife ends up getting bitten, who in turn bites their son.
Marston sets off for Blackwater in search of a doctor, only to soon learn that zombie hell has broken loose. “The dead are risen and a virulent plague is turning people into flesh-eating crazies,” Marston’s old buddy Seth informs him. Out to find a cure, Marston begins his quest.
What follows throughout is typical Red Dead Redemption, with added zombie stylings. Initially you’ll be sent on missions to set fire to numerous coffins around the haunted looking graveyards scattered across your map in order to prevent further zombie break out, before dashing off to the next set.
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Killing zombies is an entirely different experience to nailing sub-standard human fare. For one these enemies have no guns. They just run at you as they do in the movies (what else did you expect), but they’re far from sitting ducks. They come at you in huge numbers and are some of the quickest bloodthirsty zombies you’ve ever seen. Think more 28 Days Later than Shaun of the Dead and you’ll get the idea. It makes Dead Eyeing them even more satisfying. Only a shot to the head kills them, hence the extended Dead Eye time you get in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. You’ll need it as you come across different classes of zombies, from the speedy Bolter zombies to the slow and cumbersome, but powerful Bruisers that push you to the ground with ease.
In Undead Nightmare you’ll be doing all sorts of zombie related missions. A recurring one is having to save nearby towns, and its survivors from zombie attacks. Do so and you’re granted a safe house. You’ll notice the weather changing according to the local zombie count. It’s just one of the neat touches adding to the intense, eerie atmosphere, right down to the burning trees and shrubs that illuminate the night sky.
Without spoiling things, other missions and side quests have you kidnapping zombies, yes, kidnapping them, saving random townsfolk, looking for ingredients for a cure, locating missing persons and killing mythical creatures.
Speaking of which, zombies aren’t the only undead plaguing the map. You’ll come across zombie cougars, bears, bats and the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Lassoing each horse lets you ride them around town whilst being able to take advantage of their unique abilities. War is a flaming horse that burns zombies when they come in contact, Death explodes the heads of nearby zombies, while Famine and Pestilence have infinite stamina and are nearly impossible to kill.
There are new weapons to combat Marston’s new found troubles, including Holy Water, which is basically blue fire, zombie bait to lure zombies, Boom Bait, which as you might have guessed is exploding bait, a flaming torch for a melee weapon and the Blunderbuss, which kills zombies in one hit and shoots zombie body parts.
If there is a stumbling block in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, it’s that some players won’t be patient enough to use Dead Eye to aim bullets into zombie heads, but even those players can attempt to get by without Dead Eye for an added challenge, or simply resort to the more explosive weapons on board instead.
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare’s single player is a real feather in Rockstar’s Red Dead cap. To the developers credit it has crafted a zombie mode that doesn’t feel like an add-on at all. From the off the presentation is superb – typical Rockstar, if you like. it feels more like a warped extended version of the full game, complete with new unlockable outfits and Undead Nightmare specific challenges. All the effort, personality and lovingly created cinematics from the full game are carried over in what is a meaningful and worthwhile campaign worthy of being a download in itself. The fact that you get multiplayer too is a bonus. Speaking of which:
Multiplayer
Adding to the enjoyable zombie single player mode is Undead Overrun – a 2-4 player co-op zombie survival mode in which players work together to fight off continuous waves of living dead. On first impressions it’s not the most original concept (See Gears Of War 2 and Halo 3 ODST/Halo: Reach for recent examples) – it’s literally been done to death. But as players will find, that doesn’t make it any less fun this time around in Red Dead Redemption’s Western setting.
Each map takes place amidst a deserted plain with the odd shelter, cemetery or deserted churchyard dotted with moss-covered gravestones and surrounded by overgrown shrubbery – typical zombie horror settings then.
Before beginning a game, yourself and three other players chose their weapon set from four preset categories: Ravager, LongShot, Overkill and Mauler. Each does the job, packing a shotgun and pistol/rifle, but for those looking for something a little more explosive, Ravager and Overkill pack a wad of dynamite for dispersing zombie crowds back to hell.
Dispatching the first few waves is hardly taxing. They’re rather slow and bumbling to begin with, but later waves get increasingly tougher and present a real challenge. By the time you reach wave six helping your teammates becomes essential. Go it alone and you’ve got no chance.
The game ends when all players have died, or the timer runs out. Luckily coffins pop up after every round with a new weapon inside. Cue each player rushing to the coffin in the hope there’s a box of Boom Bait inside, which is essentially exploding bait. Lobbing one of these onto the map lures all zombies to that point before they get blown sky-high. It lends a strategic approach to more difficult waves.
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When things get too hectic, tossing some bait, explosive or otherwise is essential to grabbing a few valuable seconds to revive your teammates (you can do this too) before they bleed to death. Again, work together or you won’t get past wave 10. Throw in different classes of zombies (fast ones, strong ones, ones that projectile vomit at you) and the challenge is all the more rewarding when you’ve made it past yet another wave. And if you all do die a zombie death, you can always try again. If you’re playing with mates, the ‘just another go’ syndrome is sure to hit you.
Undead Overrun is hardly original, but it plays beautifully, delivering addictive zombie killing goodness in waves. Play it with mates and the fun multiplies. As we mentioned in our preview, there’s a reason Rockstar went with zombies. Everyone loves zombies. Mostly. If you’re one of them, you’ll love this.
Verdict
If you’ve read this far you’ll have realised that both the Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare single player campaign and Undead Overrun multiplayer mode combine to form a fantastic farewell to the game. Undead Nightmare is the final bit of downloadable content for Rockstar’s Wild West foray, and what a way to go. As the single player mode goes there’s plenty of hours worth of gameplay to keep players satisfied for £8 in a DLC campaign just as lovingly crafted every area as the full game. Toss in an addictive multiplayer mode, especially when played with mates and there’s little reason to dissuade anyone from downloading Undead Nightmare.
At the time of reviewing we were unable to test out the Land Grab multiplayer mode – a zombie-less mode where players defend patches of land to gain XP. Read more about Land Grab in our multiplayer preview.
Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC is available today for £7.99 (PS3) or 800 Microsoft Points (Xbox 360)
Update: Not into virtual copies? Rockstar just told us that Undead Nightmare will be available as a standalone disc bundling earlier Red Dead Redemption add-ons, Outlaws to the End, Legends and Killers and the Liars and Cheats Pack. Rockstar’s complete Western bundle will be available on one disc from 26th November in stores for £24.99 on Xbox 360 and PS3. The best bit is you won’t need a copy of the original game to play it.
