Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare

What: DLC for RDR 
Cost: $20, or $30 bundled with the other 2 DLC offerings.

PUBLISHER: Rockstar
DEVELOPER: Rockstar
Played on: PS3

Initial Impression: Old West 4 Dead



I knew I was in for a good time when I started. It was a separate storyline starring the one and only John Marsten. (Love that guy!) It starts out at the time in the main storyline where John has finished his government business and returns home. There's a wicked storm rolling in and 'Uncle' isn't back from his errands. Everyone's getting concerned but figure he's old enough to take care of himself. They all go to sleep, figuring they'd see him in the morning. Oh, he comes back a bit earlier... and a lot less alive than when he left. He attacks John's wife, then she attacks her son. You kill Uncle, tie up the other two and go searching for answers with only your Cattleman Revolver, a Double Barrel Shotgun, your lasso and enough ammo to reload those weapons about 5 times.

The UN story missions, much like the RDR story missions, send you all over the place in search of whatever the current NPC you're dealing with is after. There are side quests, challenges and random encounters just like the main game, and all with their own undead twist. Every town, post or fort you encounter is under attack and saving them comes in the form of finding and providing ammo as well as fighting off the horde. Once saved, they'll be stable for a while but keep your eyes peeled because they may get overrun at any point. You also acquire a new weapon each time you save a new town, though ammo is severely short.

Nearly every story-based NPC from the original game is encountered, and it's interesting to see how they are dealing with the zombie apocalypse. Speaking of Apocalypse...

There are Four Horses you can find and break. Pestilence. War. Famine. Death. Each has its own rare ability that proves rather invaluable when facing flesh-eating monstrosities. Pestilence is nearly impossible to kill (except when you slide casually down a short slope, apparently). War is on fire, and sets enemies on fire if they come in contact with it (handy to plow through groups of undead!). Famine has unlimited stamina (which is actually useless... all these horses have that). Death leaves a trail of - well - death in its path. A blue spectral haze travels behind the horse, detonating the heads of every zombie it passes.

The horse called "War" being captured.

There are new weapons - a blunderbuss that uses corpse parts as ammo, holy water that erupts in a blue flame when thrown at undead, undead bait and boom bait - the latter being the same as the former with the addition of a stick of dynamite.

Dislikes
The only things I can say I didn't like were the lifespan of Pestilence and the somewhat wonky aiming at times. The only way to stop an undead is to get a headshot. I had SEVERAL times when I've made perfect headshots (even while in Dead Eye) and it registers as either a miss or a body shot. I read that most people just put on the auto-aim because it goes right for the head, but I prefer to just scream at the TV.

Also - There were a few moments where I had to clear graveyards and got overrun, died and had to start over a few times in a row. That was frustrating. At least when you're clearing a town there's an indicator to let you know how much more you have to endure.

For paid DLC I kind of expected a tad more play-time, but overall it was fun and worth the basic $10 I ended up paying. I wouldn't purchase it any other way than as the bundled 3-pack.

9/10 - Worth Playing.