As Halloween is closing shop tonight, you shouldn’t let that discourage you from looking at Rockstar’s latest gem in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare pack. For something that is only $9.99 you’re getting one helluva deal.
The pack features a somewhat deep single-player, co-op and multiplayer package.
Starting with the single-player, you reprise your role as John Marston. You’re called in to help out on a supposed plague that is infecting the local folks and turning them into stark raving undead. Broken up into different types of zombie classes (Bolters, Bruisers and Retchers), you’re up against what some might consider hopeless situations. In reality, you’re in the same world that Marston is use to in the original RDR with the exception of zombies. The world really is divided into three things in the Undead Nightmare pack: the living (usually hiding), the dead and the undead. For $9.99 I’m not expecting this to be a complete overhaul and almost a ‘1.5’ version of the game; rather I’m just looking for the game to be ‘in addition’ to the original. I have to say that I’m highly impressed with the single-player, as it goes above and beyond my expectations. For something so cheap, you get some pretty intense missions of seek and rescue, sometimes you fend off hordes of the undead and other times you cruise around getting rid of the baddies. The shear atmosphere that the DLC brings to the table puts you in the mood to do battle against the undead and find a resolution. Everything in this pack is dead, dreary and just packed with the right type of atmosphere that you would expect zombies to live in. Again, for $9.99 you get a completely different world that this reviewer certainly didn’t expect out of a DLC. You could probably sell this for $19.99 and get the same amount of interest and intrigue, but for $9.99 it’s a steal (and that’s just stopping at the single-player mode).
The only caveat to the single-player is the ease of taking out the undead. The only time you would need to concern yourself with running like hell is if they came at you in large numbers (like the Jawas…. sorry, had to reference it). Other than that, you can simply shoot from a distance or decide to be creative with fire; the choice is yours, but regardless it’s generally easy kills.
The multiplayer portion of this world is a bit more pointless, but fun when you can get the right people involved. It’s an online mode called Undead Overrun. Here you band together with friends (or strangers) and do your best to survive the nearly endless hordes of zombies of all classes coming at you in waves. The point of the multiplayer is to survive the longest and gain points from doing so. By gaining points you level up, which opens more goodies for you to play with. The entire experience is broken up into three separate locations (or at least the ones I played), which include an open cemetery, a church and a destroyed town. Again, in hindsight the multiplayer is a bit pointless, but for some damn reason you won’t want to stop playing it. You’ll feel that need to challenge yourself in the multiplayer and help out your fellow comrades during this massive undead attack. Positioning and points are important and you’ll just keep wanting more and more. For some reason I really love the multiplayer mode, but this is the first time where I can safely say that I have no idea why.
I just need more of it, damn it.
Other neat things that come with this DLC are an all-new soundtrack, which is terrifying and great. Some neat achievements and trophies to gain and a creepy voice over guy that wants to be Vincent Price so bad that it hurts. As for other things like presentation and what not, you get the same type of graphical standard that you’re use to in the first game. Like I stated in the single-player explanation, it’s a lot more dreary and decayed atmosphere than the original, as it should be.
So should you purchase this? Uh, yeah. The fact that you’re still reading this means that you probably need to ask the person in your house that you live with to go ahead and slap you in the back of the head for not having it purchased already. Folks, this is $9.99 and you get everything above. I can’t think of a recent DLC that brings this much to the table at that low of a price. If you own and love RDR then you need this DLC. Don’t wait, just get it.