Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare - No game has captured the essence of the Wild West like Red Dead Redemption (RDR). Riding your faithful steed across vast expanses of the Southern countryside was a sublime experience. It also managed to pack in a ton of gameplay variety; something fans felt was sorely missing from Grand Theft Auto IV. With more time and experience on their hands, Rockstar even managed to juice a little more out of their RAGE engine to craft one of the most gorgeous games I’ve played all year. And who could forget the gut-wrenching ending that played on my mind for days on end. All thanks to the brilliant writing, stellar voice acting and the game’s protagonist, John Marston. He wasn’t the smartest tool in the shed, nor was he the most honest but that man was bound by honor and principles, something I feel few games have really touched upon in recent times.
Now nearly six months later Rockstar Games have invited players to explore the Southern frontier once again, but this time things are a bit different. A mysterious plague has settled upon the land transforming man, woman and beast into undead monsters with a voracious appetite for human flesh. None are safe from this plague, not even Marston’s family who sadly fall prey to this outbreak at the start of the game. This motivates him to not only search for a cure but figure out who or what exactly caused this zombie apocalypse.
Gameplay in Undead Nightmare is pretty much the same as it was in RDR i.e. it plays out like a third person, cover based shooter set in a sprawling open world. Exploration was encouraged in RDR as the world was full of dynamic events that made players feel like they part of a living world where anything could happen at any given point in time. This holds true for the DLC as well but the activities now have a more ominous tone to them. Instead of saving a citizen from bandits, you’re saving him/her from flesh eating fiends. Instead of tracking down bounties you’re looking for missing people spread all across the wasteland and so on.
