Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare (2010)

Not sure why Grouvee doesn't have a Switch version of this, but that is what I played it on.

As stated in the title, I actually had more fun playing this DLC than the base game. I think it may have been due to the structure of the game, almost a "greatest hits" of the characters and locations. I spent just enough time with each character to be reminded of their charm, but not long enough to be annoyed with their extreme-ness.

The game mechanic of rescuing the towns was surprisingly enjoyable, even though the overall shooting mechanics was a little rough. I wish that saving towns had led to more in the game than simply being able to fast travel.

OPEN-WORLD ACTION - A unique expansion to RDR that sees John Marston trying to find a cure for his family who have been infected and became victims of this Western zombie apocalypse.

PROS:

++ Headshots. Popping headshots felt incredibly satisfying.

++ Cool new weapons. Like the sawed-off shotgun or the explosive rifle that turns zombies into red mist.

++ Interesting premise. Having a zombie outbreak in the RDR world made for a great setting.

++ Mythical horses. Looked cool, and had unlimited stamina.

++ Undead Overrun. A fun online mode that I played a lot when I was younger.

CONS:

-- Repetitive mission structure.

-- Uninteresting plot.

-- Tedious travelling. Since there's limited fast travel, there was a lot of tedious horse riding.

-- Inconsistent framerate. Framerate was incredibly choppy when there were many zombies on-screen.

-- Imposed side quests. For some odd reason, they made side quests necessary in order to complete the main storyline.

I admire Rockstar for making DLC for Red Dead Redemption that is a complete 180 from their usual style. Undead Nightmare is Rockstar just going loose, untethered from any sort of reality, allowing characters to ride the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse and hunt bigfoot in the Wild West. Yet for some reason in doing this, Rockstar puts their biggest weaknesses at the forefront, making this an incredibly frustrating bonus that undermines the whimsical core of the game.

Undead Nightmare mostly puts John Marston on foot and has him facing giant hordes of the undead. Unfortunately, the maneuvering of characters on foot has never been Rockstar's strong suit, and shooting has always been completely unreliable with them. Not only that, but when visiting survivors of various towns, the game often asks you to engage in clumsy, awkward platforming to reach them.

Undead Nightmare has really two different mission styles: clear out a town of zombies with the game's bad controls, or take on character missions that 90% of the time end with a punch line of the character getting eaten by zombies. Neither are all that interesting and compared to the depth and unique characters of the original game, it's almost embarrassing. When the game finally ended, it was so underwhelming, I honestly had no idea I had reached the end.

I realize this is just supposed to be a fun addition to a solid game, but Undead Redemption is so buggy and unreliable that while it's fantastical atmosphere is admirable, the execution is terrible. This is especially a shame considering Rockstar's previous DLC for Grand Theft Auto 4 was arguably better than the actual game. But with Undead Nightmare, Rockstar have made a slapdash disaster that isn't nearly as fun as it clearly thinks it is.