Yes, I know… Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare came out back in 2010; however, I’m only a casual gamer and I like to play all the good titles available on a console before I shell out another couple hundred for the next generation.
Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare was created by Rod Edge, Dan Houser and Michael Unsworth in conjunction with Rockstar San Diego. The game was released to Play Station 3 and Xbox 360 as a downloadable expansion pack in the shoot ’em up franchise Red Dead Redemption. This game takes shooters back to the days of the wild, wild west, specifically the 1820s when America was expanding toward Mexico and Texas. One evening, John Marston wakes to find his family being attacked by members of the undead. They eventually become infected and Marston heads into town to find a doctor…soon finding it under attack, too. It seems that the zombie plague has spread through the American frontier and it’s up to Mr. Marston to find the source and kill it…again.
The game features voices from Josh Blaylock, John Nuzzi, Michael Abbott Jr., Brandi Burkhardt, Anthony De Longis, Joel Marsh Garland, Ross Hagen, Hector Luis Bustamante, Don Creech, Anthony Cumia and Alyssa May Gold.
Now, the type of gamer I am… I don’t like having to read a thousand different pop up messages of dialogue and directions. I basically just click through them while yelling, “Shut up! I just want to play already!” So, my style of learning the controls is to go out and explore and do it. In reference to this particular game, that made things a little difficult. It took me a while to pick up the clues, the tools of navigation and especially the controlled shooting. I had to practice to become a good shot, but it was well worth it once I picked it up. Once you get the general understanding of how things work the rest of the game will be a breeze. Are you getting torn up by zombies? Just run away for a few seconds and go back. Running low on ammo? The torch and hand-held tomahawks will come in handy. It’s not a difficult game by any means. I was only hindered by my particular style of learning.
I will tell you what does hinder the experience of Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare, though. It is repetitive beyond belief, which I guess most zombie games and first person shooters become. You travel. You enter a town. You get attacked. You kill. You meet a survive. You get a clue. You leave. Wash, rinse and repeat. What really makes it nearly unbearable is that towns you have already purged of zombies can be taken over again within 24 hours; which means you’ll be revisiting and clearing the same towns over and over and over again. This was a huge turn off for me, becoming so monotonous that I would take week long breaks from playing. Not to mention the travel by horse. Let’s say you only have an hour after work to play this game (that’s how long I have). You will spend a good fifteen minutes of that hour just traveling by horse because the towns are so far from each other.
Red Dead Redemption – Undead Nightmare is a good “sequel” in the video game franchise. It’s visually stunning and voiced to perfection, but it is repetitive as fuuuuuck.
Final Score: 5.5 out of 10
