Download Lowdown: Undead Nightmare

NOTE: The benefit of online connectivity to modern game systems has been the ability of developers to deliver new content for existing games quickly, reliably, and affordably. Download Lowdown will be a look at some of that content, from free add-ons to whole new experiences on familiar games. I'll begin this new feature as I did my regular review suite, with a DLC pack for Rockstar's Red Dead Redemption...

As I wrote this article on Thanksgiving morning, thinking of the tasty dinner I anticipated with a ravenous group of like-minded individuals, I couldn't help but think of zombies. Does that make me weird? Probably, but who doesn't have zombies on the brain as of late? They're everywhere: comics books, movies, TV shows (The Walking Dead was one of the highest rated cable shows of the fall), and definitely video games. The Resident Evil series popularized them, Left 4 Dead and Dead Rising brought them to this console generation, but it's Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare that just may have given us the most unique and engaging zombie experience you'll find this side of the actual zombie apocalypse. Who would've thought that zombies and Westerns would be such a match made in gaming heaven?

(Well, Jon Favreau maybe, but he threw aliens in instead. Go figure.)

John Marston, not one for speechifying

Red Dead was hands-down my favorite game last year all by itself; but Undead Nightmare, all on its own, was easily one of my favorite gaming experiences of 2010. The expansion, which sells for 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 on the PlayStation Network, features a six-hour single-player campaign (which doesn't affect your main game save) and two new multiplayer modes (one zombie-related, one not). Quite a bit of content for ten bucks, and its' entertainment value is worth every penny.

Time to nut up or shut up

The Undead Nightmare campaign is unsettling, suspenseful, weird, and all sorts of fun. Squeezing in before the end of the main story chronologically, the narrative is solid and focused, voiced by the same cast that made Red Dead's campaign so engaging. But far from the sometimes overly-serious fare of the primary game, Undead Nightmare serves as more of a pastiche of the horror genre, one that celebrates it while also reveling in its ridiculousness.

Like Red Dead, side quests, strangers, new and different weapons, and strange animals to hunt and tame abound in the wilds of New Austin. The economy of the game is thrown completely on its head (who needs money when there's no stores open to use it in?), with your stock of ammunition serving as your reward for completing missions, challenges, and rescuing missing persons. New ambient challenges have you slaughtering hordes of the undead, killing zombie cougars with your torch, and tracking for the Four Horses of the Apocalypse.

C'mon, who WOULDN'T want to ride a flaming horse around the desert?

I cannot give an accurate, or even vague, opinion on the multiplayer modes included in the pack as of yet. Undead Overrun is much like other games' escalation modes, with wave after wave of the undead streaming in while you and your posse struggle to stock up on bullets and stay alive. Land Grab, the zombie-free multiplayer expansion, apparently adds new challenges in the main game's Free Roam lobby, seeing how long you can hold onto your property before some Greenhorn comes in and shots your hat off for it. I'm sure they're both engaging and entertaining, but my distinct lack of desire for online multiplayer competition leaves me unable to render an opinion on these options.

Overall, Undead Nightmare offers more in its shortened affair than some full retail games that are currently on store shelves (*coughcoughTheForceUnleashedIIcough*). If you haven't picked up Red Dead Redemption yet, not to fret: Rockstar released all of the currently available DLC as a standalone retail disc on November 30, giving folks access to the multiplayer modes and Undead Nightmare much like they did with GTA4's Epsiodes from Liberty City. If you haven't entered the world of Red Dead Redemption, that's a heck of a place to start. And that's the Download Lowdown.