It’s 2023 and over the weekend I unintentionally stayed up far later than I anticipated replaying Undead Nightmare on my Nintendo Switch. Not solely am I having a candy time with the 13-year-old enlargement, however I’m excited that top-of-the-line zombie video games ever made, and certainly one of Rockstar’s best hits, is lastly accessible to extra individuals through the newly launched Switch and PS4 ports. It’s only a disgrace they price $50.
While the unique Red Dead Redemption was a grounded and gritty story of revenge and making an attempt to flee one’s previous, the western’s one and solely single-player enlargement went a really totally different route. Undead Nightmare, launched on October 26, 2010, was a paid enlargement that added a complete new mini-campaign for RDR gamers. The creepy enlargement added spooky creatures and lethal zombies to the huge open world of Red Dead Redemption. After his household will get contaminated by the undead curse, RDR’s protagonist and former outlaw John Marston grabs a shotgun and a lasso and heads out into the zombie-infested prairies and deserts to avoid wasting his spouse and son, and probably the world.
And now the unique sport and its beloved enlargement are mixed right into a single launch on Switch and PS4. And fortunately, the Switch port is a strong technique to play this zombified western.
Undead Nightmare continues to be completely creepy and enjoyable in 2023
There’s quite a bit to like about Undead Nightmare, however what retains me coming again to it each few years is the ambiance and vibe of its zombie-filled open world. In Undead Nightmare, particularly in the course of the early portion of the DLC, you’re outnumbered and always weak to the undead lurking across the complete map. There aren’t any vehicles or large buildings to cover in. This is the Old West. Machine weapons are big and impractical, ammo is spare, weapons aren’t correct, and horses present little safety from a horde of hungry contaminated. Exploring the creepy and haunted world of Undead Nightmare feels terrifying and unnerving in a approach most zombie video games fail to seize.
Helping the vibes of Undead Nightmare quite a bit is the unbelievable music, taking a number of the themes and devices present in the primary RDR soundtrack and twisting them into horror-inspired tunes that add a beautiful bizarre west vibe to the motion.
Also serving to the vibes: The complete world is spooky and harmful. Every character you meet is out of their minds, individuals get eaten by zombies always, Bigfoot and the Chupacabra run wild, and even the moon is a pale, sickly inexperienced. As you journey from city to city, serving to push again the horde of undead and securing short-term protected havens for survivors, you’ll at all times really feel such as you’re taking part in via some grindhouse-era horror movie about cowboys and zombies. It’s fantastic, and the right sport to play throughout Halloween.
In my time with the brand new port on Nintendo’s growing older console, I hardly ever bumped into efficiency points. The solely main exception occurred throughout fights with big hordes of zombies and survivors. Here the sport would begin to chug for a bit, just like the way it performed on the Xbox 360 again within the day. (On a extra optimistic observe: The PS4 model didn’t buckle practically at throughout related giant horde fights.)
It’s disappointing that each one these years later, on a brand new console, this $50 port doesn’t convey something new to the desk like a 60fps mode or enhanced visuals. It’s additionally a disgrace that Undead Nightmare’s on-line zombie horde mode is absent from the Switch and PS4 variations of the sport, as that mode was a ton of enjoyable with mates.
Still, if you happen to can overlook the lacking on-line modes and the dearth of visible upgrades or tweaks, it is a implausible technique to play Undead Nightmare. I can think about taking the Switch out on a tenting journey into the woods and taking part in this spooky sport at evening round a campfire, leaping at each noise you hear from the darkness round you. It’s simply that the excessive price ticket may understandably preserve some of us away till Red Dead Redemption’s new ports go on sale.
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