Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

by Guest Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 18:18

Before we start in, let’s just silence any misconceptions right off the bat: despite any appearances to the contrary, the Undead Nightmare DLC for Red Dead Redemption is not a “just add zombies” mod for the hit Western game. A huge, open landscape overrun with the walking dead is the central draw, sure, but Undead Nightmare’s changes run a lot deeper than that. Everything, from the music and color palette to the weather patterns and towns, has undergone drastic changes that give the Old West a much more unsettling, apocalyptic feel. There are ridiculous new weapons to unleash on the cannibal hordes, and things you took for granted, like camping to save or fast travel, are now too dangerous even to consider.

And zombies, while a constant threat, are far from the worst things you’ll find lurking in the newly corrupted wilderness.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Undead_06--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Undead_06--article_image

But we’re getting ahead of ourselves. At the center of Undead Nightmare is a new story campaign, which we’re told will take about five or six hours to complete, and which, like the DLC episodes for GTA IV, will be accessible from the main menu at any time. Taking place somewhere during the game’s “home” sequence (after John Marston returns to Beecher’s Hope, but before the finale), the story predictably tasks Marston with discovering the reasons behind a sudden undead plague, and with putting it down.

One possible theory is that it’s all Seth’s fault. Our demo began with Marston confronting the emaciated grave robber in a cutscene at the Old Bacchus Place, where he was unsuccessfully playing cards with his former partner Moses, now zombified and oddly docile. Seth didn’t seem the least bit surprised by the dead walking the earth; in fact, he said, this wasn’t even the first time it had happened. When Marston said that folks in Blackwater thought the plague might have been stirred by a magic eye Seth stole from a grave, though, Seth flew into a rage and ordered Moses to attack Marston – which he didn’t. Eventually, Seth calmed down enough to tell us what to do: travel to every graveyard on the map and clear out every last flesh-eater.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20042--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20042--article_image

The first one the game pointed us at was the little cemetery by Coot’s Chapel, but what happened on the way was actually more interesting, and came with a surprise. After saddling up a convenient zombie horse (which was more or less like any other horse, apart from continually wanting to veer in random directions and looking roughly 500 percent more disgusting), a blip on our radar appeared to let us know that a “mythical creature” was in the vicinity. This was one of the big reveals during our session: in addition to zombies, Undead Nightmare adds assorted monsters and mythical beasts that Marston can hunt or capture.

After chasing down the blip (which turned into a large, blue searchable area when we got close), we spotted a big, black horse with flaming hooves. This, we found out, was the horse of War, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse – and, yes, Pestilence, Famine and Death are lurking in the DLC, too.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20010--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20010--article_image

The good news is that War’s horse was friendly… once we’d chased, lassoed and broken him like we would any other wild horse, that is. The better news is that, once he’s your horse, you can gallop through zombie herds and set them on fire, assuming you don’t get yanked out of the saddle in the process. Meanwhile, we’re told Famine and Pestilence will both have infinite stamina (meaning you can gallop nonstop), and Death’s horse can explode zombie heads, presumably by touching them.

As we rode on to Coot’s Chapel (which included a detour through a boarded-up version of the MacFarlane Ranch dotted with flaming wreckage), we were attacked by a few crowds of zombies, which wander the landscape like wild animals (but with much greater frequency). As it turns out, these bastards fall into four categories: the Undead, your garden-variety shambling corpses; Bolters, who scamper around low to the ground and are incredibly difficult to hit; Bruisers, who are big, slow and tougher to kill than most; and Retchers, who glow green, spit bile and explode when killed.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Retcher--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Retcher--article_image

It took a while to get used to them as enemies; taking them down with bullets means shooting them in the head, something their erratic, flailing movements made it difficult to pull off. If you plan to stand and fight instead of running away, get ready to use Deadeye a lot. Or, alternately, to let them get close enough to use a close-quarters finisher – although that’s risky.

Fortunately, Marston has a few new weapons that work a little better in the heat of the moment, the most immediately useful being a torch. Not only can Marston swing it around to set the undead on fire, but if they get too close he can stab them in the face, conveniently ending them.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20038--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20038--article_image

It also plays a major role in clearing out the cemeteries. When we reached Coot’s Chapel, we found out that the only way to purify the graveyard was to set fire to several unearthed coffins. Setting one on fire causes more to emerge from the ground, along with a few dozen hungry zombies, which continues until the last coffin’s been burned. After that, a “boss” zombie (in this case a pale, twisted version of deranged “stranger” Alma Horlick) will claw its way out of the ground and attack; kill it, and the ground is holy again. Think of these segments as being like the regular game’s Gang Hideouts, but with less gunfire and more biting.

The rest of Marston’s new arsenal isn’t quite as down-to-earth. For starters, he’s got holy water, which acts like a firebomb that envelops zombies in blue flames. There’s also Zombie Bait, a chunk of gross-looking meat that draws zombies toward it, and Boom Bait, which is zombie bait that explodes (just like the pipe bombs in Left 4 Dead).

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20048--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20048--article_image

But the awesomely ridiculous centerpiece is Marston’s new blunderbuss. Far from being just an antique firearm, the Blunderbuss uses zombie parts as ammunition, and can instantly reduce any zombie standing in front of it to an explosion of red mist. It’s quick, it’s powerful and ammunition for it is everywhere; all you need to do to fill up is loot a few dead zombies.

Clearing cemeteries may be your central goal in Undead Nightmare (at least, we’re assuming it is; other story missions are also likely), but it’s far from your only one. Because you can’t camp anymore, you’ll only be able to save and fast-travel from safe houses – and in order to earn those, you’ll have to clear out the towns they’re in. At this point in our demo, we were jumped to some little nothing town that was populated only by the undead and a handful of armed survivors standing on the rooftops.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Undead_22--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! Undead_22--article_image

To clear out the horde, we climbed up to the survivors, jumped behind a Gatling gun and started laying waste – which turned out to be trickier than we would have thought. Even with a machinegun, kills required headshots. Once we started picking them off, it was just a matter of lasting through several waves of undead – not too difficult, really, when you’re standing on a roof – until the town was declared safe. In the end, the Boom Bait turned out to be especially useful for killing off the horde, as did the Explosive Rifle from the Liars and Cheats DLC.

In addition to cleansed towns, you can also find a safe haven at the various military-controlled “clean zones” (Fort Mercer, for instance). These are also where you’ll be able to pick up Missing Person missions, which stand in for the regular game’s Wanted missions, and usually entail riding out into the countryside, rescuing someone from a zombie-besieged building, and then escorting them back to the clean zone. In our case, we rescued a man who’d holed up on the top floor of the Ridgewood Farm house and refused to come out until we’d killed off all the zombies trying to find him. Luckily, he turned out to be able to defend himself, and rode with Marston instead of on his own horse, both of which made keeping track of him less of a chore.

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20026--article_image

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money! RDR%20Undead%20Nightmare%20026--article_image

In addition to what we saw, we’re told Undead Nightmare will feature new, spookier music tracks by Red Dead composers Bill Elm and Woody Jackson, including a few new vocal tracks. There’ll also be a new multiplayer mode, although we can’t tell you about that just yet. At present, Rockstar’s being cagey about the release date, although our money’s on it being available sometime around Halloween. We do know, however, that you can expect to shell out 800 Microsoft Points or $9.99 on PSN when it finally drops. And from what we’ve seen so far, it should be worth it.

by **Andy** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 18:28

yay - that is all!

by **N1NJA FWG** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 19:04

this looks quality Very Happy

by **Waylander FWG** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 19:11

Thats looking pretty impressive

by **FWG Plod** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 19:12

That does look like a hell of alot for ur money

by **FWG Rigor Mortice** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 19:55

that looks bloody good. for 800 points thats my next dlc for sure. cant wait to find out about the multiplay mode

by **Duke** Thu 14 Oct 2010 - 21:51

Alex...... I may need my red dead copy back soon!

by **feralmatt02** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 14:03

this looks amazing - can we do mulitplayer with it?

by **N1NJA FWG** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 14:11

I hope so Matt a bit of Left 4 Red Dead would be pretty sweet Very Happy

by **Guichew** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 14:18

Duke wrote:Alex...... I may need my red dead copy back soon!

LOL - I'll give it back next week Wink

I need to buy myself a copy!!!

by **Admin** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 14:34

trading blur in for rdr in a defo after reading that!! sounds braw!!

by **FWG Plod** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 14:38

We could have quite a few people by the looks of it for some public free roaming

by **N1NJA FWG** Fri 15 Oct 2010 - 16:04

I have heard that rockstar are going to do a retail version of rdr that carries just the dlc and doesn't need the original to play - similar to what they did with episodes from liberty city. Price is rumoured to be round the 25 quid mark although I don't know if this has been officially announced yet

by **FWG Rigor Mortice** Mon 25 Oct 2010 - 16:55

out tomorrow peoples Woot!

by Guest Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 12:24

Yes there is multiplayer Laughing

One issue though this came out today at a rather increased price of 1600 points....quite alot of cash in my opinion....

by **FWG Rigor Mortice** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 13:02

hmmmm not gonna bother then. what happend to the 800 point price tag then?

by **Andy** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 13:11

silly tom - that is for the whole dlc pack - the undead bit is still 800 pts. have downloaded it and will be on it tonight

by **FWG Rigor Mortice** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 13:28

oooooo might be up for a bit of this then

by **feralmatt02** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 13:50

just ordered some more points for this Very Happy

by **FWG Plod** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 17:27

had to give my copy back to lads friend. I will wait for it all to come down in price in shops and then get it.

by **Andy** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 17:35

FWG Plod wrote:had to give my copy back to lads friend.

why, was he bullying you Pig

by **FWG Plod** Wed 27 Oct 2010 - 17:42

No who told you that, FFS it was once he chinese burned my arm and i had something in my eye!!!!!

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Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

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Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!

Re: Red Dead Undead - Hands-on....looking like serious value for money!