Red Dead: Redemption - Undead Nightmare DLC

Played it on: Xbox 360
Available on: Xbox 360, PS3, and PC
Played it for: 30-40 hours

RATING: 9/10

Summary:
What if.... there were zombies...... IN THE 1920'S WILD WEST?!

Review:
This game is pretty interesting to say the least. Zombies, lever action rifles, six shooters, and a whole lot of mayhem surround you as your family turns into ravenous monsters, and you search for clues to the cure. The DLC is set after the events of the original Red Dead: Redemption, and John Marston has returned to his family after his adventures in New Austin, where his wife and son are attacked by their uncle, now zombified. The game spends no time on useless tutorials or scattered plots like the original, which was my biggest complaint, and the zombie aspect fills in the gaps that all the normal missions left blank with boredom. It's nice to have something to occupy the wastes between plot lines, even if that thing is unbelievably scary. As the game goes on, the zombies also get tougher and tougher, making it difficult to travel the wastes, but it balances out with the locations you can fast travel to, so it just seems well thought out as apposed to it's brother.

However, the game poses incentives to continue crossing the wastes and facing the zombie threat head on. Throughout the land, one can find "Mythical Creatures", otherwise known as the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, which can be tamed and ridden. The first two horses are War, a black flaming horse, and Pestilence, a sickly white horse who bleeds from the eyes. The next horse can be found in Mexico, and is known as Famine, and is a black and white, gaunt looking, starving horse. The final horse is Death, and it can be found anywhere on the map, but can only be located after finding and taming the first three. Death is the most powerful horse against the undead, because while Pestilence is extremely strong, War can burn enemies, and Famine can run quickly, Death can kill the zombies with just a single touch, making wasteland travel a breeze. However, what is the other way to travel without getting hurt? Run faster than everything else, of course! After taming the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, you have the chance to obtain the most prized of all steeds: a Unicorn. Yes, yes, I know, but bear with me. If you obtain the Four Horses and kill the Chupacabra in Mexico, you can tame the Unicorn, which is the fastest horse in the game. Quite literally nothing can catch you. Not to mention, like all the mythical steeds, the Unicorn has infinite stamina, so you can run forever and ever and ever...

(Plus, it's a hilarious contradiction running around on a Unicorn who spreads rainbows and butterflies while blowing off zombie heads in the middle of the wild west. It really is just so wrong it comes full circle and becomes right again.)

So, is the DLC ground breaking? No. Does it add actual merit to the original? No. IS IT WORTH THE MONEY TO RUN AROUND ON A MAGICAL UNICORN KILLING UNDEAD WITH MOLOTOVS AND DYNAMITE? OF COURSE IT IS!

The game is wonderfully pointless, and worth the $10 to buy the DLC on a separate disc. You might want to at least rent the original to understand the back-story with Marston and Bonnie MacFarlane and the town Armadillo, but you really don't need to. Just enjoy the zombie killing, and you should find the game well worth your while.

Red Dead: Redemption

Played on: Xbox 360
Played it for: roughly 10 hours

RATING: 7.5/10

Summary:
You play as John Marston, a former outlaw who is searching to right his wrongs, and seek out the former gang member who is causing him trouble. After your first confrontation with the man at the beginning of the game, you are shot, and wake up to the rough cowgirl talk of Bonnie MacFarlane, the woman who saved you. As the game progresses you find out how to shoot a gun, ride a horse, and do other odd jobs for Bonnie and others around the Old West to get the money, supplies, and man power to fight your old gang, while helping to either clean up the West, or turn it into Hell on Earth.

Review:
I only gave this game a 7.5. There are several good reasons for that, though, so don't get all riled up with me. First of all, the campaign has absolutely no direction to it. I understand that the game is supposed to be free roam, but to me, that should mean that while the campaign is open, it also has some bigger goal to work towards. The best example I have ever seen of this is in Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas. While you could just go around shooting stuff, there was really no point unless you had something else to work towards, like a new gun or the progression of the campaign. Redemption seems to take the opposite path, and forces you to wander aimlessly with no purpose. The multiplayer has no direction, and simply ends in hundreds of Old West shootouts that result in the winner skinning the horse of the looser.

If I was to rate the game only on this, it would get a 4. However, it does have plenty of factors that bolster its rating. The graphics are fantastic. I commend RockStar on the work they put into this game, because it is quite impressive. The voice acting is also fantastic, and the controls work very well. While the horse controls are a bit sticky, and it can only run quickly on the set horse paths, everything else works like a charm.

To summarize, Redemption was a massive project which had a lot of potential, all of which was wasted on poor campaign development and no direction. In the end, RockStar went from Grand Theft Auto: IV to Grand Theft Louisiana Purchase. Nice try, but be more different next time, guys.

FINAL NOTE: I did not include the Undead Nightmare DLC in this review, because it is basically its own separate game, and will be treated as such. The UN review will be live in about another week