Nonetheless The Finest Zombie Sport

It’s 2023 and over the weekend I unintentionally stayed up far later than I anticipated replaying Undead Nightmare on my Nintendo Change. Not solely am I having a candy time with the 13-year-old enlargement, however I’m excited that among the best zombie video games ever made, and certainly one of Rockstar’s best hits, is lastly accessible to extra folks by way of the newly launched Change and PS4 ports. It’s only a disgrace they price $50.

Whereas the unique Crimson Lifeless 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 path. Undead Nightmare, launched on October 26, 2010, was a paid enlargement that added an entire new mini-campaign for RDR gamers. The creepy enlargement added spooky creatures and lethal zombies to the huge open world of Crimson Lifeless 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 Change and PS4. And fortunately, the Change port is a strong approach to play this zombified western.

Undead Nightmare remains to be completely creepy and enjoyable in 2023

There’s loads 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 through the early portion of the DLC, you’re outnumbered and continuously susceptible to the undead lurking across the whole map. There aren’t any vehicles or huge buildings to cover in. That is the Previous 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 method most zombie video games fail to seize.

Serving to the vibes of Undead Nightmare loads is the unimaginable music, taking a few of the themes and devices present in the principle RDR soundtrack and twisting them into horror-inspired tunes that add a beautiful bizarre west vibe to the motion.

Additionally serving to the vibes: The complete world is spooky and harmful. Each character you meet is out of their minds, folks get eaten by zombies continuously, 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 momentary secure havens for survivors, you’ll all the time really feel such as you’re enjoying via some grindhouse-era horror movie about cowboys and zombies. It’s great, and the right sport to play throughout Halloween.

In my time with the brand new port on Nintendo’s getting older console, I hardly ever bumped into efficiency points. The one main exception occurred throughout fights with big hordes of zombies and survivors. Right 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 word: The PS4 model didn’t buckle practically at throughout comparable giant horde fights.)

It’s disappointing that every one these years later, on a brand new console, this $50 port doesn’t carry 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 Change and PS4 variations of the sport, as that mode was a ton of enjoyable with associates.

Nonetheless, in the event you can overlook the lacking on-line modes and the shortage of visible upgrades or tweaks, this can be a unbelievable approach to play Undead Nightmare. I can think about taking the Change out on a tenting journey into the woods and enjoying 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 would possibly understandably hold some people away till Crimson Lifeless Redemption’s new ports go on sale.