It’s 2023 and over the weekend I by chance stayed up far later than I anticipated replaying Undead Nightmare on my Nintendo Swap. 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 considered one of Rockstar’s biggest hits, is lastly accessible to extra folks by way of the newly launched Swap and PS4 ports. It’s only a disgrace they value $50.
Whereas the unique Purple 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 completely 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 Purple 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 Swap and PS4. And fortunately, the Swap port is a stable solution to play this zombified western.
Undead Nightmare remains to be completely creepy and enjoyable in 2023
There’s lots to like about Undead Nightmare, however what retains me coming again to it each few years is the environment and vibe of its zombie-filled open world. In Undead Nightmare, particularly through the early portion of the DLC, you might be outnumbered and continuously susceptible to the undead lurking across the whole map. There aren’t any vehicles or large buildings to cover in. That is the Previous West. Machine weapons are large 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.
Serving to the vibes of Undead Nightmare lots 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 an exquisite bizarre west vibe to the motion.
Additionally serving to the vibes: All the 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 non permanent secure havens for survivors, you’ll at all times 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 growing old console, I not often bumped into efficiency points. The one main exception occurred throughout fights with large hordes of zombies and survivors. Right here the sport would begin to chug for a bit, much like the way it performed on the Xbox 360 again within the day. (On a extra constructive observe: 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 deliver 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 Swap and PS4 variations of the sport, as that mode was a ton of enjoyable with mates.
Nonetheless, in case you can overlook the lacking on-line modes and the dearth of visible upgrades or tweaks, it is a incredible solution to play Undead Nightmare. I can think about taking the Swap 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 may understandably maintain some of us away till Purple Lifeless Redemption’s new ports go on sale.
