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Across the vast Western frontier, a plague is spreading.
Tagline.
Undead to the end.
Second tagline.

Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare is an expansion pack to Red Dead Redemption. The pack features an entirely new single-player campaign that follows John Marston as he tries to find a cure for the highly infectious undead plague that has spread across the frontier. Upon release, the list prices were $15.95 AUS dollars, $9.99 US dollars, £7.99, €9.99 or 800 Microsoft Points. It was released on October 26, 2010[1] for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, as a retail disc bundle with other downloadable content packs in late November 2010, and for the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4 alongside the main game on August 17, 2023.

Undead Nightmare is started by choosing single player in the main menu, after which the options Undead Nightmare and Red Dead Redemption appear (or one can purchase the disc itself).

Synopsis

Seemingly overnight, an Undead plague ravages the once-bountiful frontier, decimating the landscape and reawakening the dead. In towns, settlements, and outposts throughout the world, the uninfected citizens are left to fight for survival against waves of the undead. John Marston must ride out into the vast and terrifying world, and survive long enough to find a cure.

Along the way through frontier towns, deserts, prairies, and mountain passes, John Marston will help survivors, cleanse towns, and put an end to the undead hordes.

Background Detail

The game is set after saving John's family and before his eventual execution; obviously, it does not fit into the canon, as several characters (Uncle, Nastas, Alma Horlick, Jimmy Saint, D.S. MacKenna, and Herbert Moon) die multiple times. For example, Uncle is the first zombie encountered and killed by John Marston, though in the original game, he dies in Edgar Ross' attack on the farm.

An infectious outbreak of unknown origin amongst those on the frontier is rumoured to be caused by either Seth Briars stealing the glass eye from Tumbleweed, Nigel West Dickens with his miracle tonic, or the Mexicans by bringing the disease over the border from Nuevo Paraíso.

Story

In Undead Nightmare, John is riding with a wagon back to his ranch. In his house with Abigail and Jack are talking about general things, like a book Jack is reading. However, they mention that Uncle hasn't yet returned from what he was doing. However, John states that, because of the storm, Uncle has probably gone to a dry place nearby, and will stay there until the storm subsides. Uncle is then seen loitering outside the house.

Later that night, while John and Abigail are asleep, Uncle, revealed to be undead, invades their room and tries to attack them, and John fights back, knocking him out. John heads for his gun in a nearby shed. However, on his way back, Abigail runs out of the house screaming, being quickly pursued by Uncle, who bites her in the neck. John shoots Uncle in the head, ending his suffering, and then tends to Abigail. Jack comes outside and tries to help his mother. However, Abigail becomes aggressive and bites Jack, infecting him. Meanwhile, John runs for his lasso and hogties both of them. After giving them both a plate of food, he gets dressed, leaves them in the house, and sets out to find a cure.

West Elizabeth

John then goes to Blackwater, where he finds Professor MacDougal, who returned from Yale to document the undead infestation. He claims that he has left his bags with Nastas, and heads down the street to grab them. MacDougal is killed by an infected Nastas however, and John is forced to clear out Blackwater and look for more survivors. He finds a family on a roof, killing undead, but they are no help. John then finds another group of survivors, who all give him multiple theories that they suspect caused the plague, including a "Snake oil merchant" and a "Freak with a glass eye".

If John goes to Tanner's Reach, he will meet a hunter who claims to have just shot a Sasquatch, starting "The Birth of the Conservation Movement" mission, which has John try to hunt down six Sasquatches. After finding the sixth one however, John learns that his hunting has doomed the Sasquatches and the last one there asks John to kill him because his family is dead, whereupon John can choose to kill him or walk away, ending the mission.

New Austin

If John decides to follow the "Snake Oil Merchant" lead, they will find Nigel West Dickens in Fort Mercer, trying to sell his elixir as a cure and repellent to the plague. However, John forces Nigel to stop selling it, and Nigel complies. He hands out free samples to see if they like it. The elixir however is actually more of a bait to the infected, and one survivor is killed by several undead soon after drinking. A disappointed Nigel and asks John to find him five Desert Sage and five Violet Snowdrop to see if he can make a better cure. He also gives John some of the elixir to use as bait. After John finds the flowers, Nigel makes a phosphorus bullet coating with it, and then asks John to find him some old parts that he needs. After John finds the parts, Nigel gives him a Blunderbuss for it, telling John that it is the ideal weapon for undead killing. He also tells John that he is trying to get to Mexico, and should be in Solomon's Folly in a few days. At Solomon's Folly, John finds out that all paths to Mexico are blocked, and that Nigel has no way of getting to Mexico. However, Nigel tells John that, if he gets a US Army Uniform from some deserters, he can sneak on a train manned by the US Army that is headed to Mexico. Nigel then leaves, leaving his ultimate fate unknown.

If John decides to follow the "Freak with a glass eye" lead, he will find Seth in The Old Bacchus Place, playing cards with an undead Moses Forth. John asks Seth if there's a cure to the plague, and Seth tells him to clear the graveyards. After John clears out three graveyards and goes back to Seth, Seth tells him that the cause of all this has something to do with the Aztecs, and tells him to head down for Mexico if he wants to cure the plague.

At MacFarlane's Ranch, John meets Bonnie MacFarlane, who tasks him with trying to find her father, Drew MacFarlane in the barn, although she tells him he has been in there for more than a day. After entering the barn through a window, John kills several of the trapped undead within. Then, John finds Drew in the barn, zombified. John picks up a nearby Winchester Repeater and is forced to kill Drew. He then returns to Bonnie and tells her what happened, who is deeply saddened by the news.

In Plainview, John finds D.S. MacKenna, who tells John to bring him a Retcher, because MacKenna desires to make a zombie movie. However, once John does so, MacKenna sets it and another undead loose. They then both proceed to attack MacKenna, who is turned undead. John can then kill all three of them.

In Armadillo, John meets Marshal Leigh Johnson, and Johnson asks John to find Eli and Jonah, who have been missing for a few hours. John finds Eli eating Jonah, and they both attack John. John then has to kill them both, and tell Johnson the news, claiming that they both died with their "bellies full". Johnson also gives John Jonah's Sawed-off Shotgun.

In Fort Mercer, John sees an Army Captain posting up a missing persons poster for Millicent Waterbury. The Captain asks John to find the girl, and John finds Millicent in Pleasance House, though undead are trying to attack her. After John saves Millicent, they head back to Fort Mercer and the Captain thanks John, and tells him that there are more missing persons if he wants to help them.

Once John heads to the deserters, he finds them being attacked by undead; he can either help them and earn the uniform, or steal it and suffer the consequences. Once John has the uniform, he can head to the train, where he finds the US Army being lightly hassled by undead. After John helps them clear it out, they head to the border. At the border, the captain tells them all to get off and clear the roadblock. However, they are attacked by undead and the US Army retreats, leaving John to kill the undead. After he has dealt with them, John can man the train and smash through the roadblock into Mexico.

Nuevo Paraíso

In Nuevo Paraíso, John finds that it is actually in worse shape than the United States, and he heads to Las Hermanas, where he meets the Mother Superior. She tells John that other nuns are not as resourceful as her, and that he needs to head inside Las Hermanas and save the town. After doing so, Mother Superior thanks John, and he asks her why the plague is happening. She tells John that she needs a normal undead to really find out. After John brings her a zombie, Mother Superior tells John that she suspects evil, and she pours Holy Water on the undead, who is briefly bathed in blue flame, but is not killed. She asks John if he can clear out the Sepulcro graveyard for her, and she gives him Holy Water. After he returns, Mother Superior tells him that a woman told her that the cause of all this is because of something Abraham Reyes has done. John is then tasked with heading to Escalera and finding out what happened there.

In Casa Madrugada, John meets Landon Ricketts, who is busy ridding the town of undead. Landon seems to be holding off all the undead by himself, and he tells John that, if he can find something that attracts the undead, he can combine it with Dynamite and really kill the undead quick. After John brings Landon undead bait and Dynamite, Landon combines them and makes Boom Bait. After handing it to John, they part ways.

In Escalera, John finds a woman, who tells him that Abraham Reyes is up ahead. John finds Reyes, though he is now a zombie, and chasing a woman (the same woman that can be seen in almost every cutscene). After John kills Reyes, the woman tells John that the cause of all this is because Reyes' lust for invulnerability made him steal an ancient Aztec mask, which unleashed the plague. They take the mask to the crypt where Reyes found it, and after John places the mask back in the altar, the women reveals herself to be Ayauhteotl, an Aztec goddess. This action causes the undead to be returned to normal, and John heads home to his family.

Epilogue

Upon heading back to Beecher's Hope, John finds that Abigail and Jack are fine, and they are happy again. A few months later, John is dead at the hands of Edgar Ross, and in Escalera, Seth is shown stealing the ancient mask, causing all dead, including John, to return as undead. However, since John was buried with Holy Water, he returns as an undead with a man's soul, allowing him to still be playable.

Differences to the Main Universe

Main Plot

  • John Marston is seen arriving in a wagon at Beecher's Hope during the introductory cutscene, he later says he was out working with Uncle. This never happens during Red Dead Redemption.
  • Uncle dies in Edgar Ross' attack on the farm, as opposed to being shot in the head by John Marston at the beginning of the DLC.
    • His grave is missing from the resting spot atop the hill.
  • Professor MacDougal claims to have left his bag with Nastas, but when he goes to retrieve it he finds out Nastas has been infected with the virus. This is anachronistic to the original timeline, as Nastas died of a gunshot to the head at Bearclaw Camp.
  • Nigel West Dickens decided to flee New Austin to avoid any more repercussions for selling his elixir. He has now returned and is located at Fort Mercer.
  • Seth has enslaved an undead Moses, and when John meets them both, he is surprised to see him alive. The line "You remember Moses, John?", along with John's reaction could imply that in this timeline Moses was murdered by John after completing the mission in which the pair break him out of jail.
    • Albeit he might have been infected while he was alive, as Moses appears at the beginning of the Undead Nightmare debut trailer, where he is seen digging up a grave in Coot's Chapel. While doing so, a Bruiser charges for him and devours him.
  • Landon Ricketts now lives in Casa Madrugada, completely ignoring his return to the US and death a few weeks prior to John's execution.
  • Ayauhtéotl claims that Abraham Reyes led a crusade to find the ancient Aztec mask after hearing a rumor about it, which gave him the idea he could obtain power from the mask and with it conquer Mexico. In Red Dead Redemption, after the mission "An Appointed Time", Reyes tells Marston that he will lead an army of rebels towards the Capital, with hopes of usurping Ignacio Sanchez and becoming the new President of Mexico (a 1914 edition of The Blackwater Ledger confirms this indeed end up happening).
  • Dan Houser, former Vice President of Rockstar Games and creative writer, stated that the story of Undead Nightmare occurs during the "home-period" of the main story, which they (Rockstar) imagined took several months. When "On a Pale Horse" begins, a subtitle indicates a few months have passed since the outbreak, and now we see John Marston is dead. In the main game however, the period during which John is slowly rebuilding his ranch is a few days or even a week at best.
    • John Marston was buried by his wife and son with a flask of water he allegedly treasured. This is the bottle of holy water Mother Superior Calderón gave him. It explains why John was able to keep his memories while being under the influence of the curse.
    • In "The Last Enemy That Shall Be Destroyed", John Marston dies wearing his regular Rancher Outfit, but when a zombified Marston creeps out of his grave, he is seen wearing a damaged Elegant Suit instead.
    • If you look at his head while he is wearing the Undead Cowboy Outfit, you will see what appears to be a bullet hole in his head above his right eye. Perhaps his instant death with a gunshot to the head was a back handed "thank you" for stopping the undead overrun.
      • The bullet wound seems to indicate a changing in the events of how John died, as in the main story his head was the only part of his body that wasn't hit by Ross' firing squad, and not only is he wearing a different outfit but the outfit also has no bullet holes.
    • A newspaper article available post-final mission reveals Seth made a fortune after discovering a treasure in the Tall Trees region. In "One a Pale Horse", Seth is seen in Mexico, stealing the Aztec mask to start the curse all over again.

Content

Single player

Multiplayer

Soundtrack

Main article: Undead Nightmare Soundtrack

Undead Nightmare Collection

The Undead Nightmare Collection is a single, stand-alone retail disc or downloadable content that bundles together the following content packs [1]:

The Undead Nightmare Collection was released into retail stores everywhere for $29.99/£24.99/€29.99, on November 23rd 2010 in North America, and November 26th in Europe. It was available via download slightly earlier and at a reduced price [2]. It does not require a copy of Red Dead Redemption to play.

Undead Single Player Characters

Protagonists

Playable Characters

Story

Side Missions

Antagonists

Story

Side Missions

Undead Multiplayer Characters

  • Poe Boll (Possible reference to macabre poet Edgar Allan Poe and schlock film director Uwe Boll)
  • Magic Jackson (Possible reference to basketball player Magic Johnson, and Michael Jackson from his Thriller film including zombies.)
  • Zombie Ricketts
  • Zombie Marston
  • Viper Craven (Possible reference to horror director Wes Craven)
  • Ishmael Raimi (Possible reference to horror director Sam Raimi)
  • Sarah Reese (Possible reference to Sarah Reese Brennan, an author of books containing demonic storylines or the mix of Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese of the movie Terminator.)
  • Paco Romero (Possible reference to horror director George Romero)

Achievements/Trophies

Reception

Undead Nightmare received critical acclaim. Its PS3 version currently holds 88 on GameRankings, while the Xbox version holds 87, and both versions hold 87 on Metacritic. GameRevolution gave the DLC -A. The Official Xbox Magazine gave it 9/10, while Game Informer gave it 8/10.

IGN earned the DLC a perfect score of 10/10, the first DLC who got a perfect score, as well one of the only three games published by Rockstar, with the others being Grand Theft Auto IV and V.

Undead Nightmare received the award of the best DLC of 2010 during the 2010 Spike Video Game Awards. As of June 2011 it has sold two million units at retail.

Glitches

  • After Landon makes the second Boom Bait, sometimes a glitch appears when there is two of him.
  • Randomly upon loading an area a majority of characters experience a glitch where only their clothes load and not their bodies. This can cause issues including (backwards compatibility):
    • Killing the undead does not count towards any tasks such as saving a town or journal challenges.
    • If you call one of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse or the Unicorn as your current mount and their features do not load (such as Famine's flies) then their stamina will be that of a regular horse and they may be somewhat uncontrollable.
    • Manually saving the game at a bed will cause the game not to reload apart from audio.
  • Randomly, upon loading one of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse, their special feature (such as War's flames) do not load and they are impossible to tame as they will buck John as soon as he mounts them (backwards compatibility).
  • A June 2014 update seemed to cause an issue where the undead's heads will disappear after about 10-15 minutes of gameplay; in this state, they also become invincible to damage. The player can counteract this by dying while saving a town, and by selecting to respawn near town, the undead may have heads again.
    • Furthermore, the game will not save when the player tries to, requiring a restart.
    • Additionally, any mythical creatures that are encountered will have no saddle, bucking off John immediately when he tries to ride them.
    • This issue can occur with any copy of the game (digital, physical, or Game Of The Year), but seems to be fixed on the 2023 ports for PlayStation 4 and Nintendo Switch.

Tips

  • In Undead Nightmare, there are no Gunsmiths or General Stores, so ammo is scarce and is found in much smaller quantities than usual, if at all. To fully maximize its use, constantly aim for head shots. For more ammo, the player can save towns, where chests can be found around the town, full of caches of ammo, loot the bodies of survivors or the undead, complete challenges or win bets against survivors on the frontier. It is also wise to keep an eye out while riding through the frontier: completing certain Random Encounters can also reward the player with ammo.
  • To conserve ammo yet remain on the offensive, the Torch is by far the best choice. Along with its one hit kill execution ability, it will set the Undead on fire, killing them quickly. Be careful to only use it when faced with a few Undead a time; John swings it slower than his usual knife, so attempting to use it on a group is suicidal and will cause the player to be quickly overwhelmed.
  • Try to stay on top of buildings or on the other side of fences as the Undead cannot climb ladders or jump fences. It is also recommended to avoid entering buildings as the interior provides less room to maneuver and makes it more likely for the Undead to score a hit on the player due to the closer distances. However, if the player does ever need to enter a building, the best weapons to handle any Undead are shotguns and Holy Water.
  • The Undead are extremely resilient to any gunshots or physical trauma applied to their bodies. The only ways to kill an Undead is by shooting them in the head, burning them, cleansing them with holy fire, or by destroying their bodies with an explosive, such as Dynamite, or with the Explosive Rifle or Blunderbuss. However, Gatling Guns mounted on buildings in some towns will kill the Undead too. Shooting Undead in the torso repeatedly has been proven to kill the Undead, but isn't an efficient way to kill even a single member of the undead.

Trivia

  • The word 'Zombie' is seldom heard in-game. No major characters in the storyline utter it, the term does not appear on any item or menu description in the single player mode. However, in multiplayer the group of undead skins are called zombies. Also, if you are in Fort Mercer and greet a woman, John will say "Stay away from them zombies ma'am". In addition, certain minor characters like D.S. MacKenna and Adrienne Lachance also use the term from time to time. In a world event, a man rides up to you on his horse and says "Damn zombies got my brother, you gotta save him!"
  • Despite Landon Ricketts having a zombified version of himself in Multiplayer, he is never directly shown as a zombie. Once the player finishes his survivor mission ("Biographies and Lies") he is never seen again. However, some Bolters and Retchers do use a zombified look-a-like model of him, with Retcher variant having differences in design.
  • There was a problem in New Zealand where the pack had come out but it was not due to come out. For some time zones, the pack was released on 27th October 2010.
  • It should also be noted that the Zombies appear to rot much faster than normal. In the cases of Eli, Jonah, Drew MacFarlane, and Uncle, they look like they have been decayed for much longer than they have been missing.
  • If the player is to harm or kill Abigail Marston or Jack Marston in any way (ex. throwing Dynamite through the window into the bedroom), John will immediately die after either have been killed.
  • The song which plays while riding to Escalera during the final mission is "Bad Voodoo" by The Kreeps.
  • The DLC will always start on a Friday, a possible reference to the superstition of Friday the 13th.
  • When you return to Beecher's Hope before the last mission John will go to the front door and the player can hear a female voice saying "Did you listen to a word I said?" This is Ayauhtéotl.
    • This will occur even before John encounters Ayauhtéotl in the storyline.
  • The gravestones of Jimmy Saint, Alma Horlick, Mordecai Robbard and Vincente de Santa are visible in the standard Red Dead Redemption game once the player downloads Undead Nightmare, despite Jimmy, Alma and Vincente being alive during the story.
  • The player is able to keep their weapon out without it automatically withdrawing, just like in Multiplayer.
  • Although Marston's home at Beecher's Hope can be re-entered after the main storyline is completed, the first floor of the barn continues to act as the safehouse.
  • Most chests you can open in Undead Nightmare are not in the base game, just a few of the original ones can be opened.
  • In the DLC, the moon is slightly bigger and green. This is purely aesthetic, and doesn't change the color of moonlight.
  • The player cannot replay missions in Undead Nightmare.
  • This is the only Red Dead title to have only one playable character.
  • If the player pauses any cutscene during Undead Nightmare, the in-game music that plays while the player is in Beecher's Hope will start playing, and will continue for as long as the cutscene is paused.

Gallery

Videos

References

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