Last week I had three big zombie-related topics on my mind, and opted to write about our Zombie Ranch outing to Long Beach Comic Con 2010. That left out any more than just a brief mention of AMC’s premiere of “The Walking Dead”, and Rockstar’s DLC release of their Undead Nightmare pack for Red Dead Redemption.

Now, since I did still want to spend some time talking about those, I went ahead and took the rare step of using my other blog space at The Satellite Show to discuss a zombie topic, so if you want to read my thoughts on The Walking Dead, then click on over. Meanwhile, that leaves me free and clear to discuss cowboys and zombies, which as you might surmise is a topic close to my heart.

If you’ve been a regular reader of my blog then you’ll be aware that I liked Red Dead Redemption a lot, and that post was just after first impressions. Finishing the single-player campaign truly takes you through an epic western tale, where you might see certain plot twists and tropes coming, but others could just as easily leave you shocked. If some of the supporting characters seem little more than two-dimensional stereotypes, fair enough, but the main protagonist is a compelling enough man to shoulder the narrative burden and keep you caring about his fate and the fate of his family, even as you take the occasional side trip to rob stagecoaches or skin a bunch of random wildlife. I’m not going to spoil that narrative for anyone who hasn’t played, but I will suggest that if you’re any fan of GTA-style “sandbox” games and/or the western genre, you owe it to yourself to pick up a copy.

Plus, there’s now another big, rotting, groaning reason to do so. The core campaign of Red Dead Redemption scrupulously avoids anything actually supernatural (with one exception that’s not part of the main narrative), but several months back I read a blurb saying that Rockstar was in process of trying to develop a zombie-themed expansion pack, set to hopefully debut in time for Halloween. I was of course very interested, but between then and now had just filed it away somewhere in the back of my brain, likely in the dusty realms between my bicycle lock combination from 8^th grade and where I set down my eyeglasses ten minutes ago.

Well, Rockstar didn’t forget. There it was on Xbox Live, right on schedule the week before Halloween. I figured that for about a sawbuck’s worth of Microsoft Points–10 United States dollars to you young folks and foreign types–what the heck, I’d take their Undead Nightmare for a whirl. After all, it’s RESEARCH. Right?

Well, research or not, the game nearly sabotaged my preparations for the Comic Con by being much more awesome than I expected. I suppose I’m used to DLCs just being little patch jobs on top of the main content, heavy on the multiplayer modes, and was expecting maybe some re-skinned (or de-skinned) horses and enemies to roam around and blow away until you got tired of it. Instead, Rockstar put together a whole new mini-campaign that takes John Marston from beginning to end through an Old West style zombie apocalypse, while meeting (and occasionally eating) several familiar faces from the original story along the way. The “random encounters” of the wilderness are all re-worked to provide classic zombie moments, such as a crazed man offering body parts to his chained down, zombified wife while exhorting her to “chew like a lady”, or the sick people asking to be taken to a doctor, only to turn before your eyes and come staggering after you. And the enemies aren’t just re-skinned people… they move in truly creepy ways, the sounds they make are disturbing as hell, and (of course) only a headshot will put them down for good. You will never be so glad to have your slow-motion Deadeye meter as when a half dozen of the riled-up bastards are pinwheeling hungrily in your direction.

On the Zombie Ranch side of things, I was pleased as punch to note a few things such as the ability to hogtie zombies and throw them over your horse (the game actually requires you to do just this very early on)… if only they’d had this expansion out back when we were putting together those reference shots for Comic #42, eh? There’s a zombie horse to be acquired as a mount, and though the game claims it’ll be ornery it seemed perfectly well behaved to me, if not the purtiest thing.

In fact, I was all set to keep the zombie horse as my preferred mount until I realized that Rockstar went further than just zombies and has some “mythical creatures” roaming the prairies, forests and deserts. The presence of Sasquatch in the northern lands left me disappointed in the apparent lack of Jackalopes and Chupacabra in the more southerly areas, but there’s no disappointment to be had when you can find and break one of the Four Horses of the Apocalypse. Let me just say this… War has flaming hooves, mane, and tail, and sets fire to any zombies or other poor suckers you run over with It. Epic. Apparently there’s a Unicorn out there as well, but I didn’t find it so I can’t confirm if Erasure starts playing when you climb aboard.

The various towns in the game are not much changed except for some cosmetic fires and graffiti, but when they’re being overrun by undead hordes you may not be thinking about that much. In an ingenious mash-up of zombie and western, you’re cast as the lone cowboy riding into town to save it from destruction, helping the few holdout survivors sniping from the rooftops and balconies to clear the infestation of their former friends and neighbors. Their location is a big hint as to how you yourself might want to deal with the situation, provided you can make it to a good spot before They get to you. If you can’t, it’s a pretty white knuckle experience, and you really, really want to keep your Deadeye meter full or you’re going to end up a brain donor in short order.

I’ve seen some complaints that certain aspects are too repetitive, but honestly, I didn’t feel that way, if for no other reason than that clearing out Graveyard X can be completely different from clearing out Graveyard Y just based on something as simple as the amount of fences around. They also give you some unique new weapons as you progress, such as a 19th century version of the L4D pipe bomb affectionately named “Boom Bait”. All the original voice actors are back for high quality cut scenes, as such notables as Nigel West Dickens and Seth react to a world gone to Hell (Seth, as you might imagine, seems right at home, in ways that must be seen to be believed). You don’t have to have completed the original campaign to enjoy this one, but I highly recommend it just to get all the references, and because the “ending” will make much more sense.

If you’re a zombie fan, a western fan, or (target audience here!) both, you owe it to yourself to download this expansion. I mean, presuming you already own a copy of RDR and have the requisite game console and network connections… but if not, y’know, Christmas is coming up and the prices have dropped, so it’s as good a time as any to take the plunge. Rockstar promised us an RDR Zombie Apocalypse for Halloween, and they sure as shootin’ delivered.