Red Dead Redemption - Undead Nightmare: Rockstar Takes On Zombies.

 "When in doubt add zombies" - Cliff Bleszinski (designer of Gears of War)

A few weeks ago I reviewed Dead Rising 2, a game about a zombie outbreak. In my review I had stated that maybe it was the game company's fault for all the shortcomings in the game. Capcom, the makers of DR2 are fairly new to sandbox games. I had said that maybe if Rockstar had made a zombie open world game it would be a better game. Well, now they have. With the new Halloween released expansion pack for Red Dead Redemption, Undead Nightmare, you now have to take on the zombie apocalypse in the old west. It is only $9.99 on Xbox Live or the Playstation Network.

The expansion begins right before the last mission and serves as an alternate ending to the original story line. You, John Marsden, find your wife and son infected with the zombie virus so you must hogtie them and set out in search of a cure. You then must then travel to the various town and clear them of zombies while searching for survivors. The story also brings back many of the characters from the original game, however, most are now zombies.

Red Dead Redemption

Undead Nightmare

I have only started to play but already there are many minor changes to the environment which change the mood drastically. There is a greenish hue and it is generally darker. At night the moon is shown much lower in the sky to give the eerie feel. Also the quaint little towns are now deserted and burning with only a few textures changed and the addition of fire effects. The background music has also changed to be more sinister. A few of the game mechanics have also changed as well as many new weapons. The expansion is also complete with all new story missions as well as all new side quests. I have high hopes for this expansion and I'm looking forward to playing it.

 Check out the preview on YouTube:Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare DLC Trailer

The Adventure Game: A Dying Genre?

A large percentage of the first video games for the PC were adventure games. "An adventure game is defined as a computer-based game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge." (Wikipedia.org) These games spearheaded the computer game movement. This genre includes some of my favorite games growing up. The genius of these games was the story. They did not have remarkable graphics or game mechanics to keep players engaged but what they did have was well written and intelligent stories as well as witty humor. Titles like Kings Quest, Indiana Jones, Maniac Mansion, Gabriel Knight, and many others.  


Two titles that I would like to focus on, being two of my favorites, are Monkey Island by Lucas Arts and Quest for Glory by Sierra Entertainment. These two games series had amazing stories as well as new and innovative game techniques. There is too much for one entry, however, I'll give you the first one this week, and the latter I'll save for another week.


The Secret of Monkey Island is an excellent example of the adventure genre. In the game you play as a young pirate named Guybrush Threepwood, who is called upon to save his love, Elaine Marley, the damsel in distress. This story really follows Joseph Campbell's hero's journey but it's done in a whimsical way. The protagonist, is an average person who is called to action. He must then go through a series of challenges to become a true pirate before assembling a crew for a journey to Monkey Island to save the girl. Through each challenge he has to master a skill and on completing it receives  a t-shirt. It plays a joke by following this method to a tee. There are three tests and these can be seen as the "road of trials' in the hero's journey. This comes as no surprise that the story follows this formula as it was made by Lucas Arts and George Lucas is known for sticking strictly to this formula as seen in Star Wars. Star Wars is considered as a prime example of the monomyth. Naturally he would carry that over to his game development.  The story isn't only well structured it is also very funny. Even the game play is geared around humor.  One aspect of the game is sword fighting but instead of controlling the character as he attacks, you only control how well you insult the opponent.

Insult Sword-fighting

A rubber chicken?

One thing that a game like this can teach us is that we can create a game with a well written story but it doesn't have to be a depressing drama. Most games today go for a heart wrenching plot to show that it is well written (GTA 4/Red Dead Redemption), but a well written comedy can still have meaningful story. In summary this is a well written, well designed game. We need to see more games like this today to bring the adventure genre back to its former glory.

Dead Rising 2: One Zombie Short of a Horde

So far on this blog I've talked about games I have enjoyed playing, but this week I'm here to talk about a game I didn't like, Dead Rising 2. The game is a sequel to a game about killing zombies in a mall. In the new game, you are stuck in a town, similar to Las Vegas, called Fortune City. You have to fight your way through the casino and mall. At first I had high hopes for the game because whats better than killing zombies in a Vegas, but the game falls short in many ways.

Dead Rising 2

First: Graphics. When you see the first few zombies they look pretty decent but after that you realize that they are all the same, there are about four or five different zombies in hordes of hundreds. This just shows that the developers didn't take the time to render various zombies or create a code that randomizes them, especially since it is a game about zombies.

Second: Audio. The voice acting is bad and the writing is pretty bad too. Another shortcoming is that in the game you have a radio and you often get calls from various people but the calls only come across as text and are not ever voice acted. Again this shows sloppy design.

Third: The World. The map is relatively small compared to open world games today but it has loading screens between every area. These take up so much time and break from the emersion into the game. Also wait times between areas ended with the last generation of game machines.

My main problem with the game is that it had the potential to be a great game but never measured up. It seems like the developers cut corners on creating the game. If the game had been made by a company like Rockstar which created the GTA series it may have been much better because they have consistently put out successful open world games, but Capcom the developers of Dead Rising 2, are new to the sand box format. They are best at fighting games like Street Fighter and maybe they should stick to them.

Dress to Impress: A Look at Character Customization

When you think of Mario, you think of the short guy with the blue overalls and the a red shirt. Today however most games give you the option to change many aspects of the character. So maybe your Mario would be orange with green overalls. This gives players a sense that they are involved in creating the game and gives them a chance to alter the game to their preferences. This can be seen more and more in modern games. Most games today allow you to change a character's outfit, hair, and sometimes even race, gender, and facial structure. This allows the player to create a character that they identify with.

Character Customization in Saints Row 2

World of Warcraft

This is also a vastly popular feature in MMORPGs. In these games there isn't one character that everyone can play, but rather everyone becomes an individual character that interacts with one another. This increases the importance of having a unique identity. Many players model their characters after themselves but just as many create characters that are very different than themselves with different hair, height, and even gender. A poll found that half the characters in WoW (World of Warcraft) are female, while the percentage of females playing WoW is far less than half. One article I found tried to explain this phenomenon - Top Reasons that Men Play as Female Characters in MMORPGs . 

There are both benefits and disadvantages of character customization in games today. On one hand it allows a player to put their own spin on who they play. It also works to pad out games, because customization can serve as a huge time sink especially when you have to travel around a city to get clothing items you want (Saints Row 2). But have we lost something, in trying to give players exactly what they want? And are games missing something without the iconic characters of the past?