Back From the Dead

After a strangely large amount of time away from this monster of a blogging collaboration, the team of The Absolution has suddenly risen from their metaphorically dead sleep to bring you more of what made this blog what it used to be, and less of what didn’t. The Absolution is a blog for nerds, by nerds, and as such, it contains a range of subject matter that caters to a large demographic of geeks. We like to take looks at video games, anime, and generally interesting news relating to either subject. If this is relative to your interests, we would greatly appreciate your help in getting us back to speed by visiting our blog regularly to make sure we keep to our commitments and provide only the very best reviews and news made just for you.

With that blatant plea for attention out of the way, let’s get to the good shit. To commemorate The Absolution’s revival, I’ve got a (late) review of Red Dead Redemption’s latest DLC for you, just in case you’re still on the fence about buying one of the greatest downloadable packs ever graced by human thought.

Zombies are bigger in Texas.

Undead Nightmare has you back in control of the ever sarcastic John Marston, and leads you on a quest to save your family from the clutches of zombification. A ride into the nearest town, which you may remember is Blackwater, leads to the discovery that your family members were not the only victims, but also that you are not the only survivor. Others who managed to escape being bitten will need your help defending their town, which you can accomplish by either fucking up every zombie you see, or just handing over some ammo so they can do it themselves. Strangely enough, handing over ammo is a cheaper alternative than shooting them all yourself, and since ammo is scarce in post-apocalyptic Texas you may want to go with that option whenever possible.

Undead Nightmare does not just add zombies to the game. It completely changes the mechanics, the atmosphere, and the story, AND THEN it adds new weapons, mounts, multiplayer options, and crazy fucking monsters for you to seek out and kill off. If you liked Red Dead Redemption (which you did), then there is absolutely, positively no reason not to get in on this beautiful new content. I mean honestly, there’s a horse with fucking fire billowing from his mane that sets unsuspecting zombies ablaze when you trample them. This is not something you can just decide to pass up. DLC does not get any better than this. If that’s not the type of convincing you’re looking for, then go ahead and read the actual review now.

Graphics – 10
As expected of a mammoth of a company like Rockstar, the visuals in Undead Nightmare are top notch. Zombies have fucking disgusting ass faces, the sky is so beautiful you’d swear it was real, and environments are as detailed as humanly possible. Everything is really really ugly, in a really really pretty way.

Sound – 9
I enjoy the gurgled grunts of mindless minions as they rip and tear away at you. I love the disgusting sound of a well placed headshot, as their craniums explode and they fall lifeless to the concrete. I verily enjoyed the creepy remixes of the original Red Dead music, even though it’s just as scarce as it’s always been. There’s also a new track that plays when you find your way into Mexico. A track that I am not a huge fan of.

Story – 9
The tale isn’t exactly original, but it’s told as well as any other story about the dead rising from the ground and devouring the flesh of every last living being. The ending has a pretty good twist too. It’s fairly amazing.

Gameplay – 9.5
Ammo conservation is stressed very well, as enemies can be killed with a single well-placed headshot, but if shot anywhere else it can take up to ten bullets before they finally go down. Clearing graveyards and saving towns are like their own little mini-games, and even though they’re relatively repetitive it’s still fun as fuck. If I had one thing to gripe about in this category, it would be how annoying it is to ride undead horses, but that’s just something you learn to deal with. Other than that you just kill zombies, and that is very hard to get wrong.

Overall – 9
Good shit, dawg. You’re missing out if you can’t cough up the twenty bucks to play it. Not to mention if you already own Redemption, you can get this pack along with the other two previous DLC packs in a bundle for twenty American dollars. Twenty very American dollars.

America – 10
Stay tuned for more shit soon. This undead blog won’t be entering the grave again anytime soon.