This isn't a review of Undead Nightmare. That would be silly. I loved Red Dead Redemption and so far I love this expansion. If you're looking for an opinion on the game then I would just tell you to stop looking and go play it. If you haven't actually played the full game before this expansion then you're just missing out and that's your loss. Go get the game, go play it, go enjoy it.

**If you haven't finished Red Dead Redemption don't read past this point***

What I do want to talk about is the awesome environment Rockstar has created with Undead Nightmare. I didn't care much for the ending of the full game. John Marston is/was a great character, and seeing him riddled full of holes upset me. Trying to replace him with his son was a good idea in terms of keeping the environment open after beating the game. Everything was the same, nothing was different playing as Jack instead of John, but I didn't FEEL the same. Just in the little things he said, the tone of his voice; he's not the badass his father was. Also, my John Marston could have easily taken on the 20 or so guys that killed him in the end, but that's besides the point.

All that being said, you can imagine how happy I was to put in Undead Nightmare and see that I would play as John Marston once again. I was also happy to see my own son turn into a zombie within the first moments of the game - seems like lil' Jack won't be like his father after all.

So what's different? The map is the same but the towns are all overrun with zombies. You need to fend off hordes of zombies to temporarily save areas. You get rewarded with ammo for the most part and sometimes a new weapon when you save a town off the beaten track. They did a good job with the new content - adding things like tomahawks and explosive rifles makes killing the hordes fun. There really is nothing like using dead eye to toss a tomahawk at a charging zombie, splitting its skull and lodging the sharp end right between its eyes.

The whole environment is full of new and undead creatures now. Bats fly through the air instead of hawks, skinless coyotes attack in the wild, there are even a few sasquatch(es) in the mountains around Tall Trees. I always enjoy when a game takes an environment that you've grown accustomed to and turns it upside down. Ocarina of Time would be a good example of this.

In the full game, I was obsessed with finding and taming the best horse in the game. Near the end, I finally found my black stallion and claimed it as my own, riding around on it proudly. In Undead Nightmare, some fool shot my horse by accident while fending off a horde of zombies in Blackwater. I was forced to lasso him and drag him around a little bit. I then hogtied him and left him in the wilderness near some zombies. That's what happens to people that mess with my horse. I was pleased to see the addition of mystical horses in this expansion. Early on I managed to find one of the 4 rare horses in the game near the MacFarlane Ranch. I got War, the flaming horse that sets enemies on fire as I run them over. Needless to say, he's a friggin badass. I don't even think he can be killed by gunfire, either. Yeah, he's that cool.

Undead Nightmare is simply an enjoyable experience and a great expansion - so much more than adding on an additional string of quests to the original story. I loved the full game, and I love the engine it runs on. Everything is so damn smooth, and it all works. I guess it's just pleasing to play such a game after Deadly Premonition. I must admit though, playing this is really prepping me for LA Noire. Now that's a game I think we're all waiting very impatiently for. Rockstar has yet to really let me down, so it comes with high expectations. Until then, I'll be saving the survivors of the post-apocalyptic world, taking their ammo, and blasting through the heads of the undead. Just don't mess with my goddamn horse.