Undead Nightmare

First off, it goes without saying that in order to enjoy Undead Nightmare, you must first have Red Dead Redemption. You might want to have played the game too, because this zombie-themed DLC functions as a bit of a goofy epilogue to the main story. However it’s worth it to be able to play Undead Nightmare, which is still one of the very best DLCs I’ve ever picked up. A curse has fallen over the West, resurrecting the dead in hordes and turning Red Dead Redemption into a campy, Evil Dead-ish parody of itself and the horror genre. It is wonderful.

I remember Undead Nightmare being particularly impressive when it was released. Red Dead Redemption’s vision of the dying west was always sparse, but this DLC turned that quiet contemplative isolation into something to be scared of. Scores of zombies appear seemingly out of nowhere and set on you and your horse, and the primary design of its set-piece missions involves fighting off waves of them in order to defend the few spots of civilization left. Mythical creatures, like four horses that resemble the horsemen of the apocalypse, can be found in the wild. Undead Nightmare utterly transforms the game in ways I didn’t think Rockstar would ever do, and it’s a trick that the developer has seemed reluctant to pull off again in the decade-and-a-half since. So if you’ve got the original game on your Xbox and $8 to spare, pick up Undead Nightmare and experience one of the goofiest and best DLCs to ever grace a game.