Red Dead Redemption 2 has a lot going for it - it has a bustling online mode that continues to get updates and DLC, its single-player campaign has been lauded in the gaming industry, and it has sold over 29 million copies as of February. Clearly, Rockstar Games is doing just fine in maintaining Red Dead Redemption 2, which would be good news under most circumstances. However, because Rockstar isn’t planning on making single-player DLC anymore (for the time being), many are still upset that they’ll likely not see another story DLC pack as glorious as Undead Nightmare.
When Red Dead Redemption first came out in 2010, it was regarded as an achievement in story-telling and game design, following in the tradition of Rockstar’s massively successful games line-up. Later that year, Rockstar released Undead Nightmare, a story expansion (which was also put out as a standalone product) that took the world and characters of Red Dead Redemption and shifted everything to make it look like a zombie horror game with a western style. The expansion took a simple idea and turned it into a fun alternate storyline which made fans really love it, and its legacy lives on even if Rockstar is done with it.
How Red Dead Redemption Undead Nightmare Happened
There used to be a time when Rockstar Games not only made story expansions for its games, but it excelled at it. When Grand Theft Auto 4 came out in 2008, it predictably took the world by storm and Rockstar wanted to make sure that the game would have a long enough tail to sustain itself into the following years. That’s when it partnered with Microsoft to develop two major expansion packs for GTA 4 that would be released in 2009; those two packs would eventually become The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony.
These two DLC packs are ostensibly the precursor to Undead Nightmare, as they gave Rockstar the opportunity to better understand how to develop story expansions. All three DLC packs essentially do the same thing: add a significant, new story that connects to the main plot (albeit Undead Nightmare doesn’t rely on the main plot of RDR as much as the other packs do on GTA 4’s storyline), and sets it within the already established game world, with further developed areas to make the map feel fresher. Rockstar didn’t add zombies to GTA because it felt that the world of Red Dead would suit them better, and the rest is history.
The Legacy of Undead Nightmare Lives On
As previously mentioned, people still reminisce on and want Undead Nightmare, and hope that Rockstar will develop some equivalent of it for Red Dead Redemption 2. With the game currently available for PC (unlike the original RDR), modders have essentially taken it upon themselves to add Undead Nightmare to RDR 2, with some mods putting zombies in the game and such.
Apparently even Rockstar likes to fondly look back on the zombie expansion pack from time to time. It even added an Undead Nightmare Easter egg in Red Dead Redemption 2. As for whether or not fans will get to visit the zombified west ever again, there’s one big reason why that’s unlikely.
GTA Online Killed Rockstar’s Story DLC Ambitions
If fans of Undead Nightmare were disappointed to learn that, after over a year, Rockstar still hasn’t released or announced any DLC for the single-player to Red Dead Redemption 2, then they might need to get some advice from the people still waiting on single-player DLC for GTA 5. There’s a huge reason why Rockstar doesn’t seem to care about releasing story DLC anymore, and it’s the same reason behind why GTA 5 still consistently charts within the top 10 highest selling games each month since its release in September 2013 - GTA Online.
GTA Online nets Rockstar, and its parent company Take-Two, a massive boon in revenue each year. For this reason, Rockstar has steadily expanded GTA Online over the years to the point that it’s ostensibly its own game, with activities and vehicles that are available online yet inaccessible within the base single-player. Similarly, Rockstar has taken this strategy and applied it to Red Dead Online, in the hopes that it will last as long as its predecessor, GTA Online.
Unless RDO doesn’t put up the numbers that the company is striving for, fans will likely never see a story expansion to Red Dead Redemption 2, let alone an equivalent to Undead Nightmare. At the end of the day, the only thing fans can do is politely reach out to Rockstar via its social media channels and whatnot and just have some hope.
Red Dead Redemption 2 is available now for PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.
