The single player story takes place near the end of the main story line, with John Marsten arriving home from Blackwater just as a strange storm rolls in. He enters the house and gets one last quiet evening with his family, Abigail and Jack. Uncle, the remaining family member, hasn't returned from the fields which has John concerned but not overly worried. The next morning starts normal enough, but Uncle of course returns very much undead with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. I think it's interesting how they handle character reactions, as neither John nor Abby know what a zombie is. She tries to run over and help him, only to be bitten on the neck and turned before John's very eyes. He calls for his son Jack to come out and help while he deals with Uncle. Jack is bitten and turns as well, just as John manages to finish off Uncle. He's not sure what to do with them, thinking they are sick and need help. The very first mission of Undead Nightmare requires you to lasso and hogtie your family before setting off to Blackwater in search of a cure. John takes them into the house and barricades the door from the outside.
Of course zombie enthusiasts know that even though it's implied, there is never a cure. Luckily John's horse manged to escape the infection, so I hopped up on his back and headed for town. During the normal game, roads are usually busy with travelers going this way or that. In Unead Nightmare, the road from John's ranch at Beecher's Hope into Blackwater was dead, no pun intended. There's an eery silence everywhere, and the sky is an overcast gray. The sun is nowhere to be seen, and as I come into town I notice I still haven't seen a single person. Blackwater is the biggest city in the game, yet it's completely deserted. It's not long before I start running into other survivors, including some familiar characters from the main story. It's interesting to try and make predictions on who will make it and who won't.
After a couple missions in Blackwater, the undead horde attacks in full force and John is tasked with helping defend the town. In these types of battles, I've learned that the roof is the safest place to be. Zombies can't climb, thankfully, so staying up high is the best way to stay alive. Once you clear the first town, things open up and you can then do the same for all of the others. Each time I would first ride in, a mission would start where I would need to help defend against an ever increasing onslaught of undead. The farther I got into the game, the harder things became. I manged to get all the way down to Armadillo, which is roughly in the middle of the map, and it was definitely the most difficult. Once you defend a town, it becomes safe which allows you to save the game and search buildings for precious ammo. There aren't any stores open, so the only ammo and weapons you have are what you find. Towns don't stay safe for long, as sooner or later the undead attack again. When that happens, you're called again to help defend.
There's also a whole new set of new challenges, stranger missions, and random events that fit right in with the zombie apocalypse theme. I've seen survivors on the road being attacked by zombies, a poor woman who was bitten and turned just as I had gotten off my horse to help her, and a man trying to take a woman's gun for himself. The stranger tasks, at least so far, have all involved major characters from the main story. Some that I didn't like ended up zombified, which made killing them fun. Other good characters also didn't make it, and the game forces you to deal with them accordingly.
I haven't made it down to Mexico yet, as I switched out this past weekend and started multiplayer. It's still just as fun as before, with Friendly Free Roam being a nice addition. Before it could be a pain to try and gain experience as eventually there would always be some idiot show up shooting everything in sight. With this new Free Roam that's no long a problem, and I was able to run several gang hideouts with no interruptions and dare I say actual cooperation from another players. I noticed several new gang hideouts that are apparently part of previous DLC packs, so I guess I'm going to have to get them all eventually.
Undead Overrun is one of the new multiplayer modes that comes with this DLC, and for my money it's by far the best. It takes one of several different set pieces from the main game, with four players fending off progressively harder waves of zombies. Before a match begins you have to choose a weapon load out, each being suited to a different play style. Once things get started it's all about killing zombies and staying alive as the clock slowly ticks down. Coffins appear during each wave and if a player opens one the entire team gets additional ammo and time on the clock. I had a match where one player dropped out just before we started, then another climbs up onto a building just as the first wave starts. This left myself and the last player to run for the coffins and cover each other. It didn't become a problem until after several waves, then things start to get really crazy and working together as a team is the only hope for survival. Unfortunately the one player never came down, and could only hit zombies that were close. I was surprised when he didn't even come to heal either of us after we had both been knocked out. The clock ran out and the match ran into overtime, but I'm not really sure what that meant as I didn't stick around. I did eventually get into one game with three players that were very good. We worked well as a team and made it to wave 11 before running out of time. I don't think I stopped moving that entire wave.
