I may sound like a little bit of a hypocrite for writing this but here goes; I actually really enjoy the live-service model that comes with Rockstar games. I know, I know, I'm always going on about how manipulative these kind of practises can be and yet I'm actively playing one myself; I suppose we just all have our lines in the sand that we draw. Don't get we wrong, I don't believe that Red Dead Online and Grand Theft Auto Online are flawless in any regard, the writing for both is terrible and their respective communities are some of the worst in gaming; but I can get behind any system that refuses to lock content behind a hard paywall and makes all content available to everyone as long as they work hard enough. (Although, admittedly, sometimes they ask for a lot of work on our behalf.)
But that topic is neither here no there for today, as I want to talk about another thing that can be achieved through a 'live-service' angle; messing with your player base. When you are in a position to constantly update your game, it can be fun for developers to tease their fans with change logs (Herobrine removed) or hidden updates. You can make your world feel alive by throwing in little teasers of what might come, or just random events that make the experience feel fresh. Well, it seems that Rockstar did exactly that when they released their 'specialisation' update last week. The RDO Reddit is now popping off with something special that some players have discovered in the game world: The existence of zombies!
I'm not just talking about those freaky Murfree Broods either, I'm talking honest-to-goodness, dead fleshed, glowing eyed, zombies. A few have been seen standing in the swamps of Lemoyne, completely interaction-less, but if you want to reliably see one yourself, you merely need to take a look in the coffins behind the sheriff's office in Armadillo. (Or just look at the picture I took from that location above.) Obviously, these beings have been conjured up with the intent to tease at some oncoming event, (I'd imagine that our proximity to Halloween might have something to do with it too) but fans are torn as to whether this will just be a seasonal online-only zombie invasion or, given Rockstar's history, a surprise drop for a zombie themed 'Undead Nightmare' overhaul.
For those who are unfamiliar, back in 2010, just a few months after the release of the critically acclaimed (and Award winning): Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar released a zombie themed update in Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare. This came to the surprise of everyone a few days before that year's Halloween festivities, likely ensuring that many kids didn't get their candy that year. Who could have predicted that the folks at Rockstar would completely shake up the formula of their game within the space of a few months?
The original Undead Nightmare took place during the epilogue chapters of Red Dead Redemption, (But before the ending, obviously.) and followed the journey of John Marston as he worked to free the land from an ancient Mayan curse or something. This meant that players would find themselves going around West Elizabeth and New Austin, reconnecting with old friends and slaying your typical video game zombie variants along the way. (Walkers, Spitters, exploders etc.) You even had the chance to travel to Mexico and fight poncho zombies. (the most terrifying of all the zombies!) Yeah, the main story was mostly just schlocky fun, but no one really expected anything more from a game that bought the undead to the wild west
This wasn't just some half-assed re-skin either (As though you need be told that knowing that this is a Rockstar game.) this was a boxed game that they released in stores, with new animations, cutscenes and a heaping of fun side activities. Some of my personal favourites were the Bigfoot hunt (which was a sly reference to the long running 'bigfoot' rumor regarding GTA San Andreas), The horses of the Apocalypse (which gave the player challenges to complete and rewarded them with special apocalyptic horses) and the chupacabra hunt (In which you get to track and kill a Mexican folktale.)
One problem with Undead Nightmare, however, was the fact that, because the game was technically a re-release, it came with a separate online mode attached. This meant that there was a slew of new online modes to try out, but also that people who owned the original game couldn't play alongside those who had Undead Nightmare. Plus, then there is the issue with the Online DLC that Rockstar released and the whole thing just turned into this huge, unreserved mess. However, that was before Rockstar got a handling on how to handle a sustainable online, so maybe things will be better this time.
That is assuming that Rockstar intend to re-release Red Dead Redemption 2 in the first place, or even that there is a event impending at all. Rockstar are famously tight-lipped about all of their projects so they haven't even let slip a rumor about what the appearance of these surprise zombies could be hinting at. If anything does ultimately come from this, we should find out definitively in around about a month. I know better then to try to predict Rockstar's actions here, but I will admit that I hope for something more than the 'snowy map' that GTA Online gets every Christmas. At this point, there's nothing for us fans to do but speculate and wait for results, but I doubt we'll be disappointed.
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