Ever since Red Dead Redemption 2 was first announced in 2016, the return of the first Red Dead Redemption’s Undead Nightmare DLC has been anticipated and desired. About a year after Red Dead Redemption 2’s 2018 debut, Rockstar Games released the game’s online multiplayer with Red Dead Online, but there was no sign of an official Undead Nightmare-like DLC.
Now, almost seven years after Red Dead Redemption 2’s launch, digital cowboys can finally fight against zombies and other unnatural creatures in Red Dead Online’s Strange Tales of the West Vol. 1. While the free content update is exciting for the Red Dead community, Rockstar should strive to release similar content faster for Grand Theft Auto 6.
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Red Dead Redemption’s Zombie DLCs Explained
In October 2010, Rockstar released Undead Nightmare for Red Dead Redemption 1 only five months after the game’s launch. Here, players could journey in a brand-new, non-canonical campaign with John Marston wherein he must travel across the Southwest United States and Northern Mexico to find a way to cure his family’s zombification. Along the way, Marston had to fight endless hordes of zombies and special infected as well as other supernatural creatures such as sasquatches, chupacabras, undead bears, and undead cougars.
On top of the new campaign, Undead Nightmare added two new multiplayer modes, including the four-player Call of Duty Zombies-like Undead Overrun and Land Grab, which was an area defense mode disconnected from Undead Nightmare’s monstrous creatures.
Undead Nightmare was overwhelmingly critically and financially successful, despite the initially odd concept of having zombies overrun the American Wild West. Red Dead Redemption 2 never received an Undead Nightmare campaign of its own, with Red Dead Redemption 1 and L.A. Noire being the last Rockstar titles to ever receive single-player DLC.
Rockstar released Strange Tales of the West Vol. 1 for Red Dead Online on July 1, 2025, four years after RDO’s Blood Money update. Strange Tales centers around four new Telegram Missions and has players face off against zombies, steam-powered automata, swamp folk, a swamp creature, and murderous wilderness inhabitants:
- Strange Tales of the Plague
- Strange Tales of Modern Science
- Strange Tales of the Bayou
- Strange Tales of the Wilderness
Potential Wacky and Supernatural Updates for Grand Theft Auto 6
With both Red Dead Redemption 1 and Red Dead Redemption 2’s zombie DLCs proving to be highly popular among Rockstar players, the studio should strive to introduce similarly wacky DLCs and updates in GTA 6, and as soon as possible. For example, with GTA 6 scheduled to launch in May 2026, Rockstar could release a zombie-themed update for GTA 6 later in October 2026 to make for a promising Halloween event like RDR did with Undead Nightmare.
Alternatively, based on GTA 6’s coastal Florida-inspired setting, Rockstar could debut a kaiju-inspired update for multiplayer, allowing players to fight against kaiju invading the shores of Leonida. With the rise of AI in modern society and social media’s prevalence in GTA 6, Rockstar could also release a robot uprising update, forcing players to fight Terminator-like robots. Without contrasting against base game content, GTA 6's own Online counterpart would be remiss not to take advantage of fan-favorite content while it's still riding a hype train—if not in 2026 after launch, then perhaps the next year.
The Need for Consistent, Engaging Grand Theft Auto 6 Online Updates
Grand Theft Auto 5 is now known for its various exponentially expanding updates to Grand Theft Auto Online, but it wasn’t always that way. When GTA 5 first released, Rockstar announced that players would be able to take part in complex heists throughout Los Santos with friends online. However, these heists didn’t debut in GTA Online until 2015, two years after GTA 5 and Online’s initial launch.
Since then, Rockstar has consistently added new features and updates to GTA Online, which has kept GTA 5 a best-selling game every year despite the title being nearly 12 years old. Plus, several single-player DLCs for GTA 5 were reportedly in development but canceled.
Given the immense popularity of GTA Online, it’s expected that Rockstar will release numerous expansive updates to Grand Theft Auto 6’s iteration of GTA Online, even if it has a bit of a slow start like GTA 5. Based on Rockstar’s history with GTA Online and Red Dead Online, the developer could add fun wacky updates similar to The Doomsday Heist and Strange Tales of the West Vol. 1 early on in GTA 6’s life.
Updates such as these could help GTA 6 remain fun and unpredictable and retain a consistent population, unlike Red Dead Online, which many players abandoned due to the lack of new content released following Blood Money. That said, GTA Online will hopefully take advantage of supernatural events far sooner than Red Dead Online has.
Red Dead Redemption 2
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 95 /100 Critics Rec: 93%
- Released
- October 26, 2018
- ESRB
- M for Mature: Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Nudity, Sexual Content, Strong Language, Use of Drugs and Alcohol
- Developer(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Publisher(s)
- Rockstar Games
- Engine
- RAGE
- Multiplayer
- Online Multiplayer
- Cross-Platform Play
- N/A
