House of the Dead is originally an arcade game which now has been ported to PC. Its a pure shoot 'em up game, no need for brains because you will simply not use it. All you need is fast reflexes. You have the opportunity to play using a light gun, something I didnt have. Although I have heard that this game SHOULD be played with a light gun because otherwise you will loose a lot of the Arcade game feeling etc..
If you are not sure what I mean visit the nearest Arcade Hall and try any game which involves a light gun. Then after a game or two consider instead of using that light gun, you use a tiny mouse with its tiny buttons, so my advice is 'get a light gun'.
So whats the deal with this game then? Well, basically this: A town is full of zombies and they are running amok, killing everyone and everything they meet. Thats it. No point confusing your brains with any more info :)
There are over 12 different sorts of zombies that are walking around killing people all over the place including the chainsaw wielding Max and the perpetually rotting Ebitan. Each zombie has its own unique (sigh) way of killing people and you will find more info about this in the manual. A bit of worthless info perhaps because the only thing you are intrested in, is to keep a good distance between you and those evil zombies, period. And to help you out with this you start off with a gun and during the game you will find more wepaons to use.
Well aimed shots towards the head are recommended but on the other hand, hit everything that you can ! If you shoot and hit an arm or a leg (or even a head) it will vanish in blood etc. Speaking about shooting everything that moves, some morons have still not fled the city and are now running around like headless chickens. You should try avoiding shooting them (although from time to time some of them MIGHT just get in your way) because this lowers your health and if you instead rescue them you might recieve things as a reward.
Also by rescuing someone, that person might show you a shortcut to your destination and this might speed up your chances in meeting a 'Level Boss'. Yes, its your typical arcade game so of course every level ends with a super zombie.
Shoot at barrels etc since such things might conceal bonus stuff like weapons and power ups.
Is it any fun?
Well, I think the downside with Shoot 'em ups are that you usually get bored after a few times. You meet the same enemies over and over again. Also, arcade games for me is a dark and smoky hall, with som cold bee,,,ahem Coca colas, everything combined in the worst scenario, ie A Boat Cruise. But yes, for the moment it is fun. If you are into nice & good looking action games (if we ignore some really lousy animations and worthless speeches) then this is the game for you. If you are looking for a game with a little bit of depth in it, look elsewhere :D
I have nothing against The House of the Dead 2 other than the extremly ugly animations and the speech in it. People sound and act stupid and let me just point out that after a while I did not see any different with zombies and other people ;)
Notice that ELSPA has put a 15+ limit for this game, in Germany its 18+ and in France 16+.
The game is bloody. It has a lot of violence (hey you shoot zombies ok? ;P) but the world becomes a gets much better place without them.
The House of the Dead 2 offers no new gaming concept but it looks good and its worth spending some time with. Maybe its raining outside? Or very cold? So get your friend around the computer and whack some zombies!
A non violent version of this title was also published by Empire under the name of "Typing of the Dead" with exactly the same graphics except the concept of the game is to TYPE as fast as possible (each zombie carries some sort of "name-tag") in order to kill that specific zombie ... i just think thats a very sad adaption of the game to meet non-violence ... like Carmageddon's zombie skins ... the entire point of those games ARE the violence and the blood ... take that away .. and you end up with a bar serving only water ... pointless.
There is a House of the Dead 3 expected for the XBOX .. so lets hope they learn from past mistakes and make something decent out of it ...
Used system
P3 1.000 / 512mb Ram / WinME Guillemot 3D Prophet Geforce2 Pro