this is a great sequel to a very solid light gun arcade game and plus, a prequel comes with it too!
User Rating: 7.1 | The House of the Dead III XBOX
~NOTE~ in this review i will be reveiwing (of course) the house of the dead3 (the above ratings are for hotd3), and the house of the dead 2 -House of the Dead 3- we all know house of the dead from the arcade, and although the movie gives this game a very bad name, if you enjoyed the previous two games, like light gun games, or hell just like to shoot the crap outta things, this game is for you! this is an on rails shooter, you dont move you just shoot, and thats about it. there are some branching paths but nothing out of the ordinary. the paths really do take you to the same place. surprisingly, the game works real good without a light gun. it just feels like an on rails fps. still, playing with a light gun makes it a lot more fun for some reason. another new thing tehy added was the auto reload, you dont have to shoot off screen, just when your clip is empty, you auto reload. wether this is good or bad is up to you. the story just sucked and really took a way back seat in this one, dotn even bother. i thought the graphics were really well done, animations are smooth and the gore and the death affects are really well done. theres a slight cel-shaded element in the game, but is 90% 3d. back when it was released id say this was the best looking xbox game out, but now, 3 years later, its not bad, but certainly not the best. framrates butter smooth and no hiccups anywhere. the voice acting aint good, its not the worst but seriously, the VO's could really use some work. the monsters roars/growls/moans are you know, decent i guess. i beat this game in 25 minutes on teh normal setting. now THAT is sad. this game is a breeze until you reach the final boss. the final boss seems so out of place from the entire game and much more difficult that it will give you a challenege compared to the rest of the game. its as if the difficulty went from bad boys to ninja gaiden in a second. there also more difficulty settings and a time attack mode but none will keep your iterest for long. however if you love these game, you gun keep on going with it. i had so much fun with this game. it's just as great without a light gun and with a controller and that means something. too bad it doesnt last too long. -House of the Dead 2- (you unlock hotd2 when you beat hotd3) Difficulty: Hard Learning Curve: 0 to 30 Minutes Gameplay: 6 Graphics: 1 Sound: 3 Value: 7 Tilt: 7 SCORE: 5.4 its really the same except tehrs no auto reload so you have to shoot off screen. also those pesky tedious hostage resuce scenarios are just..WOW. they suck that much. DONT GET ME STARTED ON THE VISUALS HERE. true, this game was released wayy back but still, they could've improved it just a lil bit here and there, nasty. does not deserve to be on the xbox. the audio...wow. the zombie sound the same. but the voice acting..THE VOICE ACTING...hotd3 is heaven compared to this one, its just atrocious and if you think you can do better, your probably right. this game is a lot more difficult than hotd3 and if your eyes and ears can handle it, its really a nice bonus to make up for the shortness of hotd3. its just hotd3, with ATROCIOUS graphics and audio, and no auto reload. plus its a lot harder.
