Its great for parties!!

User Rating: 8 | The House of the Dead: Overkill WII
House of the Dead: Overkill has been on my games list for quite some time now, but I hadn't taken the plunge to buy it soley because it was a Wii game and my home console of choice is usually my PS3. However, I always enjoyed the arcade shooters like Point Blanc 1 & 2 and Time Crisis, so I took the plunge and bought it.

Graphics
This isn't a game that's going to set any records for light effects or even lip synching for that matter. The graphics are quite average to be honest, but I guess my criticisms come mainly because I've gotten used to PS3 visuals. That being said, the grainy grindhouse style that this game has been made in does a good job to set the atmosphere. Setting aside the Wii graphics capabilities, the glitches were abit of an issue, especially if you're trying to complete a level by trying to get a high accuracy %, I found myself on many occasions shooting a zombie, thinking that it was gone and then have them flickering on the screen again, I shoot a few more rounds, but then they flicker off.

Sound
Apart from the cheesey 70's music that you sometimes hear, the main sound comes in the form of the talking between the 2 cops and let me just say, this is not a game for children or even teens (if you don't want them to pick up any phrases). The swearing certainly tips the metre as you would expect being entered in the Guinness World Records for the most amount of times the F bomb is dropped. Does it enhance the gameplay at all? No. But does it make the game a lot more amusing? Yes.

Gameplay
As with the graphics, this isn't a ground breaking game in any way, this is an arcade style, point and shoot game and in that respect, it certainly is a lot of fun. But this game is way to easy and you can finish the story mode very quickly. I bought it on Thursday and completed it by Saturday morning and there were no long gaming sessions to pull this off, just a mere hour or 2 each night.
Usually with a boss in any game, it is up to you to find out the weak spot that requires exploiting, but with this game, it actually shows you where to shoot it, before and during the shoot-out, there isn't much of a challenge here.

Final Thoughts
This is a great arcade game if you have a few mates over and you want to relive the arcade days, but there isn't a great deal of depth to be had here, as I knew already. I'm sure most people would buy this game purely to say that they've played it or for a party. However, it doesn't take itself too seriously and can be quite funny in parts. I think this game is worth a 7.5, however for the fun you can have, the amusing dialogue and the fact you get 2 very cool "hand cannons" with the game (yes I am that shallow), its worth an 8.