The House of the Dead is a fun game to shoot zombies on your Desktop but it's Graphically and it sounds unimpressive.
Game Title: The House of the Dead
Platform: PC
Developer: Sega
Publisher: Empire
Genre: Light Gun Shooter/Horror
Age Rating: 11+ ELSPA
Release Date: 1998
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Game Score: 7.0/10
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Summery:
The House of the Dead is a fun game to shoot zombies on your Desktop but it's Graphically and it sounds unimpressive.
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Originally launched in Arcades in 1996, 2 years later Sega's House of the Dead now becomes available for both your Computer desktop and the Sega Saturn. The House of the Dead can be best described as similarities between Capcom's Resident Evil and Sega's Virtua Cop. As a console port it takes graphics away from the fun that's held inside the Haunted House.
Evil Scientist Dr Curien unleashes his Zombie experiments on his Lab Scientists and you and a friend who plays as AMS agents Rogan and G, your goal is too blast every Zombies and rescue Rogan's girl Solphie. The Storyline borrows ideas from a few horror movie settings like George Romero's Undead series of movies alongside the horror aspects of Resident Evil. What brakes the story down however is the Broken English voice work which sounds really terrible that you'll most likely to find Hilariously Bad.
The Main Arcade mode will take through only 4 Levels that you'll accomplish within 45 minutes which beats under an hours lunch break. A second player can jump in at anytime and Credits are shared. The gameplay goes On Rails leaving you to put the crosshair onto a Zombie and shoot it. You can blow chunks of Arms or Legs off or you can shoot them in the Head which is an instant takedown. Zombies can attack you with Axes, Chainsaws and projectiles such as Knifes and Barrels which can be shot in the air. During each Level you'll find Hostages that you'll have to Rescue, when you encounter one you'll see monsters that will charge in to attack one so you'll need to take down a group of monsters before it's too late for the victim. Also depending on which Hostage is rescued you go along different paths like either letting a Zombie throw one of a Bridge takes you to the sewers while saving the Hostage takes you over the Bridge. This allows opportunity to find multiple paths to follow throughout the game. At the end of each you'll fight a boss encounter which are menacing like The Chariot, The Hanged Man, The Hermit and finally The Magician. All bosses have their own weakpoints and you have to shoot that weakpoint at the right time in order to defend yourself from each attack. In addition to the Arcade Mode you got the PC Mode which allows you to pick from a few pre-selected characters which their own stats from Health, Damage and Ammo as well take on the games 4 bosses to beat under Record times.
You can play the game with either the Keyboard which the Crosshair speed can by adjusted or you can play with the Mouse. There's no Light Gun support on the PC version what-so-ever but the Mouse does a very good job at taking down targets with perfect accuracy. On your first run you might expect to complete it but gamers who had beaten the Arcade version can easily breeze through the game in a single siting but it's fun enough for you to replay through again and again.
With everything good about the game out of the way the worst part of the game is the production values. The arcade version was a pleasant looking game but unfortunately for the PC version the environments are horribly pixilated alongside the character models which are badly rendered, when the game goes up close the details look really nasty. The models also suffer from outlines The story and Voice acting is blend and amazingly awful with Broken English voice dubbing which is so bad it's really Hilarious. The voice work gets worse during the gameplay by having an annoying chuckle apon killing enemies which doesn't happen very often but you'll hear it every now and then. You can change the Colour of the Blood as you desire and while it's good to blow off chunks of body parts from a Zombie the overall design package makes this one of the few Ugly looking PC titles, it may not compare to how bad Bubsy 3D looks.
Put aside the overall presentation you can say the game's enjoyable but only at a cheap discounted price. If you compare it with other Sega games released on the PC like Sega Rally and Virtua Cop 1 and 2 then you'll be disappointed since The House of the Dead is a fun game to shoot zombies on your Desktop but it's Graphically unimpressive.
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The Good Points:
1. Able to change the different colour of blood
2. Extra Modes are worthwhile and humorous
3. Multiple Paths depend on what Hostages are rescued
The Bad Points:
1. Graphic details are horribly pixilated and badly rendered
2. Hilariously Bad Voice acting
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Reviewed by: Anthony Hayball (BlaZer91)
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