The House of the Dead III Preview
Sega's serves up a dose of zombie-killing fun on the Xbox.
Sega's House of the Dead series was an important part of the arcade revival of light gun shooters when it was first released in the US in 1997. The franchise offered a different twist on the reality-based shooters, such as the Virtua Cop and Time Crisis games, by placing a wide assortment of undead menaces in players' crosshairs. The latest installment in the series, The House of the Dead III, continues the fine tradition of zombie shooting on the Xbox. We had a chance to check out a previewable build of the upcoming game to see how it's coming together. Offering some twists on the gameplay of the previous games, gorgeous graphics, and some unlockables to discover, The House of the Dead III seems to be capably carrying the zombie-killing torch on the Xbox.
The game's story picks up in 2019, 19 years after the events in The House of The Dead 2, and it involves newcomer Lisa Rogan, the daughter of Thomas Rogan, and former AMS agent "G," who was last seen in The House of the Dead 2 with Lisa's father. The game starts with a prologue that you'll actually play in as Thomas Rogan, who has left the AMS and formed a new secret division dedicated to dealing with bizarre and dangerous undead menaces. Unfortunately, things go awry during the prologue's assault on a complex crawling with the life-challenged, and he disappears. When the proper game starts, two weeks after the events in the prologue, you'll play as either Lisa or G as they set out to find Rogan. The pair's search will take them through five chapters and pit them against a twisted mix of zombies and genetic experiments gone horribly wrong. Along the way, you'll gain some insight into Dr. Curien's insane mind and come to understand his motivation for playing reanimator.
The House of the Dead III features the same basic structure as its predecessors in that you'll go through a level shooting anything that moves, as well as crates and other assorted breakables. This time out, you'll be packing a shotgun that doles out messy damage in a wide area. Most levels will feature a boss battle and at least one branch or alternate path. There were two modes in our build of the game: survival and time attack. Survival plays like a traditional arcade mode and offers a set number of continues that are shared when playing with two players. Time attack offers a greater challenge by giving you an initial time limit of 30 seconds that ticks away as you go through a level. You'll earn units of time to extend the overall limit based on how fast your reflexes are and how well you aim. If you manage to finish the game in survival mode, you'll unlock a nostalgic extra in the form of the full version of The House of the Dead 2, which features all the gameplay modes from the home conversion for the PC. In addition, the game offers a featurette that provides a lengthy look at the upcoming House of the Dead movie, which is slated for release next year.
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- GameSpot Score6.4fair
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- Release: Oct 24, 2002 »
- ESRB: Mature
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