We can’t let everyone’s death be in vain!!
STORY: 20 years have passed since the Curien case, and the undead have nearly destroyed the Earth. Rogan and a soldier named Taylor attempt to seize the building in which Curien is suspected to be once again doing his vile work, but they fail. Two weeks later, Rogan’s old partner G, and his daughter Lisa are going there too, in order to find out what happened, and save Rogan.
GRAPHICS:
Since HOTD3 contains HOTD2 as a bonus, it was nice to make a visual comparison between the X-Box and Dreamcast horsepower. And man oh man, does HOTD3 emerged victorious. While the zombies are more detailed than ever, it’s backgrounds and the player characters that saw the best of it. G and Lisa are simply beautiful with excellent animation, and the detail in the backgrounds is simply amazing. 60 frames per seconds give you the arcade feel just fine.
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS:
The music is classic capcom-video junk, which is barely heard thanks to the ludicrous amount of sound effects. Moans, gunshots, exploding flesh, screams, electric chainshaws and the crashing of walls are some of the noise you’ll be hearing in this game. The voice acting in the HOTD series needs a special introduction. It’s simply horrible. Or -- wait a minute! They somewhat fixed it here! Where is the “so bad it’s good” dialogue between characters? Where is the amazing performance in lines like “Please be safe, G!” or “Dogs of the AMS ... time they made a move.” Or even “I’ve been waiting for you ... friends.”
Instead we get lines like “We can’t let everyone’s death be in vain!” or “How many of these things ARE there!?!?” You Sega rascals, you! You try to make the dialogue actually sound nice? Shame on you! Shame, shame, shame! But thank you for at least giving us a horrible announcer: “The House ... of the Dead ... Three.” or “The most dangerous enemy mankind has ever encountered ...” Truly amazing work there.
GAMEPLAY:
You see a zombie, you shoot it. If it still moves, you shoot it. If it falls, you can either watch it die, or shoot it. Sometimes, if it falls, it may get up, and then, you must shoot it. Basically, like all “operation wolf” games (Operation Wolf is probably the mother of all 1st person shooters), everything revolves around the slogan “shoot first and shoot again right afterwards”. Your character always has a set course to follow, and you only have control of his shotgun. Enemy units abound and attack from literally everywhere. In front of you, behind you, to your left, to your right, above you, below you, nowhere’s safe. Your character always has the ability to *conveniently* turn to face the enemy closest to him, giving you the opportunity to shoot him. Some times you have a few seconds; other times there’s as much time as a blink of an eye. Boss battles are spectacular, and all of them have a “shoot the weak spot in order to break the boss’ attack pattern” strategy. I also think that the targetting area affecting your gunshots is a bit broader than the one in HOTD2, which required a lot more targeting accuracy. HOTD3 is clearly easier than it predessesor. It’s also quite shorter in play time too.
The game’s not unreasonably hard. With 9 credits, 5 energy points, and the difficulty in easy, you’re bound to beat the game in 1-3 attempts.
OVERALL:
The House of the Dead 3 is an excellent 1st person shooter (on a set course), with amazing visuals, plenty of action and gore, as well as sharp-edged sound effects. It’s a pity they took it a little seriously with the dialogue. I miss the so-bad-it’s-good dialogue already ...