Here's Johnny!

User Rating: 9 | The House of the Dead III PC
By Spinnerweb | Review Date:
Almost a decade ago, light-gun games pretty much died out. The way arcades took a back seat to home consoles is to blame for this. Despite the light gun genre being dead at the time, Sega once again made an excellent iteration in their House of the Dead franchise, House of the Dead III. The game takes place in 2019 - Rogan, the protagonist of the first game, has gone missing and his daughter Lisa and his partner G go to search for him. Some of the changes in this game compared to the previous two are that the main weapon is a shotgun instead of a pistol, and the inclusion of a Cancel Bar that I'll explain later.

Seeing that this game was released in 2003 as an Xbox exclusive before being ported to the PC, the graphics are excellent. The environments are nicely detailed (i.e full of dead people. I jest) and the zombies look good, if having a chunk of your head missing and dragging your feet for brains makes you look good. You can blast out their stomachs or shoot off their heads. If you blow off a zombie's legs, he'll start crawling towards you instead. The camera is also great and lets you get a good aim when the zombies are all over the screen.

And just like the previous House of the Dead games, the gameplay is awesome. Killing zombies never gets old anyway, and there are fast zombies, slow zombies, strong zombies, fat zombies and the iconic axe-wielding Johnny zombie from House of the Dead 2. The bosses are excellent too. Now for the Cancel Bar. In previous House of the Dead games, one hit to the bosses' weak point would cancel their attack. In this game, you have to shoot their weak point repeatedly to fill a Cancel Bar under their health bar, and then you cancel their attack. Boss fights are a lot more challenging and a lot more satisfying.

The music is great; the voice acting is the same as the other House of the Dead games - so bad it's awesome. The dialogue is good too, even though it's hilariously bad in some places.

There are multiple paths to take through the game, and multiple endings. House of the Dead III is an excellent game, and Sega did a great job bringing a dead genre to life again.
As a zombie, maybe.

Other Helpful Reviews for The House of the Dead III

  • Rating:8.9

    Pure action and horror

    By Orasion_Seiz | Review Date: Feb 11, 2006 | PC

    The third part of the zombie blasting series, The House of The Dead comes to the PC. Gamers will taste a new kind of adventure plus a all new shotgun weapon. Although you can play this game using the mouse, a lightgun ca... Read Full Review

    3 of 3 users found the following review helpful
  • Rating:8

    A fun arcade shooting title.

    By ZanarkandTidus | Review Date: Feb 24, 2013 | PC

    This is another enjoyable HotD title. I don't know what to say about this game except it's a fun arcade shooter.Using a mouse to aim your weapon is so much easier than using a controller like console shooters make you... Read Full Review

    2 of 2 users found the following review helpful
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