House of the Dead has become Sega's major light gun franchise. While they've made plenty of others, including tons of arcade games that never made it to the consoles, the HotD series has become one of Sega's signature franchises.

The original House of the Dead reminded most gamers of Resident Evil with the whole dealing with zombies and a giant mansion that you have to navigate through. In that one, you controlled either G or Rogan who were two AMS agents sent to investigate what was going on with the Curien Mansion and save Rogan's girlfriend. What they found was a mansion filled with zombies created by Curien who, like other crazy scientist, was looking for a way to bring someone back to life.

House of the Dead 2 takes place not long after the original with two more AMS agents working to find out why zombies have taken over the city. They'll have to work through a city killing zombies and other enemies while attempting to save the lives of some of the people around town, just like Resident Evil 2 (the evidence just keeps building).

The graphics in this game are quite impressive for a Dreamcast launch game, looking rather advanced when compared to games released on the Playstation or N64 at the same time. All the zombies are interesting looking with my favorite being the dual axe wielding zombie. I'm not sure how he has the coordination necessary to swing those things, but whatever, it is great for the graphics. The bosses are all big and imposing, despite the standard weak point gameplay that always dominates such encounters.

Music doesn't fare as well, with typical horror genre pieces and some of the worst voice acting ever seen in gaming. It goes well with the B-movie plot and setting, but its flawed presentation can't be ignored.

HotD games have the same standard gameplay being the light gun games that they are. You progress through the level killing monsters with your gun then dispose of a boss at the end of the level. Zombies, like always, are vulnerable to headshots with bosses having varied weak spots on their persons. Two players can team up to destroy the enemies with each player having a set amount of health that translates to taking a few hits from enemies or a reduction because of an innocent being shot at.

HotD2 features the same find alternate paths concept of the original game. Finding these paths will require shooting doors, locks, certain enemies, and saving certain people. Differences in paths vary with no real reward except possibility of a few more treasure or enemies to kill.

Arcade mode can be beaten in less than an hour for more players, but it's not that easy. After playing the game enough, you'll memorize the enemy patterns and able to kill the enemies quicker yet still, a little help is needed. With a limited amount of health and continues, it's not surprising that beating the game will take plenty of tries, just like in the arcades. To assist the gamer, more health and continues will become available after you do a playthrough and get the "game over" screen. There's also the Original mode alternative to the Arcade mode. Original mode lets you pick a variety of options such as more credits, extra damage, or replace your bullets with some awkward alternatives. You can even make the game tougher in Original mode if you think you're a Billy Badass.

- O.G.

article id: 546 | poster: uglybob