House Of The Dead 3

GamesRevolution.Tk Ratings:-10/7.5 Great

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House Of The Dead 3 Reviews..

October 18, 2002 - There aren't many light gun games these days, but you can always count on Sega and House of the Dead come Halloween. An arcade and console smash hit, the HOTD series was last seen on the Dreamcast a couple years back. After a short hiatus, the Dead have returned exclusively to Xbox. But don't expect your standard dead man party. Aside from the stunning eye-candy graphics (hard to believe this was once all cel-shaded), House of the Dead III comes with a few big changes, including auto-reloading shotguns and a different type of branching pathway than what we've seen from Sega in the past. Though you can possibly finish the game quicker than you can read this review, it is a heap of fun and worthy of the Dead.

Grab your light gun and get ready for some action. House of the Dead III takes place twenty years after the events of II, with Lisa Rogan and Agent G looking into the disappearance of Thomas Rogan, Lisa's father. The story, though, doesn't really matter. Yes, you're looking for the elder Rogan and yeah there's some back story flashbacks strewn in between each level (six total), but all that really matters is that you're in a house of the dead and there are beasties everywhere looking to take a bite out of crimefighters. You've got to blast your way through a horde of ungodly creatures and rescue Thomas Rogan.

Taking the role of either Lisa or Agent G (the only difference being one stands on the left and the other on the right), you'll enter the House of the Dead, which is actually a corporate office. Well, I guess if these zombies work late enough hours they can call it a "home". Anyone familiar with past Houses or, for that matter, almost any other light game, will get the grasp of things rather quickly. There's one or two player mode and each player aims a crosshair and fires at everything and anything in sight. But don't expect your standard House this time around, because WOW has shaken things up a bit.

In House of the Dead II, there were lots of innocents getting in the way. If you killed one, which was easy (and fun) to do, you lost a life. But in III, there are no innocents to worry about. Instead, you've only got to sweat saving your partner from some hairy jams. Occasionally your partner will be trapped and under duress from a few zombies. The game pauses a moment, highlights the offending zombies in red, and then lets you at them. Kill them all quickly and you'll keep Agent G from some nasty rashes. And for a reward you'll snag a bonus life. Move too slow, and G will take a hit, but you won't be penalized. But saving innocents didn't just keep you from losing lives in HOTD II, it also changed the path of the game. A saved innocent might give you a key or point you in a different direction. But there are no innocents here, so that type of path divergence isn't possible.

That's a subtle change, something that can be easily overlooked. But that wasn't enough for WOW, who took a huge gamble and stripped HOTD III of a shooter staple. You won't hear anyone shouting "Reload!" as you play HOTD III, because this time you were smart enough to bring an auto-loading shotgun with you. The shotgun has limited bullets, and when all shots are fired it will automatically reload, but this still takes time. So if you are reloading and are still under attack, you could get screwed over. But generally, that's not gonna be the case. And though it seems like this would kill the game, because reloading was a key part of the originals, it's actually a boon.

House of the Dead III gives you more zombies, coming at a faster pace and bosses that will have your trigger finger swollen and sore by the end of the day. You need the auto-reload because there's always something coming at you and the game very rarely lets up on the action. There are also more things in the environment to shoot than in the past. Blowing up boxes and oil drums reveals several different coins, which can add to your point total and thus increase your level rating at the end. Still, the no reload feature makes the game easier than its predecessors. So, you lose some of the challenge, but it's more fun than it ever was.

Alternate paths still exist in the Dead, but now are handled in a different way. There are six levels and you can choose your path before several of them. The first level is short and takes you through the last day Thomas Rogan was heard from. Two weeks later, G and Lisa kick in the gates and you're given a choice -- take the parking lot or the entranceway. Each takes you on slightly different paths, encountering different enemies and bonus coin placements. The next three levels -- the bulk of the game -- can be chosen in any order you wish. But your path will change for each one depending on the order you choose. So, you can go through the game a few times, picking different combinations and see a variety of paths all leading to one inevitable confrontation.

Speaking of confrontation, House of the Dead III wipes the floor with the much-loved II in terms of boss battles. Though there are only four bosses (you face one twice) each one is fantastically designed. The attack patterns are easy to figure out and they're not as difficult as in the previous Deads (excluding the final boss), but the bosses are far more imaginative and enjoyable. The best part of the game comes in a boss battle with a giant sloth-like creature whose cage you've stumbled onto. As he circles you by hanging onto the chain-link cage, you have to blast at his hands and feet to try and knock him loose. Not caring for that at all, Mr. Sloth Boss shakes the cage. Cue It's Raining Men, because it literally is. A dozen or so dead bodies hanging from the high ceiling fall towards you and your only hope for survival is to blast the corpses away before they splat you. Genius.

The only disappointment comes with the final boss battle, which seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the undead at all. The game suddenly shifts from "undead blast-fest" to "lost scenes from The Lawnmower Man." Not to mention he's tougher than the previous three bosses combined (even if you fought those bosses with your eyes closed and the light gun pointed at your crotch). But every challenge is worth its reward, and your reward here is a fun cut scene. Hoorah!

Source:-ign.com

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SYSTEM REQUIRMENTS...

OS: Windows 98/ME/XP

CPU: 1GHzRAM:

128 MBVideo: 64 MBSound:

DirectX 9.0c compatibleHDD:

700 MBCD: CD 8x speed

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