The House of the Dead

"Virtua Cop meets Resident Evil!!!"

Tired of shooting at baddies? Hmm...How about trying bloodthirsty zombies...? Time for some horror action! Then, House of the Dead maybe the game for you. Using the Virtua Cop engine, AM1 has made another worthy light gun shooting game.

Set in the 1930s, the game thrusts you in the role of a ''special agent'', Tom Rowgun. Your job is to investigate the disappearance of a famous scientist in a dark mansion, as well as looking after the scientist's daughter, Laura. [Take on the armies of darkness and protect a cute babe? Sounds good!]

Naturally, the house is full of bloodthirsty zombies and nasty critters, which you need to blast all of them out of your way in order to get to the bottom of the mystery. [Like Virtua Cop meets Resident Evil, huh?]

To some degree, the story does make up an important element to the game, which sounds rather surprising for a light gun shooting game. During breaks between levels, players have the chance to make some choices about which direction they should go, thus affecting the way the plot uncovers indirectly.

Unlike Virtua Cop series or any other light gun shooting game which uses the traditional difficulty settings, the game adjusts itself depending on how well the player is performing, thus affects the storyline as well.

The most successful element of House of the Dead is the ridiculous amount of gore, thus creating the suspense and the atmosphere. Monsters do lose limbs, heads or even chests. Bodies can have gaping wounds which players can see through. [Wow, just as violent as Resident Evil, right? Or perhaps, even more?]

Although anyone could agrue that House of the Dead is Sega's entry in the post-Resident Evil horror bandwagon, it nevertheless represents an interesting new direction for light gun shooting genre. With its interesting gameplay that tweaks and branches around, House of the Dead could be one title worth watching out for.

Story : 7.5/10.0
Graphics : 8.5/10.0
Concept : 8.0/10.0
Control : 8.0/10.0
Sound : 7.5/10.0
Gameplay : 8.5/10.0
Replay : 8.5/10.0
Challenge : 7.5/10.0
Overall : 8.0/10.0

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/00, Updated 12/16/02