The House of the Dead

"One of my favorite arcade shooters"

The House of the Dead is a favorite arcade game for me. Many, many dollars have gone into beating the game time and time again. Glancing over to Soul Calibur II or Time Crisis III, was something that I never did after I had discovered The House of the Dead. A great game? Yes. A perfect game, however? No.

The House of the Dead isn't the most popular game in the arcade and has never been. It is just ashamed that it isn't ported to more systems. The basic objective in The House of the Dead is: 1. To stay alive. 2. Save as many civilians as possible. 3. Kill the zombie population down and save the city from perishing forever. It does sound pretty challenging, and a tiny bit life threatening, but no fear, you are in an arcade with infinite ammo and infinite life, as long as you can dish out the quarters.

For when The House of the Dead was released, the graphics were simply amazing. Blood, gore, everything you would expect in a horror arcade shooter, only in better quality than the other shooters. Both the FMV's and regular game play were the same magnitude of graphics, which isn't bad, but for my standards, FMV's should be a little better than normal game play.

I go to a loud arcade. So loud I can't really hear the sounds coming from the machine, so it is hard for me to grade the music and sound effects. From what I can here, I don't think there is music, but the sound effects aren't bad. I can't hear them that well so, whatever.

Game play is excellent. There are a wide variety of enemies and many different types of bosses all with their own weak spots. The weak spots make the bosses much more challenging than in other games making the replay value skyrocket. The regular enemies are more sensitive in areas like the head or neck then in the arms and legs adding more realism to the game. The only bad thing about it is that the two player mode is way too easy. While I was playing with my cousin, who has absolutely no experience in arcade shooters, we were able to beat the game only using about three dollars worth of tokens. A little disappointing and short, but still lots of fun. On the other hand, playing by myself, it could take ten dollars and a half hour to beat. Aside from the length of the game, there is a large amount of shortcuts to go through by triggering different things. For example if you shoot a key or a lock, you will go into another door. Depth, depth, depth.

So far I've beaten The House of the Dead three times. I guess you could say the replay value is very high. I estimate about 75% of the quarters have been jammed into this machine in frustration, but good frustration. Frustration of why you didn't win, and wanting more, and beating the enemy. Like in every game. But this game is different, because every level of the game is different from the last, and every boss is more challenging, and you will never know what is around the next corner.

In conclusion, The House of the Dead is one of my favorite arcade shooters to date, and I'm sure if you coughed up two coins, it would be yours too. With excellent graphics and game play to say the least, this game is an excellent one to play.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 01/26/06