The House of the Dead III

"Time to do some house cleaning."

While the original House of the Dead was a pretty straightforward arcade gun game with zombies its popularity has resulted in a sequel and even movie. The third in the series made it's debut in the arcades way back in 2002 and computer owners can now finally get their hands on a slice of the action. Be warned though this is mindless entertainment at its most basic so if you were expecting anything like your usual First Person Shooter or computer style game then this will definitely be a letdown.
The game takes place some 20 odd years after the “Currien residence incident”. The game opens with a short flashback level where Tom Rogan tries to escape a zombie filled building but is overcome. Fast forward 2weeks to where his daughter Lisa Rogan and ex partner “G” show up to find out what happened to him. The game only has five relatively short chapters so once again don't expect a game that will keep you buys for days or even hours. Unlike the arcade machine you can set the options giving you more lives and continues or adjusting the difficulty level so at least anyone will be able to have a fair shot at completing this one.

Even though the game is by now rather dated in the arcades the graphics in this computer version still looks pretty cool although not exactly state of the art. Zombies come in all shapes and sizes with plenty of other creepy mutations to keep them company as well. You can change the color of the blood but red still looks the best and when the violence is set to the fullest the game turns into a bloodbath. Arms, legs and heads can be blown off and gaping holes shot through bodies. Some zombies also treat dismemberment as only a minor setback so you better be quick with the trigger finger. The environments you travel through look pretty neat as well although I would have liked more destructible scenery. You can shoot barrels and crates to reveal bonuses but that's about it. There are only a few bosses but these guys are definitely mean and the “Security guard” and last boss definitely stand out as highlights. Since the whole game is “on rails” you have very little say in where your characters are heading and it's a pity that there isn't more routes through the game. You can pick in what order you want to play the levels but other than that your path through the stags are pretty much set.

The gameplay is fast paced and relentless making the game intense to play from start to finish. Between levels you are treated to some short cut-scenes that explain how all the madness started but these barely give you time to get your breath back before its raining zombies again. Since there are no innocent civilians to rescue this time round you have to bail out your partner in certain spots. Respond to the threat quickly enough and you earn yourself a handy extra life. Apart from “Survival Mode” which plays exactly like the arcade game there is also a “Time Attack”. Here you have a limited time to finish each level but shooting zombies earns you a few more seconds. This means the faster you kill them the more time you have. At the end the game also calculates how long it took you to shoot each zombie on average and give you a ranking. This mode is probably the one you'll be playing the most since after finishing “Survival” a few times there's not much reason to go back.

The audio this time round is actually pretty bearable and for once the voice acting is tolerable. The voice artists still wont' be walking home with any awards but at least it doesn't' sound like their reading their lines for the first time when they talk. The audio isn't bad with some fairly decent tunes while the sound effects consist of the usual amount of zombie grunting and groaning. The game supports keyboard, gamepads and the trusty mouse but with anything less than a USB light gun you won't have the full arcade experience. It's a real pity that you only get to use one type of gun, the shotgun, during the whole game. Just some temporary weapon power-ups would have been neat.

Once again House of the Dead 3 isn't going to appeal to your average computer owner and is much more suited for console. Still I'm sure there are plenty of fans of the franchise that don't mind a short lived reflex based game on their pc. There are not many other titles in the genre to compete with it so if you liked what you saw in the arcades now is your chance to relive it in from of your computer monitor. Although there's a lot that counts against it I have to admit I did have a blast playing this one.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/22/06