The House of the Dead 2

"Not as fun as the arcade, but still pretty fun."

The much awaited sequel to The House of the Dead finally hits a console system. Most knew the graphics would probably rock, but must wondered if the game would just be fun for five minutes. Surprisingly, the game can keep you hooked for quite some time.

Game Play

This game is kept alive with several modes that were not in the arcade version. You still do have the arcade version of course. If you have no idea what this game is about, basically you go around shooting zombies and other hideous creatures in an attempt to save the world from them.

Original mode was added to the console version. In this mode, you can collect power-ups and use them in other original mode games. So, if you are playing and you find, for example, a +2 rounds power-up and either beat the game or lose, next time you go into original mode you will be able to get that item out of your cars trunk. This is great because you can get all kinds of stuff like infinite credits, more powerful shots, different costumes, etc.

Training mode is definitely what makes this game great. At first, arcade mode and original mode are very tough and usually the only way you beat them is by using some power-ups in original mode. However, with training mode, you can drastically increase your skill in the game. There are a bunch of exercises you can do. All the exercises concentrate on accuracy, speed, consistency, etc. You can practice your accuracy on the exercise where you have to shoot the golden frog with one bullet. Practice careful shooting on the ''Thank you'' exercise where you must rescue all the people from the zombies trying to get them. And after you beat of few of the training missions, more become available and they get harder every time you beat them.

There is also the addition of a Boss mode. You can try for a best time on any of the bosses. Each bosses different strength types are included and it also tells you their weak points when you get into the game just like in arcade mode. After you defeat these two modes, you should have no problem playing arcade mode and beating it with only five credits.

One drawback is a gun. A gun does not come with the game, so if you want one, you have to go to the store again and dish out another thirty or forty bucks. If you don't have a gun or don't want to waste the money to buy one, you can deal with regular Dreamcast controller to the best of your abilities by messing with the options. You can change the speed of the cursor and also the design of the cursor.

The game is also kind of short. There are only about four bosses and you fight them once or twice on your way to the final boss. There are however many different ways you can go in the game. If you save a hostage you may go one way, but if he/she dies you may go another. This combats the shortness and seeing the same zombies over and over again.

Story

You are an agent working for AMS. A few years back (1998) an incident occurred in an old mansion in which zombies started popping up everywhere and killing innocent scientists and people. The house was taken care of but the man behind it was not. Now in the year 2000, Goldman, an expert on human genome theory, is up to no good once again. This time an entire city is under siege. And basically the whole save the world from evil thing comes in to play.

Audio/Video

The music is very fitting for the game. It can be slow and sad when you are going throw blasting zombies and seeing tons of dead people. It gets up beat when you are being chased by a boss and feeling the heat. And the sound effects do their job. You've got zombies moaning, people screaming for help, and the AMS people talking to you. There's gunshot sounds, chain saw sounds and sounds of bullets ricocheting off of walls, axes, and other stuff. And some varying sounds for when you get bitten, sliced or kicked. The voice acting is ok, but it could have been better. Some parts sound good while others have that ''robot'' voice feel. But most of it is good and it doesn't make you want to turn down your television or mute it.

The graphics are everything they were expected to be. Great zombies and people that don't look blocky or fake. This is probably the part of the game that the most detail was put into by the makers. You can practically see stuff in the zombies teeth. The backgrounds are great and of course you can shoot boxes and barrels that look like they are in the background to reveal power-ups. There are absolutely no complaints in this category.

Replay

The game is somewhat short and predictable after you play it a few times, but the game makers did everything they could to make this category better. As stated before they added three new modes, to help you improve your skills, and there are different paths you can take depending on who you save or who you shoot. I must admit, it is addicting for quite some time, but you may get bored of it sooner or later. But it is a pretty good game and worthy of a few rentals at the least.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 01/16/01, Updated 01/16/01