The House of the Dead 2

"Zombies in jeans, rabid frogs, and undead owls, oh my! AHHHH!"

Mwa ha ha! I’ll get you! I’ll GET YOU!!!
Throughout my life, I’ve always been a huge fan of light gun games. I get teased occasionally at school, but it’d be stupid to annihilate the kid and be suspended. Light gun games have always been my favorite way to take out my anger (I’ll blow off your head! And your arms! HA HA!), without having to actually hurt somebody other than a few pieces of computer code. Since I’m weird like that, it was almost a given that I’d buy House of the Dead 2.

Blah blah blah.
In House of the Dead 1, Agents G and Rogan took on the evil Curien in his mansion of evil, filthy zombies and other undead beasts created by Curien himself. They defeated him and the dreaded Magician, that game’s final boss), but it wasn’t over. A year later, a dastardly villain, the super-rich Goldman, has spread those Satanist horrors through a small European town. Up to defeat him and his army of those-in-tattered-and-ripped-clothes are two AMS (Some secret government agency… Aren’t all government agencies in video games secret? Hmm.) agents: the older, calmer, James Taylor, and the young, passionate Gary Stewart.

Yeah, it’s B movie quality, but that’s okay. Hell, B movies are cool! …Right. Anyway, it features about as much plot development as you’ll see in a light gun game (as in, almost none). Still, light gun games are about shooting, not plot. I like shooting better.

Truck driving is fun, unless you're playing 18-Wheeler!
As previously mentioned, HotD2 is a light gun game. This means, of course, you’ll be downing enemies by the thousands. At its most basic, this is just another light gun game. While it may seem similar to its main competition on Dreamcast, Confidential Mission, there are several crucial differences. Shooting evil zombies is different that evil terrorists; terrorists tend to be quite weak (SISSIES!) while zombies take a beating and keep on trucking. House of the Dead 2 doesn’t throw, say, ten enemies at a time at you, but it’ll instead give maybe two, but those will take longer to down that those ten. I personally like it better; this focuses more on accuracy than purely reflexes, and that can only be a good thing, in my mind.

As House of the Dead 2 stresses accuracy, having area-specific damage is a must, and that it has. If you shoot the murderous axe-wielding fiend in the leg, he’ll laugh at you and bite your head off. Of course, if you were smart and shot him in the head first, he’d be too dead to chew (or do anything else, for that matter). Don't can’t expect to shoot wildly and survive (like that little kid who points hold the gun at the wrong end and gets mad when he misses).

Adding to the problem of those with poor aim is that enemies run faster when they get hit. This really doesn’t make any sense, unfortunately. You’re supposed to go slower when you’re injured. Apparently, zombies are above our petty human laws of physics, and get stronger when they get hurt. Feh.

”Help me, ple-!” *blam blam blam* “Hey, why’d you shoot him?” “I missed. Sorry. Hee hee hee.”
HotD2 is almost different from many other light gun games in that you have to actually rescue hostages. Yes, in other games, if you shoot them, you lose a life. Here, the same is true, but by saving those poor helpless fools from the baddies trying to eat them, you’ll be handsomely rewarded. Some of the hostages give extra health; others let you go a different path. Also, at the end of the level, if you’ve rescued enough, more health will be given. Since they give rewards, people playing two player games are sure to be irritated with their partner.

One thing I’ve always wondered about in the two House of the Dead’s is where the civilians go after you save them. The whole city is filled to the brim with baddies; aren’t you just saving them, to have a death minutes later? Ahh, the life of a video game wimp waiting to be saved.

Chapter books? Oh, fooey! Clifford the Big Red Dog is better!
There are six chapters (levels) to go through, such as the sewer system, canal, and the Coliseum. I quite enjoy the canal scene in particular; riding a boat while shooting yellow undead fiends is very, very cool. Also, each of these levels has several different paths to go through, depending on your actions: will you kill or help that cowering civilian? Will you shoot open that lock on the door? This adds a whole new factor to the game; whichever way you go directly effects the enemies you’ll fight and even the bosses will be different!

At the end of each of the six chapters is a boss; each has a specific weak point you’ll have to hit. Most of them can only be hurt when you hit their weak spot. Shooting anywhere else means your head will be hacked off, which is very not good at all. If you were to shoot them there, they’d stop attacking for an instance and take damage. There’s quite a wide variety of bosses, such as a flying gargoyle who uses a large headless knight to attack, and a huge muscular baddie who attacks you which a chainsaw (which has “Blame” written on it; how cool is that?), and the final boss who morphs into other bosses. Some say that these bosses are quite difficult; I disagree (other than that evil final boss..). It’s quite easy to figure out their patterns, and after that, they’re but zombie table scraps.

BONZAI!
The main game option is the arcade mode; this is a complete and nearly identical translation as that House of the Dead 2 machine in the arcades, but for your Dreamcast! I personally adore HotD2 in the Dave and Busters, but I’ve stopped playing it there after buying it for DC. They’re exactly the same game. This is the game Dreamcast was made for; perfect Naomi translations.

Exclusive to the Dreamcast edition, however is the original mode. Here, various items are scattered throughout the chapters, hidden in objects such as barrels, crates, and other destroyable items. These items can be used in the six levels, though only two at a time may be brought along. Thankfully, these are truly useful, including: extra chambers in your gun, extra power, more credits, and grenade launchers. Of course, there’s also your typical useless stuff here, such as toys guns, primitive meat (all of the characters have huge noggins), and costumes for your player. I actually like this better than the arcade mode, because finding the items is damned fun.

Boss mode is an option that allows you to fight all of the bosses by themselves, trying to get a better time. There’s also a choice in it to fight all of ‘em in a row, straight through, which is diabolically hard. The reason I like this is because, quite simply, I suck at fighting the final boss. This allows me to try him an unlimited amount of times without having to go through the whole game, and then die at the end. The whole point of boss mode is just to work on him; he’s that difficult.

The final game mode is training, but it’s actually harder than the whole rest of the game. It puts you in situations where you’ll have to do such things as destroying all of the barrels (including some which are on boats), shooting a coin so that it stays in the air for a certain amount of time, and distinguishing enemies from civilians. All of these are irritatingly hard; for example, the barrels take two or three shots to destroy, and there’s an extremely short time limit. And as the difficulty level rises from one star to five on these, you’ll be pulling your hair out. If you’re not, I worship you.

Reload your controller! Erm, I mean, gun!
Since HotD2 is a light gun game, it makes sense to buy a light gun to play it (and get the true arcade experience). Unfortunately, Sega decided not to release their official gun in light of the recent Columbine troubles. However, the third party guns work fine. If you’re not willing to pay for the guns, the controller works fine, since accuracy is more important than reflexes. It’s actually easier in some occasions to use the controller instead of the gun!

Zombies wear funny clothes
Graphically, House of the Dead 2 is identical to the arcade version. This means that the textures are absolutely excellent, the enemies have great animation, and everything looks fairly realistic. This isn’t better than the arcade edition (like Soul Calibur), but I’ll take this; it’s still a pretty darned impressive feat!

B movies rule j00!
The music is exciting and works well, but it’s nothing particularly exciting. The voice acting, though, is appropriately atrocious for the B movie feel. Goldman, in particular, sounds like a twit. An absolute twit. I certainly hope they’re trying to be bad; if they’re not, I feel sorry for anyone who has that strange of a voice.

Zombies… SHALL TAKE OVER THE WORLD!
House of the Dead 2 is an absolutely excellent game. While the story isn’t particularly thrilling, the gameplay and graphics make up for it quite easily. The combo-shot of a $20 price and this much absolute fun and modes of play make HotD2 a game which shouldn’t be passed up for those seeking no-holds-barred frantic action.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 08/15/01, Updated 12/05/01