"The best Dreamcast light gun game."

House of the Dead 2 is the first Dreamcast lightgun game, and is regarded as the best.

It first came out in Japan in March 1999. It was subject to pretty decent reviews. The same could be said for its prequel on the Saturn. Now I've never played the first House of the Dead in-depth. Sega brought this game to the US, on the Dreamcast's American launch date: 9/9/99. It was pretty overlooked at first but ended up to be a hit later on.

Gameplay: Well, there isn't much to a light gun game. All you really do is just shoot a gun at the screen. It sounds quite boring but it's quite fun. However, you can use a regular controller, but it takes a lot of fun out of the game and is quite hard and boring. For best results get a light gun. That makes the game a lot more fun and exciting. Now, onto the games story. Basically, the bad guys from the first House of the Dead are back and they cause chaos on a Victorian like city.

Sound: This is your average light gun game. All of your gun noises are there. However this game is victim to horrid voice acting and an occasional beep noise. The voice acting is so bad that the characters even speak in woefully broken English!

Graphics: This is not bad for a Dreamcast game, it's pretty good looking for a launch title, but pales in comparison to other Dreamcast games released later on.

Replay Value: This game is full of replay value. You get a few modes of play. Such as a boss mode, an arcade and an original mode. This game is pretty long for a light gun game, with tons of stuff to unlock in the original mode. The original mode is like the arcade game but with some minor changes and some cool new features. It should take you a few times to get everything. And you can add quite a few branching paths you can take through the game, so this game is going to take you a while to beat.

Overall, House of the Dead is a pretty good game. It's the best lightgun game on the Dreamcast. Rather long for a game in it's genre. Sure it has some flaws. Voice acting and sometimes the game can be hard. It's one of the few lightgun games on the Dreamcast. Is the game worth buying? Yes! The game is great fun that is real cheap.

The game is not worth renting, because again, the price it’d cost you to rent, you could probably find the game for the same price. Ironically enough I heard a few rumors that Sega still has factories full of the Japanese version with the official Sega Light Gun. I doubt that myself. Sadly this game isn't compatible with the Japanese lightguns. You can find this with a gun if you are lucky. I once saw a bundle with this and a gun at EB and, yes you get the gun and game, but no case and manual.

So if you buy that, be careful. Interact and Mad Catz both make light guns for the dreamcast, However, I only have the Mad Catz gun and it's never failed me. So if you have the American version I recommend that gun for the best gameplay possible.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 12/30/02, Updated 12/30/02