"A flawless conversion from a classic arcade original."

FOREWORD

Rail shooters have evolved considerably since the days of my childhood - I can recall playing the first ever rail shooters and contrasting them against games like Lethal Enforcer, and then, later, the House of the Dead series ...

... do I think by saying they've evolved that they've actually IMPROVED over time ?? Read on ;)

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVE OF THE GAME

House of the Dead 2 is, quite simply, a rail shooter. What this means is that you are armed with a sidearm - a light gun - and you point at bad guys on the screen and shoot them until they die. Then the game walks you onto the next area where it stops, you shoot more bad guys, and you move on. Rinse and repeat. It's called a "rail" shooter because it's on rails - you don't generally pick the route you take - you just take it.

Your character is a member of the AMS, and you are on the trail of your arch-enemy Goldman - an evil mastermind who plans to unleash a great evil upon the world ...

GRAPHICS - 9/10

Graphically this game is ... quite simply ? BEAUTIFULLY animated. The zombies are DISGUSTING, and when you shoot them bits fall off, stomachs explode, heads go flying ... it's GROSS ! But that's the whole POINT !! You're in an AWFUL situation - a town filled with zombies that are hellbent on eating you. You're armed with this ONE gun ... this ONE way of prolonging your survival ... so you'd EXPECT to have to blast your enemies to bits.

The backdrops are well-drawn, and the game rolls along at a very reasonable pace. Graphically, the game is a PERFECT arcade conversion, and let's face it, in THIS day and age you really expect nothing less.

SOUND - 9/10

Whilst the voice acting is PATHETICALLY hammy, with some things having quite obviously been translated from Japanese directly and then just read out by a couple of American voice-actors without correcting the poor dialogue ... "Dogs of the AMS. Time they made a move" (what the HELL does that MEAN man !?!?!), the QUALITY of the voice sampling is spot on. The squeals of the zombies are good, the sounds of the gun going off are a perfect port from the arcade, there is nothing wrong here at ALL.

CONTROLS - 7/10

The aiming has to be calibrated prior to the game kicking off, but herein lies the biggest drawback of this title and all other home-shooters. You CANNOT run them using a progressive scan television, and that's the one I've got :(

If you're using a plain old-fashioned CRT monitor ? Then you SHOULD be able to calibrate the gun quite reliably, and turn this score into an 8. But there is always that little "if I shoot too close to the edges of the screen then it reloads instead of shooting, and now I'm *splat* DAMMIT !! I've been hit AGAIN" =( thing that happens ...

That's the biggest drawback.

PLOT - 4/10

Evil bad dude with dodgy voice-acting decides to unleash some massive monster into the world. Tried and tested. Done and dusted. Predictable to the last, but hey ! It works ;)

GAMEPLAY - 8/10

The game is fluid, action-packed, and VERY enjoyable the first few times you play it ... you'll be telling your mum you'll be just a few more minutes before you can come down and eat your tea, and then BLAM BLAM BLAM ! Wipe out a billion more zombies and moooooooooove on !!

There are plenty of different TYPES of zombies to keep you distracted - little ones armed with knives, ones that explode and damage you, ones that are armed with throwing axes, chainsaws, barrels and the like, and they come at you in a wide variety of ways - from windows, doors, across hallways, through floors and so on.

To keep things interesting you will encounter humans on the levels that, if you're QUICK enough, you can actually save them from being eaten or kicked to death or (whatever). They will then give you little rewards.

Additionally, you can destroy boxes, crates and so on and you may find useful things inside. Shoot them and you get them !!

The bosses all have weak spots that are identified BEFORE you fight them, so you know where to shoot them to do damage ... the final boss is an exception to this rule ;)

REPLAY VALUE - 8/10

Gradually this will decline to a 4 or 5, because although the game is INITIALLY really impressive, and a GREAT game to play with a mate or mates ? After a few times when you've found all the bad guys and you know where they're all going to come from, then it kinda loses its spontaneous appeal.

VALUE FOR MONEY - 10/10

The Dreamcast has been around AGES now it seems, and you should be able to pick up a copy of this game DEAD cheap. As a flawless conversion from the arcade original, I can see no reason not to consider it EXTREMELY good value for money.

OVERALL - 9/10 (This is NOT an average)

A faultless conversion from the arcade original that boasts great graphics, sounds and gameplay. Marred only by the potential trouble you may have with your tv, and poor calibration of the controls (but that's something YOU control).

MAIN GOOD POINTS

* AMAZING graphics
* GREAT sounds
* FAULTLESS animation
* PERFECT conversion from the original

MAIN BAD POINTS

* Potential trouble getting the gun to work well with your tv - ESPECIALLY if it's a progressive scan tv.
* DODGY voice-acting - it's just plain hammy.
* Replay value wanes over time when you've learned the attack patterns and locations of the enemies.

SO SHOULD YOU GET IT ?

Yeah ! If you're the owner of a Dreamcast and can get your hands on a copy of this title then I'd totally recommend it ... it's a perfect conversion from the arcade original, and for the price you SHOULD pay for it, it represents great value for money.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/08/04