The House of the Dead 2 Review

Original release:

Japan: March 25th, 1999

North America: September 9th, 1999

Europe: Unknown, 1999?

Game details:

1-2 Players

VMU Compatible

Jump Pack compatible

Standard controller

Arcade stick

Light gun

VGA box

Gameplay

The House of the Dead 2 is a light gun game meaning this section is somewhat irrelevant, so I'll discuss how well the game flows. Some light gun games have a problem with throwing several enemies at you and absolutely swarming you, probably in the interest of getting your hard earned quarters. The House of the Dead 2 never resorts to that cheapness thankfully, and it's a very consistent game. The difficulty has a nice curve to it, gradually increasing every level and sort of holding your hand through it all. It lets anyone pick the game up and make a real run at finishing it. Towards the end it gets to be a very hard game, even with two people playing, but it is entirely possible to finish. If you're of the variety that doesn't have a light gun, this is still a fun game. The b-movie nature of it all and a rather decent control set up for a regular controller make it worth playing.

Storyline

The House of the Dead series has a rather robust storyline for a lightgun game. Two years after the mansion incident from the first House of the Dead an agent of the AMS goes missing in Venice. You arrive on the scene to find him and find a full on zombie attack. Your ultimate goal is to reach the headquarters of the company that funded the project that resulted in the mansion incident. Stop thinking Resident Evil. As mentioned earlier, the game has a great b-movie feel to it. I'm not sure if it was intentional or not, but the awkward voice acting makes the game great fun. Whoever developed House of the Dead: Overkill needs to go back and study this game instead of just watching Grindhouse.

Graphics

House of the Dead 2 has some of the best graphics on Dreamcast and especially impressive for a launch game. There are definitely some low quality textures around, but for the most part everything is sharp and detailed. This especially shows over a VGA box. Games like this used to be the reason to go to the arcade when all you had was a blurry N64 or a grainy PSX.

Sound

The music is pretty good in this game, if a bit hard to explain. You'll have to hear it for yourself because I really don't know how to.

Conclusion

The House of the Dead 2 is an excellent game and has long been one of my favorites. Highly recommended.

9.5/10