Sega Dreamcast House of the Dead 2 Review

The House of the Dead franchise never caught on in the Due west similar other low-cal gun shooters. Time Crunch, and fifty-fifty Virtua Cop (both of which were from the aforementioned era) are much more widely known. To be honest I never fifty-fifty heard of this series until the second release which just and so happens to exist the subject of this review. The Firm of the Dead two launched with the Sega Dreamcast console, and that'southward the only time I ever saw the franchise enter relevancy in English language markets. Information technology's widely considered to be one of Sega's most legendary arcade games. Today we're taking a look at the home console launch version. This is our review of House of the Expressionless two.

This is a direct follow up to the original in terms of story. Following the the Curien Mansion incident (you know, the 1 where everyone was turned into zombies) AMS agent K has disappeared while investigating more biological weapons. This fourth dimension the setting is Venice Italy. Y'all play as fellow agent James Taylor who is dispatched with three other officers to further investigate the incident. They arrive on-scene to find the entire urban center is plagued by the undead. Both zombie humans and animals alike are terrorizing the remaining population.

Already we notice that the setting is even better than in the original game. The developers did a swell job at designing a dark and dreary Venice. Information technology feels surprisingly realistic, only at the aforementioned time, conveys the grindhouse temper of the game surprisingly well. Yous'll go from the streets to the clandestine and then climb a tower to face off against the evil Goldman. Part of what makes House of the Dead 2 then bully is that it'due south so cheesy and hilarious. The voice acting, for example, is some of the worst yous'll ever hear in a video game. Non a single actor took their job seriously. About of the lines are badly translated, simply the off-key delivery is what makes them then memorable. This fits the B-film motif rather well.

The House of the Dead doesn't accept a flashy gimmick like Fourth dimension Crisis. It's a very traditional light-gun shooter. You view the action from a starting time person view, and cannot at any point directly control your character. Y'all're only given command of their shot. You lot tin use a standard controller and guide a reticule around on the screen using the joystick (which is unfortunately the only method I had to play with at this fourth dimension). If you lot're 1 of those cool kids I hear and then much most then you've got the Sega Dreamcast light-guns. With these it'south as easy as point, aim, and pull the plastic trigger. I've used them before and it does add immensely to the experience. This is especially true if you have a 2nd one and a trigger happy friend to join in the activeness with.

What is a footling different here from your standard low-cal gun shooter is that the enemies sort of break autonomously as you shoot them. They're rotting corpses, afterward all. You tin blow holes in them, or even remove their limbs if your aim is but right. Information technology's actually a pretty absurd element of the game, and it mixes in some strategy elements. In improver, some encounters innovate items that block your shots. For case some enemies bear weapons and carry them in front end of their bodies. Hitting these results in no damage thus forcing you to alter target priorities. It's pretty cool, and helps to keep the encounters fresh and more than interesting.

Despite the fact that the game by and large takes place in outdoor environments you're still ofttimes forced into close quarters. The House of the Dead two forces you to prioritize targets because enemies often popular into minor areas and you lot take limited time before they accomplish y'all. You lot can as well block projectile attacks past hitting them, but good luck considering they're usually pocket-size and tough to aim at. Some of the enemies, specially the piranhas, leap through the air at you but they seem to cling to the screen for a few seconds before causing yous damage. This gives y'all time to shoot them first. Things like this get a ways to making gameplay a picayune more than fair and less frustrating.

Speaking of frustrating this is one hard game. The House of the Expressionless 2 was originally designed to eat all of your quarters, and it wasn't really toned downwards for this abode release. This means yous're going to be seeing the game over screen a lot. It'due south not the longest game (Information technology can exist beat in less than an hour) so the mileage you become is going to mostly be from exercise and perfection. The standard stages are pretty difficult, only where yous'll have the nearly problems is in the boss encounters. These are well designed, and are highly memorable. Long story short; they're a real hoot. Each dominate character has ane (or sometimes more) hitboxes that are shown to yous at the start of the encounter. Y'all tin only impairment them by shooting these points, and will frequently need to in order to stop them from striking.

The graphics look very practiced. They're a chip dried with hues of brown and gray, but the more colorful enemies and splattering blood more make up for this shortcoming. House of the Expressionless 2 was clearly a step above any domicile console calorie-free gun shooter game of the fourth dimension with highly detailed environments and characters. The framerate is as well very solid and everything runs very smoothly. The only complaint I have is a limitation of the genre. When y'all burn your weapon the screen flashes in club for the software to runway where yous're shooting. That's fine and dandy, just with the fast and corybantic action it can be a trivial overwhelming. The soundtrack is very fun and bouncy which fits the grindhouse motif to a tee. I like the music quite a flake.

The House of the Expressionless 2 is one of my favorite calorie-free gun shooters. It's definitely the best horror themed ane I've always played. This isn't one to take as well seriously. It's a light gun shooter after all. Of course the voice interim was non a priority. The story isn't anything to write home about. Practise they go the task done? Absolutely. Where the game really excels is the gameplay and settings. Fighting off armies of the undead with unlimited armament in small rooms is both frantic and fun. I highly recommend playing it.

Firm of the Expressionless two is easily one of the best lite gun shooters ever released. Practice yourself a favor and play it.

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Source: https://infinityretro.com/house-of-the-dead-2-review/

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