RadioSEGA Review: The House of the Dead 2&3 Return (Wii)

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RadioSEGA Review: The House of the Dead 2&3 Return (Wii)

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The House of the Dead 2&3 Return


On Rails Shooters. We love them, the arcades are full of them and SEGA are good at making them. They gobble pound coins like Pac-man but we don't care, as another Zombie/Alien/Crook/Dinosaur goes down in a hail of bullets and death, sprayed liberally about from our replica pistol/rifle/machinegun that recoils wildly as unlimited bullets are re-loaded with a neat flick off screen.
There are many themes to this easy moneyspinner, but the idea is basically the same, you move forward shoot things, try and avoid being hurt, kill a boss then do it again only harder. All that changes really is the dressing, it could be Zombies in a Space Station or Dinosaurs in a themepark. SEGA seem to be digging up a few from its back catalogue recently and releasing them on the Wii. A good idea I think as the console suits it quite well, especially if you buy a Wii Zapper. The graphics on the Wii are not its strong point but for these type of games its not the most important.

House of the Dead 2&3 Return (HOTD) is a neat package of two zombie infested shooters at a very nice price. Both games are very similar, and to save repeating myself I will talk about both games together. The core gameplay is pretty much how I have described above, even if you take no notice of the 'story' and the 'voice acting' (In HOTD2 its so awful its funny) you can play through this game doing no more than blasting everything on screen and trying to stay alive. There are little bonuses hidden here and there in pots and boxes, but unless you are sharp you will miss them and there is no going back! The items vary in the games, but most give you points, health or a new weapon. One item of note is the Amy costume that allows you to change the look of your character.

The zombies and monsters are nicely drawn and have fun locational hits, blow off an arm or two or put a nice hole in its chest then blow its head off in a shower of goo the colour of your choice (there are options to change blood colour) The game is fun but repetitive as can be expected, but the changing locations and the ability to change paths do a lot to dampen this. Within each game there are different game modes that allow you to play 'Arcade' (same as the arcade) 'Original' (same as Arcade but with items to make it easier) 'Boss' (Kill the bosses in the fastest time) 'Training' (duh...) and in HOTD3 'Time Attack' All these add a little garnish to the game, but not much.
Repetition is not the only slight downside, my biggest gripe is the reload time. When things get frantic you need your gun to be reloaded and quick! For what ever reason it seem to take at least three ice ages to reload and squirt off another round of gushy death, and this can spell the end for you! I don't remember the arcade being that sluggish, but in the interest of balance I will take myself to an arcade and do some 'research' oh the sacrifices I give for this job.

There really is not much to write about, the game is as shallow as a puddle, will kill a few hours with some mates and its reasonably pretty to look at. There are a few nice extra modes and a few unlockables that I wont spoil for you. The slow reload is a pain, but you can see past it if you want too. I love on rails shooters, but HOTD in this compilation just isnt fun enough for me, If you have to choose, then buy Gunblade NY & LA Machineguns and leave the Zombies on the shelf, but if Zombie blasting is your thing, then welcome to heaven!

Gameplay 2/5
Sound 2/5
Graphics 3/5

Overall 2/5
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richarddavies
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Post by richarddavies »

Nice little review mate. I loved these back in the day and still play 2 now and again on the Dreamcast. They are a bit one dimensional these days shooters but there fun in small doses.
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Post by Page »

Thanks Richard :) Yeah this one is really short, I cut a load of stuff out of the final draft, as I say in the review there are other things to discover but I didnt want to spoil things as gameplay is a little on the thin side!
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Tru
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Post by Tru »

Nice review! I kinda agree about the shallow gameplay, games like these are good for quick bursts of gaming, but they're not that substantial on their own. They're okay for multi-player, but they seem to have gotten lost under the crowd of online multi-player these days.

I did really enjoy the Virtua Cop series when I was younger, but I never really got into House of the Dead.
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