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20th March 2003:
House of the Dead III
Explore a post-apocalyptic wasteland of unrelenting terror, with your shotgun in hand...
Posted by John Grothier - Xbox - UK and Europe

House of the Dead II, on the Dreamcast, was one of my favourite light gun games of all time. It mixed frantic zombie blasting, with fantastic action sequences and truly terrible voice acting. Now SEGA have released a sequel, and this time it's on Microsoft's Xbox. House of the Dead III comes with a few changes from its predecessor; auto-reloading and a different approach to the branching storyline are the big changes here. So will I be dusting off my Dreamcast in order to play Dead II again? Light gun at the ready...

If you have played the House of the Dead games then you will have a fair idea of what to expect with Dead III - shooting zombies. Now that may sound a little basic, and some could argue that it is - but that's the fun of it, and indeed, the point of the game. So with House of the Dead III it's all about fun, and as light gun games go this is one hell of an enjoyable, fast and frantic shooter. One of the first things you will notice when playing Dead III is the fact that you don't have to reload anymore, no more pointing the gun away from the screen in a frantic attempt to load your gun before the un-dead attack. Although some could argue that some of the strategy has been taken out of the game because of this, we think it makes the game that much more enjoyable. The game's story takes place in 2019, twenty years after the events in House of the Dead II, with Lisa Rogan and swarve Agent G trying to find out what happened to Thomas Rogan, Lisa's father. The story in House of the Dead III is pretty awful, and I don't really want to spend much time talking about it, the voice acting is slightly better than Dead II, but the main problem is the dialogue - it's worse than one of those straight-to-video films. As you progress through the game, there are flashbacks filling you in on the last 20 years if you are really interested in the game's story.

House of the Dead III features a fantastic cast of all-new zombies to blast - there are at least twelve different types, and that is not counting the various bosses. In fact all of the bosses are great fun, except the last - which is just a remake of the final boss in Dead II. There game comprises of five chapters, or six levels, in Dead III - 'Chapter 0' counts, although it only takes a couple of minutes to complete; it's just a taster of things to come. 'Chapter 1' starts the first real choice in the branching storyline, will our heroes make a frontal assault on the research facility, or enter the building through the parking lot? Once inside the building and safely in the elevator, you have a choice of three floors. Each of these floors is a remaining level in the game, and you can select which order you want to play them. This is, however, the games weakness. I played House of the Dead II over and over trying to find different paths through the game, but after just playing Dead III once or twice it becomes apparent that there is no more to see. One of my favourite sections in Dead II was when you got the chance to board a speedboat for a frantic chase through the canals, or later in the game when you had to shoot your way across a bridge while in a moving car. These types of memorable sequences are missing in Dead III, as you really do just go from room to room shooting zombies. Although you have the limitations of being confined in a building for most of the game, you could at least have had our heroes having to escape using the hatch in the roof of the lift, while the zombies break in from below.

Playing House of the Dead II with the Mad Catz Blaster is an absolute joy. The blaster features three different firing modes, 'Auto', 'Burst', and 'Shotgun' - there is also an auto-reload function that will give the player unlimited ammunition. It's a solid looking gun, which is very accurate, although its limited range means that you cannot stray too far away from your television. Playing House of the Dead III with your Xbox controller, surprisingly, is actually a very playable experience, and at certain points in the game it may even be easier than using the light gun.

House of the Dead III has a Survival Mode and a Time Attack Mode. Gone are all the training levels that were present in House of the Dead II, instead you have an option to see a trailer for the upcoming House of the Dead movie - which looks like it might well go straight-to-video. Dead III does, however, have one of the best unlocks I have seen in a game; complete the game once and you get House of the Dead II to play. Dead II is just an untouched port of the Dreamcast classic, but it's still great to play on your Xbox. In fact, when playing, it makes you realise just how great House of the Dead III looks.

The graphics in Dead III are never short of stunning, with some truly fantastic lighting effects that take full advantage of the Xbox. The levels or 'floors' have varied and different themes to them, and the walking corpses drip with blood as they rush at you. There are some really nice graphical touches in the game; like the ability to see through the holes that you shoot in the bellies of the 'fat zombies'. The sound is for the most part is poor, with some pretty bad voice talent reading from a terrible script. Music is fairly unforgettable and the Dolby 5.1 surround sound is nowhere near as impressive as it should be. The ability to turn off the subtitles would have been nice, after all it's bad enough hearing the dialogue without having to read it as well.

Overall, House of the Dead III is a good first outing on the Xbox, but if just a little more time was spent in the design of the game - perhaps an extra 'floor' or two so the player has more choice in deciding on which path to take through the research facility, then this really could have been the shooter to die for.

John Grothier

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Review Summary:

Take out wave after wave of horrific zombies as you travel different routes and advance the storyline, and plow through an exhilarating nightmare with a shotgun in hand. Stunning graphics, poor sound - but still a great light gun game for the Xbox, which includes an unlockable version of the Dreamcast classic House of the Dead II.

House of the Dead 3
for Xbox

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