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The House Of The Dead: Overkill Hands-on Preview

• By Matt Cabral
• February 03, 2009 17:05 PM PST
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Sega's The House Of The Dead: Overkill is gory, dirty, and hilarious. Intrepid game writer Matt Cabral has first-hand impressions.

While Resident Evil 5 continues to gobble up all the zombie-blasting attention, let's not forget Sega's long-running light-gun rail-shooter series The House of the Dead is also set to soon sooth our itchy trigger fingers. In fact, the upcoming Wii exclusive The House of the Dead: Overkill packs enough blown brains, lost limbs and bursting guts to set Chris Redfield's stomach turning. And while developer Headstrong Games could've easily cashed in on the series' popular formula by releasing just another gore-fueled head shot fest, they've smartly upped the ante by giving the fright-filled franchise a welcome reboot.

Don't try to play catch with this guy.

Oh, don't worry, you'll still be popping zombie heads like water balloons, but now the fight against relentless undead hordes unfolds against an edgy B-movie backdrop. Adopting the appealing cheesiness and crazy-ass action of a 70's grindhouse film, Overkill drips with a playful mature style. Its retro vibe, complemented by music that wouldn't be out of place in a porn flick and intentionally bad dialogue, offers the kind of street cred that could earn it a spot in Quentin Tarantino's Wii game library.

Playing to this pulp style is the game's prequel tale that places badass Agent G in a small Louisiana town--that is, of course, brimming with blood-thirsty crazies--and teams him with the possibly badasser (it's a word, look it up!) Detective Washington. When things get bloody in the bayou, the gun-toting duo let the limbs and F-bombs fly freely, hence the title's well earned M-rating. While the cult movie makeover steals the show, there's plenty of tiny touches that'll also grab your attention; point-boosting brains populating the levels are a nice nod to the macabre genre, and expended shotgun shells falling from the ammo HUD provide a cool animation.

Hey Bozo, your brain is showing.

At its puss-oozing heart Overkill is still a light-gun shooter, so in addition to the crazy-cool presentation, it first and foremost packs plenty of reflex-taxing action. You'll blast off limbs, halve bodies at the waist, and turn heads into blurs of blood and brain. You'll get a little help too, not only from your upgradeable arsenal of expected creep-killin' hardware, but also from "Slo-Mofo," a temporary time slowing effect triggered by plugging certain background targets.

If the zombie apocalypse is too much to handle on your own, you can also recruit a buddy to take on the brain-craving menaces in local co-op mode. Though online is missing, the co-op mode provides plenty of gore-tainment on its own. You can also keep both Wii-motes for yourself, and dual wield your way through this living nightmare. Either way, Overkill looks like a total blast, retaining the series addictive gameplay roots while also injecting a fresh stylized vibe. It's also the prettiest entry in the series, incorporating gore-drenched details, retina-burning explosions, and some amazing boss battles. While we love cooking with Mama and training pixelated pets, it's high time the Wii started beefing up their adult-aimed library, and The House of the Dead: Overkill is just what the doctor ordered--and by "doctor" we mean that monster shambling toward you in the blood-soaked lab coat.

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