House of the Dead 2
- January 01, 2000 00:00 AM PST
Forget the strategic zombie eradication of Resident Evil. House of the Dead 2 plays like Resident Evil on steroids, with its twitchy trigger action and pop-up scare tactics. But if repetitive gun games aren't your bag, you'll find yourself staying out of this house.
- GamePro Score
- User Score
- Write your review!
The Ungrateful Dead
You play as a member of the AMS, a special forces unit that is called to investigate the Curien mansion. Apparently, Dr. Curien, who previously tried to unleash a plot to destroy mankind, now has a new disciple named Goldman, who has his own plans for the human race. Goldman wants to see his new biologically altered mutants walk the Earth.
Sounds noble and dangerous, but it's just a thinly veiled excuse to blow the crap out of the undead with a light gun (sold separately -- Sega doesn't want any part of THAT controversy), and the excuse works well. House of the Undead 2 is simply a visceral roller coaster of chills, thrills, and kills. Although there is some replayability with the multi-branching story line, this is not a game you'll be playing six weeks from now. It's just a shoot 'em up with some cool gross-outs and lots of chunky gore.
There are some power ups strewn throughout the levels to extend the game play, and Sega added some new Dreamcast-only options, like a story mode that allows you to store certain items away for use later, and a mode where you can combine items. But neither one is useful for a game with only six levels that you can beat in about thirty minutes with a rapid -fire light gun.
Moans and Leekers How I Adore You
The detail of the graphics is so money that you'll often take a hit just to see the beauty (or the horror) of the graphics in front of you. You can also blow away chunks of an enemy without killing it, spraying green blood and gore all over the place, which is kind of cute in a David Cronenberg sort of way.
The sound is a mixed bag of horror in itself. You can hear screams, moans, and pleas for help clearly, but you'll also have to suffer through some of the silliest dialogue (and the most effeminate sounding male AMS agent around) in a video game. The sound does have more bright spots than weak ones.
Control is reduced to two words - light gun. The game is useless with the controller, with cursors that veer wildly for no reasons, and a hard to aim interface especially in the two-player mode. Wihtout the light gun you might as well go after these zombies with a fly swatter.
House of the Dud 2
The game is way too short, the graphic are cool but limited (you see enemies repeated throughout the game), and the game is useless sold as is -sans light gun. Shelling out more bucks for the gun puts HOD2 in the category of too pricey, and definitely not worth other games the Dreamcast has to offer. Rent this game and the gun, and clear out the house in a weekend.
