Halloween Gaming: House of the Dead OVERKILL
Nintendo Wii, Playstation 3
M for Mature
SEGA
Headstrong Games
February 2008 (Wii), February 2012 (PS3)
On-Rails Shooter
5 out of 5 Excellent gameplay, Funny story. Perfect for B-Movie buffs
House of the Dead should be a familiar series to those who remember the days of Clinton and $1.35 gallons of gas. You couldn’t go to an arcade or Taco shop without bumping into a House of the Dead Cabinet. The series was famous for both the awesome zombie killing game play and the horrible voice acting. It seems SEGA took a tried and true formula and over did it in every single way imaginable. OVERKILL is the fifth installment in the series , and the first to be released as a home console exclusively. It is a prequel to the series as a whole. It is Agent G’s rookie mission, he is sent to a small town on the Louisiana Bayou to investigate a known crime lord Papa Ceaser. Out for his own revenge Detective Isaac Washington teams up with G to take down their common enemy. Along the way they discover a formula that turns people into zom- I mean mutants(careful with the “Z” word) and the bunker where the formula was created.
The premise of the whole thing is that you are thrust into a drive-thru horror movie from the 60′s and 70′s. Which means tons of bullets, tons of blood and over dramatic acting by the protagonist , the archetypical fish out of water and the even more obvious bad ass, foul-mouthed cop that does things his own way but gets the “M*%$# F-ing” job done. As always SEGA delivers an awesome Soundtrack with all original songs performed in the style of blaxploitation films, which are unlockable content when you achieve certain things. Each level is different movie and has its own soundtrack and movie poster to go along with it. The game has scenes taken directly out of old movies that will have any B-Movie buff chuckling away.
The usual House of the Dead fare is to be expected…shoot at the zombies while you progress through an environment on rails. What I mean by “On Rails” is that you will not control which direction you can go or how long you stay in a certain place, although if you are a smart shooter, you will slow down your kill rate to get a much-needed break between massacres. You must time your firing and reloads for optimal kills and to take less damage. You are also given a choice of two weapons at a time with the possibility to upgrade them with cash you earn. Given you the choice of having the accuracy of handguns and shotguns (ha!) or the high firing rate of SMG’s and assault rifles. Single shot weapons are slower but it allows for you to keep up with combo multipliers to earn more cash to upgrade weapons. Along with combo multipliers there are also Gold brains and civilians to be rescued all throughout levels to add to your points.
House of the Dead OVERKILL has tons of replay value. It has Director’s Cut mode after you beat the initial campaign ,which includes extra parts of the levels, more gore and for all intents and purposes it serves as the hard mode for the game. In addition you can also unlock the “more mutants” option that will give you more dead to put out of their misery, also unlockable is dual wield mode which allows you to use two Wii-motes in single player mode, which is way harder than it sounds. Add in the mini gun and all the upgrades and unlockable art work and music, you are looking to putting at least 60 hours on this game. The most fun you can have on your Wii without having to save a princess or be a plumber. Comes highly recommended.
