Reports of research personnel
missing at DBR Corp. Genetic engineering canter. This laboratory is governmentally funded
to conduct experiments into the weapons potential of artificially generated and sustained
life forms. Due to the sensitive nature of these researches, news of the disappearances
was not made
public.
A team of special operatives was dispatched to the laboratory to investigate suspicious
activities of Dr. Curien, the former director of DBR. The last tranmission from the team
before disappearing:
"...Dr. Curien´s project is in its final stages...if the media gets hold of... What
the...? Request immediate backup...we´re getting creamed out here...the research staff is
in danger..."
The decision has come down from above to send two crack agents, Thomas Rogun and
"G", to investigate the status of the missing research lab and the team of
operatives. Agent Rogun has taken a special interest in the case as his fiancée, Sophie
Richards is employed by DBR.
That's how the story of the spectacular arcade classic The House of the Dead begins. The
House of the Dead is still today one of the most popular arcade games. AM1, the creators
of The House of the Dead were planning to do a lightgun game but not another Cop game. AM1
wanted to do something different from Virtua Cop and Gunblade NY. From the beginning they
got inspiration from the X-Files and Seven, but they choose to use zombies instead of
ghosts and monsters since zombies feels most realistic of these three kind of enemies.
Since AM1 got work up to their heads, Sega gave the job to Tantalus to port The House of
the Dead to Saturn. Tantalus earlier works on Saturn is Manx TT and WipEout 2097, which
are fairly good conversions.
From the start The House of the Dead look like any arcade game. First person action with
the Stunner. The unique part of The House of the Dead is the possibilities to different
roads. Depending on if you for example save a scientist from a zombie or shoot a hole in
the ground on a specific place, the agents will
then take another path instead. It's not like in Virtua Cop 2, when a sign shows up with
the text Choose path. There is much more multiple ways in The House of the Dead to be
found.
Beside the arcade mode, there is a special Saturn mode in which you can choose agent.
There are two versions of G and two of Rogun. Expect the cloths they have different hit
points, number of bullets, reload time and hit size. Rumours going around Sophie playable
in Saturn mode. Last but not least the Boss mode. Pure action with the insidious bosses.
To shoot a zombie is much more fun than to shoot a criminal in Virtua Cop 2. There are
plenty of zombies with different abilities. Most of them attacks in close combat but some
throw knives and barrels. The zombies requires often more than one shoot. You can shoot of
limbs. Most effective is the head of the legs, which neutralises the zombie direct. To my
great disappointment all the blood is green. There are rumours circling of a red blood
code, which you will receive if you manage to score a certain number of points or if you
manage to finish Boss mode.
Visually The House of the Dead is the best Model 2 game. An arcade perfect conversion
would be very tough to do. The graphics is quite good even though the textures could have
been better. There are some glitches here and there. The sound is totally maxed out. Heavy
good fitting music. Stern and funny lines exactly like in a real horror movie. Among the
best is when G and Rogun shall enter the house and one of them says "Let's go
in" and the other answers "Sure, why not?", it sounds like they're going
into a restaurant. The Hanged Man have some great lines like "This is as far as you
go, I'll finish you here" and
"Nobody leaves here alive". Make me remember the lines between Jill and Barry in
Resident Evil.
The House of the Dead is the best game in its genre. If it wouldn't be for the graphics
this game would have been a real stunner. So run out and buy the game and enjoy the green
blood until the red blood code appears. If live in the USA I would strongly encourage you
to wait until Sega of America brings out the graphical boosted NTSC version.!
Game Pictures
Click on images for
larger picture
"Hello! Where are you Dr. Curien?" "Take this you green blooded half breed"
