There is a Columbia Pictures film festival going on at a
New York City movie theatre, and I've been there for the
past week seeing restored prints of such classics as "Mr.
Smith Goes to Washington", "Tootsie", "Bridge on the River
Kwai" and "Dr. Strangelove" (plus many others) for $9 a
pop... ouch! They also have four arcade machines, and
they're all souped-up shooters: Namco's "Time Crisis 2",
Atari's "Carnevil" and Sega's "The Lost World: Jurassic
Park" and "The House of the Dead 2" (which replaced the
first "HOTD"). To say that the debut title on Sega's new
Naomi arcade board holds its own against the other big guns
of the genre is an understatement; except for "Lost World",
which is first-generation Model 3, "HOTD2" improves on
every aspect of the Model 2 original and pumps out the
blood/guts and polygons like there's no tomorrow. Not a
tremendous revolution gameplaywise, but a quarter-dropping
good time for those lucky enough to live next to a decent
arcade (unlike certain website editor that I know).
GRAPHICS / VISUALS: A+ (97)
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The title of the game is misleading because this time our
heroes James and Gary (any relation with the cartoon
characters in Saturday Night Live's "Ambiguously Gay Duo"
is purely coincidental) must travel through a series of
stages that are set inside a city that looks straight out
of a Venice postcard, complete with water canals and water
transportation vehicles (which give plenty of opportunity
for flashy transparencies galore). A great deal of detail
was taken by Sega programmers into making these
environments as photorealistic as possible, and the result
is a phenomenal blastfest in which zombies, monsters and
hostages have to be spotted, saved and/or slaughtered with
a split-second between their brains on your suit or one of
your torches going out. Textures covering the zombies
bring the disgusting undead to freightening realism (check
out the clothing and facial expressions) and their
bodyparts flying throughout the screen at 60
frames-per-second in high-resolution arcade monitors is
just too sweet; for family-friendly reasons (too many kids
walking through the lobby) the arcade machine at the movie
theatre is sometimes sanitized without the exploding guts
and blood, replaced by a simple spark where your bullets
hit... but other days the gore is turned back on and kids
are playing the game. Go figure!Many elements in the presentation of "HOTD2" are taken
directly from the prequel (from the design of the logo in
the arcade cabinet to certain scenes during the game like
the death animation/map layout when James or Gary give up
the ghost) and that's fine by me because, after the
graphical downgrade I experienced playing the Saturn
version of "HOTD", I could use a sweet dose of pleasing
eye-candy. The bosses are a huge collection of
bio-mechanical freaks (some, like The Magician, are
returning from the original "HOTD" for an encore) that
would give the monsters in the "Resident Evil" series a run
for their dough; the addition of two sidekick characters,
Harry and Amy, to give the two main guys lifts through the
city's water canals and other assorted guidance toward the
game's many paths (through your standard cut-scenes using
game graphics) gives "HOTD2" more camera angles and
twists/pans across the stage that keep you on the edge at
all times. Can't wait to see what Capcom will do when
"Resident Evil: Codename Veronica" takes the visuals of
this Sega arcade shooter and takes them off their fixed and
uncontrollable paths... can you say 'Grrrrrr'?
MUSIC / SOUND EFFECTS: B- (84)
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Better dialogue than the first game, but still nothing
resembling a convincing emotion can be heard from the
characters in "HOTD2". There's something funny about
horror videogames in 32-bit systems and arcades in that,
although the visuals have gotten better and the depiction
of gore has gotten more graphic, the voices always end up
being crappy and attached to the B-horror legacy of the
content. Sound effects are outstanding and are on par with
Sega's best audio efforts to date: flesh being torn into
pieces, the echo of the chamber as it unloads lead, the
ricochet of the bullets, the breaking of objects throughout
the backgrounds, the splash of the water as monsters emerge
from the deep, etc. Music is as techno-funky and weird as
the tunes in the first "HOTD" (some remixes are even
recycled from the first game), and get the background
filled with distracting beats; very hard to remember that
music when those monsters/zombies yell shrieks of agony as
their vocal chords get severed, and the other three arcade
shooter machines are also blasting away their stuff.
GAMEPLAY / FUN FACTOR: A- (94)
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Three simple words: hard as hell! The first "HOTD" was a
simple "Virtua Cop"-type game with pattern-based movement
on its monsters that brought to the genre different
traveling paths and a cool H.P.Lovecraft-meets-"The
X-Files" scenario; "HOTD2" keeps the moody scenery, throws
in a new villain (a wealthy industrialist named Goldman,
which is as enigmatic and paranoid as the villain from the
first game, the fashion-conscious Curien), makes the bosses
move and shake like a Brazilian samba dancer (to protect
their weak spots), rewards you with extra lives ONLY if you
save all the innocents in your path (good freaking luck!)
and increased the IQ of the undead to the point that they
are aware of how vulnerable their heads are to your
bullets. This is easily the best part of the game, because
in the first "HOTD" you could shoot the arms or heads of
the enemies and keep them away at a relatively safe
distance; the sequel only allows for body shots or head
shots, and the baddies cover their rotten brains
well-enough to only allow you a brief window of time in
which to aim your weapon (usually when they're about to
bury the hatchet and have raised their arms). Aside from
the increase in the difficulty saving the hostages, taking
out enemies and the new date (we're in 2/26/2000 now, as
opposed to the 2/18/1998 date of the first "HOTD"), "HOTD2"
features nothing but cosmetic changes and visuals upgrades
to the arcade shooter genre... but what a joy to look at!.
OVERALL: A- (92)
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If this is only the first title that can be turned from
Naomi arcade game into Dreamcast console title, we're in
for the time of our lives this upcoming Sept.'99 when we
get Sega's machine here in the States. Whatever "The House
of the Dead 2" lacks in gameplay innovations and/or
polished depth (the enemies still attack in patterns and
the game takes you for a ride in which you don't really
control where you're headed) it more than makes up with a
finger-leaking visual treat that is bound to make Sega
bundles of cash. More of this, please!
- J.M. Vargas