Developer: CRI Publisher: Sega Release: 09/9/99 Genre: Rail Shooter
The House of the Dead was simple in concept yet brilliant in execution. By combining the horror of Resident Evil with the action of a rail shooter Sega created one of the seminal games in the light gun genre. They took it a step further with branching paths that added replay value as well. While the original did not get the home port it deserved there are no such issues here. House of the Dead 2 is a fantastic port of a great arcade game and still one of the better titles in the genre.
The story picks up a year after the events of the first game. While investigating the Currien incident agent G disappears in Venice Italy. A zombie outbreak occurs soon after and more AMS agents are sent to continue G’s case. House of the Dead 2 was created using the Naomi arcade board making it a perfect fit for the Dreamcast. As a launch title this could easily have been a filler title to pad out the lineup. Instead Sega went above and beyond, packing it full of extras. I liked the series well enough before; House of the Dead 2 made me a dedicated fan.
The control options are numerous and all work well enough. Ideally you want to get a light gun to play the game the way it was meant. With a light gun the game is virtually identical to the arcade and an immaculate experience. Those who do not have one or don’t feel like seeking one out can still play using the controller and it works. But it is a less than ideal experience. With practice (a lot of practice) it is possible to make it through the entire game. But there are going to be a lot of unavoidable hits simply because moving the cursor is not fast enough. Then again who the hell buys a rail shooter to play with a joystick?
House of the Dead 2 follows the adage of bigger, badder, and better. The game’s pacing is break neck as it does not dawdle in one place too long. The enemy variety is greater which fixes one of the few flaws from the first game. The roster of mutant types is cool and creative and their pairings make for interesting confrontations. Axe zombies are an immediate threat as they block your direct shots, allowing their fellow mutants to close in while you deal with them. Fat Zombies are resilient and have a small kill window before they get in a guaranteed hit. It starts to get futuristic once you reach Goldman’s lab and face dual wielding robots later in the game. Your trigger finger needs to be ready at all times and little details like quick reloads can make a large difference.
Most light gun games were usually a tough sell as they were short with no replay value. The first game was innovative as it added alternate routes in each stage. House of the Dead 2 is both longer and more complex with more paths throughout each of its six chapters. You access these by saving civilians or destroying parts of the environment. Not only do they introduce new sights and sounds but it can also alter other parts of the game. You can fight the boss of stage 2 and 3 in different locations that make the encounters harder for instance. On its own it gives the game far more longevity. But Sega have blessed the game with more content.
There are a number of extra modes that are both fun and allow you to practice sections of the game. Training is not an easy mode but instead a collection of brief scenarios of varying difficulty. Boss Mode allows you to practice fighting each boss once you have fought them at least once. Considering they are where you will lose the most lives it is a wise choice. Original mode is probably my favorite. Here you can equip two items that give bonuses like extra credits, a longer life bar, new weapons, and damage bonuses. You find these items in both original and arcade mode which gives further incentive to the play the game multiple times. But you were probably going to do that anyway. Not many rail shooters have this many features which makes HOTD2 even more impressive.
You cannot talk about House of the Dead 2 without mentioning its English dub. This is bar none one of the worst English dubs in history. I have heard robot calls with more life than this. How it turned out so bad is a mystery but the results are comical at best and grating at worst. This goes beyond actors simply reading lines off a script with no context, they just did not care. There are odd pause breaks, awkward line reads, the list goes on and on. This is the only blemish on an otherwise great package and I question why Sega left it this way.
In Closing
Sega did a bang up job with House of the Dead 2 and it remains one of my favorite light gun shooters of all time. The pacing is great, the production values are fantastic and it has plenty of modes and alternate routes to give it more replay value than is typical of the genre. Unless you hate the genre there is no reason not to add this to your Dreamcast library.
