Player Survival: The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return

It’s October! Which means there’s no better time to start a segment on survival horror games. This first edition will be on the first survival horror games that I played.

Remember in the 90’s when you could go down to the local arcade and play any game available for just a handful of quarters? Those were simpler times. Remember these machines?

 

Good times

These are known as lightgun games, due to the gun shaped controllers, and almost always have a co-op 2 player mode. Many of them have been re-released for console, provided that those consoles have a gun controller accessory, or motion controllers that can work in a similar fashion. The lightgun game that I am going to talk about today is the beloved collection of survival horror classics, The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return.

Back in the arcade days of the mid/late 90’s I would play The House of the Dead 2 at the arcade with my dad. I have no idea why he thought it would be a good idea to let a 4 year old play a rated M game, but it had more to do with the subject matter of the game itself rather than the rating. As a kid, I was terrified of all of the creepy and ugly halloween masks, costumes, and decorations, so much so that I would vomit just at the sight of them. For some reason, the House of the Dead series had absolutely no effect on me, and I’m guessing my Dad thought it would help me get over my fear and my squeamishness. It didn’t help me get over anything at all, naturally growing out of my fear later, but nevertheless it was still a game I enjoyed. I found this game so enjoyable that I picked it up for the Wii years later as soon as I saw it in the store. My friend and I even got our own gun shaped wiimote handles to make it feel as close to the arcade experience as possible.

Bet you were expecting the Wii Zapper, I chose the cheaper and better looking option

I still own this game today and recently picked it up again. As expected, it’s a typical lightgun shooter port with a couple of new additions, having an arcade mode as well as an original mode where you can gain power ups from finding and shooting certain items. Players can choose to go through levels multiple times as in each level there are different paths they can take which may lead to different power ups. These power ups range from basic health and ammo increases to sillier things such as a gun that shoots U.F.O. discs.

There is also one new minigame that can be played, ONE. This lackluster minigame features the two protagonists from The House of the Dead 3 briefly, but you play as yourself stuck in an elevator. The objective is to shoot as many zombies as possible until you are killed or you get to the last floor, which features the protagonists of The House of the Dead 2. This minigame can help you get items for original mode, but it seems like an unnecessary and pointless addition.

My favorite new mode is the Boss mode, where you can fight bosses and see how fast you can defeat them. This mode is beneficial for practice when there are bosses that you just can’t seem to beat. All of the Bosses in most House of the Dead games are named after tarot cards such as Judgment, Hierophant, Tower, Strength, Magician, and Emperor.

This persona reference was unavoidable

Now, before I get into which bosses were the more difficult ones, I have to address the one boss that just about anybody who has ever played The House of the Dead 2 is familiar with, Judgment. This boss Judgment is made up of two different parts, the headless controlled suit of armor, named Kuarl (why does the armor have a name?), and the annoying flying imp like creature controlling it, Zeal. Zeal is actually the first enemy that the player encounters in this game, saying the terribly voice acted yet still somehow memorable line, “Suffer like G did”, meant as a statement but asked like a question.

“Suffer from bad voice acting(?)”

The first boss that I had real trouble with in this game was Tower, a Hydra like monster with four red snake heads and a fifth blue head in the middle. In this first form,  Tower isn’t too difficult, as all you have to do is shoot the lesser heads when they open their mouths. Once all four of the lesser heads are killed, the main blue head separates from them and rapidly slithers toward you. It’s definitely not the most difficult boss in the game, but my aim has also never been the best, so Tower’s second form is much harder for me to hit.

Can’t get up on this Hydra’s back

The second boss I had trouble with, notable for being a recurring fan favorite and one of the hardest bosses in the series, was the Magician. The Magician was the final boss of the first House of the Dead game and is what I assumed to be the final boss of the second game. The Magician is an insanely fast boss and with only handguns to protect you, he’s not very easy to hit either. The Magician can also produce fireballs which can damage the player if they are not shot at fast enough.

Welcome to the velvet room

The third installment of the series had slightly improved graphics as well as a new story and new playable characters. The more interesting change was that the handguns were changed into shotguns, yet still worked the same way with a set amount of ammo and a reload function. This new Wii version also added a melee attack which would have to be reloaded as if the player had used up all of their gun ammo. Also unlike it’s predecessor, this game only had four bosses.Three of these bosses would rotate depending on the path chosen by the player(s) after being prompted to choose. The bosses in this game aren’t quite as notable as the bosses of The House of the Dead 2 in my opinion. There’s Death, the generic giant undead boss that wears some kind of security uniform, Sun, the generic giant plant boss, and Fool, the giant……….sloth monster?

I wasn’t kidding

With the same friend that I mentioned earlier, we managed to make it all the way to the last boss of the game, The Wheel of Fate. Similar to the Magician, this boss is difficult to hit and can deal a large amount of damage, using powerful lightning attacks instead of fire.

He puts a shock to your system

After the Wheel of Fate is defeated, there are multiple endings both some good and some bad, although I don’t know the specific requirements for each one. My personal favorite is the ending where a zombie steals Lisa’s car and she has to chase after it.

They see me rollin’….

Even after all these years,  The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead 3 are still a great and enjoyable experience. If you have a wii and like zombies and cheesy horror, these are the games for you. I look forward to playing House of the Dead: Overkill and House of the Dead 4 in the future.

The House of the Dead 2 is available on Dreamcast and Windows. The House of the Dead 2 also has a modified version called The Typing of the Dead, where lightguns are replaced with keyboards, which is available for Dreamcast, Windows, and Playstation 2, and has a remake for iOS called Flick of the Dead. The House of the Dead 3 is available on original Xbox, Windows, and has an HD port on Playstation 3.The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return is exclusive to the Wii.