Also available on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Windows I'm a huge fan of rail shooters. As such, the fact that House of the Dead was a system exclusive is a big part of why I bought a Sega Saturn when I started collecting older games and hardware. I quickly became enamored with the system's fun gameplay and campy humor and voice acting. I had always hoped that we'd get an HD remaster of the first three games in the series for PS3 or Wii U, but that never happened. Turn out, Sega did what they do best and lost the source code for the original game, so it couldn't just be remastered or ported. Instead, they had Microids completely remake the game from the ground up, and I was over the moon when it was announced. House of the Dead is not a game that people play for the deep narrative or compelling characters, but there is an overarching story that gives some context to the game. Dr. Curien is a researcher who goes full mad scientist in his obsession with overcoming death. He ends up creating a bunch of creatures that he unleashes on his own researchers, one of whom is Sophie. Sophie's fiancee is an agent with AMS, a US government agency whose purpose is never explicitly stated aside from an inferred "fight zombies and monsters and stuff." Sophie calls her fiancee, Thomas Rogan, begging him to save her. Thomas and his partner, G, show up two days and later and find the research mansion (Resident Evil reference, anyone?) overrun with zombies and other mutated creatures as the helpless scientists try deseprately to flee or hide. Unfortunately, we're past the age of light guns, so the more practical but less accurate gyroscopic aiming has taken its place. Xbox One, obviously, only allows for the regular controller, but Switch gives you the option of a pro controller (or pair of Joycons) or using a single Joycon like a Wiimote, and the PlayStation 4 version gives you the option of choosing between the DualShock 4 or the PlayStation Move controller. Like the original, the game supports two player local co-op. The game is split into four chapters, and your "choices" - mainly made depending on which scientists you manage to save, taking damage, manipulating switch, etc. There are also a handful of bosses to fight each of which have their own weak spots. The House of the Dead Remake is a pretty faithful and extremely fun remake of the arcade and Saturn classic. Its a bit lackluster visually, though. It certainly doesn't look bad, but it doesn't really impress. It runs at 720p on Switch both docked and handheld with a 60 fps target docked and a 30 fps target handheld. Naturally, the visuals and performance is better on PlayStation and Xbox, but I played a pretty decent chunk on Switch, and I was satisfied with the performance especially when playing solo as local co-op does cause performance to take a small hit. Regardless of your system of choice, though, this is a solid remake. It's a shame that it didn't add more content or push the visuals more, and there are games on Switch that pushed the system's visuals more while still maintaining a more stable frame rate, but even with that said, I have no problem recommending this to any fan of zombie games or rail shooters. My Rating - C |
I'm a teacher.And I like to play video games. I like to collect video games. I like to talk about video games, and I like to write about video games. During the day, I teach high school history; during the night, I spend my spare time gaming. Then I write about it. Archives
April 2024
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