It has been 22 years since the Curien Mansion incident. The world as we know it has been brought to its knees by a horrific phenomenon which began to occur in 2003. Survivors have recently discovered the cause of these events – the EFI Research Facility. Recognising the urgency of the situation, the authorities send in former AMS Agent Thomas Rogan. Unfortunately, contact with Rogan was lost moments after the mission commenced. Two weeks later, Rogan’s old partner, G, and his daughter, Lisa, travel to the EFI Facility in an effort to find Rogan, and confront the horrors which have been plaguing the world.
House of the Dead 3 retains the same rail based shooting gameplay of its predecessors. A few enhancements to the formula have been added into this incarnation, such as the ability to choose the path your character will traverse, as opposed to the method used in the previous games, where the enemies that you killed, or how you reacted in an event would determine your path. This has virtually eliminated the mystery involved in selecting your path, but has made it easier on the player when choosing a new path while replaying the game. The other main addition to the gameplay is the Teamwork Event. When a Teamwork Event takes place, you will be required to eliminate a set of enemies that are threatening your partner. Shoot the enemies, and get a free life.
Due to the fact that there is no official gun peripheral for the Xbox, most of the people out there will be playing the game with the pad. Playing the game with the controller is still an easy task, but defeats the purpose of playing a gun game. Reloading has been made autonomous, which removes a third of the buttons usage that this game requires. The standard weapon in House of the Dead 3 is a trusty automatic shotgun which deals out a lot of damage to your foes. Your enemies will come in a variety of forms, from the standard Mark II zombie, to the buzz-saw wielding maniac affectionately known as Raymond. Enemies are disposed of in a very gory fashion – limbs and heads will be separated, and holes will be blown through chests and stomachs. It’s definitely not for the faint of heart or the weak of stomach.
The House of the Dead 3 disc includes a variety of extras. While Survival is the meat of the game, a Time Attack mode has been provided for anyone wishing to run through the game again. A short documentary on the production and plot of the House of the Dead movie is also on the disc, and will give fans insight into how the film was made. Finally, the biggest bonus of all is the inclusion of the Dreamcast version of House of the Dead 2. A minor addition has been made to this version – when you travel from House of the Dead 3 to this game, you get an opportunity to earn extras for House of the Dead 2’s original mode. The elevator door will open and zombies will approach – destroy them and you will be given a rank which will determine which extras you get. House of the Dead 2 may be a little dated graphically, but it is still a blast to play. The targeting reticule is a little more sensitive than it is in the third game, so be warned.
Experiences with House of the Dead 3 are relatively short lived due to the game’s arcade roots. The main quest should take about half an hour to complete, and the extra routes may provide enough play for another few trips through the game. If you can track down the Thrustmaster Beretta 92FS, the overall experience will be more enjoyable, and you are sure to get more use out of the game. .The inclusion of House of the Dead 2 almost doubles the overall length of the game, should you wish to play that game as well.
Wow Entertainment originally intended to produce House of the Dead 3 using cel-shaded graphics, and while this style actually looked fairly good, a big fan backlash against the style saw them changed back to the gory styling of the previous games. The graphics are pleasing, and to say that they’re gory is an understatement. Heads will roll, limbs will fly, holes will be blasted through stomachs and enemies will leave blood trails everywhere. Enemy modeling has improved substantially from the second game, with much more detail going into the texturing of the characters. Animation is still as good as ever – enemies will hobble around on one leg if you blow the other one off, they’ll struggle to climb off the floor once you blast them down, and so on.
House of the Dead 3 features some impressive and scary environments. The game starts outside the facility in a rundown car park, and goes through various other places, run down labs, IT services, and corridors overtaken by plants and so on. The Xbox’s lighting and texturing abilities have been tapped into to produce some excellent atmosphere. The game runs at an excellent pace and never skips a beat.
It just wouldn’t be House of the Dead without bad dialog and cheesy acting, and House of the Dead 3 delivers more of this than is humanly palatable. Lisa and G. never really say much to each other that is connected, and the delivery of their lines is laughable at best. The other actors seem to take a page from this book and continue the poor form throughout the entire piece. The soundtrack provides some adrenaline pumping tunes, something that a game such as House of the Dead 3 requires. Sound effects are rather gruesome, but clear, crisp and bolstered by support for Dolby Digital 5.1 systems
House of the Dead 3 would have been a more enjoyable experience had it been released in the arcades. That’s not to say what has been delivered here is a bad game, it’s just that the game is rather limited, and very short. You will also require a gun peripheral to get full enjoyment out of the title, and considering the overall price for the game and the gun, I don’t think it’s really worthwhile. Give it a rental if you’re dying to try it out – should be the same price as a few credits at the arcade.
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