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The House of the Dead: Overkill review

Game: The House of the Dead: Overkill
Platform: Wii
Genre: Shooter (Light Gun)
Developer: Headstrong Games

Reader review by pickhut

June 27, 2010

Headstrong Games definitely receives points for giving players a different presentation with The House of the Dead: Overkill, instead of playing it safe by following in the footsteps of its predecessors. That's not to say the previous titles had a bad style, but change is sometimes a good thing. You'll immediately pick up on it when the disc plays, starting up as if an old movie is beginning. This is complete with film scratch effects (that stay for the game's entirety), "Feature Presentation" and "Slater Color" cards, and opening credits. Not just ordinary credits, too, but credits with a pole dance that ends with the dancer pointing a Wii Remote at the screen! Yeah! From there, the whole game is shown as a B-horror movie from the 1970s, complete with mock trailers at the start of every stage, cheesy plot progression, mountains of violence and shock, and a scantily clad woman with giant bazooka missiles going by the name of Varla Guns. And there's cursing. Tons and tons of cursing.

So, Zombies + Gore + Shock + Boobs + Potty Mouth = Automatic Awesomeness, right?

Well, while the story of Agent G's first assignment is in no way a bad game, it does feel like it goes out of the way to be a bit forgiving. That's not to say Overkill is light on action, as you'll always be greeted by zombies desperately trying to claw you to death, at such locations like a hospital, prison, and carnival. Building up on combo kills is tough, as well, since you can't miss while shooting all the zombies with erratic movements. There are flaws, though, that are responsible for the somewhat lax difficulty, the most noticeable of which is your health. In previous installments, you only had about three hits before dying. In this title, you get ten, with the ability to replenish some of it within stages. This knocks the challenge down from what it originally could have been, as you really won't fail a stage. I guess the developers tried to counter this by lending players a crappy gun, but you do get to upgrade or buy better weapons as you progress. I would've been fine with this if I could fiddle with the settings, but the only real options available are sound adjusting and gun calibrating.

Also, even though you'll constantly be assaulted by hordes of zombies, they don't have much bite like the ones in past games. I mean, take for example the dual-wielding axe zombies that rush you in The House of the Dead 2; they come quick, and if you're not careful with your shots, they could easily bounce off the axes blocking their faces. In Overkill, you spot similar dual-wielders, except half the time they don't rush, and they're really not using the weapons as shields. Shoot, I don't believe the weapons were programmed to deflect bullets at all, as I've yet to witness it. And while I'm on the subject of zombies, there's really not much variety in attack patterns. They either walk, run, or throw, and usually require two to three hits (if you're not going for head shots) to defeat them. It's a far cry from the likes of hard to hit worms that lunge, and monkey-like assassins that run on walls.

The most bizarre aspect of Overkill, however, is the Director's Cut mode that's unlocked when you complete the game once. Now, I had my assumptions to what this mode could possibly be, the main guess being that it's the main game with enemy and items switched around. I was kinda right. In Director's Cut mode, the game is so much better, because you have more zombies rushing in large groups, and there's actually brand new locations, both extending the game's length.

My question is this: How come this wasn't the main mode to begin with?!

For me, this is the most unusual thing about Overkill, and trust me, there's some unusual things about the game (like those large... flailing... "objects" at the end). Director's Cut mode is something you would do if you were planning to release a special edition of the title, like Capcom shamelessly does for their money makers. You don't put a better version of a game in the same product, then force players to beat a lesser version of it first. If this was Headstrong Games' attempt to prolong Overkill's life-span, then it's a pretty lame way of going about it. However, despite what sounds like endless nagging from me, Overkill is still a nice, mindless light gun title, though not the series' best effort. If you can find it cheap, go for it, but I'd suggest picking up The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return as your first choice. Overkill may have a cool new presentation, but it needed more than that to rival the likes of THotD2.

Rating: 7/10

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