House of the Dead: Overkill Review

Quite Possibly “The Most Hardcore Game Ever”

Of course when I mean hardcore, I mean an entirely different definition than the gaming world has adapted.  House of the Dead: Overkill was announced last year on the Wii to be one of its most mature titles to date.  Most of its Public Relations was built around this notion of being unique in gore and suggestive themes.  No doubt, it achieved that and not just on the Wii but any console.  The question is, “Does the rest of the experience equate to an enjoyable light gun shooter?”  Without a question, it does.

The game works as a prequel to the original House of the Dead.  Set in 1991 in a small town in Louisiana, you play as AMS Agent G and Detective Isaac Washington.   In the immediate opening scene the two meet in a less than stellar way.  Agent G is there on his first assignment to investigate the disappearances and Detective Washington is there to seek vengeance on Papa Caesar for apparently killing his father.  Eventually, both of their problems become a unified assault to stop an evil plot.

It is quite evident where the inspiration for the story and atmosphere comes from in the game.  The game is there to pay homage to exploitation films of the 1970s and the recent Grindhouse movie.  However, it just doesn’t simply copy and paste the experience in.  Instead, it just moves the House of the Dead world into the scene and add its own kick.  The story consists of you hunting down a deranged villain across carnivals and hospitals to getting rides from a vengeful sister/stripper to hunt down a madman.  But don’t expect a static storyline as once you start the game you will be taken for quite the ride with many jaw droppers and “what the fucks”.

Yet, even with the crazy story and exploitation atmosphere, the game shines the most with the characters.   Agent G and Detective Washington work in perfect harmony as they contrast each other to create an enjoyable killing and cinematic experience.  Agent G is the calm, serious, and sometimes sarcastic character that antagonizes and deals with the vulgar, arrogant, destructive, and downright hilarious Detective Washington.  You will not love a pair of characters in a game this year than these two.  Other interesting characters include Varla Guns, the stripper with two big guns and no not her breasts, Papa Caesar, the deranged Southern madman villain, and Warden Clement Darling, who will just freak you the fuck out no matter how tolerant you are.  All of these characters just fill in the atmosphere and provide one of the most comical games to date.

Now with a great presentation there always needs to be great music and Headstrong Games did not falter on this.  All of the soundtrack has been custom made for the game and work with the mature, Grindhouse like theme.  The main theme, Overkill, easily became my favorite.  There haven’t been too many games that I go to the jukebox to listen to the songs but this one got me.  Along with the great music, the voice acting comes out as the best in the series.  House of the Dead has never been known for it’s great acting, but the ones in Overkill provide a believable enough acting along with that B-Movie style.   Of course, it would be hard for it not to be great with amazing dialogue throughout the game.  The dialogue is hilarious throughout and you will never get tired of Detective Washington’s F-Bombs.

Graphically, House of the Dead: Overkill doesn’t try to be something it isn’t.  It sticks with it’s style and atmosphere and gives the appearance that you are playing a B-rated movie.  All of the mutants on screen have great models and the weapons as well.  The effects in the game are simply amazing.  Blow off arms, heads, and legs and watch the blood splatter everywhere.  Only flaw that comes into the game is occasional freezes when you are switching from mutant fight to mutant fight.  Sometimes it can affect the game and get you hit but for the most part it is a minor glitch that will not affect you.  However, it is disappointing that the developer was unable to iron this issue out before release.

Now, with everything setup, once again we must wonder how does the gameplay stack up.  Well the easy answer is that it does.  This is easily the most fluid and intuitive light gun shooter of this generation.  Wiimote controls work perfectly.  There is no lag with the reload as you flick the wiimote.  IR sensing is absolutely perfect and you will never have a camera issue.  In short: controls work and that is always important with any Wii shooter.

Always an issue with light gun shooters is being able to vary up the gameplay enough to keep it interesting.  Also, difficulty can be issue.  Overkill finds a nice way to appease both yet still falls short of being perfect.  Throughout the levels, the gameplay will go from zombie fight to zombie fight with variation in timing and amount of the mutans.  As you progress new kinds of zombies will pop up and require you to be a better shot.  However, the variations do get old after awhile and leaves more to be desired.  More kinds of mutants and different attacks would have helped.  But, the A.I. is surprisingly good as they will either run, walk slowly, strafe, throw bottles, etc.  The good A.I. makes up for more variation which will satisfy you for a good while.

Difficulty, on the other hand, really varies with the player.  If you are an expert Wii shooter then you’ll find the experience pretty easy.  If not, then you’ll find it average to moderately difficult.  It simply depends on how good your reaction times and accuracy are.  However, this allows a way to build up skill which is satisfying in the long run.  But, the boss battles leave something to be desired.  Most are simply too easy and don’t provide much of a challenge except for the last battle which turns the difficult up 10 levels.  Boss battles were unique and fun but still needed to be more of a challenge to satisfy the wii shooter professionals.

The gameplay is fast paced, brutal, bloody, and “oh so sweet”.  You’ll enjoy playing this light gun shooter from the time you pick the wiimote up to the time you drop it out of sheer shock at some of the themes.  But, one of the downsides of the game, is replay value is not necessarily the greatest.  After you complete the story mode which will generally take 3-5 hours depending on one’s skill, you can replay the modes in Director’s Cut which has extended levels.  There are numerous guns ranging from the automatic shotgun to the assault rifle to the coveted minigun.  All will take some decent time to unlock but once you level up the pistol and shotgun up fully they are necessary.

The game does allow a lot of achievements that will keep the hardcore gamers playing for many hours afterwards.  The challenge to get the highest score is satisfying but would have been better if the game had allowed online leaderboards.   There is a multiplayer co-op that allows you and a friend to play through the story but only comes unlockable after you beat the story once.   It even includes some four player minigames of mutant blasting but most are pretty lame and undesirable.  Ultimately, only the hardcore gamers will continue to play this to get all the achivements and high scores while the rest will play through it a few times and then search for something else.

House of the Dead: Overkill is one of a kind on the market right now.  There is no other shooter out there that provides the atmosphere and comedy that it does.  The game provides a storyline that is funny and surprising along with characters that will make you love and hate them.  The gameplay makes this the best arcade shooter of this generation on Wii… easily.  Yet, it suffers like most arcade shooters from lack of difficulty and just not much to do after your done.

But, don’t undermine this game.  I can guarantee that there is not another game on the market that is like this and indeed the most hardcore (in another sense).  It’s great gameplay and amazing story and characters make this a must have for any Wii owner who needs to let out some steam on lazy developers.  Most importantly, it’s a must have as it provides a refreshing amount of themes and characters that make us laugh while we experience the most bizarre things.  House of the Dead: Overkill lives up to the hype and gives Wii owners a much needed shoot’em up.

Presentation- 9.5
Visuals- 8.0
Sound- 9.0
Gameplay- 8.5
Replay Value- 7.5

Overall- 8.5

Zucas

*DISCLAIMER*

Being the first LFG review, I’d like to just give the disclaimer for my and generally the other editor’s reviews.  Here at LFG we strive for professionalism along with fairness and unbias.  That is why every game we review has been played with an open mind.  No reviews based off hype or predetermined biases.  Also we don’t review games the day they come out or anytime around the release date.  Games need time to settle in to give the best possible score and critique.

We grade on a 10 point scales and use tenths of a point.  I score on Presentation, Gameplay, Visuals, Sound, and Replay Value.  The final score is not an average of the individual scores for those areas as not all areas are as important as the others.  Finally, I and no one on this site will ever review any game to either extreme (0 or 10) WITHOUT a discussion between the entire staff.  Meaning if we ever give a 0 or 10 it will be an opinion of the entire staff and not just a lone reviewer.   That translates to “we mean it” when we give it that score.

*DISCLAIMER*