House of the Dead Overkill Nintendo Wii Review

Introduction
The House of the Dead first appeared in arcades in the 1990's and has since become a must for any arcade, with its fast paced action, hordes of monsters and over the top violence. How can you not enjoy it.
The last House of the Dead game (House of the dead 4) was never released outside of arcades so how did SEGA come back from this disappointment? They decided to make this one exclusive to home systems (RIP arcades). This is the 5th game in the House of the Dead series (excluding all spin offs like typing the dead) and a prequel to the first game.


Single Player and Multiplayer

These are the same; it's an arcade style shooter so there are no modes made exclusively for multiplayer it plays the same on single player and multiplayer.

Gameplay

I'll start off with the menus, you have 3 gameplay modes Story mode which is the main game, the directors cut mode (AKA hard mode) which has to be unlocked and the mini game mode. vThe game is your normal arcade shooter you aim at the mutant (because the Z word is forbidden) with the wiimote, pull the trigger with the B button and fire.
The game has multiple weapons to choose from, they range from Magnums to shotguns all the way to machine guns, the guns have to be brought from the gun shop before you can use them through, all guns can be upgraded in the gun shop, the guns have five areas where you can upgrade them, these attributes are:

Recoil: Upgrading this reduces the kick-back from firing, this helps you increase the steadiness of your aim.
Fire rate: This increases the rate in which you can fire bullets.
Clip size: This increases the capacity of your gun so you don't need to reload as often.
Damage: Self explanatory.
Reload: This reduces the time it takes to reload your weapon.

Of course this isn't all free you need money for these upgrades, you get money at the end of each mission depending on how well you did.
If you own a second weapon then you can equip it before a mission starts you can switch the weapons by using the Z button.


The game also what is called dual wielding, this is when you use two guns at once, to do this you will need two wiimote's, this is a good idea at first but it is ruined by the fact that you will be unable to aim correctly with your weaker hand so you best stick to the regular method.

The game has 5 different types of mutants, these are:
Normal: These will try and beat you to death, some times they will use weapons, they are not that hard to kill.
Big: Same as the normal ones but they can take more damage.
Armoured: These ones can only be shot in certain places so find the weak spot.
Super: These aren't like the normal mutants, they will run at you and try to grab you, if they do grab you shake the wiimote to get them off of you.
Puke: These are just like the Super Mutants the only difference is that they will explode if they get too close to you.


Each stage of the games stages are filled with bonus items, these are:
Slow Mo-Fo mode: shooting this will make time move in slow motion, perfect for getting high scores.
Golden Brain: There are 10 of these in every stage (15 in directors cut), make sure that you shoot them for big bonuses.
Health pack: Shoot these to regain health.
Grenades: Grenades are good for when there is a horde of mutants attacking you this will wipe out a large group of mutants with an explosion.

As you go through the stage you will also find survivors who are trying to escape the mutants if you save them from the mutants you get bonus points, if the mutants kill them you get no points and if you shoot them you lose points.

Like all arcade games you gain points for doing things, in this game you get points for shooting mutants, you gain more points depending on where you shoot them, head shots give you maximum points.
When you kill a mutant you start off a combo, the combo meter on the top of the screen fills up every time you kill a mutant the combo meter comes in 4 stages, Extreme violence, Hardcore violence, Ultra violence, Psychotic and GOREGASAM!

The better the combo the higher the points you will earn.
But remember if you miss a shot or take damage then the combo meter will go back down to zero.


Each stage has a boss at the end, these bosses aren't too hard and they all have a week spot.

One more thing I should mention, in this game is a weapon known as the hand cannon and it is the most powerful gun in the game, SEGA decided to release a hand cannon that you insert you wiimote in, so if you are willing to spend an extra £10-£15 then you can have an even more realistic experience.

Graphics and sound

The graphics in this game are pretty good it's like Resident Evil the Umbrella Chronicles only better and with added gore. Also one thing I adore about this game is the way it is presented, the screen has is black dot effect, you know kind of like when you go to the cinema to watch a movie, I can see why they made it like that because the game is made to be a bit like a B-Movie.

The music in this game is mostly country western and funk, so if you don’t like it then turn the music off through the option menu, put on some slayer and your all set.


Summary
Best House of the Dead game to date nothing more can be said, its funny, it's over the top, it is like that on purpose and I love it.

+ Aim is perfect
+ Great humour
+ It's like watching a B-Movie
+ Classic shooter gameplay.

- Too short for some
- Dual-Wielding doesn't really work.

9/10