WELL, WELL, WELL ANOTHER LIGHT HANDGUN GAME FOR THE WII. THERE ARE A FARE FEW TITLES FOR THE WII THAT USE THE WII ZAPPER AS IT IS CALLED:
LINKS CROSSBOW TRAINING, HOUSE OF THE DEAD 2 AND 3, RESIDENT EVIL UMBRELLA CHRONICLES AND GHOST SQUAD.
HOUSE OF THE DEAD OVERKILL STANDS OUT FROM THE BUNCH (EXCEPT POSSIBLY UMBRELLA CHRONICLES THATS AS GOOD AS THIS GAME). WE'LL START WITH "THE LIST"
THE LIST CONSISTS OF: PRESENTATION, GAMEPLAY, CONTROLS AND THE FINAL RATING.
1. PRESENTATION
From the get go when you load up into the title screen your greeted by an over the top GRINDHOUSE style movie and yes this game is basically a GRINDHOUSE movie. The game keeps up with its predecessors with the gore and over the top mutant killing but throwing a cheesy yet quality GRINDHOUSE feel for example cheesy music and grainy filters over gameplay.
The basic Storyline is a prequel to the first House Of The Dead and you play as AMS Special Agent G (yes the guy who appeared in the first one) and you team up with the loudmouthed Isaac Washington (a cop looking for revenge). You and Isaac go throught Bayou City shooting your way past tons mutants to get to the main villain who is called PAPA CAESAR the man responsible for the mutant outbreak. Along the way you meet up with an EX Stripper called Varla Guns who has her own vendetta against Papa Caesar.
As i said before the game takes you through a typical Grindhouse feel movie eg cheesy music, bad acting (its ment to be bad), gore glore, tons of swearing, great one liners and grainy look. Its a nice addition in the series and staying true to the other games. Plus the graphics are sharpe for a WII title.
2. GAMEPLAY
As a light handgun game you basically point and shoot the screen and you have no control of where you and your teammate go. The game has a varity of powerups whist shooting your way through hobo's, nurses, clowns etc, they are grenades, slow motion powerup, health kit and golden collectable brains. The best out of these is the Slow motion everything slows down so you can rack up the points by blowing heads , arms and legs off for maximum points. Like the other games at the end of a level you confront a boss and it has a cutscene then shows you the bosses weak points etc. After completing levels you can buy or upgrade your weapons eg you can buy shotguns and machineguns to use throughout the game. The difficulty of the game varies from level to level but as we all know easy is easy and hard is hard. When you have finished the storyline you have a couple of opinions play the 3 mini games which can be played by 4 people or play Varlas story and unlock director cuts of scenes you have completed in the original campaign. Overall the gameplay is ok sometimes it has a slow frame rate but other than that its a great game.
3. controls
The game has a great controls layout using the wii controller or the wii zapper. But the main thing about this game is the "HAND CANNON". This can be purchased when you buy the game and trust me it is worth it. The gun is HUGE and HEAVY but then again with a name like HAND CANNON and shaped like a Python Revolver what do u respect. The Controls are simple here are the key points for the: WII Controller and the WII Zapper/Hand Cannon.
The WII Controller controls are simple and easy press B to fire and shake the controller to reload of interact with bosses eg The Second Level boss to shake off the SCREAMER.
The WII Zapper and Hand Cannon are the same but it feels weird to shake the gun because you don't expect it some times and its quite a challenge to shake it when your in your shooting stance etc.
4. FINAL RATING
If you love horror games, light gun games , party gameplay and hilarious storylines then this is the game for you. This is definately a must have WII title. It has been given the 18 rating for a reason due to its gore, language and content this is still a must have game. But anyway with its funny characters, impressive graphics, great soundtrack, general feel/look and plenty of unlockable content, this game will not DIE AND ROT AWAY. I give this game the rating of:
EPIC
Thanks for reading the review please leave comments and i will be revealing the next game up for review this coming weekend.
