House of the Dead Remake review

The House of the Dead was first released way back in 1996 for arcades as an on-rail lightgun shooter by the house that built Sonic; SEGA. The game spawned five sequels and nine spinoffs all following the same basic on-rail shooting mechanic. Games were then ported to consoles and PC where they’d be played using controllers or a mix of mouse/keyboard. Some platforms, such as the PS2 had light guns. PS3 games were using the Move controller. Fast-forward to 2022 as they try to resuscitate the dormant franchise with a remake of the 1996 original game.

House of the Dead Remake takes place on December 18th, 1998 where the insane and disillusioned Dr. Roy Curien had plans to unleash his army of the undead against the unsuspecting population. AMS agents Thomas Rogan and “G” are sent to Curien’s mansion in order to stop the madness and save Rogan’s future wife, Sophie Richards.

So the House of the Dead Remake is an on-rail shooter meaning that all players have to do is shoot faster than oncoming enemies and their projectiles and reload. And boy, you will know that you need to reload as the protagonist will constantly shout it if you don’t reload in time. Your handgun does have unlimited ammo, so you won’t run out of bullets. You can unlock more weapons, but as you’ll read further, you’ll have to jump through hoops not worth it.

The game does have an interesting feature where you’ll have branching paths. So for example, at one point, if you save a scientist, he’ll give you a card that will allow you to move to a nearby locked door. But fail to save him and you’ll have to jump down a shaft. There are multiple similar scenarios like this that encourage replay value; sometimes you might want to let a scientist die to see a different path.

The game’s biggest problem, aside from the whole thing, is the lack of weaponry. Yes, there are additional weapons, but you need to save everyone across all levels to unlock the armory for additional weapons. Playing through the game with a simple firearm with barely any ammo is just frustrating and boring. Also. Why wasn’t released at retail with a lightgun??!

The visuals look okay; could easily pass for a late sixth-generation console game. Levels are well designed; perfectly fitting the game’s dark, drab and creepy atmosphere, but it’s pretty ordinary. For a remake that was released on current and last-generation of consoles, sure looks like they didn’t put in the effort/budget to take full advantage of the consoles’ horsepower. The soundtrack is boring, annoying and brings nothing to the atmosphere. Voiceovers are phoned in and far from credible, but I believe this was the point.

House of the Dead Remake is definitely an easy pass. Sure the branching paths is an interesting mechanic that encourages replay value, but without a lightgun, it just feels wrong. And well the game is light on gameplay so after a single run, you’ll pretty much have had enough and the game will have shown you most of what it is. Unless you’re a die-hard House of the Dead aficionado, save your money for better gaming experiences.