The House Of The Dead 20th Anniversary Celebration: The Second Game

Despite releasing in a pretty tumultuous period for arcades as a whole, The House Of The Dead was a fairly big success for Sega. A part of me feels compelled to follow that up with “HARDLY SURPRISING, GIVEN HOW FANTASTIC IT WAS”, but it actually kinda does surprise me a little bit. Light Gun games were never quite the moneymaker that Fighting Games or (sorry Dio) SHMUPS proved to be, and during the mid to late 90s, those genres were struggling to keep the arcade scene afloat as well. Perhaps it was the theming that drew people in; much like Resident Evil, The House Of The Dead came out around a time when Zombie-related media was few and far between, and people fucking love zombies, so anything with zed heads in it was going to pull people in. And what most folk would’ve found after trying it out was the same thing I found; a really well constructed game that was every bit as fun as it was stylish.

And we all know what comes with success, don’t we?

That’s right,

COLD HARD FRANCHI$ING!

similar to the ones Curien unleashed in December of 1998. Upon finding G alive but wounded (and exchanging what little information they have), James and Garry take to the streets of Venice, desperately trying to save any civilians they can as they search for the person responsible for the disaster.The House Of The Dead 2 is very much a case of “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it”, as it looks, sounds, and plays very similarly to the first game. In fact, you’d be forgiven for thinking they ran on entirely the same hardware, given their immediate similarity. This isn’t the case, however; the original game was one of the last titles produced using Sega’s Model 2 arcade hardware, whilst The House Of The Dead 2 runs on their Naomi hardware (which is incredibly similar to the hardware used in the Dreamcast, which will become important later). Likewise, there have been a few little tweaks here and there that expand on some of the groundwork laid out by the first game.The first and most obvious is that your means of reloading has been tweaked slightly. Instead of having to aim the gun away from the screen and fire, you simply have to aim the gun away from the screen in general. In theory, this is probably to help balance the games’ difficulty somewhat, but I always found myself instinctively pulling the trigger when aiming offscreen anyway, so your mileage will vary on how much of a difference it makes. The total number of stages has been bumped up to six instead of four, and the multipath system has been expanded in scope as a result; all levels (barring the fifth and sixth ones) still feature different routes that weave in and out of each other based on the players’ actions, but this time ‘round, the path you take in the second stage- easily the longest level with the largest number of route variations- will actually lead you to one of two different ending points for the level. These ending points, in turn, lead to entirely different variations of both the third and fourth stages. It definitely adds an even higher level of replayability then the first game offered, and I admit the mere idea that there are completely different variations of some levels is very cool to me.Beyond that, the game’s ruleset is the same as before. Six bullets in your gun, three life points as stock, saving civvies may reward you with an extra life point and shooting them will always take one away, the number of civvies you save in a given level dictates whether you’re awarded an extra life point or not/how many you’re awarded (and saving every one you come across unlocks a bonus room in the final stage), shooting Deads in the head will bring them down faster and net you more points per kill, so on and so forth. The background items are back too, but they’ve been expanded to include diamonds, golden cat statues and, weirdly, mushrooms. One of the biggest changes to the title, in terms of raw gameplay, is that it is actually balanced depending on whether one or two people are playing; in a two player game, the number of enemies is doubled at certain points. It’s a very nice touch, and certainly makes a two player round of THOTD 2 feel more intense and rewarding. I believe the game adapts for whether only one or two people are playing in realtime, too, but I’m unable to test that currently due to not having a copy of the game. Or any friends to play it with.The presentation is, much like the gameplay, more of the same but bigger, and arguably better. One of the things that really stuck out to me back in the day is that, hey, there’s actual dynamic facial animation in this one! Ok, only one zombie has it- David, the fucker with the big eye serving this games’s Mascot Creature- but it’s still pretty booky when you first see it. I particularly like how shooting the side of his head that massive ocular is in causes the other one to pop out of it’s socket. This time around, Gothic influence has been swapped out for Grindhouse flavour as far as the visual design goes, and though I can’t vouch for whether or not the real life Venice is quite so grimy and grim looking, it does lend the world of House Of The Dead 2 some good atmosphere. There aren’t quite as many iconic setpieces this go around, but a few areas definitely stick in the memory; the clock tower portion of one of Chapter 2’s routes is a spectacularly moody place to gun down foes in, both of the mazes you battle the forth boss in make for an incredibly tense battle, and the outer appearance of the massive Skyscraper serving as Goldman’s base of operations does look very cool.The enemy design is just as tight as it was in the first game, with another host of undead creatures that are as memorable as they are easy to take apart. David is probably my absolute favourite of the bunch, but I have a soft spot for enemies like Ken (the tall, masked foe that attacks with metal claws), Max (the prick dual wielding chainsaws with a thoroughly sadistic grin), and Peter (the poor bastard in the fifth stage with a parasite hanging out in his chest). There’s even a few returnees from the last go around; the Murrers are back and as flesh hungry as before, green-skinned Kageo’s lurk in dark and dank places, and even the sloppy old Ebitan is still waiting to ambush you from any given waterway. I’d be remiss to point out that this game featured the first appearance of Johnny- the new dual-axe welding zombie with the Kurt Cobain hair, grungy flannel shirt, and “FUCK YOU I WON’T DO WHAT YOU TELL ME” glare- who became something of a series icon from this game onwards. And yes, the name is very much a reference to what you think it’s a reference too. I can’t overlook the boss designs either; whilst the first games’ bosses weren’t badly designed by any stretch, I have to admit that the ones this go around are far more memorable. We’ve got Judgement, a two pronged creature consisting of a headless giant and a hyperactive imp; Hierophant, a merman with a ribcage defect that wield a mean trident; Tower, five enormous reptile-like creatures with very mean bites; and Strength, a maniac welding a chainsaw roughly as big as a Ford Mondeo; Magician, back from the dead and crawling with maggots; and Emperor, a mimic made of water that’d give the T1000 a run for its money. Though the first games roster of enemies and bosses will always hold a special place in my heart, I can’t deny that AM1 bought their absolute A game when designing the nasties for House Of The Dead 2, and you can make the argument that some of the series’ best design work comes from here. This game also marked the introduction of dynamic deaths for the enemies; in the original game, zombies would flicker and disappear after being gunned down, whereas in The House Of The Dead 2, they melt into a bubbling puddle of their own blood. Hell of a neat touch, and arguably the most gruesome death animation in any of the games.I’d also like to point out that this game does an even better job of theming when it comes to enemy placement then the first game did, if I were to wear my humble hat for a moment. Though you’d find Kageo’s in dark alcoves, Ebitans near water, and creatures like the Moody and Robert would only appear around lab based environment, The House Of The Dead only really limited one-level appearances to it’s “small undead” enemy archetype. The House Of The Dead 2 takes it one step further by having some enemies only appear in certain levels; the aforementioned Ken and Gregory, a zombie decked out in chain mail and welding a massive sword, only appear in Chapter 4‘s Coliseum setting, and the only enemies encountered during Chapter 6 (barring a rematch with Tower) are fully-mechanical robot-zombie-undead-cyborg things. They could still have gone further with it, perhaps, but the effort is greatly appreciated nonetheless.One thing I really like about the game is the way it treats it’s villain; Curien, deep voiced hardcase though he was, wasn’t exactly “complex” and, really, we never actually got to spend much time with him before he kicked it. Goldman, conversely, has a more interesting motivation- disgust at humans treatment of the world- he has a much more unsettling and cold presence (in theory- we’ll get to that), and he frequently appears in cutscenes throughout the game, both from our perspective and to the characters in-universe, long before we ever actually meet him “in person”. Goldman looms over the duration of the game in a way Curien never really did, and it does add something to the overall experience.It might surprise a few of you to hear that I actually prefer the soundtrack this go around as well. The first games’ music is fantastic and very much timeless, but the style of The House Of The Dead 2’s definitely appeals to me a lot more. The techno vibes have been swapped out for chopped breakbeats, industrial inspired sampling, and harsher synth lines. Organ dirges still show up from time to time, however, and there’s even the odd touch of rock or orchestral to balance things out. It’s an ensemble soundtrack, which can often be a hard thing to pull of, but I think it succeeds it making all the different ideas it brings to the table work cohesively. That Tetsuya Kawauchi split duties with newcomer Haruyoshi Tomita this go around might explain the greater expansion of musical ideas, and both composers absolutely smashed it in my honest opinion. Chapter 1‘s music is stand out for me, mixing that classic THOTD choral choir with some truly chaotic sampling- I absolutely adore the wall of sound effects and guitar shredding that comes in around 1:20. And, hey, speaking of crazy walls of sound, how about that Boss theme? Creating controlled chaos like that, keeping it tuneful and concise whilst still betraying an aura of raw mayhem, is a sign of an incredibly talented composer. I also quite like the vibe Chapter 5‘s music is going for, mixing those serene chords with buzzing synth basslines and heavy metal guitar loops. Special mention has to go to Chapter 2‘s music, a sort of Baroque-Rock take on the first game’s Chapter 1 music that, honestly, gets serious props for mixing Pipe Organs with Hammond Organs alone (let alone the fact, well, rocks). The linked uploads of the songs are versions from the game’s official soundtrack release, a fact I note because they are both not entirely identical to the arcade version’s music, and feature some differences from the music contained within several ports of the game (something I expand upon a bit further into the article).When it comes to cons, it’s a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, that the game is so similar to the original could be seen as a negative; though I think the strides the game takes to improve on what was already there ARE merited, it is an extremely similar experience to the first title, and they could have done a bit more to expand on the formula then they did. This means quirks like the smaller creature archetype not adhereing to the same code of honour regular Deads do are carried over, too, although you generally encounter that enemy type a lot less frequently then in the first game, so that kind of makes up for it. What’s also immediately noticeable is how short a lot of the game’s levels are; Chapter 2 packs a lot in to a single chapter, and the lengths of almost every other stage suffer somewhat for it. Chapter 4 especially is very short, with some variations being over in barely three minutes if you know what you’re doing. Whilst I do kinda dig the change in aesthetic style and tone, I admit it doesn’t grab me personally as much as the first game’s does, but that’s a purely subjective point rather then any failing on the games’ part.

And then, there’s the voice acting.

I’m not going to beat an already obliterated horse; The House Of The Dead 2 is infamous for it’s extremely poor voice work. It can be argued that it ultimately doesn’t matter in the grand scheme of things- the game is still fun regardless, and the plot is hardly Shakespearean by any measure- but I do think it takes away from the atmosphere somewhat when your arch nemesis’ laugh sounds like three stressed repetitions of a “HMMMM” vocalisation, to say nothing of the menace it robs from said character specifically (something that really hurts the attempts to give his presence an air of foreboding). I can only assume staff members or not-native speakers of the language provided the voice work, but it’s honestly anyone’s guess. Without a doubt, it’s The House Of The Dead 2‘s biggest weak point.

I mentioned above that the game was built using Sega’s Naomi hardware, and noted it’s similarity to the Dreamcast’s hardware. This was something the company deliberately settled on during the design phase of both, to allow for far more accurate arcade ports to their console- an extremely smart move, given consoles were still

somewhat struggling to replicate arcade games perfectly at that point in time. As a result, ports of The House Of The Dead 2 turned out far, far better then its immediate predecessor. In fact, given the slight touch ups and extra content added to the ports, it’s fair to say the ports are the definitive way to play the game (provided you have a light gun peripheral to hand, of course). Visually the games are very similar, but there have been some slight improvements- the most notable being a redone blood splatter animation, which now uses a translucent texture effect rather then the chunky, fleshy effect the arcade version used. The greater range of modes is where the ports truly shine, though, particularly the Original Mode. This time around, the Original Mode allows you to collect (and use) items that change anything from your ammo count to your life stock, the weapon you’re using to the strength of your bullets, the number of credits you have to even model swaps that allow you to (sort of) play as ancillary characters like Harry or Amy. There are utterly ridiculous items as well, like the one that enable a Big Head mode, for the five people that think Big Head mode is funny. Though no new routes have been added, several of the levels have been ever so slightly fiddled with- you can, for example, shoot open doors in the background you never could in the standard arcade mode, usually to uncover an item or secret. Boss Mode is back too, allowing you to face off against each boss individually- although this time, each boss has several levels of increasing difficulty that you can challenge them on, adding a little bit of depth to the mode. Then there’s the Training Mode, which features a series of different styled minigames based around rescuing hostages, shooting targets to improve accuracy, even a few that limit the amount of bullets you can use. Similarly to the boss mode, you can select different levels of difficulty for each challenge, if you’re feeling particularly masochistic. The overall package is about on part with Namco’s light gun ports from around the same time, which is I wholeheartedly approve of.The best thing, by far and away, is how comparatively easy it is to come by any of the ports of the second game for reasonable prices. The port to the Dreamcast, for example, is still a relatively common find and won’t cost you an arm and a leg to source. Several PC versions exist and, unlike the PC ports of the first game, are optimised to run on a fair few platforms- I verified they’d run on architecture as recent as Vista, but I’ve no idea if they’ll work on anything higher then that. It was included as unlockable extra in the Xbox port of The House Of The Dead 3, if you feel like working for it, although for my money the best version to track down these days is the version included in The House Of The Dead 2 & 3 Return. That combo release used the Xbox port of 3 as a base, only both games are unlocked from the start, you can switch between them as you like, and they’re on a console that uses motion control by default, saving you the indignity of having to use a controller if you lack a light gun peripheral. All of the ports are roughly on par with one another, and they all contain the bonus features and modes created for the Dreamcast port, so whichever route you choose to go down you’re getting your money’s worth. The only major difference I’ve noticed between them is that some of the songs have been slightly changed or modified in different versions; compare the version of the Boss theme I linked above to the version that appears in most ports of the game.The House Of The Dead 2 also served as the basis for The Typing Of The Dead. Adapted by Smilebit- the Sega studio most notable for creating Jet Set Radio- The Typing Of The Dead is... er, well, it’s kind of a typing simulator. Slash spelling/grammar tool. Basically, instead of blasting Deads with guns, our intrepid heroes now wield keyboards (yes, really) wired to Dreamcast backpacks powered by enormous Double A’s (yes, really), and you must either type out words or single letters, maybe full sentences (within a time limit, no less), answer quizzes... it’s a very strange game. Honestly, I can’t think of anything else like it. You might be thinking it was a PC exclusive, but no, no, there exists a Dreamcast port (with a keyboard peripheral, natch), and even a full-on arcade machine adaptation is a thing that you could find at one point. It’s not exactly going to replace the original game in my heart, but I definitely appreciate it for it’s originality, for the fact that it actually has some kinda deep gameplay for such a silly premise, and the fact it takes some of the silliness of the original title and runs with it. For example, in Typing Of The Dead, Johnny wields big rubber hammers instead of axes. Because it’s that kind of game.

All in all, where do I sit with 2? Well, whilst it’s valid to say there’s a lot more it could’ve done to stand apart from it’s immediate predecessor, it does a hell of a lot of things right. It offers the same experience as the original (albeit a little tighter and well rounded), it carries on the same tradition of excellent visual presentation and audio design, and it still holds up as a very fun game in its own right some 18 years later. I admit, though, for all the things I like about it, it doesn’t quite do it for me the same way the first game does. Though I think the change in aesthetic does work in the games favour, it’s not quite as cool as the Gothic/Sci Fi mash up the original game had going on, and the setting isn’t quite as memorable to me as the imposing abode from the first game either. That’s all very much subjective on my part, however, and I admit a good chunk of my bias may come from playing the game so much during my tween/early teen years, that I grew thoroughly sick of it for a little while. From a purely objective standpoint, it’s a very worthy successor to the original title. If you’d like to see the game in action, I’ve embeded a playthrough of the arcade version below.

~ Decon (19/10/16)

images sourced from game.watch.impress.co.jp, emuparadise.me, thewebsiteofthedead.com, xtremeretro.com, goretastic.com, superphillipcentral.com, testfreaks.co.uk