Two to the chest, one to the head
Format: Wii Dev: Headstrong Games Pub: Sega Out: 13/03/09 Players: 1-4
As soon as you turn on The House of the Dead: Overkill it becomes immediately obvious that things are far more different than they used to be. Rougher, grittier and far grainier, providing reverence to its predecessors alongside an intrinsic cheesiness that is definitely not ‘over killed’ – pun intended!
This game is a definite reinvention of the renowned arcade shooting series – for the better – with an exaggerated grindhouse theme reverberating in every aspect; from the hilarity of the storyline to the incredibly vintage soundtrack.
You initially meet rookie AMS Special Agent G, who hardcore HOTD gamers will remember from the first instalment of this gaming series, of which Overkill is a prequel to. As G you are then forced (being the operative word) to team up with Isaac Washington, aka the brash ladies-man, a detective on the quest for revenge, whatever the gory consequences may be. As the two curse (rather unnecessarily) and fire their way through strings of endless zombies or mutants, chasing Papa Caesar down, you’ll encounter suitably named Varla Guns, an ex-stripper with her own vendetta who will assist in any way she can. You’ll blast your way through waves of terrifying but comically-mutant villains, which include football players, rednecks, back flipping clowns (NOT my favourite) and nurses, to name but a few.
Control over you path is limited as with all light-gun games but some peripheral vision is given when you move your crosshairs near the edge of the screen, aiding you in picking up power-ups, grenades, health kits, and the infamous ‘slo mo-fo’ mode (I’ll leave you to discover what this little baby is all about). Throughout the entirety of the game you are spoilt with hilarious hi-jinks of the at-odds duo of mutant mutilators, G and Washington, in the intentional weakly edited cut-scenes that underline each mission.
Difficulty ranges from level to level but is, more often than not, ridiculously easy. Two-player co-op mode with a friend is always a helping hand and extremely pleasant to set up so that a partner can join at any point within the game. Firepower tends to kill foes with only a few shots, as is the same with the bosses. Although, I think the intention is for the bosses to be more astonishingly eerie than anything else, particularly in the form of the Screamer – who, I know, really freaked me out!
There are also three mini-games available to play supporting up to four players in which you can earn a vast amount of achievements by performing defeats. Director’s cut versions of all of the levels are also unlockable, which contributes to making levels longer with previously deleted scenes, made more difficult with larger quantities and more durable enemies whilst limiting the number of ‘continues’.
HOTD: Overkill is without doubt one of the best looking games on the Wii, with credit to the use of motion blur, grainy filter and an overly stylistic colour palette. It seems incredibly satisfying to shoot mutant zombies to pieces and watch their limbs takeoff or plunge off, realistically raising both the gore aspect and the amusement. Glitches do occasionally occur however. Enemies somehow get stuck in walls or in between terrain – this was the frustrating part for me.
Also, one of the best game soundtracks in years, as each mission is accompanied by incredible vintage-style themes and guitar riffs that stick with you long after you’ve set the Wii remote to sleep. It’s hard to believe that even better remixes of in-game songs are unlocked with the completion of missions. Not only this, but the voice acting from the characters is equally first-class, making every character unforgettable and entertaining. The frequency of F-bombs dropped after every other word and plenty of other swearing to accompany it may be the deal breaker for some, but the overall theme suits it well and rather than detracting from the events of the game it adds to it.
HOTD: Overkill, with all its revival of the golden age of British low-budget horror, cheese and gore, resurrects an old franchise as anything but an ungainly corpse. Not only raising the bar for all third-party production values on this generation’s best-selling console, but is an exploitation of the horror-film vibe that has been so fully realised that you’ll completely forget that you’re simply moving a cursor about the screen and pushing a button.
Nadya Jaworskyi
[Originally published on Monday, 11 May 2009]
Tags: horror, house of the dead, sega, shooter
