The House of the Dead III, Electronic Games

Although Microsoft will vehemently deny that The Xbox is the Dreamcast 2, albeit housed in a large black box, the evidence for this unwelcome assertion is starting to become obvious. Many traditional gamers shun the Xbox, but its impressive Sega-developed portfolio is forcing the gaming community at large, and especially hardcore gamers, to accept its presence in the marketplace. Some have even become converted to the ways of the Xbox. House of the Dead 3 is a lightgun-based shooter from Sega and is the brilliantly titled follow-up to House of the Dead and House of the Dead 2. Complete with the worst voice-acting ever seen in a videogame sequel, HOTD 3 delivers what it promises - more of the same. First seen on Sega's Model 2 arcade hardware, House of the Dead delivered a more tangible variety of something gamers had been given a taste for by Capcom: bumping off zombies. The cooperative two-player nature of the title established it as one of Sega's premier arcade attractions and a Saturn version was soon released. All went quiet on the home console front until an acclaimed Dreamcast conversion of House of the Dead 2, first seen on the Naomi arcade and bundled with one of the greatest light guns ever to go on sale, graced Sega's ill-fated 128-Bit offering with a reworked sequel. And, seemingly, therein lies the problem with all lightgun-based games that aren't Time Crisis. Aside from throwing a few doubloons in the coin-mech at the cinema, the general public as a whole isn't that interested. Perhaps this is because the first two HOTD games were created solely for doomed Sega home consoles. The Xbox rehash of the series delivers exactly what you would expect. You shoot zombies, collect items from inanimate boxes and rescue life-force carrying innocents. The game plays decidedly well on the Xbox pad, mainly due to the unusual height of the unit's primary analogue stick. It looks fantastic. Gruesome, but fantastic, complete with a level of gore unsurpassed in a zombie game. Without sounding gratuitous, each shot to an enemy reveals a new level of endoskeleton and rotting zombie matter. Great fun! So is the Xbox the Dreamcast 2? This game certainly lends weight to the argument.

Buy The House of the Dead III for 12.99 GBP

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