The House of the Dead: Overkill
Review: The House of the Dead: Overkill (Wii)
A great take on the classic series, slightly marred by some technical shortcomings.
The House of the Dead titles are one of the few light gun shooters that have had a pretty successful run on home consoles when it comes to ports from their Arcade brothers, so it's nice to see a developer take a stab at making a console specific HotD title with The House of the Dead: Overkill. Overkill does have a few issues, possibly related to the hardware that it's debuting on, but for the most part it's a really enjoyable entry into the franchise that does a solid job of driving home some of the over the top humor and strange horror elements that the series is known for.
House of the Dead: Overkill puts you into the role of two characters, one of which is the fabled Agent G (y'know, suffer as G did?). Each chapter is set up like a small individual storyline with one overarching plot of zombie (or mutant) invasion tying them all together. Because of this, each level has a particular theme as well, and the set-up reminds me a little bit of how Left 4 Dead would handle the four different campaigns. Washington and Agent G are consistent throughout, but each level seems to be built around the boss encounter or simply the environment you're toying around in, which helps each level feel unique and distinct, even if they play out in fairly short bursts.
The game features both single and multiplayer (2 players) modes, like every HotD game that's come before it. Instead of coming with custom light guns, Overkill opts to use the built in technology of the Wii controls, and for the most part it works well. I personally played the game with the use of the Nyko gun shell, and that worked really well. The only thing that threw me off was that I didn't have to shoot off-screen to reload, instead you simply keep firing away and the gun will automatically reload when you're empty. I'm not sure why, but it took me a little while to get used to the idea, but eventually it clicked and I had zero issues with the controls. The gameplay itself is all on rails, and there was no need to mess with analog controls, so you can easily control the whole game with just the Wii remote.
Visually the developers have taken on a "grindhouse" style effect for the entire game, featuring cutscenes that skip about a little, missing reel gags, fake scratches designed to show damage to the "print", pretty much everything that Robert Rodriguez and Quentin Tarantino emulated for their two films. It works surprisingly well here, and since the subject matter is already there for B-Movie brilliance, I can't imagine that anyone would see the effects being out of place in the game. That said there are some noticeable issues that you can't always chalk up the grindhouse look, such as some slowdown issues during gameplay that become far more distracting than they should be. Since certain targets require a bit of precision and speed, having the game feel like it's skipping about can be really off-putting when it happens.
The soundtrack of Overkill, however, is damn awesome. There's a ton of original tracks with full-blown vocals designed for the game, and they're all either catchy or absolutely hilarious to listen to. Along with that, the voice acting fits the game really well, and while it isn't the best in the world, you pretty much get the idea that it's not supposed to be all that great anyways. The comedic timing between the pair of characters you play as works really well, and there were plenty of things that were actually laugh out loud funny.
On the gameplay side of things, The House of the Dead: Overkill doesn't deviate a great deal from the titles that came before it. While it's not nearly as visually impressive at House of the Dead 4, it's seen enough of a graphical overhaul to differentiate it from HotD 3, while most of the gameplay has stayed the same. Overkill does use a function (actually called overkill) that rewards you for creating headshots in succession. Once you fill up the meter (represented by the barrel of a six shooter), you'll enter Overkill mode, allowing you to tear zombies apart with your shots and build up an impressive combo/score. The score comes into play if you die as well, since each time you continue you'll be pulling points from your overall score, so obviously racking up points will have some use outside of just showing off. Along with the overkill mode, you can hit small glowing brain icons on most stages that will slow down time; usually something you'll do to actually build up your overkill meter successfully. It's not a huge feature, but it's fun to take on a room of zombies by actually measuring out your shots and where you want to disable or take them down.
Along with that, all the other basics return. You'll run into civilians you need to save on occasion, and a variety of enemies and boss fights along the way. There are still zombies or mutants that can toss weapons at you that you'll need to deflect with your shots, and on occasion you'll have the quick pop up enemies that you need to have some pretty decent reflexes to take out. Most of this stuff is standard in just about every light gun game I've ever played, so players that are familiar with the genre will feel right at home here.
All together I really enjoyed The House of the Dead: Overkill, and while it does have a few technical issues that hold it back from being a great shooter, it's still a really solid attempt at making a console exclusive game out of a series that's always been more at home in the arcade. It's well worth picking up if you enjoy light gun games, and while I don't think it'll sway non-fans, it should definitely appeal to anyone that's picked up a The House of the Dead title before, or wasted a couple quarters at the local theater lobby.
