House of the Dead: Overkill Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)House of the Dead: Overkill is the first new original game in the series for a long time.Gameplay is largely unchanged from its arcade roots, which is good because House of the Dead has always been known as a quality light-gun shooter.It is bloody, gory, violent, profane, and above all, very fun.It has solid multi-player support and even includes some 2-4 player competitive modes.

GAMEPLAY: Gameplay basically consists of pointing the Wii remote at everything that moves on screen and blasting away.It doesn't get simpler than that.Luckily, the game provides a lot of variety despite the simple mechanics. Enjoyable as a one-player game, the game is twice as fun with a second player.The multi-player mini-games are also enjoyable, but the true strength of the game lies in re-playing and trying to beat your high scores.The higher your scores, the more cash you earn.The more cash you earn, the more weapon upgrades you can buy.The better your weapons, the easier it is to get higher scores.It works really well.

GRAPHICS: This game looks good, but there are better looking games on the Wii.Some character models are rougher looking than others and some textures feel really low res.There are times where the dialogue and mouth movements on characters aren't synched up very well, but that's really minor.There are some frame rate issues at times, but overall the game looks great and none of the issues I mentioned get in the way of me enjoying the game.

LEVELS: The levels consist of seven extremely campy and cheesy Grindhouse movie themed missions.Seven levels doesn't sound like a lot, but there's a lot here.When you're done with the regular mode, you can turn on "Extra Mutants" or move on to "Director's Cut" which is basically expanded levels with increased difficulty.Or you can turn on "Dual Weild" and "Director's Cut" at the same time.I've already played many levels at least a half dozen times and it is likely they will be played several more times each.

PRESENTATION: A lot of thought has gone into the presentation of this game.While the game is horror themed, the primary focus of the dialogue is generally funny.The music is amazing.The menu presentations are phenomenally well thought out.The whole game oozes seventies style and spoofs many horror movie and Blaxploitation themes, for good or for bad.This game wallows in the cliches that have persisted in low-budget Hollywood films for decades.It is also probably the most vulgar game on the market that I can think of.One character, an obvious Samuel L. Jackson knockoff, uses the f-bomb like a comma.Talking like that would get you kicked out of even the toughest biker bar.The game developers even realize this and make fun of the excessive swearing.Oh, and something disturbing happens at the end of the last level which is so vile and disgusting I'm still kind of shocked.I honestly think the game should have been rated AO (Adults Only) instead of M (Mature).

This is probably one of the better game purchases I've made.There are a lot of light-gun style games on the Wii, but this one plays better than all the rest.The most comparable competing titles in terms of quality would probably be Link's Crossbow Training, Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles, or House of the Dead: 2 & 3.The only serious drawback to this game is the absurd amount of profanity and over the top vulgarity.SEGA went a little too far at times, especially near the end of the game.Way too far....

I highly recommend Overkill as a purchase or a rental to open-minded and tolerant adults looking for a thoroughly enjoyable multi-player co-op game.I generally oppose censorship in nearly all of its forms, but I also believe that there is something to be said about exercising self-restraint.If you are easily offended or even moderately offended by profanity and crude humor I have to recommend staying away from this game because it frequently crosses the line of good taste.

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Product Description:
The House of the Dead: OVERKILL charges you with mowing down waves of infected, blood-thirsty zombies in a last-ditch effort to survive and uncover the horrific truth behind the origins of the House of the Dead. Survival horror as its never been seen before, The House of the Dead: OVERKILL is a pulp-style take on the best selling, classic SEGA light-gun shooter series. Back when the famous Agent G was fresh out of the academy, he teamed up with hard-boiled bad-ass Agent Washington to investigate stories of mysterious disappearances in small-town Louisiana. Little did they know what blood-soaked mutant horror awaited them in the streets and swamps of Bayou City.

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