The House of the Dead: Overkill Game Review # 4

If you have been to a few arcades then odds are you have seen The House of the Dead series. I have memories playing a few lives in a few of the games throughout my life. I don't remember getting far or beating any but they were fun games to play with a friend. When the Wii first came out it was seen as a great console for the genre of rail shooters which are fairly non-existent out of the arcade scene. The House of the Dead: Overkill might be a few years old but it has been re-released on other consoles fairly recently.

The first thing to note is when this game says its Mature, it is Mature. The game had the Guinness World Record for the most profane video game at the time of its release. Expect to hear swearing pretty constantly with the f-bomb being dropped 189 times during the game. Also expect a lot of sexual themes throughout the entire game. Also gore is to be expected and expected even more then what you would think for a House of the Dead video game.

Although the game is a part of a series of games, you do not need to play the other games. The story is a prequel to the other games but when I play it feels almost like a spin off. Almost like an alternate world. The game is linked to the other games slightly but I don't feel there is much satisfaction knowing those links when you play the game. The story has you going through different settings. Each setting the goal is usually the same. The plot isn't exactly the most brilliant thing ever created but it serves its purpose. The game is meant to feel like a B-Movie. This is very obvious the entire time. What is brilliant is just how random the game can be. If you like cheesy then you will love it. The dialogue can be just as random with tons of one liners.

The music in the game is fairly good. There were several songs that I thought were nice and others that weren't as nice. It was good overall surprisingly. The visually are very gritty and do a good job trying to be B-movie quality. The entire setting does make you feel like you are in a B-movie.

I do have to comment that despite the game trying its best to look un-polished like a B-movie it does have a few-unpolished elements that I feel were not on purpose. Upgrades and new weapons are unlocked with money but you only get money from getting on the leader board  The higher on the scorecard the better the money. The issue is if you are really great and top the scorecard several times then money is slower to gain the more you can't top your own scores until you rarely get money at all. The upgrades and weapons are not carried over to the directors cut version of the game either which means all the work done at the beginning is just to get to the better Directors Cut levels and having to work to unlock everything again. On a rare occasion the game has glitched in various ways such as game breaking glitches. On one boss fight I played the bosses health stopped going down despite me doing everything perfectly.

If you are looking for a good rail shooter then the game is great despite the glitches. I would not recommend to those that are looking for something not so over the top or not as cheesy. The game is fun when playing with a friend and does a great job being unique even unique from the other entries in the same series.