There are very few people who did not play The House Of The Dead 2 in their childhood. Today's kids can laugh when they see the ghosts shooter games like House of The Dead. But for the children of the 90s, the appeal of this game was different. Whenever we went to play this ghost-killer game, we would get bewildered with fear. This game truly horrified me back then when I was a child.
A few days ago I wrote a review about "Virtua Cop 2". Said I lost my mouse while playing this shooter game. Another reason I lost my mouse was the House Of The Dead 2 game.
Just like Virtua Cop, the House of the Dead 2 also developed by Japanese company Sega and first released in 1998. It was mainly an arcade game but most of the children used to play it on PC.
There is a great story in this game. On February 26, 2000, two American agents, James Taylor and Gary Stewart, were sent to Venice. They were accompanied by two other agents, Amy Crystal and Harry Harris. This means that you can play the game with two people if you want. Or you can play alone if you want. Even if you play alone, you have to play with different characters on different stages.
Their job was to evacuate ordinary citizens of Venice to safer shelters and investigate the zombie outbreak from the Curien Mansion.
In the beginning, they found an injured Agent G in the library of the mansion, a pre-appointed agent for investigation who was missing.
"James... I tried! Don't underestimate the enemy! Take this!" - Agent G
He gave them a sacred book where the pathways and boss's weaknesses were mentioned. Then you have to go through the city of Venice, which is populated with zombies and different types of ghosts; well, I can't even say the name.
The main villain of this game is Caleb Goldman, seems like he is a businessman, of course, a bad one. He created a new type of zombies and ghosts and unleased all over the city. You may remember Dr. Curien if you played The House of the Dead 1. Caleb was the man who funded Curien.
As you can see the House of Dead game is based on a nice story, quite like a movie. Well, some may laugh at this nowadays, but you can't imagine what it was like for us back then. For our time the graphic was so cool. But I must mention, the voice acting of the characters weren't so good.
At the end of the game (After finishing the last boss named the "Emperor"), Goldman committed suicide by throwing himself from the rooftop.
"Friends, this is not over yet. In time... a successor will come. Farewell." - Caleb Goldman
The final dialogue of our hero James was epic - "I don't care if a successor will come or not! I'll go on fighting... as long as we have the will to live."
What a Game!!! I loved it when I was young, and I still love it.
Well, now the question is why Goldman did this? What was his motive?
He was pissed off on all mankind as they are disturbing the lifecycle of nature. So, to protect the lifecycle of nature he created all of this ghost and zombielike creatures to rule over mankind.
The House of The Dead 2 is a light shooter game, that means you won't get any heavy gun here. During the gameplay, you will get a lot of chances to save human life. And you'll be gifted by a life point if you can save anyone.
Now let's talk about the bosses. I never saw this type of uniqueness on bosses in other games. All bosses have different names with type. At first you'll be encountered by Imp, who is a flying demon. That demon comes with a headless armored villain named Judgement Type 28. I mean just look at the name!
As I told you before, every boss has their weak points. You have to look at the book that you got from Agent G in the library. You have to shoot to enemies weak points. Just shooting on their body won't give them much damage!
The second boss Hierophant will come from the river, by breaking a bridge. Honestly, this one quite looks like Aquaman and he has a trident as well. The difference is Hierophant isn't handsome like our Aquaman and his heart opens and closes all the time which is quite scary. You have to shoot at his heart(when it's open) to kill him.
The third boss is called Tower. It's quite like the dragon in the "Hercules" games which has 5 heads. The next boss, I mean the fourth one kidnapped your (James) other two colleagues, Agent Amy and Harry. His name is Strength who is a giant chainsaw-wielding zombie. That chainsaw guy always scared the shit out of me back then!
The Hierophant and Judgment come again later with more energy and power. I mean the same boss come again in different stages. I must say these bosses names were taken from Tarot cards.
I always hated The Magician, because I always lost all of my life points to this Boss! Killing Magician was the hardest part. Magician has the great power and capability for good but he used it for evil. It's hard to kill him as he moves here and there within seconds!
The Emperor comes at last! The mighty villain specially created by Caleb Goldman with his technology and satanic mind. His task was just to protect nature from humans. The final boss doesn't look like a ghost or zombie, it's quite like a transparent alien or future robot!
If you never played the game, don't criticize it for its graphics and gameplay. Just imagine this game was released 22 years ago and 90s kids have a lot of nostalgia with this game.
Check out my other Classic game reviews -