The House Of The Dead franchise is one of the most gloriously silly franchises out there. The series has changed its basic format to fit changing realities in the video game world, from arcade light-gun shooter to PC “type-em-up” and even Wii exclusive shooter (that even came with its own gun-like peripheral). However, what has never changed about the series is its commitment to being as silly as possible, intentionally and sometimes, unintentionally.
The franchise has been mostly dormant since the last full entry in the franchise, House Of The Dead: Overkill. This is why the release of House Of The Dead Remake, developed by MegaPixel Studios and Forever Entertainment has excited many fans but has also drawn some serious criticism. There are certainly many things to love about this Remake, but there are also an equal amount of things that stop the game from being great.
10 Good: The Cheese Is Back!
Something that made The House Of The Dead franchise stand out back in the 1990s and early 2000s was just how silly the games were and just how committed they were to replicating the feel of cheesy monster movies.
While the developers of the game did overhaul the graphics and the sound design, they left the goofy nature of the story and the bad voice acting completely intact. Keeping this original feeling was a strong move on the behalf of the developers as it gives players who are stressed out by traditional horror game mechanics or excessive violence a fun alternative to play when they went to experience something spooky.
9 Bad: It’s Really Short
Being an arcade game, the original House Of The Dead game was extremely short, and even in its original form was not very hard and so could be beaten by many within 45 minutes. The remake is about as long, and can easily be beaten in one sitting.
While video game criticism and journalism have generally left behind the idea of criticizing a game’s quality in comparison to its length, it can’t be overlooked that this remake is asking for quite a steep asking price for such a short game.
8 Good: The Visuals Are Great
Originally shown off in the original release trailer for the game, the updated visuals are a really nice addition. They manage to tread a fine line between updating the graphics to something more typical in contemporary times, while still keeping the original feeling of the original game.
While it is true that the visuals can feel a bit cheap at times, it ultimately does feel like these visuals match the overall tone of the original game.
7 Bad: There Isn’t Much Content
In addition to only being a remake of the first game, this Remake does not add anything significant to fill out its replay value. Aside from difficulty modes (that don’t change up the actual difficulty all that much), a “horde” mode has also been added. However, this “Horde” Mode isn’t so much a horde mode in the traditional sense, but rather just makes you play the game again, but this time with “up to 15 times the enemies”.
What makes this mode even more disappointing is that it is essentially just another playthrough of the main story, but to unlock this mode you already have to playthrough the main story many times, making the experience of completing this game feel extremely repetitive.
6 Good: The Nintendo Switch Controls Are Super Fun
Hands down the best way to experience this remake is on the Switch. The game lets you choose several play options, including Dual Controller play, “Single Joy-Con” play, and docked play.
However, the optimal experience for giving this game a shot is using the “Gyroscope Control Scheme” which gives players the feeling that they are experiencing a real light-gun shooter.
5 Bad: Some Control Options Aren’t Great
A general rule of thumb for porting Light Gun Shooters to home consoles is that you have to add some sort of aiming gimmick to help make the gameplay easier, as trying to aim using analog sticks can be quite a difficult experience given the fast-paced nature of these types of games.
The Gyroscopic controls are truly a joy to play with, as is the mouse control in the PC version, but nothing has been done to make playing on other home-console easier or more enjoyable. The developers will be adding PlayStation Move support later down the line for Sony players, but this is of little comfort as not many people still own PlayStation Moves.
4 Good: You Can Sit Down And Play With A Friend!
For those looking for a great game to play with a friend in good old-fashioned couch co-op style, look no further than this game.
The inclusion of local co-op for this game helps to add to this game’s general level of authenticity and can help younger players who didn’t grow up playing the original arcade games get a sense of what it was like gunning down hordes of the undead with a friend by your actual side.
3 Bad: There's No Online Co-Op
While the game does offer players the ability to play with a friend in the same room, it has no option for online play. This is a huge shame in an age of online connectivity and where for many reasons people would rather choose to or HAVE to stay at home to play video games with friends.
A worthwhile addition to the game could have been some sort of online scoreboard or competition mode that would allow players to try and race to the end of levels or try to get hit the least number of times possible, anything to increase the already meager playtime of the game.
2 Good: The New Soundtrack Is Fantastic
It’s a big shame that this game couldn’t include the amazing soundtrack of the original game composed by Tetsuya Kawauchi. This was dropped due to legal and licensing issues and was replaced by music by Sébastien Poncelet.
Luckily, this new soundtrack is almost as good as the original. While it doesn’t surpass it, Poncelet’s work does an incredible job at catching the feel of Kawauchi’s work and that of the original game while still being entirely original.
1 Bad: The Sound Mixing Is Not Good
Like the soundtrack, the voice acting also had to be redone for the Remake. The good news is that the voice acting on display here is superb at mimicking the “so bad it's good” style of the original game. Though unfortunately, it is extremely hard to actually hear a lot of this voice acting while gameplay is happening.
This is a problem that exists within the original game as well. Both versions don’t really do dynamic sound, with the music drowning out most of the dialogue. It was a problem in the first game, and it is disappointing that this is still a problem in the remake. It is a case of the game being perhaps TOO faithful in this circumstance.
The House of the Dead: Remake is already available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, Stadia, and Xbox One.