The House of the Dead

Sega's The House of the Dead is a simple yet devilishly fun game of violence, gore and slaying. One or two players can take on the role of special agents investigating reports of mass murder at the DBR research laboratory. Upon arrival at the lab they discover a few dead research workers and a horde of zombies, and here the splatterfest begins.

 

The House of the Dead
by Sega

 

 

HOTD6min.jpg (10662 bytes)As a special agent, you are required to shoot all manner of undead horrors before they can get close enough to chop, headbutt, bite, stab and claw you. A direct hit is rewarded with a spray of gore, but be warned: although most monsters are slow moving, they take more than one shot to kill, so scream, gibber and hit the trigger frequently. Ammunition is unlimited but must be reloaded after six shots. Head shots are particularly effective in dropping monsters quickly, and you won’t know whether to laugh or retch at the sight of the bloodied polygonal stump that remains.

After all enemies in an area are killed, you are moved to a new area and the slaying begins anew. Although there is no direct control over movement, it is possible to take different paths through the game depending on whether certain civilians are saved from the undead or allowed to perish. Saving civilians is worth doing because they will reward you with a bonus life. However, if you shoot a civilian by mistake you will lose a life.HOTD7min.jpg (10437 bytes)

The controls are simple – left mouse button to shoot, right mouse button to reload. The mouse allows easy and accurate positioning of the crosshair, but keyboards, gamepads and joysticks are also supported. Using a keyboard is not recommended, as it is rather slow in positioning the crosshair. A light gun would be the ideal input device but unfortunately there is no support for one yet. Sega says it is still keen to find one that will work, and will release a patch if it does.

HOTD17min.jpg (11357 bytes)The great thing about playing The House of the Dead on PC is that it is faithful to the arcade version ("dangling intestine for dangling intestine" according to Sega) but it doesn't cost you two bucks for a measly three lives! If you are House of the Dead addict then this game will probably pay for itself in no time.

by Richard Lovett

 

The House of the Dead

 

Download the version for your operating system here:

Win95
(15,810K)
Classification: MA 15+
Rating: score_45.gif (1448 bytes)
Description: Kill! Kill! Splatter! Aaaaaaargh! Do not eat before playing this game!
Requirements: Windows 95, Pentium 133, AMD K5 133, Cyrix 6X86 133, 2X CD-ROM, 16M, SVGA, 8-bit colour, Sound Blaster. Supports Direct Draw, Direct 3D, 3Dfx, ATI, Real3D, nVidia, 3Dlabs and Matrox.
Install instructions: Internet Explorer users just click on the file and choose Open to run the setup program straight from the CD. Netscape users download to your local drive and run the EXE file.
Links online: http://www.sega.com

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