In the 90s, shooters occupied the arcades in a classy way. Often large, the terminals stood out above all for their guns that you took in your hand and brought a real plus in gaming sensations. I was particularly a fan of Time Crisis, which also allowed you to hide thanks to a pedal. But when the terminal was not available, I fell back on a Virtua Cop or a The House of the Dead, which is the subject here.
A remake that does it well
In The House of the Dead, the character you play (a certain Rogan) advances on its own and the goal of the game is generally to knock out the enemies present on the screen before they hit us in the purest “rail shooter” style even if certain passages can be delayed such as against enemies who throw objects at us that we can deflect by shooting at them.
The bestiary is quite varied, mostly zombie type and one of the great qualities of the game was and still is to have localized damage. We can therefore destroy the arms to avoid being hit or drop a weapon, explode the legs or the head, but be careful, because some enemies do very well without their heads.
When you launch the game for the first time, you can be a little cautious about the remake side, because it’s far from tearing the retina out of its beauty or its fluidity.
First of all, we say that the Switch again shows its limits, especially since you can choose to activate a performance mode which applies a certain blur to gain a little fluidity in return.
But when we compare with the period version, it puts things in context: the graphic designers have managed to rework all the monsters and scenery from the very simple models of the original version while retaining the atmosphere of the game.
History is for others
You can play in normal mode to relive the story (null, but that’s okay) of the arcade or in Horde mode which is the same thing, but adding a lot of enemies.
There are a few different little paths depending on what you do, which gives small possible variations to each game, but knowing that you finish in about 30 minutes, the motivation to play again comes rather from the scoring and the rescue of the scientists which allows to unlock the ability to use new weapons.
The game also offers an interesting bestiary to learn more about certain enemies, which is very nice.
Two players can be played, which promises reprimands when a player kills a scientist by mistake.
Music has a side chipstune that we will appreciate or not, but personally I find that it contributes well to the retro atmosphere of the title.
The remake is pretty well done and the content is consistent for the style of play, so it’s all good, right?
Well no, unfortunately, a problem arises on one of the most important points: playability.
But where is my gun?
The House of the Dead: Remake only offers two types of control:
– viewfinder moved on the screen via the stick.
– sight moved by the gyroscope.
The sensitivity of the two modes is configurable, but neither of them brings the satisfaction and even less the precision of a pistol that is held in the hand.
The gyroscope mode could possibly have been a decent replacement, but beyond the few recalibration issues that are nevertheless easily resolved, the main problem is that each press on the shot causes the sight to move, because the gyroscope detects movement and since we spend our time shooting, it is almost impossible to keep the sight in position. The game often requires precision, moving via stick then becomes more precise.
Disappointed to be disappointed
The Wii had brought the genre up to date and has various quality rail shooters, but if it worked, it’s because we had a weapon in hand and we were really aiming for the screen.
The House of the Dead Remake therefore crashes on what makes the main interest of this kind of game: the pleasure of shooting.
I’ll probably play it from time to time, because the title is fun and there are some challenges to complete, but I won’t spend the dozens of hours I spent on the Wii’s Ghost Squad or Umbrella Chronicles. with the Wii zapper.
Tested by Aragnis on Switch with a version provided by the publisher.
.
The post The House of the Dead: Remake – The House of the Dead Remake review – Where did my gun go? appeared first on Gamingsym.