Creator: Sega
I have seen the movie for House of the Dead, and let it be said that I was less than impressed with complete absence of storyline, poor plot direction and the shameless addition of clips from the video game to fill in parts which the budget of $10.50 didn't quite allow for. It is understandable then, that when recently at a friends place, placated by mulled wine and delicious Japanese curry I was asked to play House of the Dead: Overkill, I was a little skeptical. Going into it with the enthusiasm of a hungover Engineering major with a 9am tute, I wasn't expecting much. Now I don't know if it was the wine or the curry or the lack of sleep over the last 8 weeks finally catching up with my hippocampus, but I actually rather began to enjoy myself.
There is something so deeply satisfying about pointing a gun at the television screen and decimating wave after wave of rabies infected, vomit expectorating, brain guzzling zombies that I just didn't expect from the wii platform. Part of the reason why I found House of the Dead: Overkill so unexpectedly glorious was that it retained a genuine arcade feel, thanks to the predetermined character movements and plentiful usage of the Wii Zapper. Ok so the graphics weren't amazing and the plot was painfully close to twilight fan fiction bad. However, I wasn't really expecting that much from it. If anything, the bad graphics, horrific voice acting and gratuitous use of the word 'motherfucker' only added to the marvelous, late night after one too many beers and a big mac, galactic circus feel.
My most memorable moment had to be attaining my first "goregasm." In order to attain a 'goregasm' one must massacre hoards of undead without missing, once you shoot a certain number of zombies without missing you begin to get combos which give you subsequent extra points leading up to a GOREGASM, which gives you 1000 extra points a corpse. Especially useful if you are competing for bragging rights against certain team members.
Each level is relatively short and follows the first assignment of Agent G, who is set to investigate some 'disappearances' in Louisiana (sort of). That's about as far as I got with what actually went down apart from he has an African friend called Issac Washington who is pretty much Denzel Washington meets Wesley Snipes, and instead of too many snakes on a plane there's too many zombies absolutely fucking everywhere. Of course there's the token booberella, aptly named Varla Gunns who seems to simultaneously befriend and seduce both of the protagonists (SPOILER> despite them killing her disabled zombie brother in one of the episodes). As far as I can gather she serves utterly no purpose except for being eyecandy and zombie fodder.
There are also some semi interesting villains whose plot lines are never quite resolved and whom frankly, I didn't really give a jack russell about as the time wasn't really taken to flesh them out whatsoever.
The sound track made me smile and giggle out loud at times, a hilarious accompaniment to smooshing zombie brains out the back of their heads. As far as being a zombie shooter, I have to admit, it doesn't take itself too seriously, or if it does I didn't notice, and that made it most worthwhile and enjoyable accompanied with increasing levels of inebriation throughout the night. Of course it may have helped that I watched quite possibly the worst movie of all time immediately after completing the game (Hot Wax Zombies on Wheels, FYI). It only takes about 2 hours to finish so it makes for an insanely fun game to play with mates on a night in.
6/10 Golden Zombie Brains from me .
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