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Response to J.M. Vargas' review of The House of the Dead

I fear Mr. Vargas' review of THoTD misses many of the subtle elements that makes it a significant advancement over previous gun games. All the following factors are innovations that no other gun game has embraced. The factors are all intertwined, creating a new, robust gameplay experience.

1) Hit locations matter, deepening gameplay depth to beyond merely knowing where the enemy will appear.

The first thing many people may notice about THoTD is that enemies require more than one shot to kill. This combined with the fact that hit locations matter significantly changes the gameplay challenge presented to the player. Unlike every other gun game, where merely hitting the enemy once will negate its threat (with the minor exception of the shielded enemies in Time Crisis) the player must know how to effectively kill his opponent before it can damage him. This can mean shooting off the arms which bear weapons, or are about to claw you. This also means that head shots are often crucial, as there are many incidents in which the player only has enough time to get off two or three shots before the enemy inflicts damage. There are also times at which you must destroy the weapon of an enemy before he is able to throw it at you. This is key when combined with factor #4, the damage theory behind the game. The maximum life bar of five torches necessitates the efficient minimization of damage, entailing a strategy that goes far beyond simply hitting the enemy anywhere once. Furthermore, when tied with factor #5, the rhythm of the game, efficiency in killing monsters with the minimum number of shots becomes all the more vital. Simply put, there are no weapon power-ups in THoTD. You're stuck with your six shooter, which limits the amount of shots you can take without reloading. Given the quick rhythm of the game, you cannot merely blindly fire as quickly as possible and reload quick enough and expect to avoid all damage, or save the hostages. Hit locations matter, as you must be frugal with your shots, given that you do not have enough time to shoot the opponent anywhere and expect to kill it, reload, and kill the other opponents on the screen quickly enough.

2) Saving hostages is important beyond simply points and damage.

Saving hostages is crucial in setting up what path you're going to take through the game. As factor #3 points out, which path you go on has an effect on your game. Also saving hostages has a huge effect on the life-ups you receive, relating to factor #4. Furthermore, given that you must save all the hostages to access the secret room before the mage, it becomes all the more important if you need the life-ups in the secret room to finish off the final boss.

3) Paths are more than simply a few alternative routes, in presenting different difficulties and challenges.

Going different routes can have various effects, as some routes are more difficult than others, in that some have more opportunities for being damaged, without an equivalent increase in life-ups. Other routes provide the opportunity for increased points, which is necessary if you want to get the ending in which Sophie survives. Furthermore the number of paths represents a significant improvement as well, in lessening the repetitive nature of the game. More than just Virtua Cop 2, with its few and limited branching paths, the net area of the House of the Dead is more than doubled, when considering the most efficient path versus all the paths available.

4) Damage theory.

More than any other gun game, life ups are abundant. In one respect this signifies that the balance of the game expects players to suffer damage. Very few people can reasonably expect to pass ThoTD without getting hit. This means getting life-ups, saving hostages, finding secret barrels, is quite necessary as a gameplay element (more-so than any other gun game that I am aware of). There is a cap on the maximum life one can have, balancing out advanced players from taking advantage of this fact to easily bypass the game. So even if you are a master at getting all the life-ups, you must still be efficient and be aware of hit locations (in additional to where the monsters will appear on the screen) in order to survive the burden of only having five life at any given time.

5) Rhythm of the game.

While other gun games have excellent rhythm and keep the action going (kudos to both Namco and Sega in this respect) ThoTD has an extra demanding rhythm. Given that monsters need more than one hit to be killed, and that you're limited to one weapon with only six rounds, the pacing at which the player shoots and reloads is not only fast and furious in those scenes in which you must mow down five or six zombies at once, but also require pacing, such as on the second and final bosses. At first I was severely disappointed with the fact that ThoTD had no weapon power-ups, but that limitation forces the player to play both more cautiously, yet more aggressively, in that many shots must be fired in the game, however, wasted shots makes one suffer quite dearly. ThoTD would suffer drastically if the automatic from Virtua Cop were implemented.

Some final notes:

What drew me initially to ThoTD was its comprehensive artistic theme. More than just a gun based Resident Evil, ThoTD has style oozing from every image, from the character's outfits to the title screen, to the different sounds of the 1p and 2p guns. Furthermore, the odd juxtaposition of old style with high technology is done in a manner that doesn't clash, and works fluidly. There is a lot of detail in the game, from the design of the characters, to the various effects of damage on the monsters, to the organic, slimy, dirty feel of the entire image. I'm not much of an art guy, or a film person, but ThoTD feels more like a well-crafted film to the senses than just another game produced by programmers.

I hate how this note is bordering on the "wow, this game is great, I give it all 10's" type feel. However, I feel that the people who worked on the game have been quite successful in these areas and deserve recognition. I also realize that many of these points are missed by the casual player of the game. That's somewhat disappointing. However, given the impressed looks I've gotten from both casual game players and more hardcore people, it seems the immediate appeal of the game does draw both in.

Incidentally, if anyone has questions about the game, feel free to e-mail me. I'm not quite done mastering the game yet. I can get to the last guy and get him down to about half-life on one credit, but have yet to beat it from start to finish without continuing. That should change any day now. I also apologize for the disjointed nature of this review. I'm suffering from both a cold and caffeine jitters, meaning I'm both tired and jumpy and can't concentrate.

-Jason Cha
jjcha@law.harvard.edu

P.S. - Despite what Vargas would lead you to believe, THoTD is not a typical save the girlfriend game, as she dies. Unless you're better at the game than I am."