The House of the Dead is a rail shooter light gun game. Players use a light gun (or mouse, in the PC version) to aim and shoot at approaching enemies. The characters' pistols use magazines which hold 6 rounds; players are required to reload after using each magazine. A set of torches next to the magazine of each player represents remaining health. When a player sustains damage or shoots a civilian, one of their torches is removed. The player dies when all torches are lost. First-aid packs are available throughout the game which restore one torch. These are found either in the possession of civilians who the player has rescued or inside breakable objects. Similarly, there are also special items located in breakable objects that will grant a bonus to whoever shoots it.
Throughout the course of the game, players are faced with numerous situations in which their action (or inaction) will have an effect on the direction of gameplay. This is exemplified in the opening stage of the game when a civilian is about to be thrown from the bridge to his death. If the player saves the civilian, they will enter the house directly through the front door; however, if the player fails to rescue the civilian, the character is redirected to an underground route through the sewers. If the player rescues all civilians, a secret room full of lives and bonuses is revealed toward the end of the game.
AMS agents Thomas Rogan and 'G' are sent on an assignment on December 18, 1998 to investigate a series of disappearances at the Curien Mansion, home and laboratory of Dr. Roy Curien, a renowned biochemist and geneticist. Curien was obsessed with discovering the very nature of life and death, backed by the DBR Corporation and its own team of scientists. However, Curien's relentless pursuit of this goal led him to grow insane, where the nature of the experiments began taking a gruesome turn, releasing his experimental subjects into the world. When Rogan and 'G' arrive, a mortally wounded man gives them a small field diary showing information of all of Curien's deadly creations and their weak points. It is used every time the player(s) are confonted by a boss.
Amidst the chaos wrought by Curien, Rogan and "G" face many formidable foes, including The Chariot, an undead, armour-clad, neo-warrior wielding a bardiche who mortally wounds Rogan's fiancée Sophie Richards before the player faces him in battle, and The Hanged Man, a winged gargoyle/bat-like creature. The Hanged Man captures Sophie in the game's opening stage before stealing away over the mansion. In the final chapter, the AMS agents confront Curien, he releases The Hermit, an eight-legged spider-like creature that spits balls of web upon them before stealing away to his lab.
Upon confronting Curien a second time, the AMS agents are to encounter his masterpiece, The Magician, a humanoid demon-esque creature, with mastery of fire. After Curien releases the creature from its incubation chamber, the Magician reveals itself to be self-aware, refusing to serve any master and Dr. Curien is killed by his creation. To prevent the Magician from escaping the mansion and destroying the world, Rogan and 'G' confront the creature in one final battle. They succeed in destroying Curien's monster and are then given one last, chilling warning from the Magician.
The Magician explodes. Rogan and 'G' leave the mansion, taking one last look at it from the outside.
There are, however, alternate endings that the player can achieve upon completing the game. One ending, in which the camera pans to the foyer one last time; the doors open, revealing Sophie to be alive, running towards the camera saying "Thank you!", another shows Sophie has now become one of the undead--the last corpse remaining, all depending on the player's final score and the number of continues used.
Processor= 233MHz
RAM= 32MB
Graphics= 16MB
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