House of the Dead: Overkill

Zombies seem to be the poster children for the video game world at the moment ”“ be it last year’s superlative Left 4 Dead, the spectacular Resident Evil 5 or even this, Sega’s prequel to their seminal arcade franchise, House of the Dead: Overkill. While the former two try to weave some sense of coherence around a game is essentially a killfest, Overkill doesn’t even bother. It infuses a more than generous dose of B-grade movie spirit, retro-pulp and cheesy dialogue that involves more than its fair share of F-bombs.

The plot is downright hilarious. The protagonist of the series, Agent G, teams up with a cussing detective, Isaac Washington to take down a mad scientist with the help of a stripper called Varla Guns. If games were to be judged by their attempt to not be taken seriously, Overkill would win hands down.

However, it doesn’t end there. Graphically, this is arguably the best looking Wii game around (Hopefully, this will prompt most Wii owners to look beyond Wii Sports). The enemies look quite gruesome up close, even more gruesome when they lose a few limbs and brutally visceral when they explode. The fine folks at Headstrong Games, the studio behind the game have done a nice job of maxing out whatever little power Nintendo’s diminutive box has under the hood.

All of this would be for naught if it played like a putrid piece of zombie flesh. The enjoyment factor of light gun games depends a lot on their controls. Needless to say Overkill delivers in spades and possibly the best part of the game is the sheer responsiveness of the controls. Everything from aiming to finally lining up a shot is brilliantly done. It just works well regardless of whether you’re using the usual Wiimote or the Wii Zapper. There are some sweet power-ups like the Slow-Mofo pick-up to stall time and Evil Eye that sends the whole environment up in flames.

Sadly though, Overkill, like most light gun games, has a short play-through time. Finishing off the game shouldn’t set you back by more than around 3 hours. To make up for this, the game features three mini-games. ”˜Stayin’ Alive’ demands you survive amidst swarms of zombies, ”˜Victim Support’ sees you helping civilians escape and ”˜Money Shot II’ makes you compete against others to get the highest score in a shoot-the-targets scenario. The story mode can be played with a friend, while the mini-games can be played with three other people. In addition to this the game has an achievement system which, when specific conditions are met, allow you to access some sweet in-game collectibles like concept art and videos.

All in all if you’re in the mood for some old-fashioned arcade fun, it’s tough not to recommend House of the Dead: Overkill. It hasn’t exactly raised the bar by any stretch, just peppered it with tons of expletives, a grind-house storyline, an excellent script and yes, 70’s music. Definitely worth a purchase.