In a world dominated by completely unnecessary and blatantly cash-grabby remasters and re-releases of all shapes and sizes it’s super-refreshing to see a remake whose existence is justified. I tried playing the original version back in the Windows XP days, and even then I had to jump through hoops to get it to run without the music.
This is an original rail shooter, where you control your crosshair and are not in charge of your movement. Shoot enemies, save the occasional victim, don’t get hit.
The story is left completely unchanged from the original and it’s pretty basic: you’re a government agent who's trying to stop Curien, an evil scientist, who’s seemingly been messing around with the human genome and created an army of undead in the process.
The difficulty system is claimed to only affect your health and how many points you earn, but it feels like the health of regular enemies is also slightly affected. This remake introduces a couple of new gameplay elements (including, by the way, realistically attainable achievements). New weapons make the game stupidly easy, once unlocked, but you can counterbalance them by switching to the horde mode where the number of zombies is significantly increased. There are other ways to make the game easier or harder – you can toggle the automatic reload in the settings, use the help of a friend via local multiplayer, or type in cheat codes in the main menu.
The House of the Dead is a beautifully recreated game, and honestly is an example of what a remake should be. I mean, Bethesda, if you’re so itching to sell an existing IP, stop rereleasing Skyrim, when you have Arena and Daggerfall that require DOSBox to run.
