Publisher: Forever Entertainment

Developer: MegaPixel Studio

Release Date: 08/07/2025

Available On

The House of the Dead is one of the kings of the arcades. This co-op light gun game is a classic with great gameplay, cool monsters, and cutting-edge visuals for the time. The House of the Dead 2 is considered one of the best and was one of the first games in the series to be ported to consoles. There was also a typing version of this game for Dreamcast and PC that is considered great as well. With the original assets being lost, Forever Entertainment had to recreate the game from the ground up, and they did a pretty decent job. It’s not perfect, but it does the game justice and, with some patches, could be even better. The content is bare bones, there’s little extra, and there are some bugs and issues with the camera here and there, but it can be fixed or patched in.

Just like the original, you can play as either James or Gary (different paths) and use your trusty pistol to fight off zombies. There are a good amount in the game, with some ranging from animals to sea creatures. This is a light rail game, so you don’t move the camera, only the reticle on screen. Using the PS5 DualSense is the best way to go, as you can use the motion sensor to aim, and the trigger effect is great for recreating the feeling of the light guns in the arcade. You can customize the controls and use the sticks or switch between the two. Circle is used to reload. This allows for quick action and speed that this game needs. Even on Very Easy, I died quite a bit towards the end. Each level lasts about 10 minutes. The goal is to shoot everything before it hits you. Enemies will melee attack or throw items. Some enemies take more hits than others. You can shoot red barrels to blow some up, but there is little environmental interaction, and I would have liked to have seen more with this remake. You can shoot random items to find hidden secrets such as weapons, bullet types, or passive upgrades like double points, health, credits, etc. You can save citizens and get health kits, weapons, and other items as well, but you need to act fast.

I found an issue with shooting enemies or containers in some scenes. The camera doesn’t linger long enough or doesn’t pan in a way that you can hit these items or enemies. I knew something was there, but I didn’t have nanosecond reflexes to grab the item. This really needs to be patched and fixed. I also found most of the bosses pretty lame to kill. For example, the hydra boss is just a game of wack-a-mole with no real challenge. Bosses have weak spots, and you need to either fire on them constantly or wait for an opening. This can make boss battles drag on as they only have a few attack patterns and are bullet sponges. I understand this was made for the arcade, but this could have been improved in the remake. The levels themselves vary and look really cool, and there’s a lot of detail in the monsters, and the cheese from the original carried over. The new voice acting is bad, but in a good way. The line delivery can be pretty funny, and the story is absolutely bonkers and makes no sense. A man named Goldman is somehow letting a deity take over the world. But what does this have to do with zombies? Where do they come from? It’s never explained and doesn’t need to be. There are only six levels, and you can breeze through them in less than an hour.

Of course, the game is easier with a friend and a blast to play. There a secret lab area in the main menu where you can see what you unlocked, but there’s nothing extra here. Just a modern classic mode and an arcade mode. For the asking price there’s not a lot of content here, and unless you are a huge light gun or The House of the Dead fan, most won’t find much value in this game. I ran into some bugs with water textures being purple, slowdown, and the aforementioned camera issues, but it’s not a terrible experience; it’s just the bare minimum.

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