If you ever go down to arcades these days you will always see the Classic Time Crisis 1, 2, 3 or perhaps even 4 along with the original Ghost Squad. However, you even see House of the Dead 1, 2 and 3 and once you've played them you usually think 'Oh that's way too hard I'll play one of the other machines'. Yet, as soon as you pass House of the Dead 4 it becomes a whole new story... The graphics in the preview seem revolutionary compared to the Japanese artwork in Time Crisis 3, the soundtrack repetitive but conveys all the important fear and danger of the game as Goldman opens Pandora's box to release the horror that is 'THE WORLD'. Then you look at the plain tutorial, the interaction you have is immense where you control your path through your speed and own abiltiy. To avoid damage or the more difficult paths you have to shake the gun like a little girl strangling her teddy bear. So you near the machine you're about the play on, you pick up your weapon and you notice it's an uzi with over 30 rounds of ammunition, that is new to the arcade world, and furthermore it has a grenade button the blow the zombie hordes away! With the attractive machine you insert your first credit and watch the first cut-scene, the graphics being perfectly modelled with good voice acting (even though it is slightly cheesy) and then the battle kicks in, you wip out the uzi and start shooting away with zombies trying to cut, grab and push you left right and centre. And as you reach the critical junction; you are forced to choose the left or right path...what do you do? And after a few more minutes you meet your first boss: 'JUSTICE'. He chases you through the waterways trying to grab and kick you, some quick shaking and a few clips of ammunition along with three grenades finish him off. Yet you've got another five stages of zombie hell and the bosses vary so much in their attacks, abilities and environments its unbelievable! So you die at the critical point of the second boss fight, you begin to walk away from the machine and you get this sudden sadness inside: 'What If I was better at this, what if I could play longer, what awaits me in the next stage?' The game leaves you begging for more...
House of the Dead 4 takes a great series, gives it a cosmetic facelift, builds an awesome stand alone machine, and throws it into the dead arcade world. Those may sound like bad things but the game manages to be the best... Read Full Review
House of the Dead 4 is about stopping zombies from killing you, as well as unravelling who has released this plague. The good points about this game is that the visuals are as good as a PS3 game, and having greneades ... Read Full Review
