By most ordinary critical standards, House of the Dead Overkill isn’t a five-star game. However, it’s a long time since I played anything which put such a grin on my face throughout, and from gloriously profane beginning to genuinely jaw-flooring climax (seriously, no matter what you’re expecting, you have never seen anything like it) this thrillingly dumb rail shooter is just pure, unreconstructed fun.

It’s clearly been made with a lot of love and respect - both for its host console and for the grindhouse movies it parodies. The presentation is startlingly good - the title screen text appears from a blur as if a projectionist has just adjusted the picture, while a terrific film grain effect and deliberate continuity errors in the game’s cutscenes pay appropriate tribute to the genre. The Seventies-themed soundtrack, featuring delightful songs about decomposing mutant girlfriends and the like, is outstanding.

And then there’s the swearing. Make no mistake - Overkill has a big, red 18-certificate sticker on the box for a reason, and it’s not just the splatters of gore when you dismember or decapitate the attacking mutants. But it’s the utterings of protagonists Agent G and particularly Isaac Washington that stand out, the dialogue littered with variations on the f-word. It’s all done in such an over-the-top way that it’s hard to be genuinely offended, no matter how sick the story gets - and with sojourns into incest, necrophilia and a climax which brings a whole new meaning to ‘meeting your maker’ you’d better believe that it’s one seriously twisted tale.

It’s a lightgun game that feels at home outside the arcade - a slightly slower-paced and lengthier experience than the likes of Ghost Squad and its Japanese-developed predecessors, Overkill still feels frantic and exciting throughout, particularly if you activate the ‘extra mutants’ option. It takes you through houses, prisons, swamps and a circus, while a moving train level is among the highlights. The bosses look great, but aren’t the game’s strongest point, though the second encounter in particular is hugely creative and memorable. It’s perhaps a little too easy on the standard difficulty - particularly with another player in tow - but once you’re done with the Story Mode, you unlock the much harder Director’s Cut, which adds around a third to the length of each stage, with more mutants and only three continues. The combo system which builds from successive hits is the key to topping the scoreboards, which is where the real replay value lies. Finishing the game might be easy. Keeping your ‘goregasm’ chain going for the best part of a level (which is the only way to top the leaderboards) isn’t.

Its relative brevity and ease of completion don’t really matter. This is a game that’s a blast from start to finish, and has been designed that way, accommodating Wii’s expanded audience while staying true to its promise - it truly is “the hardcore you’ve been waiting for”. Get a couple of Hand Cannons in and get ready to grin - you’re in for a gory, sweary night of delicious debauchery. It’s melon-farming brilliant.

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This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 12:01 pm by Chris Schilling
Hardcore-friendly, Not for kids, Reviews, Wii.