I had heard a rustling on the front veranda; there was a human-sized creature out there, so I ran into the kitchen and grabbed a large knife. It was a little blunt, but that would make the decapitation all the sweeter! I crept outside slowly and carefully, but all I could see was some rubbish bin…but of course! I realised, it would be hiding behind the bin! With the knife at the ready I peered around it, but instead of a flesh-eating zombie I found a large cardboard parcel. I picked it up carefully and headed back inside.
Zombies or not, the knife came in handy, as I cut the box open with glee and it contained another box…a Bang Bang Box! I was still a little wary as a zombie may very well have delivered, so before I immersed myself in the game I read the comic. It’s a nice little collector’s item, and it sets the tone perfectly. Speaking of tone, let’s get to some motherfucking facts.
It’s two pages until semi-nudity and the first swearword, three until nipples, and just in case you missed them, there’s some more on the next page. 5 until the first Zombie, and six until the first amputation, and fourteen until the first threesome.
As to the game, from the “licensed by Nintendo screen” it’s 50 seconds until the first stripper, 1 minute and 30 seconds until the first swear word, 4:17 before the first balls line, 5:11 until the first decapitated head, 10:48 until I ate a banana split. 12:46 until the first mad scientist, and 21:30 until the first big explosion.
There's the whole package, with a convinient shot of the nunchuk in the right Hand Cannon.
But that’s already too many fucking facts, so let me give you some fucking opinions. Firstly the fucking Hand Cannon. It’s a badarse piece of shit, and I don’t mean that it is shit! Yes, the fucker is fucking heavy, but if you’re not a piece of shit that hasn’t played light gun arcade games—and if you haven’t then you suck—then it shouldn’t be a problem. However because the fucking handle is so far fucking back from the motherfucking wii-remote, it means that it’s more top heavy than Varla Guns. But for the fucking babes out there that is easily remedied by simply resting it on your free hand, though I’m sure Steel would probably be busy with something else while Isaac said “balls”. I know I was.
It's like a BMX Gyro. Quite nicely designed, and it doesn't get in the way at all when you're holding the nunchuk.
Oh, and if you couldn’t tell from my subtle hints, there is a lot of swearing. Every second word is fuck or shit, and while I’ve heard balls twice, the number of balls is disappointing. Though two balls are generally the recommended number of balls. But I disagree with the reviews. Yeah, it’s fucking stupid, but if it wasn’t it just wouldn’t have the same b-grade vibe. It might be a bit to exaggerated, but fucking hell, it’s not meant to be Kubrick.
I played through the first level twice, the first time with the Hand Cannon, and the second time without it. My accuracy was only 2% better without it, and I much preferred playing with it. I never really liked using the wii-remote as a light-gun, it’s fine with FPSers, but when the emphasises is on slower and more precise shooting I didn’t like having to hold it on a stupid angle, and it always felt too light, so the Hand Cannon actually feels like a vast improvement to me. Plus it looks absolutely badarse. I also tried Umbrella Chronicles with it, and it didn’t work too badly. Switching to zapper controls helped, as then you grab items with Z rather than A, but there was still the problem with slashing the knife. It’s not really practical at all to reach for the A button with the Hand Cannon. Plus, it feels really stupid slashing with a hand cannon. Not only that but due to the increased length, reloading is hard, as it is hard to get quick flicks in, because you’re so far away from what you’re flicking. I found I had to let go of my nunchuk or balls and grab the end of the gun to flick it quickly to reload. So there are a few problems with UC, but it works perfectly with Overkill as you’d expect.
[
Do you feel lucky, punk?
Now coming into the game as a HOTD fan, but not expecting anything HOTD-like, I was pleasantly surprised. Naturally the presentation is anything but HOTD, but it’s got the same classic light gun gameplay with a few tweaks for console use. Unlike Umbrella Chronicles there’s much less talking and tension building and a whole lot more decapitations and amputations (yes you can pick off both of a Zombie’s arms, and yes that is as awesome as it sounds). There’s nothing cooler than slowing time down to completely gib a zombie in slow motion. Fuck yeah! Especially with all the fantastic effects. The colours are drawn out and the screen is flickering and dirty and marked and it just looks fantastic. It’s not as polished as something like Umbrella Chronicles, and the character models aren’t as good, but the effects give it a wonderful feel and atmosphere. Plus you can’t gib people in Umbrella Chronicles like you can here!
Did I mention I played through the first level twice? One of the problems I personally had with UC was that it got boring re-doing levels because there were a lot of breaks between action and it was slow. Well this is HOTD so that’s no problem. The actual game might be not that long, but I don’t think I’ll have trouble playing through the levels again and again.
I haven’t had any slowdown yet either. There have been ten plus zombies on screen at once, with water and fire, and me blowing them up, and is ran perfectly smoothly. I actually had problems with the frame rate all the time on UC, so if the first level doesn’t have slow down, and the rest do, then it’s already one up on UC in the frame rate department!
The attention to detail is wonderful, and bound to bring a smile to your face if you like b-grade films. This was basically made for GG and Steel. Hell, even on the first level you’ve been given one ball each! Or you could keep them together and suck them in tandem. But back to my point, there’s a scene with a guy in glasses in a wheelchair. The effeminate evil guy slaps the glasses from his face (after calling him impotent) and then in the next shot the glasses are back. Lovely!
The aiming feels a lot more precise than in UC too. I always felt that the aiming was too twitchy, and as such my headshots suffered. Well, the zombies don’t seem to stand as still in HOTD, but I’m having no trouble blowing there heads off.
In short: I’ve only played the first level and
I’m loving it so far, but I can’t wait for the Quentin Tarantino cameo. 
More impressions to follow probably.
Well, do ya?
I was quite impressed visually by a couple of the bosses. When that Screamer woman screamed for the first time, the dyanamisn and detail in her face were above what I thought Wii could acheive. It was really scary and dynamic. And this boss:
I'm pretty sure that it has normal mapping or some sort of shaders on it. It looks shading wise just above the monster bosses in RE4 on cube. The nappy spoils the effect though. They shoud have put a stain on the nappy.
The G jokes are hilarious and I can't decide whether "Freeze bitches" or the bit when they jump off the train is my favourite "Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!"
Got my first S!
Okay completed the normal mode last night and I can understand the "frankly amazing quality" comments and the 8/10 review scores. Personally this game hits the right notes with me so I would give it a 9/10.
Problems? Nearly all technical, the frame pops, the occasional frame rate slowdown. And the simple fact that on rails games are limited in what they can do by their very nature.
The swamp level was a total bust for me, the frame pops happened on every camera turn, but worse (nothing to do with the game) my Wii has the red and green dot problem and on this level it reaches epic proportions, covering the entire screen.
There is dramatic increase in quality over the last two levels. The visuals of the prison level are pretty swish. Imagine Condemned or the Darkness minus the fancy shading and HD resolution and you pretty much have that here. The animation, the characters, the lighting, the detail. If anything this shows that you can have brutal looking, dark bloody, atmospheric games on the system, no problem. The boiler room boss fight was actually epic compared to the other bosses, I am particularly impressed with the character models of most bosses. When the two behemoths lumbered on screen at the same time with that animation and detail and lighting, it was something I didn't think Wii could acheive, yet did. And that boiler room didn't half remind me of Bioshock visuals, although minus the mapping and roundness.
The script is sparkling. I made a blog a long time ago about comedy in games and this game really nails it all the way through, with a couple of wincingly disgusting moments to boot. Facing off against a boss with giant sagging titties is absurd and hilarious.
This team is great, they had a vision and pulled it off very well, a few technical faults aside, I love this teams energy and enthusiasm. The music is all original, it's up there with listening to MSR for the first time, all new original songs made especially for a game. The slow motion effects are epic, the booming sounds of your weapons, the drawn out sound of a wailing zombie. I love this game.
And I have to give props to SEGA for letting a team really go to work on one of their established franchises. Letting them make it this vile and funny and furious was a real licence, well done SEGA. I want these guys to make original Wii games, or revamp Virtua Cop next. I would have really loved to play this game as a FPS like a twisted Timesplitters.
EDGE-magazine-review
For a game composed entirely of viscera, gratuitous swearing and gross-out moments that are simply wrong, you’ve got to admit that The House Of The Dead: Overkill has real class.
From the first flickering XXX screen warning ‘restricted access’, illustrated by a wheelchair, to the inspired OST and the unbelievable ending, everything about it screams detail, polish and – most of all – love for the source material.
While this certainly includes the earlier entries in the HOTD series, Overkill’s style is dominated by the golden age of British low-budget horror. Amicus Productions, Tigon and of course Hammer Film Productions are the presiding spirits, inspiring everything from the level titles (‘Papa’s Palace of Pain’) to the brains in jars, secret labs, sexploitation, tumescent nasties and overarching narrator.
Into this mix add two buddy cops straight out of Lethal Beverly Hills Weapon, and you’ve got Overkill. It’s not original stuff, but who really cares when it’s this good?
The best news? The shooting lives up to it, picking and choosing perspective tricks, enemy patterns and surprise tactics from the genre to keep the on-rails action fresh.
Mutants shamble from corners, alcoves, behind desks, around corners, sneak up behind you and sprint for the throat. Your guns stop them in their tracks, dismember, send corpses twirling backwards and turn heads into red clouds with a punctuating splash.
This is all in the context of intricately twisting and turning locations, where you’re diving through windows, popping out from cover and checking every angle as much as walking straight ahead.
Accompanied by the occasional banter of the protagonists, which is never less than foul-mouthed and grin-inducing, it’s a firm boot in the behind of a genre that, this generation, has been lacking.
It falls down with its bosses which, excepting the disturbing and disorienting Screamer, come across as big lumps with weak spots rather than threats. The last boss in particular is a barrel-flicking damp squib, when the concept and design surely begged for a rip-roaring no-quarter-given bullet-fest.
A more fundamental letdown is the difficulty level. Overkill isn’t a particularly challenging experience, even with the ‘Extra Mutants’ option enabled, and on the initial run-through compounds this with infinite continues and a gun upgrade system that quickly sees you toting weapons that could lay waste to an entire nation of the walking dead.
The Director’s Cut unlocked after a first run-through lengthens every level, usually at the beginning, and limits you to three continues on each one. It’s more of a challenge to maintain the lengthy combos that exponentially boost your score and lead to the immortally named ‘goregasm’ multipliers, but all of the game’s unlockables are achieved relatively easily, so it stands as a rather self-contained option.
There are enough compensations to counter these letdowns, and it’s difficult to be too nitpicky about one of the most flat-out entertaining games of recent times.
Overkill resurrects an old franchise as anything but a shambling corpse, and raises the bar for thirdparty production values on this generation’s best-selling console. Bet you’re a believer in gun control now.
8/10
I've been searching up for some boss pics but can't seem to find any.
These pics have no filter and some unfinished textures.
This character model is used a lot but in game its not as obvious as this pic.
This game has some great visuals on an SDTV. Such a shame they couldn't eliminate frame pops and get it solid.
I forgot to say my highest score was 263,925. I was quite pleased, though that Doom fanboy probably pwnt me.
Oh and I'm loving the DC so far. There's a fair bit of slowdown, though, so be careful GG.
How is directors cut different from just adding zombies to the normal mode? 3 continues?
I played the DC first level and the routes were slightly different
I played up to the Carny level on the DC.
Wow, even though the first level is the worst, when you replay the levels... well I started to feel what the reviews said when they said that it was infinetly replayable. I unlocked the hand cannon. Whoa, love this gun! The way it reloads when you snap it to the side makes you feel like a total badass. The story in the directors cut makes more sense as you've seen it before in the first time through.
The shotgun is perhaps overpowered and I could do away with the auto reload as I like to use all the bullets in one gun and snap switch to the next.
The extras in this game are phenomenal. They approach it like the game is a cult classic movie release on DVD and the extras or memorabilia in the game are all lovingly presented. A jukebox with full soundtrack listing? Pictures you can zoom around using the Wiimotes depth positioning? The same for really detailed 3D models? Check the model for the bosses, really they put alot of work into this game.
Even a Madworld trailer tucked unobtrusively in there. The more I play, the more I love this game. The only sticking point is the first boss in the game as its your first time through you have crappy weapons so he's a long slug through boring pain in the ass. And the frame pops. I got a goregasm combo and I get an american flag in the corners of the screen? But isn't it suppossed to unfurl across the entire screen?
It is too easy though to upgrade weapons. Last night I was in the zone, hit all the gold brains, got combos etc. I could buy hand cannons and upgrade them easily with all the cash.