Review of House of the Dead: Remake – a refreshing sip of nostalgia

I call today’s almost forty-year-old, seasoned witnesses, game historians and an inquisitive young man! Let’s take a look at a tooth from a now practically dead genre that received rejuvenating dental care almost a quarter of a century later, and thus has the opportunity to shine again. Of course, don’t expect miracles, but I can already promise you that the vast majority of you will ride a pleasant wave of nostalgia and, perhaps, the current generation of players will join it, even if the title is not designed for them in the first place.

• Platform: Nintendo Switch
• Publication date: 7. 4. 2022
• Developer: megapixel studio
• Publisher: Forever Entertainment
• Genre: Rail shooter, horror arcade
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: local cooperation, competitiveness
• Data to download: 2.8 GB
• Game time: 1 hour
• Availability: 18+
• Sales version: Standard (Digital) / Limited (Boxed)
• Price: 625 kr (Nintendo Store), 899 kr (Xzone)

The mentioned genre is nothing more than a classic rail shooter, popular mainly in the nineties of the last century. Evenings spent shooting ducks on game consoles from Taman markets will surely flash in our minds, and a few lucky ones will spend time playing original slot machines with light guns. A few years later, namely in 1998, the mysterious name House of the Dead appeared on the European gaming shelves, which honestly affected the then popularity of the Resident Evil series. Even though it was no longer a bloated AAA seed, it was a lot of fun, and its B-shaped processing pleasantly charmed the player. And the same goes for the remake under consideration. It’s like riding a bike: in a moment you’re back in the saddle and happily shooting dead rotten limbs.

Strength in simplicity

The remake is faithful to the original, so don’t expect additional locations or other expansions. The same goes for the storyline. You will take on the role of an AMS agent, to whom Sophia’s fiancé will call for help, right from the European estate of a certain Dr. Black. Curien. It is quite obvious that heinous atrocities are happening on the spot, which will be confirmed almost immediately upon your arrival. And no, this is not a real vegan-style BBQ party. Already outside the entrance gate you will meet properly smelly zombies, as well as a half-dead doctor who, before taking you to the eternal hunting grounds, takes pictures of his closest colleagues with the last desire to save them all together. Of course, this is not at all easy, although the reward received is really worth it. But we’ll talk about it.

As usual in rail shooters, your character moves by itself, and you are “only” responsible for shooting and fast reloading. Like the original, this remake can be completed with a swipe of the finger in the nose in 45–60 minutes. If you have hardcore skills, then the usual half an hour will be enough. However, the game relies on its repeated passage, as, for example, in the case of Diablo. The main walkthrough of the game is divided into many branches, so the way forward how many times depends on who or what you have time to shoot at a frantic pace. All you need to do is not save the scientists on the first bridge, but instead of the main entrance, you will turn down the stairs and break through the smelly channels into the house of horrors. Your actions will then be displayed retroactively on the map, of course only if you die.

During your journey around you will meet destructible objects through which you will shoot to get various bonuses. For saving each doctor, you will receive a first-aid kit, with which you can quickly bandage bleeding wounds, because here you don’t count on autohealing in advance. Also, if you save all the staff, you will have access to the armory until the end of the game. And if you find four additional hidden boxes in the game, then in addition to the standard pistol, you will have a bow, shotgun and assault rifle. And this arsenal is damn good, especially in the new Horde mode, which has a lot more enemies. Also worth noting is a nice line of achievements for which you will sweat a lot.

The more players, the stronger the trigger

Where the original game as well as the remake really excels is the multiplayer capability. There is either a competitive or co-op mode to choose from, and I probably don’t need to add that the latter contains most of the fun. True, I almost threw the Switch out the window before I could set everything up, but then only one enjoyed the total carnage. In a deuce, it is easier to achieve more points, for which you can later buy more lives. In addition, the number of points earned determines which of the three possible endings of the story you will reach at the end. The chosen difficulty also plays a role. To begin with, do not be shy and put the easiest one, because compared to the original, the game is sometimes dishonest, and if you don’t react in a picosecond, you usually get from an unwashed canopy or a poor member of the staff.

Of the minor changes compared to the original version, except for the light duel with the final boss and the aforementioned injustice, I did not notice anything else. Of course, the same cannot be said about the controls, because the game was released a little earlier exclusively for the Nintendo Switch. You can use the lever, gyroscope or a combination of both + extensive customization options in the main menu. I believe that indeed everyone will choose, but count on a little time spent on testing. After about half an hour, I was satisfied with the left lever and the standard response speed. The best option would be a light pistol, but the guys at Nintendo don’t have such a peripheral yet. But who knows, maybe we will see him at the end, because a remake for the second part of this series was announced. But as an author, I will focus more on audiovisual processing. The background music is still good, but the graphic design is a bit tragic.

Despite the fact that the game runs on a weaker console and was created in Unity, it could still look better. Also, I’ve experienced occasional FPS dips from time to time, which, considering its frantic pace, isn’t something that made me twice happy. If you don’t look at the visual side and want complete fluency, the creators have included a so-called performance mode in the game, after which everything will run in the region of 60 frames per second. However, prepare some glowing bags, as the already weak visual will get even more dress coat. In this case, I definitely recommend playing in portable mode, on a smaller OLED screen it’s not so terrible. And most importantly, do not repeat my mistake and do not watch on Youtube the walkthrough of the last part of the series from 2018, which runs on the fourth generation Unreal engine. Then you feel like crying a little.

Not exactly cheap memory

So even though the game doesn’t look very sexy, it’s still a massive improvement over the original, and if you accept its general flatness, it won’t offend you. His strength lies mainly in the funny massacre of everything, mostly with friends or family members on TV. The price ratio for me is at least a little higher, personally I would tolerate a limit of around four hundred. On the other hand, if you are a nostalgic gamer, a fan of the series, or don’t count every crown at home, buy the game with a clear conscience and fully immerse yourself in it. I also highly recommend it to new dads or moms because one end usually comes out in a shorter amount of time before their kids wake up.