House of the dead 3 review - have owned this since release ! (The House of the Dead III (Xbox))

Member Name: oldmanlen

Product:	The House of the Dead III (Xbox)
Date:	26/06/08 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Arcade action in your house, includes great HOTD2 if you dont have it

Disadvantages: Lack of original features if you have HOTD2

I had waited a long time for this game both in the arcades and the xbox version as I am a huge fan of the other games in this series. As I have owned this game on xbox since launch I think its possible to stand back and judge it !

Story
House of the dead 1 had a simple storyline, HOTD2 had a shockingly rubbish one, HOTD3 represents the first attempt to put together a proper storyline, this is an improvement over previous games but not really that important !

Graphics
The graphics of this game were impressive when it was released, and although its not as pretty as house of the dead 4 or modern PS3 / X360 games it still looks good

Lightgun vs controller
This game is great fun with the lightgun, the madcatz light gun I own is pretty decent although I believe there are other good ones out there, I dont like using the controller, however this isnt a flaw with HOTD3 in particular, just all console light gun games! I do have a problem in that they have brought in a auto reload function with a reload delay to balance this advantage, I find this a bit annoying and leads to problems when facing the fool and sun bosses.

Gameplay
This game is good fun, although not as good without the shotgun in the arcade. At its best in co op mode, the game is good fun although I enjoy HOTD2 more, fortunately this is included with the game.

Replayability
HOTD3 features options of which route to take which although good does not feature as many different paths as HOTD 1/2/4 also I dislike the scoring system in HOTD3 compared to the rest of the series which does not give as much incentive to replay, the included time attack mode adds some longetivity however is not very different to the original mode. A big plus is the inclusion of HOTD2 which is near identical to the brilliant dreamcast version, which is a nice addition if you dont own that as has many good home version modes, however I wish HOTD3 had the same quality home conversion extra modes.

Summary
I enjoy this game, but less so than the other games in the house of the dead series, whereas they tend to be ahead of other sega / namco shooters I only put HOTD3 on par. This game does not have great replayability if you already own HOTD2 but even if you do, at the great low price you can pick it up for now I highly recommend it if you enjoyed it in the arcade or other light gun games.

Summary: House of the dead 3 is great fun, especially if picked up cheap !