| The House of the Dead: Overkill | |
|---|---|
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Developer |
Headstrong Games |
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Publisher |
Sega |
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Series |
|
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Platform |
Nintendo Wii |
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Release Dates |
NA: February 10, 2009 |
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Genre |
Rail Shooter |
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Modes |
Single-player, |
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Ratings |
BBFC: 18 |
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Media |
Wii Optical Disc |
The House of the Dead: Overkill is a first-person rail shooter video game developed by Headstrong Games and published by Sega for the Nintendo Wii. It is the seventh video game developed in the The House of the Dead series, a prequel and spin-off to the original House of the Dead film/game chronologically and the first in the series to be non movie-based and released exclusively on a home console. It was released on February 10, 2009 in North America and February 13, 2009 in Europe. The game was released in Japan on September 17, 2009 bundled with the Wii Zapper accessory. The Japanese release, however, had to be drastically censored in order to still get the CERO-D rating.
The game is set in 1991 (five years before the events of the original "The House of the Dead" film), where AMS Special Agent "G" (whose real name is Gerald Yassick) is given his first assignment and sent to a small town in Louisiana to investigate a series of disappearances and hunt down a deranged crime lord, Papa Caesar. Due to the presence of mutants, G is forced to team up with Detective Isaac Washington who is out to get revenge on Caesar for apparently killing his father.
In the first episode 'Papa's Palace of Pain', the pair first storm a mansion owned by Caesar out in the woods. Upon entering the basement, they find Caesar has fled, and the disabled scientist Jasper Guns, whom Caesar used, is horrifically mutated from injecting himself with an unknown substance. Upon defeating Jasper, G and Isaac meet Varla Guns, a stripper and Jasper’s sister who vows revenge on Caesar.
In the second episode 'Ballistic Trauma', G and Isaac track Caesar to a hospital that is swarming with mutants. After killing the mutants and a mutant woman called the Screamer, the hospital is set to explode. G and Isaac escape in the nick of time with Varla on a motorbike.
In the third episode 'Carny', they stop at a mutant infested carnival to investigate the mutant situation, in the process defeating former circus entertainers turned horrific creature Nigel & Sebastian.
In the fourth episode 'Scream Train' Caesar escapes on a train with G and Isaac giving chase while Varla is left behind. The pair made their way through the mutant-infested train, defeating a mutated mantis, the Crawler, in the process. The train then crashes in a swamp where Caesar drives off with Varla before throwing a tape to Isaac.
In the fifth episode, 'Fetid Waters', G and Isaac make their way to the swamps, finding an alternate way to wherever Caesar and Varla were heading for, and in the process, defeat another boss mutant called the Lobber.
In the sixth, penultimate episode 'Jailhouse Judgment', G and Isaac track Caesar to a high security prison. Before they enter, they run into the strange warden, Clement Darling, who noticed Caesar and Varla arrive but knows nothing about the mutants. As G and Isaac shoot their way through the prison they finally reach the electric chair theater where Varla and Caesar are strapped into the chairs. Clement then appears and, in a plot twist, reveals that he was behind the mutant outbreak and that Caesar was just an accomplice. Clement then executes Caesar, robbing Isaac of his revenge. Clement explains that his experiments were to save his dying mother (Following this, it is implied Clement has an incestuous relationship with his mother). Clement then descends on a giant elevator along with Varla, his mother, and Caesar's corpse. Seconds later, Clement tells G and Isaac to look at the stage behind them where two gigantic, physically enhanced, convicts wearing black masks lumber in through the door. Clement reads the two convicts previous crimes which include murder, assault, rape, and even eating a little boys puppy. One of the convicts, Brutus, suddenly turns around and beats his fellow convict to death before turning around and firing an arrow at G from a crossbow attached to his arm. The fight starts inside what seems a generator room where the player scurries from place to place while shooting Brutus's weak spot (The crossbow attached to his severed arm)
After descending the elevator in pursuit of Clement in the final episode 'Overkill', G and Isaac shoot their way through hordes of mutants inside Clement’s underground lab before finally reaching his center of operations. They discover Varla’s brain has been taken out, kept alive in a jar, while Clement’s mother’s brain has been transplanted into Varla's body. At first it seems the experiment was a success, then Varla’s body begins to vomit and she falls into a pit after being machine gunned by G and Isaac, mutating her into a giant monster. G and Isaac draw their guns and aim them at the newly mutated Mother. The duos' statements lead gamers to believe that they are about to play a frantic last stand shootout against the giant mutant, but then the screen cuts to a missing reel screen for a few moments. Once the reel resumes G and Isaac are outside claiming victory over Clement and the giant monster, thanking the use of miniguns they found randomly lying around nearby. However, the monster returns and the pair battle her again. Afterwards, Clement appears and seeks to atone for all the problems he caused by "returning to the womb".
G and Issac are picked up by a helicopter along with Varla’s (still active) brain in a jar, Issac releases the detonater to destroy the facility. G tells Varla of his feelings for her, prompting him and Isaac to discuss the moral and political messages in the game's storyline and potential backlash, particularly from feminists. Soon after, the two realize the helicopter is being piloted by a mutant.
After the credits roll, Papa Caesar's tape recording from before is played, revealing a message to Isaac that Clement's plans were small minded but he had powerful friends (possibly future characters Henry, Alan, and their father Albert Curien), and that Isaac's father is still alive.
Triva[]
This game was released in North America the same exact day that the film The House of the Dead 6: Thanksgiving Tragedy was released on DVD, VHS, and Blu-ray.