House of the Dead: Overkill : Wii
Official Nintendo Magazine have been banging on about this game since it was first announced, and I love playing mindless light gun rails shooter type games ever since I first had a go at Virtua Cop (or even Duck Hunt!). I remember Jero and myself spending untold hours on Time Crisis on our playstation back in the day too… So, I started to make noise about getting this game and even went as far as to buy a Wii Zapper and Link’s Crossbow Training so that I had the kit to play it and if you go back through my posts you’ll see just how long ago that was. Somehow though, it took me ages and ages before I actually laid my hands on House of the Dead: Overkill.
As too often happens with Wii games, and is even more likely to happen after a few days playing things like Modern Warfare and Assassin’s Creed on the PS3, my first glance at HotD was one of disappointment; there is no denying that the graphics are not really up to modern high-class standard. This is all soon forgotten though, as soon as you actually get to play the game because this is pure class. The game starts up and sets the scene immediately with some old, dirty-film stylings which make you feel like you are in a b-movie, and some really superb scripting. I think I should take a little time out to go on about the scripting; it’s just downright genius. Jen tells me that it currently holds the record for the most swearing in a computer game and I can see why, but let me assure you; none of this swearing is in any way negative. Oh no, this is the finest swearing and use of ‘muthafucker’ to come out this side of Samuel L Jackson - funny, well placed and just so fitting to the setting. The only down side of the script is that you really have to wait until your two-year old has gone to bed before you can boot it up. Even my Mum laughed.
So you start laughing, then you start shooting, then you start laughing some more when you first get a clean headshot and watch bits of zombie literally explode over the screen, then you laugh some more, along with a great number of mock-disgusted expletives yourself, followed by a little more shooting. As time goes on you try to get better scores, long combos and an accuracy level to rival trained assassins and as you do all this you realise that the soundtrack is so damned fine it is as much a triumph as the script. In fact, I’ve downloaded the soundtrack and am listening to it as I type this. It’s especially good during level three (the carnival one) and aids your desire to come back to the game.
Getting you to come back is what this game is best at. It’s addictive and rewards you by giving you some virtual cash to spend on more guns and gun upgrades and you just want to collect it all. Once you’ve completed the main game, it’s on to the director’s cut and once that is done you can unlock the minigun and ‘dual wield’ mode - a gun in each hand! There’s just so much to play and you don’t care if you are playing the same seven levels time and time again because they are just so entertaining. Hell, if you do get bored of the same few levels, you can go off and lose an hour or so playing mini games which’ll take you to the early hours of the morning until your eyes are screaming at you that they can take no more. This is one of those games which catches you and turns you into an addict.
And it’s not just you it gets; this gets anyone lucky enough to be along for the ride. The two player co-op mode is simply perfect and makes the game ten times better as you shout at each other for ‘stealing’ kills, cheer on when your teammate manages a massive combo (known as a goregasm(!)) and pray they don’t die when you need them most.
Overall, House of the Dead: Overkill isn’t just a good game, it’s one of the few truly ‘must own’ games for the Wii (assuming you are old enough). Amusing, addictive and so much fun. Definitely one of the ten finest games on the console. For once, Official Nintendo Magazine, so often guilty of masturbatory fanboyism, hit the nail right on the head.
