"It feeds on your fear. Don't go into the house... Alone!" - Subtitle of The House of the Dead Arcade Machine
The House of the Dead is the very first House of the Dead game created by Sega AM1 (now known as Sega-WOW) in 1996. The game features two agents, Agent Thomas Rogan and "G". Both of these agents are sent on an assignment to investigate Dr. Roy Curien's Mansion. It is said that Dr. Curien was obsessed with discovering the nature of life and death. However, the nature of his experiments drove him insane, and this resulted in him releasing the subjects into the world. They also are on a mission to rescue Rogan's girlfriend who has been taken hostage.
Gameplay
The House of the Dead is a rail shooter light gun game. Players use a light gun (or mouse, in the PC version) to aim and shoot at approaching enemies. The characters' pistols use magazines which hold 6 rounds; players reload by shooting away from the screen. A set of torches next to the magazine of each player represents remaining health. When a player sustains damage or shoots a civilian, one of their torches is removed. The player dies when all torches are lost and it takes them to the game over screen. First-aid packs are available throughout the game which restore one torch. These are found either in the possession of civilians whom the player has rescued or inside breakable objects. Similarly, there are also special items located in breakable objects that will grant a bonus to whoever shoots it.
Throughout the course of the game, players are faced with numerous situations in which their action (or inaction) will have an effect on the direction of gameplay. This is exemplified in the opening stage of the game when a civilian is about to be thrown from the bridge to his death. If the player saves the civilian, they will enter the house directly through the front door; however, if the player fails to rescue the civilian, the character is redirected to an underground route through the sewers. If the player rescues all civilians, a secret room full of lives and bonuses is revealed toward the end of the game.
Story
(WARNING: Spoilers Below!)
On December 18, 1998, AMS agents Thomas Rogan and "G" are sent on an assignment to investigate a panicked phone call from Rogan's fiancée, Sophie Richards, and a series of disappearances at the Curien Mansion, home laboratory of Dr. Curien, an acclaimed biochemist and geneticist. Dr. Curien was obsessed with discovering the very nature of life and death, backed by the DBR Corporation and its scientists. The nature of the experiments, however, drove Dr. Curien insane, resulting in him releasing his experimental subjects onto the unsuspecting world.When they get there they have to fight an army of the undead.
Amidst the chaos wrought by Dr. Curien, Rogan and "G" face many formidable foes, including The Chariot (Type 27) a green/silver plated undead warrior who mortally wounds/kills Sophie; The Hangedman (Type 041), a gargoyle-like creature with bat ears and bandaged legs who sees to it that she cannot escape the mansion grounds, and also kills two DBR scientists in the grand courtyard; and The Hermit(Type 6803), a mutant 6 legged spider crab-like creature guarding the passageway leading to Curien's restricted research area. Upon confronting Curien, the AMS agents are treated to his greatest masterpiece, The Magician (Type 0), a grotesque, humanoid demon creature not yet complete with armor, which appears to have some exposed muscles (his weak points), ram-like horns, and a long red scar on his left eye. The Magician is especially notable for its pyrokinesis -- mastery over fire. Ironically, after he releases the creature from its incubation chamber, Dr. Curien is killed by his own creation, as The Magician seemed to have reached a state of sentience in which he feels an inferior being such as a human has no place in giving him orders. To prevent the Magician from escaping the mansion and destroying the world, Rogan and "G" are forced to confront it in one final battle. After a long and difficult battle, they succeeded in destroying Curien's creation and were given one last warning from the Magician itself, "You... haven't seen... anything yet!", which could be a foreshadowing to his later appearances.
The Magician (Type 0)
With those words, the Magician exploded and ceased to exist. (Nevertheless, he does return in The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead 4 Special, which proves the warning.) Rogan and G leave the mansion, taking one last look at it from the outside, then the game ends.
There are, however, alternate endings in which the camera pans to the foyer one last time; the doors then open, showing either Sophie alive, running into the camera saying "Thank you!"
Zombie Sophie
(suggesting that she was merely knocked unconscious by The Chariot, and might be the mother of Lisa Rogan in House of the Dead III), or Sophie as one of the undead. (which therefore might not be canon, and suggesting that she really was killed by The Chariot and rose from the dead as the only female zombie in the game), depending on the player's score and the number of continues used.
Platforms
The House of the Dead can be played on the PC, Sega Saturn or at Arcades. You can purchase the game at many retailers on the internet such as Amazon.co.uk, Play.com or Game.co.uk or Ebay.co.uk Currently, finding a copy of the Saturn game is rare and used copies consistently sell for more than $90 US. The arcade version is also rare with a very small number of arcades that still run the game.
Reception
The arcade version of The House of the Dead was generally well received. However, the PC and Saturn releases were both met with mixed reviews. The game received a percentage score of 70.54% by GameRankings. The arcade version received 4.5 out of 5 stars, while both the Saturn and Windows port were rated 4 stars by Allgame.
Chapters & Bosses
There are a total of 4 chapters (levels) in House of the Dead. Each chapter has a boss character who is fought at the end of the chapter. Some later chapters feature reappearances of bosses from earlier levels.
- Chapter 1: Tragedy (Boss: Chariot)
- Chapter 2: Revenge (Boss: Hangedman)
- Chapter 3: Truth (Boss: Hermit)
- Chapter 4: The House of the Dead (Boss: Magician)
Trivia
- The first House of the Dead can be compared with the first Resident Evil in many ways:
- Both involve zombies and other ungodly creatures, although in RE, their zombies were based on the Romero type of zombie.
- Both involve a mad scientist as the antagonist.
- Both games were developed in 1996.
- Both games take place in the year 1998, however, Resident Evil takes place in July while House of the Dead takes place in December.
- Both games is set in a mansion with a secret laboratory underneath which houses the antagonist's masterpiece: an abomination that eventually turns on their masters.
- The only difference is that the Curien Mansion does not explode in the ending while the Spencer Mansion explodes in a fiery inferno in Resident Evil.
- According to an interview from "The Website of the Dead" with series creator Takashi Oda, it was revealed from a Japanese game guide that the first House of the Dead was originally pitched as a ghost-hunting game. In that original draft, Sophie Richards would also appear as a villain.
- To quote Takashi Oda- "In the initial game design document, the game’s environment was pretty close to what it is now. There were ideas to try a world where you face ghosts, but a game where you fight against phenomena that you can’t see was never an option. There was an idea to make Sophie a boss in the sequel, but that plot was deleted early in the planning phase."
- In the same interview, Takashi Oda cited the film Seven as being the main influence for the atmosphere and final look of the first game. This must be why Thomas Rogan bears a somewhat striking resemblance to Brad Pitt.
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