DESCRIPTION

The House of the Dead 2 is the first light gun shooter to appear on the Sega Dreamcast. In the Arcades this was the first ever video game to use Sega's Arcade equivalent of the Dreamcast board, the Naomi.

The game is set within a total of five chapters located throughout the cesspool of a demon-infested town. Before moving indoors, the first chapter is set on the streets, while in the second chapter Muddy continues on a similar path before reaching water. From here, the game takes more of an underground route with the next two chapters passing through sewers, a prison, and a structure of caves. The final chapter is split into two parts, the main part of the chapter where you end up fighting the Magician, and the final section entitled "The Original Sin."

Following in The House of the Dead's very similar footsteps, each level has alternative routes based on interactive elements which adds some depth to each level. Of course, as in any light gun shooter, the idea is just to blow away every evil creature on the screen while keeping a check on if you have to reload or not.

Enemies in this Sega Arcade shooter need to be shot a number of times before they are destroyed, unless of course you can find there weakness, which is usually their heads. Speaking of enemies, players will have to contest with a number creatures that include: zombies, owls, lizards, worms, killer fish, bats, mutants, brown slugs, and a rather grotesque range of weapon carrying psychopaths from freaks carrying axes, knifes, chainsaws, swords etc. Bosses are placed at the end of each chapter and include: a headless knight, a five headed hydra, a chainsaw welding crazy dude, the Magician from the original The House fo the Dead, and finally, the powerful but predictable Emperor.

The House of the Dead 2 is packed with new home-only features, options, and modes. Along with the standard Arcade mode, other modes are: Original (an alternative version where after you beat the game you are awarded with extra stuff), Boss (fight all of the game's bosses in any order), and a Point Blank-like mode with eight training missions from shooting barrels, saving hostages, not letting the zombies move to the other side of the room, etc. Players can also choose from five difficulty levels, how many life bars to begin with (maximum five), and what credit limit to play with (up to nine).

The House of the Dead 2 naturally supports a light gun and can be purchased as a pack in with the title. The Puru Puru Pack is also supported for gun recoil while a VMS can be interchanged with the Puru Puru Pack since the gun only has one slot. ~ Brad Penniment, All Game Guide