The House of the Dead III

House of the Dead III is a light gun game released in arcades then ported to the Xbox and PC. It was later also released on PS3 through PSN.

Xbox

Arcade

PlayStation Network (PS3)

Overview

The House of the Dead III takes place long after the events of 2 and not long after 4. The game is a 2 player on rails shooter that features multiple path routes that all lead to the final stage. Player 1 plays as Rogan's daughter Lisa, and Player 2 plays as G who has aged significantly from his last appearance. The game is 5 stages long with a Prologue stage at the beginning.

Plot

The House of the Dead III follows Lisa and G to a factory where they lost contact with Rogan about a week ago. Upon their arrival, they encounter a large security guard zombie. This zombie acts as the games first boss who is fought throughout the duration of Stage 1. This game features no hostages, instead one player is taken by zombies, and the other player must attempt to fend them off. The overall goal is to save Rogan and find out who attacked his squad. In between stages, the player is shown flashbacks of Curien slowly loosing his mind over trying to save his dying son.

Xbox Version

The Xbox version featured a straight port of the arcade version as well as a full port of the Dreamcast version of House of the Dead 2 unlockable by finishing House of the Dead III. Unlike its past releases, the arcade version of House of the Dead III supports use of a Shotgun. It featured a full size shotgun that is reloaded by pumping. On the Xbox release however, Mad Catz was the only manufacturer who had released a light gun for use with The House of the Dead III. Unfortunately, this light gun resembled a machine gun more than a shotgun.

PS3 Version

The PlayStation 3 version features HD graphics and support for Trophies and the Move, and was released on February 7 2012.

Cel Shaded Prototype

Of the 'it worked for Zelda' design philosophy

Early in the game's development in 2002 Sega released the first images of House of the Dead 3 with a cel-shaded visual style dramatically different than previous entries in the series. By the next time anyone saw the game it had reverted to a more typical House of the Dead appearance. Public outcry? An overly anxious PR rep who sent out assets way too early? The actual reason for the change remains unclear.