House of the Dead 4 Review

[Betamax]

So hungry I could eat a Zombie!!!

Just spent about 2 hours with HotD4 at Preview-UK and it was fun. This version was 5 levels long, so I assume it's either finished or near finished (December is the expected realese date). The cabinet is the same as it was in Japan but is set to change for the final release. There was really not much else of note at the show. Sega were showing the Lindbergh preview video, but it looked they only had the VHS version and it certainly wasn't realtime.

The game looked better than I had expected and Sega have achieved a reasonably sophisticated look. The engine exhibits some excellent lightin gb effects and the shading is what you'd expect from the nVidia chipset. The variety in Zombies and their animation is beyong what I had expected, though I was hoping for more elaborate disintegration routines.

Sound effects seemed like the usual, but the techno/trance soundtrack on the first level was a bit of a surprise.

The gameplay is immensely satisfying and I found it hard to give up the Uzi for the next in line. It takes about 10 seconds to empty a magazine and you have to time your flushes in order to target the Zombie swarms effectively. Grenades are also available for those particualry sticky situations. Shaking your thing is required in certain tight spots -such as being grabbed by that troll boss at the end of the first level and discouraging zombies who have become attached to you. Their some pathway decisions to made, though the female antagonist always seems to have some complaint no matter what choice is made.

Overall, an enjoyable Zombie-trashing experience that I'm sure will do very well, both in the arcades and at home.

Jeffahn (aka Betamax)

 

[TEXAN]

How big was the widescreen 50" or 62"?

 

[Betamax]

How big was the widescreen 50" or 62"?

It looked about the same size as the Jap version.

 

[Farid]

Thanks for the impressions, Betamax.

I loved HotD and its sequel, best lightgun shooter, if you ask me.

BTW, since I didn't read nothing about it, what about the graphical prowesses (or not) of this new board? Could you expand a bit about the graphics of a game?

 

[Betamax]

Thanks for the impressions, Betamax.

I loved HotD and its sequel, best lightgun shooter, if you ask me.

BTW, since I didn't read nothing about it, what about the graphical prowesses (or not) of this new board? Could you expand a bit about the graphics of a game?

Overall, I found the graphics, in strictly technical terms, to be about what I expected from the specs.

The wide-screen (WS) high-definition (HD) display is not something that jumps out at you immediately, but you begin to appreciate its benefits after a while. There was little apparent aliasing or shimmering, though this may just be because of the HD display. The WS aspect makes spreading your fire across the screen more satisfying and the gameplay is enhanced by having a wider field of vision to cover. Panning produces noticeably judder; making it difficult to tell whether the engine is dropping frames or not, though this more than likely will not be noticed by most people.

The effects appeared to be at around DX9 level and there was nothing I believe that could not be done to the same level on a current high-spec PC. I couldn’t really make a determination on whether or not the engine makes use of normal mapping because I’m not really familiar with how different it is from regular bump-mapping, though, on balance, the protagonists’ clothing, at least in the cut scenes, does appear to have some folds which look to be an example of normal mapping.

Shader effects are used extensively, and the last boss in particular uses an impressive ‘mother-of-pearl’ luminance on its wings. The water effects are pretty standard at first glance, but the reflections they produce make the overall effect just that much more impressive.

The lighting effects vary from barely noticeable to spectacular. The boss fight with the giant spider boasts some great coloured lights used in conjunction with moving platforms, with shadows in constant motion as the lights flood the scene. I wouldn’t say the lighting effects are up Doom III/HL2 standards, but there’s no reason to believe we won’t be seeing some significant improvements in the near future.

The chainsaw-wielding boss from the subway level produces some really nice HDR sparks when slicing up the train and the effect is used fairly widely throughout the rest of the game.

There is some destination-based blurring used (mostly during cinemas).

I don’t think there was much going on in terms of physics, but I wouldn’t expect of it in this type of game anyway. The animation is mostly your bog standard shooter stock.