Sega’s House of the Dead franchise was in need of a reboot years ago.  After the launch of House of the Dead 3 in the arcades, the series was dead to me.  Never-changing gameplay, pathetic attempts at "stories" and on-rails shooting that a 5-year-old could master doomed one of my favorite light gun franchises.  Notice, I didn’t even mention the awful, SMG-filled House of the Dead 4. 

It appears as if Sega understood what needed to be done to their flagship arcade shooter to once again make it relevant.  It can be a tough decision to reboot any franchise.  Long-time fans can be easily alienated and if the new title doesn’t make the mark, the franchise could be relegated to Tomb Raider status.  The publisher took a second risk when they signed on a green western developer by the name of Headstrong Games to re-invent House of the Dead.  The company’s first act was to create the first HotD title to be designed specifically for a home console, House of the Dead: Overkill.  This was far from their last change.

As soon as you start Overkill, for better or worse, you know the title is going to be a drastically different experience.  The game presents the audience with grainy, dust laden presentation mocked up to be straight from 70s horror cinema.  Players are then treated to gorgeous women -- in little clothing -- posing and prancing around... with a Wii controller.  Headstrong doesn’t just let it go though.  They keep the decision to mock the horror genre, the film industry, and even the video game you are playing, throughout the entire "Feature Presentation."  Tongue in cheek, for sure.

Art direction is all well and good, so long as it is complemented by solid gameplay.  Thankfully, that is one thing that was not tampered with.  House of the Dead: Overkill remains an on-rails shooter with the standard objective of killing whatever bad guy has pissed you off.  But this isn’t your standard zombie shooter.  In fact, the hordes of human-esque body parts that you blow off do not belong to zombies hungry for brains, but mutants.  Yes, Agent G and his partner Isaac Washington are hot on the trail of Papa Caesar and his army of mutants.