House of the Dead 4 - Arcade

[Kaladron]

No. I still don't get it.

[toy_brain]

No. I still don't get it.

I'm just guessing here, but he could be referring to the fact that, other than shooting zombies and rattling the gun every now and then, there really isnt anything else to do in the game.
There are no hostage situations, no innocents to avoid shooting, no 'special event' moments (like a one-shot sniper hit to pull off), no other weapons to pick up, no massively destructable environments, no duck-n-cover ability, no branching paths depending on how you perform.

I'm just trying to think of things that made other lightgun games (VCop, Time Crisis, HOTD1+2, Ghost Squad etc) really stand out. HOTD4 feels very lacking in this respect. Sure you have the shakey gun, and grenades (almost forgot about them) but it basically still feels very much like a vanilla-flavored gun-game. Once I got over the graphics (and they are very pretty) I found myself struggiling to justify putting in another ?1 coin.

[Dezm0nd]

Had a go on this in Milton Keynes Xscape and really enjoyed it, it's the first light gun game i've enjoyed since point blank 2. Love the grenades and machine gun features, great stuff (also they got a super rip off Mario Kart GP cabinet for those near by)

[Kaladron]

I'm just guessing here, but he could be referring to the fact that, other than shooting zombies and rattling the gun every now and then, there really isnt anything else to do in the game.
There are no hostage situations, no innocents to avoid shooting, no 'special event' moments (like a one-shot sniper hit to pull off), no other weapons to pick up, no massively destructable environments, no duck-n-cover ability, no branching paths depending on how you perform.

I'm just trying to think of things that made other lightgun games (VCop, Time Crisis, HOTD1+2, Ghost Squad etc) really stand out. HOTD4 feels very lacking in this respect. Sure you have the shakey gun, and grenades (almost forgot about them) but it basically still feels very much like a vanilla-flavored gun-game. Once I got over the graphics (and they are very pretty) I found myself struggiling to justify putting in another ?1 coin.

Ah right, I see what you mean and I sort of agree with you. Though I still enjoyed this in a kind of Resident Evil 4 way - a pure adrenaline rush of arcadey, non-stop blasting.

[Matteh]

just played it in the chichester bowling alley the other day.

and tbh i'm a bit disapointed with it. i dont really like the uzis, they, as pjj said feel a bit lifeless. But then again i did have very high expectations of it, as i loved the others. Its better than the 1st one imo, but not 2 and 3

[Matteh]

just played it in the chichester bowling alley the other day.

and tbh i'm a bit disapointed with it. i dont really like the uzis, they, as pjj said feel a bit lifeless. But then again i did have very high expectations of it, as i loved the others. Its better than the 1st one imo, but not 2 and 3

[Team Andromeda]

The trouble I have with Both 3 and IV is becasue of the guns they are rather simple, with the old style light gun you could be so much more precise with the aiming , plus thanks to part II route system it had more depth that 20 other lighgun shooters combined.

That said all the HOTD games are great fun , I've enjoyed them all

[Smurf]

Played this in April down in St Ives with a mate. Popped a quid in, loved the graphics, noticed the screen gave everything jaggies, got frustatrated with the gun shake and died.

Spent a tenner each on Ghost Squad instead.

[Matteh]

i didnt think the gunshaking thing worked atall, annoyed the living **** out of me

[rjpageuk]

Thought this was great fun, I did almost the same as David Fallows - had 1 credit 2 player game and died on the first boss. Didnt lose any life anywhere other than on the boss who took both mine and my friends entire life bar.

When I finished though I found a massive bit of skin hanging off the side of my finger from waggling the gun so hard

It was a worse injury than I get on my fingertips from Track and Field.

[Jimmyzilla]

Played this game in 'Funland' in the London Trocadero today and thought it was great! I liked the shake to reload thing because it makes it so much faster and getting screens full of enemies was great fun!

it does kinda knacker your arm after a while though and the first damn boss is annoying cos it's kinda hard to be so accurate with that gun...

[Crimson Day]

i played this game back at christmas and was really dissapointed with it tbh, theres no feel to the game you dont feel liek your shooting the gun its kinda what i feel the new ps3 pads going to be like movment not feedback. My fav has to be hotd 2 on the dreamcast with the recoil set on the gun felt liek you were shooting every shot. i feel this is the worst hotd to date

[Skull Commander]

I thought it was fur coat and nae pants. The graphics were amazing and the sheer amount of zombies and the detail on them was immense, but the game felt tired and not a patch on house of the dead 2. The shaking to reload is far too gimicky and felt un-natural, especially after years of aiming off screen to reload.

Overall: Meh.

[icycalm]

I've been playing this for a while, and I just posted a review on my website.

http://www.insomnia.ac/reviews/ac/thehouseofthedead4/review.php

There are also two videos, showing a friend of mine clearing the 3rd stage losing only one life. He can basically 1CC the game.

It's much more technical than people give it credit for, but you have to spend some time playing it to realize that.

Definitely look out for it if you have arcades in your area, and pray with me for a home port.

edit: and you are certainly not obliged to shake the gun to reload, if you don't want to. Just shoot off-screen as normal.