Here is a high-scoring, no-death playthrough of The House of the Dead 2's arcade version. Played on the Flycast emulator with a GUN4IR light gun. Please enjoy!
This is arguably the most famous House of the Dead game, for better (cool enemies, setpieces, and soundtrack) or worse (the voice acting). It's also way harder than the first game, and rivals Scarlet Dawn as the most difficult entry in the series. But I was still up for the challenge!
More commentary below.
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There's an unconfirmed rumor that when Sega location tested this game, the best House of the Dead 1 player in Japan thought HOD2 was too easy, so Sega made this game harder. If this story is true, then boy...they succeeded pretty well in that regard.
The better you play, the harder the game gets. This is called "rank", or dynamic difficulty. When you're not taking damage, bosses like Magician seem to attack faster or more aggressively. Losing a life lowers the rank, making the game temporarily easier. However, a no-damage run is possible; I strive to accomplish that in the future.
You have pistols again. HOD2 was one of the first arcade light gun games to use IR sensors for aiming and shooting, rather than CRT screen flashes. To reload, you just had to point away from the screen. Sadly, the GUN4IR lacks that functionality, so I have to point off-screen and pull the trigger. This makes reacting to things a bit more difficult.
There's loads more branching paths you can take. Chapters 3 and 4 have two unique starting points based on the paths you took in the prior chapters--it's the most convoluted in the series. Sadly, the path choices dry up come Chapters 5 and 6, which are entirely linear.
I wanted to save every civilian in this run, in order to get the bonus room. However, there are high-scoring paths that you can get by letting civilians die on purpose. The risk is you don't get extra lives before the final boss...the reward is higher score. I will explore these options in a future playthrough.
The scoring system was changed. Destructible objects now score 10 points. Each headshot is no longer a fixed value; rather, the value increases with each subsequent headshot, with no cap. The headshot value can grow to be much higher than the bonus items you collect. In addition, you can get further headshots/body shots by shooting an enemy's dead body.
There's also an accuracy bonus. The game calculates your accuracy percentage at the end of stages, and awards a certain point value based on what percent ranges it falls under. For example, 100% accuracy is 4,000 points. Scoring 90-99% is 3,000 points, 80-89% is 2,500 points...etc.
Shooting sign posts can actually increase accuracy, which I do a bit during the first boss. It's very hard to maintain accuracy, though, and often it's best to sacrifice accuracy and spray bullets if it will save a life. The headshot points become more valuable over time, anyway.
I own two arcade motherboards for this game, and a bunch of wiring harnesses/parts as well. However, I haven't figured out how to set it up, so in the meantime I'm playing on emulators.
0:00 - Chapter 1
3:08 - Chapter 1 BOSS (Judgment)
4:47 - Chapter 2
8:47 - Chapter 2 BOSS (Hierophant)
10:50 - Chapter 3
13:40 - Chapter 3 BOSS (Tower)
15:20 - Chapter 4
17:26 - Chapter 4 BOSS (Strength)
19:23 - Chapter 5
23:02 - Chapter 5 BOSS (Magician)
24:55 - Chapter 6
27:25 - The loyfe cycle moment
28:20 - Chapter 6 BOSS (Emperor)
29:58 - Ending
32:30 - Final Result & Name Entry
#arcade #sega #1998 #houseofthedead #lightgungames #naomi #dreamcast #flycast #railshooter #horror #zombies #retro #retrogaming #retrogames