The House of the Dead (1996 video game)

The House of the Dead

The House of the Dead is the very first House of the Dead game created by Sega AM1 in 1996. The game features two agents, Agent Thomas Rogan and "G". Both of these agents are sent on an assignment to investigate Dr. Roy Curien's Mansion. It is said that Dr. Curien was obsessed with discovering the nature of life and death. However, the nature of his experiments drove him insane, and this resulted in him releasing the subjects into the world.

Story

AMS agents Thomas Rogan and "G" are sent on an assignment to investigate a panicked phone call from Rogan's fiancée, Sophie Richards, and a series of disappearances at the Curien Mansion , home laboratory of Dr. Curien, an acclaimed biochemist and geneticist. Dr. Curien was obsessed with discovering the very nature of life and death, backed by the DBR Corporation and its scientists. The nature of the experiments, however, drove Dr. Curien insane, resulting in him releasing his experimental subjects onto the unsuspecting world.

Amidst the chaos wrought by Curien , Rogan and "G" face many formidable foes, including The Chariot (Type 27) a green/silver plated undead warrior who mortally wounds Sophie; The Hangedman (Type 041), a gargoyle-like creature with bat ears and bandaged legs who sees to it that she cannot escape the mansion grounds, and also kills two DBR scientists in the grand courtyard; and The Hermit(Type 6803), a mutant 6 legged spider crab-like creature guarding the passageway leading to Curien's restricted research area. Upon confronting Curien, the AMS agents are treated to his greatest masterpiece, The Magician (Type 0), a grotesque, humanoid demon creature not yet complete with armor, which appears to have some exposed muscles (ironically, his weak points), ram-like horns, and a long red scar on his left eye. The Magician is especially notable for its pyrokinesis -- mastery over fire. Ironically, after he releases the creature from its incubation chamber, Dr. Curien is killed by his own creation, as The Magician seemed to have reached a state of sentience in which he feels an inferior being such as a human has no place in giving him orders. To prevent the Magician from escaping the mansion and destroying the world, Rogan and "G" are forced to confront it in one final battle. After a long and difficult battle, they succeeded in destroying Curien's creation and were given one last warning from the Magician itself, "You... haven't seen... anything yet!", which could be a foreshadowing to his later appearances.

The Magician (Type 0)

With those words, the Magician exploded and ceased to exist. (Nevertheless, he returns in The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead 4 Special, which proves the warning.) Rogan and G leave the mansion, taking one last look at it from the outside, then the game ends.

There are, however, alternate endings in which the camera pans to the foyer one last time; the doors then open, showing either Sophie alive, running into the camera saying "Thank you!" (suggesting that she was merely knocked unconscious by The Chariot, and might be the mother of Lisa Rogan in House of the Dead III), or Sophie as one of the undead (which therefore might not be canon, and suggesting that she really was killed by The Chariot and rose from the dead as the only female zombie in the game), depending on the player's score and the number of continues used.

Platforms

The House of the dead can be played on the PC, Sega Saturn or at Arcades. You can purchase the game at many retailers on the internet such as Amazon.co.uk, Play.com or Game.co.uk

Reception

The arcade version of The House of the Dead was generally well received. However, the PC and Saturn releases were both met with mixed reviews. Currently, finding a copy of the Saturn game is rare and used copies consistently sell for more than $90 US.

Hangedman (Type 041)

Chapters & Bosses

There are a total of 4 bosses in The House of the Dead. These are:

• Chapter 1: Tragedy (Chariot)
• Chapter 2: Revenge (Hangedman)

• Chapter 3: Truth (Hermit)

• Chapter 4: The House of the Dead (Magician)