The House of the Dead 2

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House of the Dead 2

The House of the Dead 2 is the second game in the series. It was released on September 9th, 1998 as an arcade game. It would later be released on a variety of home gaming platforms. The game follows the fictional events of February 26, 2000, almost two years after the Curien Mansion incident in The House of the Dead. The secret international agency, AMS, has launched an investigation concerning the cause of the Curien case, in order to prevent the world from experiencing a similar outbreak. Strange occurrences, however, are reported to be taking place in the city of Venice, Italy, the last known location of AMS agent "G," who has gone missing. Agents James Taylor and Gary Stewart are dispatched along with Amy Crystal and Harry Harris to investigate and evacuate the populace.

Plot

Upon finding "G", alive but wounded, James and Gary are met with an undead horde developed by Caleb Goldman, the president of the eminent DBR Corporation and an expert on the genome theory who funded the experiments of the late Dr. Curien. While converging on Goldman's headquarters, James and Gary face many formidable foes, including Team Judgment (Type 28), consisting of an imp-like monster Zeal and his headless, axe-wielding puppet Kuarl; The Hierophant (Type B 05), an aquatic beast which heads an assault on Venice's waterways and Central Plaza; a segmented serpent-like beasts stalking the sewer system known as The Tower (Type 8000); and Strength (Type 205), a chainsaw-wielding giant which wounds Harry and chases James and Gary throughout a labyrinth of a Roman coliseum. Curien's masterpiece, The Magician (Type 0), is also resurrected by Goldman to oversee the birth of The Emperor (Type α), designed to "rule over nature and to destroy, and hate mankind". Being in its prototype stage, the Emperor was not as strong as Goldman would have hoped, and fell to the AMS agents. In order to evade being arrested, Goldman committed suicide by throwing himself off the roof of his building, but not before threatening that "...in time, a successor shall come".

Modes

Depending on the version of the game (Arcade, Xbox, PC, Dreamcast, or Wii), there are a variety of gameplay modes available.

Arcade Mode

Arcade mode is the standard mode of play. It features one or two players playing through the game normally without any bonuses. Each player's gun holds only 6 bullets per round. However, unlike the arcade game, the player is able to set the number of lives and continues on the options screen. This varies from the arcade, where each player is given 3 lives for each purchase.

Original Mode

Original mode is similar to Arcade mode, except that it allows a player to use 2 bonus items prior to starting the game. These items have a wide variety of uses, including ones which make the game easier in some way (more continues, more lives), score enhancements (double points), or other random bonuses (costumes, alternate weapons). These bonuses can be collected throughout gameplay in original mode by shooting hidden items.

Training Mode

Training mode consists of 10 training stages which feature various situations that must be cleared in order to pass. Each training stage has different levels of difficulty.

Boss Mode

Boss mode allows the player to play a time attack on the game's various boss fights. Each boss must have appeared during normal gameplay (either Arcade or Original mode) before it appears in this mode. For bosses which have 2 forms (Hierophant, Tower, Strength), both are unlocked upon meeting either through normal gameplay. Once all the bosses have been unlocked, there is also a full time attack which allows the player to fight through the succession of all the bosses at once. For each choice, the time is recorded and stored on the records screen.

Options

The options screen gives the player various controls over game settings such as lives, continues, blood color, volume control, etc.

Endings

Players are given different endings based on the following conditions:

• If a solo game was finished as either player 1 or 2
• If both players defeated the last boss
• The number of continues used
• The amount of points earned

There are 3 possible endings:

• The players will be able to see an audience of protagonists and civilians (Normal Ending)
• The players will see a zombified Goldman (Bad Ending)
• The players will see Thomas Rogan from the first game (Good ending)

Get the endings

Good: Score more of 80000 points

Normal: Score 79999 or less

Bad: If the last digit of the score is zero and the score is less than 80000

Platforms

The House of the Dead 2 has been released on Arcade, PC, Dreamcast, Xbox (as unlockable content in The House of the Dead 3) and Wii.

Chapters and Bosses

There are a total on 6 chapters (levels) in House of the Dead 2. Each chapter has a boss character who is fought at the end of the chapter. Some later chapters feature reappearances by bosses of earlier levels.

• Chapter 1: A Prelude (Boss: Judgment)

• Chapter 2: Muddy (Boss: Hierophant)

• Chapter 3: Darkness (Boss: Tower)

• Chapter 4: Despair (Boss: Strength)

• Chapter 5: Dawn (Boss: Magician)

• Chapter 6: Original Sin (Boss: Emperor)

Criticism

Although the game was seen as commercially successful, the dialogue translation and voice over recording done for the game are often regarded as low quality, ranging in opinion from disappointing to unintentionally humorous. The cutscenes from this game (especially Goldman's scenes) are commonly found in YouTube Poops because of the poor voice acting.