The House of the Dead III

Main series
(Sega AM1's universe)

The House of the Dead III
Production information
Producer(s)	Rikiya Nakagawa
Director(s)	Takashi Oda
Planner(s)	Yoshinori Tomoyasu
Developer(s)	WOW Entertainment (Sega AM1)
Programmer(s)	Koji Ooto Hitoshi Shimokawa Kazutomo Sanbongi Takayuki Yokoyama Kazutaka Horie Hideaki Sekiya Yukio Tsuji Arata Kono
Designer(s)	Takuya Ohashi Hiroshi Kanazawa Norihito Omoda Masaharu Ijichi Yasuhito Kuroiwa Tadayuki Iwa Eiichi Harada Tadashi Fujita Kumiko Yamada Yosuke Harada Akihiro Suzuki Katsumi Yamato Hidehiko Ookubo Yoshihiro Nakamura Nelson Li
Publisher(s)	Sega
Release information
Release date	June 1, 2002 (Arcade)
Platform(s)	Arcade Xbox Microsoft Windows Nintendo Wii (2 & 3 Return) PlayStation 3 (PlayStation Network)
Arcade system	Sega Chihiro

The reality was crueler than a nightmare.

Tagline

The House of the Dead III (ザ・ハウス・オブ・ザ・デッド III, Za Hausu obu za Deddo III) is a horror-themed rail shooting game developed by WOW Entertainment (now Sega AM1) and released by Sega to arcades in 2002. It is the sequel to The House of the Dead 2 and the third installment in the main House of the Dead series.

Set in a post-apocalyptic 2019, the game follows AMS agent Thomas Rogan's disappearance within the EFI Research Facility, and his daughter Lisa and former partner G's journey to find him.

III was developed on the Xbox-based Sega Chihiro arcade hardware. It lifted gameplay mechanics from the 2000 Namco rail shooter Vampire Night; its director, Yoshinori Tomoyasu, was involved in production. III was the last House of the Dead game produced by Rikiya Nakagawa, who resigned in 2003.

The game received generally positive reviews, with praise for its graphics but criticism towards its linearity and short length. It was ported to the Xbox, Microsoft Windows, the Nintendo Wii (in the compilation The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return), and PlayStation Network. The game also received a spin-off, The Typing of the Dead 2, in 2007. A sequel, The House of the Dead 4, was released in 2005.

Plot

Characters

Lisa Rogan

G

Thomas Rogan

Dan Taylor

Dr. Curien

Daniel Curien

Thornheart

Synopsis

In a post-apocalyptic 2019, retired AMS agent Thomas Rogan and his team of military commandos raid the EFI Research Facility for the source of humanity's downfall. The raid is botched; the entire team is killed, leaving only Rogan and team captain Dan Taylor alive. As they find the source in a laboratory, Death, a behemoth in a security guard uniform, kills Taylor and injures Rogan. An unknown figure approaches Rogan before all contact is lost.

Two weeks later, on October 31st, Rogan's 20-year-old daughter Lisa and former partner G arrive at the EFI building to search for him. They fight biologically-engineered creatures, including Death twice; Fool, a deformed sloth; and the mutant plant-like Sun. Along the way, Lisa muses about her and her mother's estranged relationship with Rogan.

A flashback depicting Dr. Curien and his son, Daniel.

Flashbacks depict genetic engineer Dr. Curien, the perpetrator of the 1998 Curien Mansion incident, in his pursuit to cure his terminally-ill son Daniel. While successful, Curien went mad after his research team abandoned him, producing Magician and Wheel of Fate to "change the future".

Lisa and G reunite with Rogan, who reveals his rescuer to be Daniel Curien himself. While G cares for Rogan, Lisa and Daniel fight their way to the laboratory where Rogan was injured. They find an electro-kinetic entity, Wheel of Fate, who Daniel reveals is his father undergoing a 19-year resurrection process.

Daniel hacks Wheel of Fate's program to prematurely wake it, and him and Lisa battle the creature. Upon defeat, Wheel of Fate laments world overpopulation and begs for his son's forgiveness; Daniel, refusing to recognize the creature as his father, destroys him with Lisa.

While leaving the EFI building, Rogan and G discuss the uncertain future. Rogan is optimistic, stating that it is up to the next generation "to believe in themselves, and walk their own paths".

Endings

There are four possible endings to the game. If the player clears the game in under three credits, one of three endings is played based on which of the three selectable levels was chosen last. Otherwise, the default "normal" ending is achieved.

Image	Criteria	Description
	Beat the game with three or more credits used.	Outside, Daniel pauses to face the EFI building and bid his father farewell. Swearing to not let his father's efforts go to waste, Daniel promises to return if "[humans] go down the wrong path again." He and Lisa then leave.
	Beat the game in under three credits, and choose the Information Systems Department last.	Daniel loses the will to move on and acts erratically. His voice turns deep and monstrous, and a close-up of his face reveals that he has become a creature. Lisa screams in the background.
	Beat the game in under three credits, and choose the BIO Lab last.	Lisa sees her car drive away, yet Rogan and G are behind her. It is revealed that a creature is behind the wheel. Lisa and Daniel give pursuit, with the former shouting "Hey, that's my car you slimy bastards! Say your prayers!" (The arcade version changes the first line to "Let's keep after him!") while the two agents watch.
	Beat the game in under three credits, and choose the DBR Institute or EFI Genome Ward last.	An unknown man in a business suit limps into Wheel of Fate's laboratory to retrieve Daniel's genes. He mutters, "It appears that [Curien] didn't understand its true purpose," and laughs.

Gameplay

The House of the Dead III retains the gameplay of its predecessors: as the camera travels a predefined path, players shoot enemies to avoid the loss of lives through damage. Barrels and other objects can be destroyed to reveal bonus items, which will either increase the player's score or award extra lives.

III introduces pump-action shotguns as the standard weapons. They can hold up to 6 bullets before reloading and can hit multiple enemies at once, especially those approaching close together or in a line. The arcade version has physical shotguns which must be pumped to reload; console versions either have automatic reloading or require players to point their aiming device off-screen instead.

Instead of civilians, there are "partner rescue" sequences where one player character will be isolated and trapped by creatures, requiring the other to save them. The most dangerous creatures are highlighted in red before the event begins. Success results in a bonus life; failure does not, although there is no life penalty if a trapped partner is attacked or accidentally shot. In multiplayer games, the captured player's weapon will be disabled during the sequences. Successfully finishing all "partner rescue" events unlocks a secret stash of bonus items at the end of the game.

Boss battles now have a smaller meter beneath their health bars. This meter must be emptied via repeated shots to boss weak points so that their attacks are disrupted. Some bosses also appear in the middle of levels, rather than at the end.

Other features III introduced to the series include:

• An End of Level Ranking System
• A total of four endings
• Being prompted to choose your own path
• A Time Attack mode, where Dr. Curien would give his analysis of the player's performance
• The Wii version adds the ability to use the gun as a melee attack to block enemy blows, but must be reloaded after every use.

Chapters

The House of the Dead III consists of 6 chapters, with the first (chapter 0) being a prologue:

0. Reminiscence

1. Chasing Shadows

2. Bewilderment

3. Sensory Chaos

4. Ultimate Challenge

5. Wheel of Fate

Chapters 2 through 4 take place in three player-selectable areas. Because of the game's branching path mechanic, each area has two versions; these vary depending on the route taken in chapter 1, and the order of which the three areas are chosen.

EFI Genome Ward/DBR Institute

L2 BIO Plant/L3 BIO Lab

Information Systems Department EAST/WEST Wing

Bosses

Death (Type 0011)

Fool (Type 0028)

Sun (Type 8830)

Wheel of Fate (Type 0000)

The Typing of the Dead II

The Typing of the Dead II is an education game and the sequel to 2001's The Typing of the Dead. While the first game was a reworked version of The House of the Dead 2, replacing the light guns with keyboards but otherwise retaining the same graphics and story, The Typing of the Dead II uses The House of the Dead III as a basis. Characters now wield keyboards shaped like shotguns, and once again wear a battery back with a Dreamcast on their backs. The game was released in arcades in 2007 and ported to the PC in the following year, but only saw a Japanese release.

Development

See also: List of unused content in The House of the Dead III

The House of the Dead III was Sega WOW Entertainment head and producer Rikiya Nakagawa's last House of the Dead game.

The House of the Dead III was first developed on the Sega NAOMI arcade board; a Dreamcast port was planned. It was then switched to the Sega NAOMI 2 and finally the Sega Chihiro, for which it was a launch title. The target home platform became the Xbox, which the Chihiro was based on.

The game was directed by Takashi Oda, planned by Yoshinori Tomoyasu, composed by Eriko Sakurai, and produced by Rikiya Nakagawa, then-head of Sega WOW Entertainment (now Sega AM1). It was Nakagawa's final House of the Dead project before he resigned in 2003.

Story and gameplay

WOW Entertainment wanted the story to have multiple playable characters, serve as a follow-up to the original House of the Dead, and be understandable to new players. They designed enemy encounters around the fear of being chased.

Various design choices were lifted from Vampire Night, a 2000 House of the Dead-like title that Tomoyasu directed. These include a boss "cancel" gauge and bosses appearing in the middle of levels, rather than at the end.The branching paths were simplified to be more obvious to players.

A pump-action shotgun was chosen as the main weapon. WOW Entertainment felt it made the gameplay unique; Tomoyasu noted how the shotgun's rate of fire corresponds to the player's physical strength. The gun inspired the console-exclusive Time Attack mode, which Tomoyasu wanted to convey tension in a way that the regular game could not.

Graphics

A cartoonish cel-shaded art direction was developed for the game, but ultimately scrapped.

The increased polygons of the Chihiro allowed for up to six enemies to appear on-screen at once. Motion capture was used for character hand movements. Tomoyasu admitted that gore was a controversial inclusion.

WOW Entertainment used shading techniques from American comic books. Early efforts featured cartoonish, cel-shaded graphics. They were reworked into a more realistic art direction, which some speculate was due to negative player feedback.

Marketing

Sega held a "Become a Zombie" contest from October 25th to November 23rd, 2001. Participants submitted photos and short explanations of their zombie (creature) costumes, with the winner becoming an enemy in the final game. Finalists were selected on November 30th of that year and were judged by The House of the Dead III staff members. The winning submission was used for a creature named Meat Man, who appears once in the EFI Genome Ward level.

On December 19th, 2002, in cooperation with Digital Hollywood Co., Ltd., the development team held a seminar about The House of the Dead III's production at Digital Hollywood University in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan.

To celebrate The House of the Dead III and 4's release to PlayStation 3 in 2012, Sega's English blog held a contest wherein fans wrote haikus as an "ode" to the creatures. PlayStation Move controllers and download codes for III were offered as prizes.

Release

The Xbox port was released on October 24th, 2003, and the PC version was released in 2005. The Xbox version was notable for being only one of three games for the console that supported a light gun controller, with the other two being Silent Scope Complete and Starsky & Hutch.

The PlayStation 3 port was announced by Sega on January 5th, 2012. It was released on February 7th of that year. Due to a restructuring of the PlayStation Store ahead of the PlayStation 5's November 2020 release, as of October 19th and 28th, 2020 The House of the Dead III is no longer purchasable on web or mobile-based devices, respectively; players must instead access the store directly from a PlayStation 3.

It was announced in 2021 that PlayStation 3, PSP and Vita games would be discontinued from the PlayStation Store on July 2nd, 2021. This meant that The House of the Dead III would be unavailable for purchase, though those who had already bought and downloaded the game could play it. However, Sony reversed this decision on April 19th, 2021, with PlayStation 3 and Vita games remaining available while the PSP will discontinue as planned.

Xbox version bonus content

The Xbox version includes the PC port of The House of the Dead 2, which can be unlocked after beating The House of the Dead III. When the player(s) go from III to 2, a unique mini-game is played that features new additional cutscenes and dialogue from the characters. This feature would be retained in the Wii compilation The House of the Dead 2 & 3 Return, which borrows heavily from the Xbox port.

The mini game starts with Lisa Rogan and G bidding the player(s) farewell as they enter a "time-travelling" elevator. The elevator will stop at the years 2015, 2010, 2005, and 2000. During each of these stops, the elevator door will open and the player(s) are greeted by hordes of creatures.

The player(s) must kill the creatures before the doors close and depending on their performance, the player(s) are rewarded with bonus items used of Original Mode. The elevator will make a final stop at the year 2000 where the player(s) see James Taylor and Gary Stewart preparing themselves to face the incoming creature horde.

The Xbox version also included a 13-minute preview at the then-upcoming film House of the Dead, including a behind-the-scenes look with input from director Uwe Boll.

Trivia

• The new Attack Bar seen during boss battles, in which players must shoot their weakpoint multiple times and deplete it completely in order to disrupt their attacks, is a mechanic that was taken from 2000's Vampire Night, a light-gun arcade shooter co-developed by Sega's Wow Entertainment and Namco. Vampire Night shares enough similarities to The House of the Dead 2 that some considered it a spiritual successor or worthy spin-off prior to The House of the Dead III's announcement. Along the same vein, the "Reload" voice clip from Vampire Night is reused in this game.
• Several quotes can be found on The House of the Dead III's arcade cabinets. It is unknown if these quotes are from an actual character, or were only made just for the cabinet:
  • "A false look, a false expression and a created world. The virtual reality has become real (true). The world you desired. And the world has become one with me."
  • "When I was born, the world died. When the world died, a devil was born. The birth of the devil killed our future."
  • "They're all coming back, with insanity and desire to destroy! Who will be exterminated? The human species? Or...?"
  • "You don't understand, do you...By losing, you will understand...understand the grim despair."

Gallery

Promotional materials

Promotional artwork advertised in XBOX's gaming magazine.

Announcement for the game on European/French release of Virtua Fighter 3.

Cel-shaded version

Videos

The House of the Dead III- Early Prototype Trailer

An early trailer for III's prototype.

House of the Dead 3 (PS3) - Behind the Scenes

An interview with The House of the Dead series director Takashi Oda and producer Yasuhiro Nishiyama. On the home port, this is unlocked by beating the game.

External links

• The House of the Dead III on PS3 | Official PlayStation™Store US (archived)