House of the Dead III
"There is nowhere to hide. They just won't stay dead." - Subtitle of the front cover.
The House of the Dead III is a light gun arcade game with a horror theme, and the third installment to the House of the Dead series of video games, developed by Wow Entertainment and Sega. It was later ported to the Xbox in 2003, PC in 2005, and the Wii, in a compilation with The House of the Dead 2, in 2008 and PlayStation 3 in February 2012 on the PlayStation Network with PlayStation Move support. The game continues the story of the previous games and introduces new gameplay concepts. The game's main protagonist is Lisa Rogan, daughter of Thomas Rogan, the first game's main character, and players control either Lisa or Thomas's former partner, G.
Release Dates:
North America: 2002
Japan: 2003
Plot
Set in the post-apocalyptic year of 2019, civilization has long since collapsed. Ex-AMS agent Thomas Rogan and his team of highly trained commandos investigate the EFI research facility, including Dan Taylor, which may be linked to the world collapse. Thomas's 19-year-old daughter, Lisa, and Rogan's former partner G travel there two weeks later with shotguns in hand after contact with him is mysteriously lost.
The First Flashback
The Third Flashback
Notorious for his role in the creation of the original undead horde in the first game in the series, Dr. Curien's motives are explored through flashbacks. Several years before the Curien Mansion case, in an effort to discover the cure to his son's seemingly terminal illness, he began researching the nature of life and death. Over time however, he got so wrapped up in his research that he planned on using it to change the future, and began to become slowly insane. Living in the shadow of her well-known father, Lisa muses with G about how she is often the subject of comparisons between her father and herself as the two explore the facility, only to come into contact with undead creatures such as EFI's giant one-zombie security force Death, who makes two appearances in the game, a giant deformed sloth known as The Fool, and a mutant tendril-plant known as The Sun that had taken over the building's biological laboratories.
At last, Lisa is reunited with her father. After that, a man wearing glasses named Daniel Curien (as seen from the flashbacks at the beginning of every chapter) walks in from behind the doors that G threw open. He told Lisa, Thomas, and G that Dr. Curien was his father and Thomas told the others that he saved his life. As G leads Rogan to safety, Lisa and Daniel Curien [who has been seemingly cured of his illness] set out to destroy The Wheel of Fate, the final legacy of Dr. Curien. The genes of both the Magician and the Wheel of Fate, according to Curien, would change the future. After the scientist's death, he underwent a resurrection in the EFI research facility that would take nineteen years to complete. Daniel hacks the Wheel of Fate 's programming, and together with Lisa, put it to rest once and for all as a sign of their readiness to confront the uncertain future.
Endings
At the game's conclusion, Ex-AMS agents Thomas Rogan and G are shown leaving the facility at night. Rogan thanks G for taking care of Lisa, but G denies it, saying that Lisa did a great job taking care of herself, and that she's starting to sound a lot like her father. One of four endings is then shown.
The game's standard ending shows Lisa and Daniel walking out. For a brief moment Daniel pauses to face the building and bid his father a final farewell, and swears he will not let his father's efforts go to waste. He also mentions that "If humans go down the wrong path again, I'll come back... to this place." Afterward, he and Lisa leave together and go home.
In the game's second and bad ending, Daniel begins to go insane and loses the will to move on, questioning his future. Despite (or maybe because of) the antidote that has cured his illness, a sudden close up of Daniel's face (and an ominous change to the tone of his voice from quiet to deep and monstrous like Casey's) reveals that he has become a zombie. Lisa screams in the background. It is uncertain what happens to her, G and Rogan in this ending.
In the third ending, Lisa sees her car driving away, thinking that her father is leaving her and Daniel behind. However, Rogan and G are behind them, leaving Lisa and Daniel completely confused. It is then revealed that a zombie is driving away in it. Lisa begins to give chase after the stolen vehicle while shouting "Hey, that's my car you slimy bastards! Say your prayers!" (In the Arcade version she says "Let's keep after him! Say your prayers!") We also see Daniel briefly going after Lisa.
In the fourth ending, a mysterious and unidentified man in a business suit wanders through the laboratory where the final battle with the Wheel of Fate took place. On the floor, he finds one of the small glass vials containing the genes used as Daniel's antidote. Limping on his right leg, he picks up the vial and leaves, muttering to himself.
"It appears that he didn't understand its true purpose."
This man makes an appearance in The House of the Dead 4. Note that it appears that 'he' is referring to Dr. Roy Curien.
New Features
- House of the Dead 3 brought a lot of new features to the THOTD series; here is a list of the things it brought.
- The end of level Ranking System
- A forth ending
- The standard weapon isn't always a pistol
- You can choose your path
- The Mystery Man
- Extended Endings
- Final Boss' Second Life
- It also eliminated the "good" ending and replaced it with one "special" ending and the "mystery man" ending. (THOTD3: car jacked ending, THOTD4: G ending)
Note that THOTD4 SP is the only game later than THOTD2 to have not only an arcade release and to have 3 endings.
Chapters & Bosses
Except for the first and the last boss (Death and Wheel of Fate respectively), others can be selected by going through different selectable floors in the facility in game.
- Chapter 0: Reminiscence (No Boss)
- Chapter 1: Chasing Shadows (Death)
- Chapter 2: Bewilderment (Sun or Fool)
- Chapter 3: Sensory Chaos (Sun or Fool)
- Chapter 4: Ultimate Challenge (Death)
- Chapter 5: Wheel of Fate (Wheel of Fate)
v • e content
| |||
|---|---|---|---|