The House of the Dead 4 (PS3)

[bronZfonZ1]

I bought this last week on the PSN Store.

I'm playing this with the Playstation Move and the Sharp Shooter peripheral.  Hold the trigger to shoot, press the Move button to throw a grenade, and either press the RL button or use the pump action on the gun to reload.  The reload speed is somewhere between 2 ("instantaneous") and 3 (with reload animation).  There are also some cases where you need to shake the controller/gun in order to escape the grasp of an enemy, open a door, or some other quasi-quick time event.

The drift issue can still occur, but if you angle the Eye camera towards your shooting hand before calibrating the problem is less severe, at least horizontally.

I only played the arcade version once a few years ago, so I can't really compare them, but the game is fluid and looks good for the time it was released in the arcades.  This version also includes SP mode, which is a "dumbed-down" version of the extremely rare HOTD4 Special arcade machine, which you unlock by beating the original game.

Gameplay wise, it's fun, but it's slightly easier than 2 and 3 (which I have for the Wii).  The designers tried to compensate the use of an uzi in this iteration by throwing a lot more enemies at you per wave.  Also, unlike the 2 and 3 Return, you don't "earn" your way to gaining more credits or lives; you can set Free Play at a maximum 9 lives and 9 credits right from the start.

Finally, and unfortunately, the horrible voice acting is no longer in this iteration, but the dialogue is still as charmingly horrible as ever.

[Sut1]

I love the HOTD series any this is the one I'm missing, thanks for the information to be honest I'm disappointed it's not arcade perfect no reason it shouldn't be on PS3. I'll see if I can pick a move controller up cheap.

[Astrosmasher1]

But is it as good as the old American Lazer games classic Mad Dog Mackree?  Can anything ever be that good? 

[bronZfonZ1]

I believe this version is arcade perfect.  The only reason SP Mode is not arcade perfect is because the HOTD4 Special machine consists of two parallel facing, 100-inch screens and a self-swiveling, force feedback bench.

[VideoGameCritic]

Didn't know about this, but I'm intrigued!!  I love House of the Dead.
Too bad it's not on hard media.
Still, this is one of the few I'd bother to download.

[Rev1]

This is pretty cool. I love the house of the dead series but I have never played 4. I hope they release it physically one day (yeah right...) but if they do I would be there day 1 to buy it. I have played hours on House of the Dead 2 & 3 (Wii). Still trying to beat the 2nd game with the default continues it sets. I can never beat that final boss... Closest I ever got was down to 25% of his health and then he went ape sh@%.