House of the Dead 2 Remake Switch Review

House of the Dead 2 Remake Switch Review
Version Reviewed: Nintendo Switch 

For older gamers like myself, many weekends were spent at arcades, thinking we were awesome by aiming a light gun at an arcade cabinet and blasting away, and the House of the Dead series was a staple in these arcades. Light gun games were all the rage, even infiltrating our living rooms with the Sega Saturn and Dreamcast, saving us some tokens and allowing us to have our own mini arcade in our living room. Light gun games have all but disappeared from home consoles these days, but the House of the Dead 2 Remake by Forever Entertainment aims to bring the light gun genre back… minus the guns. What’s it Like? Save your tokens, warm up those thumbs, and suffer like G did as we review The House of the Dead 2 Remake for Nintendo Switch.

Before we begin, the majority of the footage you see in the video review is captured on the Switch 2, but the game was also tested on a Switch 1 and will be covered under performance later in the review.

House of the Dead 2 Remake is an on-rails shooter that sees you shoot your way through hordes of undead in order to uncover the nefarious scheme and who’s behind the outbreak. Annnnnnd that mystery is quickly solved when the bad guy straight up calls you in Act 2 to tell you he’s the bad guy. It’s a very campy story and not a lot of it makes sense, so don’t expect a deep lore or narrative here. What you can expect, however, is a lot of action. You will constantly be assailed by the undead and go through stages with multiple paths and secrets to unlock.

There were some cool moments of discovery that I forgot about, like saving a driver with a zombie on his windshield takes a completely different path that also holds a hidden assault rifle, or saving a pair of civilians takes you through another path that has its own people to save and secrets. Saving civilians will sometimes award you with items like health kits or even unlockables you can use on your next run, like double scores or the not-so-civilian-friendly Grande Launcher. There’s also some of the cheesiest voice acting in this game, and it is unintentionally hilarious.

There were moments when a civilian asked me to save their loved one, only for me to fumble with the controls and accidentally dispatch them instead, and my character would flatly turn and say “There’s nothing we could have done” or “Who could have done this?” As a matter of fact, your character, despite this being his second zombie shooting outing, seems to be rather surprised for the entire duration that he’s shooting zombies. While all this production value sounds bad, there’s so much charm in the terrible acting, and despite the horror theme, it ends up keeping the game feeling light.

The real horror begins with the control scheme, which seems to require a bit of tweaking to get right, and when you get it there, it still manages to feel off. House of the Dead 2 Remake supports gyro controls and standard aiming using the control stick, and while the control stick manages to do an ok job, I found gyro to be woefully erratic, even with tweaking. I was also surprised to see the game say it supported touchscreen controls, but unfortunately, they can only be used in the menus and not during gameplay. As the game is developed for the Switch 1, there are no Joy-Con mouse controls, which is understandable, but here’s hoping there might be a Switch 2 update, as that would significantly enhance the fun of the game.

The reliance on control stick aiming can be somewhat of a double-edged axe, allowing the player to leave the reticle static in boss fights, and allow them to continuously fall on the sword so to speak, negating any challenge, but making boss fights less frustrating. The controls put me off so much at first that the original score of this review was going to be closer to 50/100. Thankfully, with a little patience and practice, I have found a nice balance that made the game much more enjoyable.

Graphically, the game looks really good for a late-generation Switch 1 developed game. While there isn’t a large range of enemies, they are detailed and daunting, with various levels of decay and they look gruesome. Bosses, despite not being that fun to fight, look great and are varied. The stages of the game also have a fair bit of variation to them, and exploring these areas is quite fun. In docked mode, the framerate is mostly fine on Switch 1. In handheld, it’s a different story. The resolution is lower, giving the game a more pixelated look, while also suffering from frame skips at certain moments. These aren’t low-framerate stutters, just minor noticeable pauses when the game seems to think about your next move. On the Switch 2 in docked mode, the game runs flawlessly, and in handheld mode, it has a lower resolution like its Switch 1 counterpart, which gives off the same pixelation.

For my agents looking into accessibility options, I’m pleased to report there are a few options here, like increasing the thickness of your reticle, changing its colour, a myriad of sound options (including the ability to stop the game screaming reload every 3 seconds) and a few control variations. At $35 AUD, the mileage will vary depending on how much you like the series. I’ve so far played the game start to finish at least 10-15 times to unlock more goodies to change my next run. The bosses have definitely ground my patience down, but I’m also still finding things I missed and new paths to explore. It should also be mentioned that the game can be played with 2 players, each using a single Joy-Con, giving the game a bit more bang for your buck.

House of the Dead 2 Remake on Switch isn’t an entirely horrific experience, but fans of the series will definitely get the most mileage out of it. Between twitchy and hyperactive controls that take a bit of tweaking to feel right, and arcade mechanics that haven’t been changed to match the controls, it would be a hard sell to newcomers, even with its cheaper price point. Still, there’s some charm and fond memories in the campiness of it all, and the B-grade voice acting is unintentionally hilarious. Being a fan of the series, I was really looking forward to shooting my way through this classic arcade game, and despite some moments where I felt like I was suffering like G did, I persevered to uncover a fun game with multiple paths and secrets to uncover, and had a hell of a time doing it. Ultimately, I’m glad House of the Dead 2 Remake has been resurrected for this remaster, rotting warts and all.

So, What’s it Like? House of the Dead 2 Remake is like playing it in the arcade, but you no longer have to nag your parents for tokens.

Enjoyed our House of the Dead 2 Remake Switch Review?

✨ Support What’s It Like? Want to help keep this independent Nintendo outlet running? Here are a few ways you can support:
🌐 More Nintendo reviews and guides: https://www.whatsitlike.com.au/
☕ Buy me a Ko-fi: https://ko-fi.com/whatsitlike
🎥 Join the Patreon for behind-the-scenes content: https://patreon.com/u102681944