Recent reviews by Biggest John

The House of the Dead's Remake is a lot of fun. They kept the goofy, oldschool horror aesthetic of the original and made it work really well, alongside keeping the fast and frenzied gunplay the original series is known for. It's extremely faithful to the original and added a lot of miscellaneous touches to make the game that much more endearing. It falls short in some areas and makes up for it in others. Slight spoiler warning if you care about that stuff.

The gameplay is my favourite part of the game as enemies are suitably tanky, fast and will explode into various bits and pieces when destroyed. Though this time, instead of having distinctive death animations corresponding to how they were died, zombies just ragdoll. I can see why people would think it's lazy but unloading the assault rifle into a zombie and watching it fly 50 feet is so endearing to me.

There are also new modes in the game such as Horde Mode. House of the Dead with more Dead™. I found this mode to be a stupid amount of fun after playing the series for decades, though it is pretty unbalanced. You will get hit by offscreen enemies constantly. To cope with it better, saving all civilians on a playthrough awards you with collectable bonus weapons that are frankly busted. The Invincible! achievement can be done using only the assault rifle and grenade launcher with little challenge. It only took me one level retry to get it done using these two. Normal difficulty as it was 3am when I was doing it. Alongside that, there is the Modern™ scoring system which rewards killing quickly and upholding a short-term combo that acts as a multiplier. I've had so much fun absolutely wailing on a corpse to bridge the gap between enemy spawns so I can earn more points. It's a great touch.

However, some enemies in the remake are just unfun and some of the original enemy placements do not work here. For example, the half-metal zombie Robert sucks wherever he's placed. For some reason they made him way too fast for his bulk so you're almost destined to take a hit. In the same vein, the bosses are not as fun as they used to be. Chariot barely moves but doesn't get knocked back far enough on damaging, they made Hermit even easier somehow, and final boss Magician is now far too slow and unsuitably tanky. He is now the second-easiest boss which wholeheartedly should not be a sentence.

However Hangedman is one million times better than he used to be. Mostly due to the game's updated graphics.


The graphics in this game are phenomenal with, not only a massive level of care to make every area exciting and unique, but numerous minute details to make Curien's Mansion look far more ravaged. The game's lighting also deserves a mention as it makes every area visually lively, something the original couldn't do with its hardware. Moreover, the original House of the Dead games give each enemy type its own character through its distinguished artstyle, which this remake does beautifully. Even in the bloody piles they collapse into. However, the remake isn't without its drawbacks.


Every game in the original series has strong sound design to tie the games together, suiting the general vibe of each game perfectly. The remake has some of the worst mixing in a video game. First off, the music. I could barely tell what the tracks were because, with default settings, the tracks get completely buried under the sheer volume of sound effects, alongside sounding really thin and flat. Some sounds absolutely scream at the player for no discernible reason and heavily detract from the experience.

The guns sound awful too. They do the damage they're supposed to but sound like toy guns you would buy on holiday for a fiver. I cannot truly believe a gun that sounds that small would be able to completely rip apart a mutated human being.

On the other hand, the zombies sound pretty good. I can't complain about that. The voice acting is as cheesy as I wanted to be too, though decently better than the original. I can't complain about that either.


- The scientists are now their own people and not reused character models, and killed scientists have their faces crossed out in the chapter end screen. Good stuff.
- You can view the different zombie types in a gallery, where each of them have animations and sounds unique to the gallery. Bosses too.
- The gallery can also be used to view acquired guns and achievements. Putting the achievements in a medal box makes me feel like I've actually done something with my day by collecting them.
- Killing rats is an achievement. It always was but now it's recognised!
- The zombies now have facial expressions and not flat textures. I love killing something that looks annoyed at me.
- Unlocking the armoury causes weapon cases to spawn on repeat playthroughs, adding a lot of replay value beyond the branching paths the series is known for.
- There is now a level select screen. I don't have to play through the entire game to replay a single chapter.


The Remake does a lot of things right. I love the gameplay and the art style, I love the voice acting and character models, and the UI is really easy to use and navigate. Unfortunately the sound design really falls short, and there is some gameplay jank. On the whole, it's a lot of fun and stays true to the original series.

gulg

Ah, Devil May Cry, where to start?

The graphics in this game are simply stunning; especially for a last gen game engine. The game play is fast and simple, making the game hard where it needs to be hard, and easy where it needs to be easy. The added variety of characters, all with different storylines and cutscenes makes this game fun to explore; and I thought the original was good :)


Anyone thinking of getting this game, go ahead; it's lots of fun!