AND AS HE PICKS UP THE PHONE, WE'LL
JUMP OUT AND KILL HIM WITH ZOMBIES!
Play It:
For the arcade, Saturn, and PC.
Story:
Its the year 1998. A mansion owned by the DBR Corporation hides a research facility underneath it. However, one of the lead researchers, Dr. Curien, has gone mad (typical) and freed the hellish creations. Now, most of the employees are dead and the house is now overrun with zombies, bats, evil monkeys, and other freaks. An assault team was sent in, but that was the last that was heard of them... Now, the AMS has sent in agents Rogan and G to secure the house and save any survivors.
Sounds a bit like Resident Evil, eh? Purely functional story, nothing more.
Graphics:
The arcade version featured some impressive looks and animation at the time. However, the Saturn version looks like they took a bat to the arcade's graphics and bashed the hell outta it.
For the arcade, Saturn, and PC.
Story:
Its the year 1998. A mansion owned by the DBR Corporation hides a research facility underneath it. However, one of the lead researchers, Dr. Curien, has gone mad (typical) and freed the hellish creations. Now, most of the employees are dead and the house is now overrun with zombies, bats, evil monkeys, and other freaks. An assault team was sent in, but that was the last that was heard of them... Now, the AMS has sent in agents Rogan and G to secure the house and save any survivors.
Sounds a bit like Resident Evil, eh? Purely functional story, nothing more.
Graphics:
The arcade version featured some impressive looks and animation at the time. However, the Saturn version looks like they took a bat to the arcade's graphics and bashed the hell outta it.
Left: Arcade-Right: Saturn
Say it with me.... BLARG! Now, if you didn't play the
arcade version, you won't notice (I hadn't, but I did see it in action
though.) But even still, these graphics are a big disappointment. Virtua
Cop 2 was released a whole year or so earlier and looked much
better than this.
Sound:
Thankfully, this is still intact (I guess. I never heard the arcade's music, but the Saturn's is well done.) The tracks are techno and don't sound very scary, but some of them have these voices in them (including children's voices) which actually freak me out a little. Sound is good, although I'd say a notch below Virtua Cop. Those maggots make a squishing noise which sounds just like those cartoon soundbites. Voice acting is completely ridiculous. The lines aren't as bad as Resident Evil, but the acting is three times as worse. I think they were intentionally done to be B-movie quality, but I can't be sure.
Difficulty:
Holy crap. This game is very hard. I'm not ashamed to admit that I broke my promise to keep the difficulty cranked up all the way to get the most out of it after a couple runs through. However, I did beat it on the hardest setting that week. However, I'm not sure if I could consistently beat Hardest, and I didn't get the best ending either. Even on the easiest setting, you will have quite a time finishing it. Lives and continues can also be adjusted. The Saturn's exclusive game mode is supposedly much easier, but I haven't tried it.
Enjoyment:
If you are looking for a challenge, you will have a blast. Once you get a handle on surviving, you can have fun blasting zombies to pieces. This is like Resident Evil, except without inventory management, puzzles, and 500% more shooting. 2 players can partake in the fun. Double gunning is a lot of fun, but it does jack up the difficulty quite a bit.
Replay Value:
There are a whole slew of paths to take throughout the game (the first level has about 20 different ways to get through it, although the game gets progressively more linear.) There are also 3 endings to see based upon your performance.
Rant Session:
The true stars of this game are the zombies. You probably can picture them now; shambling undead menaces that lack basic intelligence, but have an unmatchable appetite for brains. Well, you're wrong. Actually, zombies are pretty adept at using various weapons like chainsaws, or lobbing barrels, and swinging into action on a crane. At least that's how this game depicts them. They almost never even eat people here, choosing instead to use weapons or hand-to-hand combat. All right, this game is a little bit silly. That's SEGA for ya. I really don't mind the absurdity of it all, but I do miss the fact that the zombies aren't really scary here.
Now, it's awfully hard to make sarcastic comments about a game as completely ridiculous as this one. Nevertheless, I still have some grips to vent here. Ahem... 6 bullets in a clip? Well, there is the Saturn exclusive mode, but I ain't counting that. Agent G? That's his name? Oh yeah, that's probably because he's so mysterious. His entire excerpt from manual:
"G" is approximately 35 to 40 years of age, but little else is known of Agent Rogan's partner's shadowy past. He devotes himself fully to the prosecution of his duties with an objectivity and preciseness that has been described as digital.
Well, I probably could have bull-shat that. I've also noticed that every lock in this game takes exactly 3 bullets to destroy. And the 'introduction' is one of the most half-assed (what exactly that means is a mystery) efforts I have ever seen. It literally consists of the camera zooming in on a phone as you hear Sophie's voice scream "Help, everyone's getting kil..." Total elapsed time: 10 seconds. Why did they even bother? Oh, I give up. Damn you, WOW!
Bottom Line:
Well, c'mon, its got ZOMBIES. Everybody likes zombies. But if you get frustrated easily, you might want to stay away.
Sound:
Thankfully, this is still intact (I guess. I never heard the arcade's music, but the Saturn's is well done.) The tracks are techno and don't sound very scary, but some of them have these voices in them (including children's voices) which actually freak me out a little. Sound is good, although I'd say a notch below Virtua Cop. Those maggots make a squishing noise which sounds just like those cartoon soundbites. Voice acting is completely ridiculous. The lines aren't as bad as Resident Evil, but the acting is three times as worse. I think they were intentionally done to be B-movie quality, but I can't be sure.
Difficulty:
Holy crap. This game is very hard. I'm not ashamed to admit that I broke my promise to keep the difficulty cranked up all the way to get the most out of it after a couple runs through. However, I did beat it on the hardest setting that week. However, I'm not sure if I could consistently beat Hardest, and I didn't get the best ending either. Even on the easiest setting, you will have quite a time finishing it. Lives and continues can also be adjusted. The Saturn's exclusive game mode is supposedly much easier, but I haven't tried it.
Enjoyment:
If you are looking for a challenge, you will have a blast. Once you get a handle on surviving, you can have fun blasting zombies to pieces. This is like Resident Evil, except without inventory management, puzzles, and 500% more shooting. 2 players can partake in the fun. Double gunning is a lot of fun, but it does jack up the difficulty quite a bit.
Replay Value:
There are a whole slew of paths to take throughout the game (the first level has about 20 different ways to get through it, although the game gets progressively more linear.) There are also 3 endings to see based upon your performance.
Rant Session:
The true stars of this game are the zombies. You probably can picture them now; shambling undead menaces that lack basic intelligence, but have an unmatchable appetite for brains. Well, you're wrong. Actually, zombies are pretty adept at using various weapons like chainsaws, or lobbing barrels, and swinging into action on a crane. At least that's how this game depicts them. They almost never even eat people here, choosing instead to use weapons or hand-to-hand combat. All right, this game is a little bit silly. That's SEGA for ya. I really don't mind the absurdity of it all, but I do miss the fact that the zombies aren't really scary here.
Now, it's awfully hard to make sarcastic comments about a game as completely ridiculous as this one. Nevertheless, I still have some grips to vent here. Ahem... 6 bullets in a clip? Well, there is the Saturn exclusive mode, but I ain't counting that. Agent G? That's his name? Oh yeah, that's probably because he's so mysterious. His entire excerpt from manual:
"G" is approximately 35 to 40 years of age, but little else is known of Agent Rogan's partner's shadowy past. He devotes himself fully to the prosecution of his duties with an objectivity and preciseness that has been described as digital.
Well, I probably could have bull-shat that. I've also noticed that every lock in this game takes exactly 3 bullets to destroy. And the 'introduction' is one of the most half-assed (what exactly that means is a mystery) efforts I have ever seen. It literally consists of the camera zooming in on a phone as you hear Sophie's voice scream "Help, everyone's getting kil..." Total elapsed time: 10 seconds. Why did they even bother? Oh, I give up. Damn you, WOW!
Bottom Line:
Well, c'mon, its got ZOMBIES. Everybody likes zombies. But if you get frustrated easily, you might want to stay away.