The House of the Dead: Remake

The House of the Dead: Remake can be an enjoyable return to the classic arcade rail shooter, but performance hiccups and frustrating controls are scarier enemies than the zombies themselves.

It’s a valiant effort, and an impressively authentic recreation all-in-all, but it just doesn’t hold up from a modern perspective – especially without a lightgun in-hand.

When it all works like it should, The House of the Dead: Remake is a fun update of a Sega arcade classic. The performance can be janky and the controls clunky on its default settings, but if you're willing to put the time in to tweak them you should get something you're happier with. You shouldn't have to do that with a light gun shooter, though, and the fact you do has to go down as a failing on the game's part.

The House of the Dead: Remake had a lot working in its favor going in that didn't pan out in the end.

The House of the Dead: Remake is just as delightfully trashy, brutal, and entertaining as the original, whose structure, style, and atmosphere it skillfully emulates. However, aside from new graphics and Horde Mode, it doesn’t expand on the original experience in any way. That said, considering that the original The House of the Dead was never ported to more modern devices and its ancient PC version is technically very stripped-down and poorly executed, we can be glad that, thanks to this remake, today’s players can also experience this arcade classic.

The House of the Dead: Remake brings the original game up to today's standards when it comes to its graphics and controllers, and adds a very welcome and addictive game mode, all good reasons to see this as a successful work on the Nintendo Switch. Its technical performance could be better though, with slowdowns taking place in busier moments, especially in multiplayer, and long loading times that will test the players' patience.

If you want to get into House of the Dead Remake, wait for the price to go down, which it will unless older players like me snap up copies without looking up reviews. There is simply not enough under the hood to make it worth the price of admission and let's face it, Activision collected Tony Hawk Pro Skater 1&2 together before releasing it, Dying Light and Witcher released on Switch with all DLC. This is just lazy. It was fun though, I have to add that, just not $60 worth of fun.

THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD: Remake is an excellent remake in the true sense of the word. It falls short in some corners such as longevity, new content or even the lack of a proprietary online mode, making it hard to justify the asking price at launch. It is, however, still a fun experience with the frantic pace at which the levels progress and the new unlockable weapons. Given the simplicity of the title and how faithful it is to the arcade experience, you need to set your expectations correctly before hitting the buy button.

A remake of the second game has already been confirmed and with that game being my personal favorite, I’ll certainly be picking it up, but I’ll be the first to admit this setup isn’t perfect. As with all games, there are things you like and things you don’t, but not having a Light Gun in a Light Gun game is always going to be a problem. Let’s hope we see a VR release later on down the line.

It's a shame, but House of the Dead: Remake is a game for few. Although it's fun to shoot zombies and monsters without worrying about more complexities, after a while the experience becomes demanding and repetitive. It lacked more stages and a more balanced difficulty level, especially with regard to unlockables. There is life in this title, but it ends up being recommended only for fans of the shooter and horror genre.