House of The Dead Overkill Review

After two frigid years of celibacy, the Wii has finally lost its virginity. Overkill snatches No More Hero’s trophy as the Wii’s most mature title and shoves it so far up Travis Touchdown’s backside that he’ll need his beam katana to cut it free. Make no mistake, for truly adult content, Overkill delivers.

But as tempting as this zombie holocaust is, don’t let its gory allure be the sole reason that you part with your cash. Because - and it pains me to say this - there is a lot to criticise. Veteran Nintendo heads have been crying out for a game just like this: a silly, sweary, blood n’ guts romp that treats its audience to some grown up naughtiness. And while Overkill ticks all the right boxes for a night of virtual sleaze it does very little else. Sadly, it seems, Sega forgot one vital ingredient: good old fashioned playability.

First under the cosh are the graphics. Overkill is a no nonsense on-rails shooter. So, you’d imagine that Sega, having little else to do but guide you through its set locations, could have concentrated on delivering some truly eye-popping scenery. Unfortunately the locations could not have been more drab and generic. Overkill drags you through cliché after cliché: hospital, prison, fairground, laboratory … you get the picture. Worse still are the shocking technical issues that mar the game. Slowdown occasionally creeps in, disrupting the unbroken flow of zombie killing and resetting your hard earned combos. There were even times when the game simply stopped working. Shocking.

Next up: longevity. Overkill is over in a couple of hours. Incentive to replay is limited to the uninspiring extras made available by completing certain objectives. Combo fanatics will undoubtedly relish stringing together kill after kill to the satisfying aural cue of ‘Psychotic!’, but there’s little skill involved in reaching the top score slots. Link's Crossbow Training is a far better example of how to implement and reward combos in on-rail shooters.

Those of you hoping to rope a mate into some hardcore murderation will also feel the unpleasant pinch of disappointment. With two cursors simultaneously scanning the screen, zombies evaporate into red mist as soon as their broken bodies shuffle into view. There is absolutely no sense of accomplishment. And trying to clock up combos in the confusing maelstrom of flying limbs and severed heads is simply not an option. It’s fun for 20 minutes of mindless mayhem but any longer than that and it feels as though you’re playing a point and click mouse game.

Overkill’s one saving grace is its option to ‘dual wield’. Pick up two remotes and dish out twice the death. At first, your brain will struggle and combos will be lost as your non-gaming hand jerks involuntarily away from its target. Persevere though, and you’ll be gun slinging like Jesse James. Two simultaneous headshots? Yes please! The ability to dual wield should now be a standard setting in all of Wii’s on rails shooters.

For everything that Overkill gets wrong it’s still, unarguably, a step in the right direction for adult gaming on the Wii. And for now at least, that’s good enough for me.