After putting an end to the 1998 Curien Mansion Incident, the members of the special government agency AMS thought the world was safe again. The Curien case revolved around Dr. Curien, a somewhat deranged scientist obsessed with experimenting on the dead and the living. His research opened a gate to the afterlife, and the dead rose from the grave.

This was the premise of the original The House of the Dead (released on both the Sega Saturn and arcade platforms). In it, players assumed the roles of G and James Taylor, two of the best government agents in the business. Their hellish journey took them through the depths of a mansion full of dead zombies, snakes, bats, and other creepy mutant creatures. After finding Dr. Curien, they executed the scientist and left the premises.

As it turns out, this was their big mistake. A mysterious man named Goldman had been tracking the two AMS agents all the way to Dr. Curien. After they left, he took the dying scientist's research and swore he would see to it that Dr. Curien's plans were realized.

Forwarding to the year 2000, we find that Goldman has done just that. Using the research, he has re-created the horrific scenes found within the Curien mansion -- only this time, an entire town has been overrun by monsters. After hearing the news, James Taylor and the new AMS agent Gary Stewart enter the city with their guns blazing.

Ported directly from the Arcade, The House of the Dead 2 is the Dreamcast's first light gun shooter. Players assume the role of either James Taylor (first player) or Gary Stewart (second player) in their quest to find Goldman and stop the genetic terror that is threatening the once peaceful town.

There are a few different game modes: Arcade, Original, Training, Boss, and Ranking. The Arcade mode is an exact conversion of the original arcade version of The House of the Dead 2, whereas the Original option features acquired items and bonuses. The acquisition of items throughout the city comes by shooting various barrels or boxes -- hidden items like gun power-ups and health packs are secretly strewn about.

A relatively common Sega home version inclusion is the Boss mode, which allows players to fight every boss they've encountered in the game. The idea is to kill them as fast as possible without dying. Players new to the light gun genre, as well as those looking for some new challenges, may want to try out the Training mode. Training sets you up with certain scenarios to complete, for example, shooting all the enemies in under thirty shots or saving all the hostages. Each time a training scenario is completed, players are awarded a star that goes towards their overall ranking (which can be accessed on the main menu screen).

Gameplay is fairly similar to the original The House of the Dead. Played from a first-person perspective, The House of the Dead 2 is an on-rails shooter broken into five different chapters (Judgement, Hierophant, Tower, Strength, and Magician) with multiple paths. On-rails simply means the game moves players down a preset path. Slightly different in this game is that players are allowed you to choose their path by either saving or failing to save innocent people. Some paths are much more difficult than others, but those difficult ones may lead to greater rewards -- finding them is the trick!

The House of the Dead 2 can be played with the standard Dreamcast controller (via analog stick) or a third-party light gun (sold separately).

House of the Dead 2 (Sega Dreamcast, 1999)