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Price: £39.99 Players: 1-2 Widescreen: No 60Hz: No Dolby Digital 5.1 sound: Yes My fingers have gone numb. I've had a handful of goes at House of the Dead 3 and I've made it to the final boss (Curien) - at least I hope that's the final boss as there's no way I could get past him and survive much longer. As all good gamers will know, the House of the Dead series is a first-person on-the-rails shooter which takes you along a linear path through a number of scenes during which you must blast the monsters into kingdom come before they strike you and you become a cropper. It's 2019 and you take the role of Lisa Rogan, daughter of Thomas Rogan, a science boffin who's been holed up by Dr Curien and who's put together a 'creation' known as Curien who's an absolute bastard to beat... at least I think that's the plot - but it doesn't really matter. You've got more to worry about with that damn security guard!

Graphically and sonically, it's unbelievable. Consoles such as the Xbox have finally allowed pixel-perfect replications of the arcade originals and they look bloody amazing as a result. Colour, blood, gore, rotting flesh, sparks, shiny bits... it's all there. Can't fault it. The sound, as usual for an Xbox game, is in Dolby Digital 5.1. If you do get a second to notice the surroundings then listen as creepy things creep about in a creepy style to your sides and behind you. Shoot your shotgun. It's all loud and it's all good. Some of the moaning monsters, however, sound like Kevin The Teenager whinging!

Playability is pretty damn good with just an Xbox controller too. Yes, there's an option for a lightgun - and only one from Madcatz is currently available - but once you've got the hang of using the left-hand joystick to move your cursor about freely and are twatting the right-hand button on the back frantically like a wild west gunslinger doing the same to repeatedly cock his gun as he shoots, then you can have some real fun with the game. However, there are times occasionally when the controls don't feel always as responsive as they should be. Sometimes the frantic shooting will result in nothing happening for a split-second when it should, which can result a quick death. I do get the feeling that I'd need a lightgun to have any real chance of finishing off Curien, but since it looks like he's the final baddie then I don't think it'd be worth spending the dosh just yet unless several more games are going to require the gun - although it tends to be only games of this type that use it, unless you like the kiddie-style shooting gallery games that often appear on a console.

While it's a largely linear game, it will differentiate slightly from the norm depending on how you perform certain tasks along the way, even if it does head towards the same end goal. One downside I found, though, was that the save/load function doesn't help you skip levels later and, hence, doesn't really seem to have much of a point being there - you always have to start from the beginning. Want some extras to this game? If you complete the Survival mode - which is the main game - you'll unlock the arcade version of House of the Dead 2, which was released on console form on the Dreamcast but without any form of lightgun. Also, there's preview footage of the forthcoming House of the Dead movie, due to be released later this year, but the game itself is getting a bit long in the tooth and, as for the film, George Romero did far better many years ago. It hasn't exactly set the movie world alight so I expect it'll go straight to video and DVD here. More info can be found on the Internet Movie Database.

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Review copyright © Dominic Robinson, 2003.

As of April 2009, Blu-rays and DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TH-37PX80B 37" Plasma TV with a Sony BDP-1500 Blu-ray player and played through a Yamaha DSP-AX820 amplifier.

PC games reviewed by the editor are on: