Well it's true. You see, just a few short years ago a great gory game was
created in the form of House of the Dead, which was similar to classics
like Quake in that you stormed castles and mansions stuffed with baddies
and popped a cap in their ass to send them back to meet their maker.
The difference with House... was that you were seemingly placed on
invisible 'rails' that ushered you from location to location allowing you but a
short time to finish off the baddies before they tucked into your entrails.
The arcade version was a lot of fun, pointing a gun at the screen and shooting
light at the zombies - there's never been so much fun since the Tin Can
Alley toy in the late 70s/early 80s...
Now enter, Typing of the Dead. Whoever came up with the idea deserves
some kind of award for ingenuity but it doesn't quite come off as well as it
hoped: Zombie appears, but instead of blasting seven shades of shit out of it,
you and your trusty keyboard - strapped to your chest, as can be seen during
cut-scenes - will fight off the evil invaders tapping away such narratives
as "Film subtitles", "Police dog with flu" and "Cute school girl".
Do you wanna be in my gang? Well, if so you'd better have a crack and the
in-built typing tutor first if you're not already proficient in such matters.
While they move fast, the graphics appear a little jaded like a Playstation
game that's been blown up to show the rough edges. I don't recall the arcade
edition being quite like this but then it's a lot more fun to dish out the
silver bullets than it is to press a few keys in the right order. The zombies
go down quite well when you blast them, but if you have to look down at the
keyboard to complete a mission you'll miss the spectacle!
Most of the sound FX consists of gunshots. It's very loud and packs a punch
but there's not much more to it than that. The better you are at typing, the
easier the game will be and I can type fast, but it's still frustrating when
you inevitably miss a letter and break the flow and then before you know it
there's an axe in your head!
GRAPHICS SOUND EFFECTS AND MUSIC PLAYABILITY ORIGINALITY ENJOYMENT
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:
Since Jan 2011: Intel Quad Core Dell XPS 8100, i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80Ghz, 8Gb RAM, nVidia GeForce GTS 240, Windows 7
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
While they move fast, the graphics appear a little jaded like a Playstation
game that's been blown up to show the rough edges. I don't recall the arcade
edition being quite like this but then it's a lot more fun to dish out the
silver bullets than it is to press a few keys in the right order. The zombies
go down quite well when you blast them, but if you have to look down at the
keyboard to complete a mission you'll miss the spectacle!
