Strategy Guide - Guide for The House of the Dead

The House Of The Dead Strategy Guide


Information: -
Author: Tristan Kinslow
Date written: 19-7-97
E-mail: [email protected]
WebSite: http://freespace.virgin.net/chris.kinslow/
Version: 1.2


Contents

Introduction
     Note from Author
     What's NEW?
     Abbreviations
Information about the game
Tips and Cheats
      Top 7 tips
      Cheats
      Hidden room
      Endings
      On-screen reload trick
      Hidden lives
      Hostages
      Lives system
      Tips/strategies for bosses
      Different paths
      Glitches in the game
      Scoring System
      Tips on getting high scores
      THOTD trick
Overall
Credits

Introduction
^^^^^^^^^^^^

The Arcade Centre welcomes you to the first version of this FAQ. Hopefully
with your support and information given this FAQ could turn out very good.
Remember this is the first FAQ so don't expect much from this version. If
you have any information about the game or have any tips then I would be
very grateful if you could E-mail them at: - [email protected]

Note from Author
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Tristan Kinslow copyrights this FAQ. If you would like to contribute towards
this FAQ then send your tips at the E-mail address above. Be sure to check
out the WebSite above where you will be able to get the latest version of
this FAQ. Also This FAQ may not be posted anywhere else without permission.

What's NEW?
^^^^^^^^^^^

5/7/97  There has been a major update since version 0.1, this includes boss
        strategies and lots more tips and tricks. (v1.0)

6/7/97  New tips given from Bruce Tsu-Lieh Chen. They contain what different
        paths can be taken in the game. Aslo a glitch is stated. (v1.1)

19/7/97 Scoring system added and a load of tips on getting high scores. Also
        another THOTD trick has been added.

Abbreviations
^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The only abbreviation used at this time is: -

THOTD = The House Of The Dead



Information about the game
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Gun games have had a growing popularity due to the better technology used
in the games. Last year seemed to have people hooked on Virtua Cop 2 and
Time Crisis. Well since then people have been so hungry for more of these
types of games. Well since then things have moved on and now there is a new
gun game out from Sega, The House of the Dead has a brilliant theme and uses
the same gun from Virtua Cop 2. However the nature of this game's shooting
action is somewhat different. Although in the game you have six bullets
and have to re-load off screen. You don't have the circle around the
enemies, which makes this game harder and this way you are not told what to
hit. There are other similar things such as you can find extra lives in
crates and other objects.

The same innocent people situation applies and that is if you shoot an
innocent person you will lose a life. If on the other hand you save a person
they will sometimes give you an extra life. Saving certain people will
change different passages you follow. An example of this is on the bridge
outside the mansion there is a monster going to chuck an innocent person
over the bridge .If you save that person by shooting the monster the person
will give you an extra life but this will also change the course you
take, instead of going down the stairs you will go through the main mansion
doors. This is an element of the game, which gives it a greater freedom
thanks to the multiple routes. But the downside to this feature is that you
may have familiarised with a certain route and you can get thrown off to
another route. So this makes the game hard and can take longer to master
the game. Unlike Virtua Cop 2 where the game is slow this game is very fast
and furious, there is always monsters popping around different corners. The
unique selling point of the game is that it scares the wits out of you! When
you shoot a monster lots of blood pour out of them and there legs, arms and
head fall off. The blood looks realistic when it sprays every where. There
are lots of different monsters there are men with chainsaws, mutated
monkeys, frogs, bats and even bloated maggots for you to shoot.

The most difficult part of game as with most is the boss stages. There is
information on a scroll witch tells you everything about the boss and also
tells you the bosses weak point. The first boss is a giant knight, he can
only be hurt if you shoot him through the hole in the chest. Every time you
miss he will stagger forward and get closer and closer. Once you have shot
him through the hole a lot his armour should fall off then all you have
to do is strip his carcass of all his flesh!

Tips and Cheats
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The below sections, which contain tips and cheats, were taken from various
resources including Newsgroups.

Top 7 Tips
^^^^^^^^^^

1) Try to stick to the same route, do not try and explore other routes until
you have mastered the route you are currently on.

2) Blast at all the barrels and other objects you see, shoot bookcases,
trapdoors, even electronic switches. By doing so they sometimes lead to
other passages and sometimes you may be able to find extra lives (You will
need all the lives you can get your hands on if you want to complete the
game.)

3) Read carefully at of the bosses' profiles shown as they tell you what
the weak points of the boss are. (If you don't follow this you will be
wasting your time and will be wasting your money.)

4) If the monsters throw any objects be sure to shoot these this way you can
protect your lives.

5) Optional: - Try saving the man on the bridge you will in my mind go
an easier route than going down the sewer. (You won't be able to get into the
bonus room if you don't)

6) Playing the game in 2 -player is slightly easier but you must take into
consideration that more monsters will appear at one time. Example of this
is that instead of the usual 2 bats flying towards you, you will have 3 bats
appear.

7) Try shooting the upper parts of the monsters, if you do this you will
find that it will take less time and fewer bullets to kill a monster.

Cheats
^^^^^^
There are several different disguises that the players can wear. Only One
code will work at a time. They must be entered after the coins are inserted
and the "The House Of The Dead" logo is on screen. Take both guns, and
pressing the triggers, do the following:

        Player 1 is disguised, player 2 is normal L,L,R,L,L+start button
        Player 2 is disguised, player 1 is normal R,R,L,R,R+start button
        Both players are disguised L,R,L,R,L,R+start button
        Player 1 becomes Sophie, player 2 is normal R,L,R,R,L,L+start button
        Player 2 becomes Sophie, player 1 is normal L,R,L,L,R,R+start button
        Both players become Sophie L,R,R,L,L,R+start button
        The score is shown throughout the game L,L,L,R,R+start button

If you play as Sophie then the original Sophie will still be there. The
story line will remain the same and the Sophie in the game will address you
as Rogan even if you are Sophie.

Hidden room
^^^^^^^^^^^
Hidden Room of Stage Four If you rescue ALL the scientists in ALL 3 previous
stages, you will have access to the hidden room in stage 4. It has many
power ups and bonus items.

Endings
^^^^^^^
The game has three different endings.

1) The normal, "Leaving the House" ending

2) "Sophie is a corpse" ending. This will happen if the number of continues
it takes to complete the game ends in a 0 (EX. 0, 10, 20 etc...) The sum
applies to both players, ie; Player 1 (3 cont) Player 2 (7 cont)

3) "Sophie is alive" ending. To get this, you need to score at least
62,000 points and be ranked number 1 agent.

On-screen reload trick
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
The House of the Dead uses the same gun as VC2, and the same hit- detection
programming, so the on-screen reload trick works in THOTD, but the trick
requires 2 hands. This is how it's done, Quite simply using two hands on the
gun, place the first finger of your normally free hand near the end of the
barrel. Then, when you want to reload, move your finger over the end of the
barrel and shoot, never moving the gun from the target. Voila, a very quick
reload with no target requisition (with practice).

Hidden lives
^^^^^^^^^^^^
There are now four hidden lives that are known: -

1) There is a life hidden in the barrel near the water in the 1st stage
   (it only appears if the hostage that the zombie is carrying is thrown off
   the bridge and you take the path downwards).
2) A life is in the set of barrels on the right side in the room before the
   bosses' stage on the 1st stage.
3) On the second stage, just after the bats, the 2 slime things that fall
   down on you, the chain-saw geezer and the two squat things, before you
   rescue the hostage, shoot the boxes on the lhs of the corridor, there's
   a 1up in there.
4) A life is in the boxes on the right side in the first unlocked room in
the 3rd stage.

Hostages
^^^^^^^^
The rest of the life-ups are found from rescuing specific hostages,
End-of-level-bonuses for hostages rescued. This is the way the system
works: -
2 life-up for 6 rescued
1 life-up for 3 to 5 rescued
None for 2 or less
It's possible to save 6 on levels 1 and 2 but there are only 3 on the 3rd
level, and of course the bonus room where you can get 4 life-ups if you
rescue all 15 hostages throughout the game.

Lives system
^^^^^^^^^^^^
You can't have more than 5 lives at a time... sad but true. I'd like to see
how many lives that you could amass by the end of the game.

3 lives to start with

+ 2 life-ups from hostages saved on level 1

+ 1 life-up from that box on level 1

+ 2 life-ups for 6 hostages bonus on level 1

+ 3 life-ups from hostages saved on level 2

+ 2 life-ups for 6 hostages saved on level 2

+ 1 life-up from hostage saved on level 3

+ 1 life-up from life-up hidden in box on level 3

+ 1 life-up for 3 hostages saved on level 3

+ 4 life-ups from the bonus room on final level for rescuing all hostages

= 21 lives, that'd be funny. (assuming you lose no lives, which is
practically impossible)

Tips/strategies for bosses
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Below contains people's tips and strategies for the bosses of the game.


Type 27 Chariot - Basically, you have to keep him from walking up and
slicing you. His weak point is the glowing red circle below his right
shoulder (which is on the left side to players). Shooting him there causes
him to stumble back. After 4 shots, he stops and crouches for a second,
then gets back up. After 3 more shots, he stops and crouches again, and his
armour busts off. From here it's easy, just shoot him wherever you see
flesh. Once the flesh is shot it turns into bones, and you have to shoot
somewhere else. After most parts of his body are turned to bones, he dies.
Fighting him on Stage 4 is exactly the same.

Type 41 Hangedman - He starts out by commanding his bats to attack you. Keep
an eye on the entire screen, because bats will fly from all over. Shoot them
down as soon as you see them, and then go back to shooting Hangedman. Once
he loses a little more than half his life, any other bats left on the
screen die (although you can wait and shoot down all the bats and get more
points if you want). He then starts flying around the screen, and then
charges at you to slash you. You must shoot him quickly when he comes at
you. If you're playing with a friend, he will require more shots to push
back. Keep in mind that he only charges at you from the left and right
sides, never from the centre. On Stage 2, when you get him down to about
20% life, he flies around, invincible, and then flies off the screen. He
then knocks the characters off the roof, at which point they grab on to the
ledge at the last second. You can then resume shooting at him. He'll fly
up to come down on you from the top, just keep shooting at him even though
it's difficult when he's so far in the background. If you get that far,
it's pretty easy. On Stage 4, when you first encounter him again, he just
sits there for a couple seconds before the life bar comes up and he starts
sending bats at you. You can use this time to knock out a good deal of his
life!

Type 6803 Hermit - I sometimes have problems with this one. Its weak point
is the eyes (I think?), which can be difficult to hit. At the beginning,
he's dangerously close and must be shot fairly quickly or else you get
slashed. Just keep shooting at him until you hit the weak point, and he
gets knocked back. From there it's pretty easy to keep shooting at him.
After 6 shots, he goes off to the next tunnel and you follow him. He'll then
block his weak point and start shooting web balls at you. Neutralise those,
and go back to shooting at his head. Sometimes you can keep shooting his
weak point when he's at the very back of the tunnel, before he can
"block" any shots. After 5 or 6 shots, if you don't shoot the weak point
in time, he'll then climb and hang on the tunnel at an angle, block his
face and then start advancing towards you. He drops his guard when he gets
close, at which point it's difficult to hit him due to the fact that he's
changed position. Just fire away as fast as you can and maybe you'll get
lucky! After a total of 16 shots, he dies. And just for kicks, after the
final shot, if you keep shooting at him blood continues to pour out.


Here is a list of other tips: -

The boss that is hard is the huge bat man. When he starts charging you,
you'll find it hard to stop him every time from striking you or partner.
A hint is he doesn't charge until he reaches the left or right side. Make
sure you reload by this time, and then start firing like mad at him. Note
that he takes less shots to stop in 1-player mode, but if 2 people are
playing then he'll require extra damage to blast away, so make sure your
friend knows what to do.

Actually the Mage's weakness is where he doesn't has armour over it, the
place where he got wires looking thing. But it is best to shoot at his left
leg since it has the largest area of the weakness there.
Wherever he's flashing red, that's where he can be shot, but usually
aiming for his left thigh area is better.

Here's the magician's pattern, for those who don't know:

1. Spins around, throws two fireballs.

2. Remains still, throws two fireballs.

3. Throws four fireballs. Shoot at them while they're in his hand.

4. 1-3 is repeated until he takes enough damage.

5. Then he starts charging at you, either from the left or right side. AIM
FOR THE THIGH! It takes one shot to stop him, or two if you're playing with
a friend.

6. After 6 shots, he returns to steps 1-3... this time it doesn't take as
much damage to stop him from throwing the fireballs though.

7. Back to number 5, after 6 shots he stops.

8. Now he throws a bunch of fireballs up into the air, but he's vulnerable
for a good deal of time while he's gathering them. Again, aim for the thigh.
Shooting all the fireballs out of the air really ain't all that hard.

9. He'll do it again. Hopefully by now you'll be able to do enough damage
to destroy him before he can throw them into the air again.


Different Paths
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Paths:

1)The Bridge
   -Save the hostage on the bridge you will enter the house through the
    front door.
   -Let the hostage die and you will go under the bridge and enter the
    house from below.

2) The Lobby
   -Kill the right monkey and you will go to the left and up the
    stairs.
   -Kill the left monkey and you will go through the wall in front of
    you.
   -Kill both? I think you will go through the hall in front of you.

3) The corridor(after you go through the wall from (2) ) that has a hole on
   the floor
   -Kill everything and you will go to the room on the left.
   -Let the Zombies(those after the 2 monkeys) hit you and you will fall
    through the hole into the sewer.

4) The corridor(after the painting room)
   -If you let the zombies hit you, you will fall down to the lower level.

5) The first room after you kill Chariot (the first boss)
  - shoot the chain door on the floor to go down to the sewer.
  - Or don't shoot it and go through the big door.

6) The room with the switch
  - Hit it up and you will go across the bridge.
  - Hit it down and you will jump down and then climb up the stair on the
    left.

7) The two elevators.
  - Hit the switch to decided which way to go.

8) Saving the scientist (with the Zombie's back towards you)
  - Kill the zombie and you will go through the door on the right.
  - Let the scientist die and you will go down the hole and get the key
    pass and climb backup.
  * It is better to save the scientist

9) The two steel door.
  - Shoot the first steel door will lead you through and up the bridge
  - Enter the second door will lead you under the bridge and then up.

Glitches in the game
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

There is only one glitch in the game that i know.

1) When you fight chariot on the final level again you can push him all the
   way back through the rock wall if you shoot him fast enough and not let
   him walk forward much.


Scoring System
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Due to the only way of seeing the true ending is to get 1st ranking (62,000)
To help you get 1st ranking heres the scoring system.

Each scientist you recue:                       +400
Each scientist killed by a monster:             -100
Each scientist you kill:                        -200
Each monster killed:                            +80
Each time you shoot a monster's head:           +120
Each time you are hit by a monster:             -100
Each time you collect a medal:                  +200
Each time you obtain a golden frog:             +1000
Stage 1 Boss:                                   +1500
Stage 2 Boss:                                   +1500
Stage 3 Boss:                                   +1500
Stage 4 Boss:                                   +2500


Tips on getting high scores
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
This section was kindly given by Matt Hall

SCORING

The House of the Dead has a scoring system that rewards skillful shooters,
but strangely your score is not shown during gameplay unless you enter in the
code to reveal it (insert quarter(s), push the Left trigger 3 times, the
Right trigger 2 times, then Start). Otherwise, your score is only shown after
the end of a level. So why should *YOU* care about points? Well, the Ranking
list is shown immediately after the Game Over screen. Wouldn't you like to
have your initials at the top of the list?  :)    And, you won't achieve
"Rank 1" and get the "Good ending" where Sophie lives unless you score 62000
points or more.

Unfortunately, you can not enter your initials in to the list unless you
finish the game. Even if your score was high enough when you died, you won't
be prompted for your initials.

So, here's a few pointers on achieving high scores.

1. PLAY ALONE. This is pretty obvious, since if you have a partner helping
you you won't be getting all the points. I usually ask people that I don't
know not to join in when I play, especially since they end up killing
hostages and make the bosses harder...

2. AIM FOR THE HEAD. You get maximum points for killing an enemy by shooting
him in the head. Typically, you get 200 points if they require one shot to
the head to be killed, or 320 if they take two shots. Otherwise, you're only
awarded 80 points for the kill, no matter how many limbs you shoot off.
Obviously, enemies like spiders, killer frogs, etc. only award 80.

3. SAVE THOSE HOSTAGES! You usually get 480 points or so when you save a
hostage, sometimes more, sometimes less. If they're killed, you'll miss out
on a few points, and more importantly you'll miss out on the bonus room on
the last stage! In the bonus room you can add a few thousand points to your
current total, so it pays off.

4. CHOOSE YOUR PATH CAREFULLY. Since some routes seem to have less enemies or
bonus items, it helps to know which paths will give you the most points.
Here's what I do in every game:
Stage 1: Save the hostage on the bridge. When inside the house, shoot the
monkey on the left to take the path through the middle. Shortly after, when
the hole opens up, let the big zombie knock you down the hole (it'll cost a
life, but in the long run it's worth it, IMO).
Stage 2: Shoot at the hidden entrance on the floor at the beginning to take
that route. When you reach the room with the switch that can activate the
bridge, don't shoot it, it's better to jump down then climb up the stairs.
Stage 3: When you come to the two elevators, take the one on the left. Near
the end of the level, after killing the two guys with the ball-and-chains and
the little blue freaks, take the door on the right (this is automatic, unless
you shoot at the door on the left)


Here's some other tidbits:

When you lose a life, you LOSE 100 points. So try not to die too much, if you
can help it...

The coins and hopping frogs that you find by shooting boxes, crates, etc.
throughout the house award points. The coins award 200 and the frogs award a
whopping 1000 (naturally, the frogs are rarer). There's three frogs in the
bonus room, make sure to shoot those (and the life-ups, of course)

The first three bosses award 1500 points when killed, the last boss awards
2500.

To gain some extra points when you're fighting against Hangedman on Stages 2
and 4, don't shoot him down so quickly at the beginning! Instead, concentrate
your shots on the bats. You earn 80 points per bat, wipe them all out! It
also seems that if you shoot Hangedman's head, you get 120 points. I don't
know if this is a "special weak point", but it's kinda odd. Shoot at the head
when you're not shooting at the bats, if you aim high you'll miss most of the
time (and you don't want to do too much damage to him immediately). When he
starts charging though, just shoot at his body.

You can earn extra points when Hermit on Stage 3 dies by shooting his weak
point as he crumples to the ground! And blood keeps coming out too... (note:
every successful shot on his weak point awards 120 points)


Doing all this, I find that I often have about 18000 points at the end of
Stage 1, around 40000 at the end of Stage 2, 65000 or more by Stage 3, and
more than 80000 by the end of the game! (if I got the bonus room, that is) My
personal high score is 82420... can it get much higher?  :)


THOTD Trick
^^^^^^^^^^^
This section is by Donny Chan

SIght a zombie, aim slightly above the torso of the (humanoid) zombie, and
discharge three or more shots at the zombie. The idea is to terminate the
zombies ASAFP by taking out its head. (As i use the on-screen reload
trick, my gun's always pointing at the screen, so i don't worry about
recalibrating my death dot after each reload.)

REMINDER: The scientists in THOTD unlike those in VC2, don't always yell for
help
 before or when they appear


Overall
^^^^^^^

The game overall is brilliant if you enjoy gun games. This game has a lot to
offer in the way of gameplay and depth. If you want a game that is
challenging then this is the game for you. This game does not get boring
overall due to the 2 main factors. The first factor is that there are lots
of monsters popping up at one time and there is no long waiting between
scenes unlike Time Crisis which in my mind made the game get boring seeing
this over and over again. The second Factor is multiple routes, which stops
boredom setting in. But instead of getting bored of doing the same route
every time you can do other routes which also makes the game challenging
and exciting.



Credits
^^^^^^^
     Thanks to the following people for information used in this FAQ: -

     Name:                                      E-mail:
        
     William Skywalker                          [email protected]

     Donny Chan                                 [email protected]

     Matt Hall                                  [email protected]

     Keith Slaght                               [email protected]

     Bruce Tsu-Lieh Chen                        [email protected]

     Wd                                         [email protected]