Walkthrough - Guide for The House of the Dead 3

               T H E   H O U S E   O F   T H E   D E A D   III

                                WALKTHROUGH


Systems: Arcade, Microsoft X-Box
Written by: F. Pelayo
Version 0.3

© 2003 Ferdinand Pelayo
The House of the Dead 3 © 2002 Sega


========
Contents
========
        0) Revision History
        1) Introduction
        2) Gameplay
        3) Walkthrough:
                (a) Chapter 0
                (b) Chapter 1
                (c) DFI Institute / EFI Genome Ward
                (d) L2/L3 BIO Plant
                (e) Information Systems Dept. West/East Wing
                (f) Chapter 5
        4) Credits & Misc.


============================================================================
(0) Revision History
============================================================================
0.3 - February 22, 2003
     Most of the basics of gameplay and strategies for most of the bosses are
up, which is pretty much all you need to know for the arcade. :)

0.0000000001 - February 18, 2003
     The day I started writing this. :)


============================================================================
(1) Introduction
============================================================================
     First thing I must say is that I'm NOT an expert/veteran HotD player.
Heck, I'm not even an expert light-gun shooter player.  I've played some HotD1
and watched others beat it, and I beat HotD2 within a week of it coming out in
my area. (and wasting the usual newbie amount of 20+ credits :()

     As for this one, I walked into a mall arcade on a whim, expecting to just 
browse, and walked out wasting about $35 on this game. (damn...)  Well, I 
decided later that night that since I spent an amount equal to getting a 
recent, good-shape used console game here in Canada, I might as well get the
most out of my money and hae bragging rights to the first HotD3 FAQ. :)

     Now, since I'm poor and can't afford the $1-credits that my local machine
costs every week, and I don't plan on buying an X-box --- EVER --- don't
expect this walkthrough to cover every nook and cranny.  This will be mainly
for people playing the arcade who need tips and boss strategies.  Actual
descriptions for the levels will have to be based on me watching other people
play, since it's kinda hard to shoot and take notes at the same time. (and
from the high scores on the machine I beat, only 2 other have beaten the game
before me, so it's gonna be a while...)  I'll gladly stop writing if someone
with more HotD experience and the X-Box version.  Just post on the GameFAQs
board for the arcade or X-Box.


============================================================================
(2) Gameplay
============================================================================
Player 1: Lisa Rogan
Player 2: G

-----
Story
-----

Year: 2019 A.D.

     Thomas Rogan, former AMS Agent from HotD1, and his personal elite
commando team are searching for something in some complex.  After losing
most of his team to the zombies, he and Dan Taylor (his only remaining
commando) reach their objective, but are then attacked by a giant monster
(Death).  Rogan is knocked out from the blow and awakens to find someone
familiar-looking standing over him...

     Two weeks later, Lisa Rogan gets G, the other former AMS agent from
HotD1, to accompany her to the complex to find out what happened to her dad.

---------
Equipment
---------
     Unlike the previous HotD's, you must use a pump-load shotgun instead of
a pistol as your light gun in the arcade (X-box users can use controllers or
whatever light pistols are available for it).  Properly using it is tricky.
You must be a reasonable distance away from the screen in order for it to
shoot accurately.  I've had trouble hitting targets when I stood with my
legs right next to the coin slot; sometimes, it wouldn't even shoot at all
even when loaded.

     One advantage of the shotgun over the pistol in the arcade is its power.
When delivering the last blow to a zombie, you can also damage the zombie
behind it.  Its main disadvantage is its size.  Even using two hands, my arms
get tired faster and my trigger finger hurts a lot sooner playing this than
HotD2 or Time Crisis 2.

     The process of reloading is much more convenient - in the arcade you
pump the shotgun instead of pointing away from the screen and firing, and the
home version has an auto-reload option.

------
Health
------
     Same rules as before.  You start with 3-5 life points represented by
torches.  There are hidden Life Ups in containers (drums, boxes, etc.) that
are worth one life point each.  You can also save your partner for a life
point bonus.  Since there are no civilians to save in the complex, they put
your partner in danger instead and you have to kill all the enemies close
to him/her until he/she can escape safely.  You lose the bonus if an enemy
hits him/her.  For Player 1 and 2-player games, it's usually G that's in
trouble; for Player 2 it's Lisa.

-----
Items
-----
Life Up - self-explanatory; one to find per level

Coin - some coins give you an instant bonus and disappear; others sit
       there and you can shoot it for as long as it's on the screen for
       100 pts/hit

Animals - you may see something like a frog or dragonfly come out of a
          container and move all around an area of the screen (and if you
          don't see it, you'll certainly hear it moving); hit it for a big
          bonus (usually 4-digit points)

-----------
Boss Fights
-----------
     In each boss fight you'll see a long green bar at the top of the screen,
then the word Boss just below with a smaller bar to the right (usually red,
sometimes blue).

long life bar - the boss' overall health

short life bar - can be...
  (a) the health of a component/piece of the boss, and/or...
  (b) the amount of damage you must do to stun the boss and prevent it from
      making its next attack

     In cases where you must hit the boss' main weak point in order to reduce
the short bar, you'll be doing damage to both the short and long bars.  Even
if you fail to deplete the short bar, you'll still be hurting the boss
overall. (i.e. it's not like you'll never kill it if you don't stun it at
every chance)

============================================================================
(3) Walkthrough
============================================================================
--------------
Normal Enemies
--------------
Mark Series (maakushiriizu) - standard male zombie; comes in various forms

Morris (moorisu) - zombies with heavy axes

Kageo - skinny rotting corpse; 0 muscle left on its bones

Max - the hand-axe wielders from HotD2; some have chainsaws

Ebitan - humanoid covered in what looks like green slime; kinda like a Swamp
         Thing ripoff

Jury (jurii) - zombie with white top and blue pants

Vic (biiko) - knife-weilding zombie; face and forearm are usually covered with
              some type of bandage/cloth; can jump in your face and stab you
              or toss its knife from a distance

Big Ebitan (koebitan) - same as Ebitan, with a more rounded head and visible
                        teeth

Hugh (hyuu) - agile midget usually holding something as a weapon

Aztec (asuteku) - bald, muscular, topless zombies; some carry metal beams as
                  weapons, while ones that don't will stretch with a shoulder
                  circle before running into you with a clothesline

Charles (chaarusu) - big bald fatsos that chug along until they ram into ya

commando zombies - some look like Guile from Street Fighter 2, some like
                   Rolento from Final Fight with a knife instead of a club

Birds of Prey (mookin) - usually a group of 3 birds that'll fly straight up
                         off the screen, then circle about far away before
                         diving in close on you

bats - these come in large groups; they usually move slow and are easy to hit

cockroaches - light green bugs that'll jump in your face and damage you if
              don't shoot them off after 2 seconds

worms/eels - maroon-reddish slimes crawling on the ground




_______________________________________________

(3.A) CHAPTER 0 - Reminiscence
_______________________________________________




Flashback scene: Goldman swears to his son Daniel that he'll cure him, even
                 if he has to "tread into forbidden territory."
_______________________________________________

(3.B) CHAPTER 1 - Chasing Shadows
_______________________________________________
     Lisa and G arrive at the EFI complex 2 weeks after Rogan did.

     Before you enter the front gate, you get to choose which path through
Chapter 1 that you wanna take - Front Entrance or Parking Lot.  Doesn't
really matter which you choose.  I prefer the Parking Lot, as the normal
zombies there are in smaller bunches.  With the Front Entrance, there'll be
a mass of zombies sitting at the foot of the front steps.

     For the first set of zombies after going through the gates, head-shot
the one running up on the right, then take the others apart one-by-one.
Next are 3 zombies crawling out of the security booth.  The set after that
you have to be a bit alert for.  Shoot the Morris on the right the moment you
see it, before its axe comes down, then take care of the one on the left.
Next, the screen moves right and you'll have to get rid of 2 Charles' (3 for
2 players).  After that a couple of normal zombies pop out from behing the
debris.  Take some time before they pop out (and/or after you kill them) to
shoot the barrel that's partially covered by a piece of wall and shoot the
frog that hops out for points.



==========
BOSS NAME: Death
BOSS TYPE: 0011
DESCRIPTION: A giant security guard wielding a club filled with skulls.
WEAK POINT: head

Strategy:

     Nothing complicated.  Just keep shooting his head and try to empty the
short Boss life bar before he swings his club.  The amount of damage your
shots do depends on how accurately you hit him square on the noggen.
==========

     After stunning Death for the first time, you'll go along the path you
chose at the start of the Chapter.  If you go through the front, there's a
Life Up in a drum at the top of the stairs.  For the parking lot, you'll
see a pair of drums on the other site of the lot entrance when you get to
the bottom of the stairs leading down.  Try to not overkill the 4 zombies
there - i.e. don't shoot them when they're already down on the ground - and
use the time while they're writhing on the floor to shoot the drums for the
Life Up.


     After you get to an elevator, you get to start choosing the order of the
next three levels.  Each end of each level is connected to each other via
elevator up until Chapter 5.  For example, if you choose BIO Plant as the 2nd
level, using the Front Entrance elevator makes you start BIO Plant from the
L2 end and using the Parking Lot elevator starts you at the L3 end.  I'll let
the real HotD FAQ writers figure out the exact relationships between stages,
but I'll give ya the choices that you start with:

Front Entrance elevator                                Parking Lot elevator
-----------------------                                --------------------
EFI Genome Ward                                               DFI Institute
L3 BIO Plant                                                   L2 BIO Plant
Information Systems Dept. West Wing     Information Systems Dept. East Wing



     No matter what you choose as the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th stages, the names
of the chapters and the Curien flashbacks you see stay the same:

Chapter 2 - Bewilderment
  Flashback scene: Curien shows Daniel a vile and tells him nobody will have
to fear death with it.

Chapter 3 - Sensory Chaos
  Flashback scene: Curien asks Daniel if what he's doing is right, since all
of his researchers have left him.

Chapter 4 - Ultimate Challenge
  Flashback scene: 

_______________________________________________

(3.C) DFI Institute / EFI Genome Ward
_______________________________________________
     Both roads lead to the same entrance to the circular cage where The Fool
waits.

-------------
DFI Institute
-------------



---------------
EFI Genome Ward
---------------



==========
BOSS NAME: Fool
BOSS TYPE: 0028
DESCRIPTION: A giant sloth.
WEAK POINT: claws

Strategy:

     You'll start by targetting its left claws one at a time.  The first two
are easy to handle, as Fool crawls relatively slow to the left.  Don't use
this as an excuse to slack off though.  When you stun it, it doesn't get
knocked back so it basically will keep inching closer and closer to slash
you until the claw is "dead."  He's slow with the front left claw, but moves
a little faster with the rear left claw.

     After you finish both left claws, Fool rattles the cage and causes hanged
corpses above to fall on you.  It looks like a small close clump of bodies
from far away, but there are more corpses behind the ones you see so shoot
them all fast.  The corpses  funnel into one space on the screen up close.  I
essentially pick a corpse to aim at and keep shooting in that direction until
I don't see corpses coming from that way anymore before moving to shoot in a
different spot.

     The next claw to destroy is the right rear one, and Fool moves VERY fast
across the cage to the right during this part.  Even though the target is much
closer to the screen, I have a lot of trouble targetting it accurately in this
phase of the fight.  This is one point where having 2 players helps a lot.

     After the 3rd target is "dead," you'll face another barrage of corpses
from above before targetting the last claw.  Since his other claws are all
shot up, it can't climb across the cage at you - so it resorts to jumping and
slashing you with its one good claw.  This is essentially like fighting
Hierophant from HotD2 when it jumps in the air, except that you need more hits
to stun this boss and prevent it from attacking.  I think I've only been
successful stunning Fool once at this point...
==========


_______________________________________________

(3.D) L2 / L3 BIO Plant
_______________________________________________
     For once, they've put a boss right in the middle of a stage.  You'll be
playing from one level of this stage to the other.  Not all the enemies you
see in one direction will be the same in the other direction.

------------------
Level 2 to Level 3
------------------



------------------
Level 3 to Level 2
------------------



==========
BOSS NAME: Sun
BOSS TYPE: 8830
DESCRIPTION: A tree with skulls and flowers on the trunk, and tentacle-stems
             with 5-petal flowers on the ends
WEAK POINT: skulls on the trunk

Strategy:

     Start by emptying 2 full shotgun loads into its weak spot.  By the time
you're done that, it will send stuff to attack you.  After you take care of
those, empty 2 more sets of 6 shells into the skulls and repeat the process.

     For the first half of the fight it sends various tentacle attacks at
you:

- 3 tentacles that swirl around the screen right in front of the trunk.
- 3 tentacles winding around from the left or right (and these can come slow
  or fast)
- 2 tentacles digging their way through the ground; can be one from the left
  and one from the right, or both from the same direction

The objective of course is to destroy the flowers on the ends before they
attack you.  Pretty simple when the tentacles are airborne, but you may find
the ones in the ground tricky (shoot the yellow spark).  Even if you can't
seem to destroy them while they're in the ground, you must damage them
enough so that you can finish them off in one or 2 shells when they pop out
to lash at you.

     In the second half of the fight, Sun will rely on the flower above the
skulls to attack you.  When you see it open up, empty one load of shells
into it, then wait to see what attack it does.  If a face pops out, simply
shoot and drain the red Boss life bar before it bites you.  If it throws
spikes in the air, shoot some of them as they're going up and finish the
rest before they come down on your face.  It's technically possible to
damage the flower and prevent it from throwing the spikes, but I find this
hard to do by myself.  Should be easy to do with 2 players.
==========


_______________________________________________

(3.E) Information Systems Dept. East Wing
_______________________________________________
     Lisa will step out of the elevator and take a wrong turn into security
lasers.  Her and G run to escape the closing security barriers.  After
they're "safe," a big hand suddenly grabs the last barrier before it closes
and lifts it all the way up.  It's Death, and you'll have to fight it all
throughout this level.

==========
BOSS NAME: Death
BOSS TYPE: 0011
DESCRIPTION: A giant security guard wielding a club filled with skulls.
WEAK POINT: head
==========

     Like the BIO Plant, you work from one end of the stage and end up at
the other, depending on which elevator you took to get here.


------------
West to East
------------


------------
East to West
------------






Flashback scene: Curien is in mad ecstasy, saying he's found the Magician
                 and the Wheel of Fate.
_______________________________________________

(3.F) CHAPTER 5 - Wheel of Fate
_______________________________________________



==========
BOSS NAME: Wheel of Fate
BOSS TYPE: 0
DESCRIPTION: Silver humanoid being, always floating in the air.
WEAK POINT: head? chest?

Strategy:


==========


============================================================================
(4) Credits & Misc.
============================================================================
     Thanks go to:

- all the HotD2 FAQ writers, whose FAQs I used to cross-reference items and
  enemies that return in HotD3
- ... well, thanks - I think - to Sega and WOW for making me spend more in
  the arcade on this game than it would have took for me to buy it ^^;;