The House of the Dead: Overkill is a rail shooter light gun game developed by Headstrong Games and published by Sega for the Wii in 2009. It is a spin-off of The House of the Dead series, a non-canonical prequel to the original game chronologically and the first in the series to be released solely on a home console. An Extended Cut edition for PlayStation 3, compatible with the PlayStation Move accessory, was released in 2011. A mobile version, The Lost Reels was released on iOS and Android devices in 2013.
An alternate version, The Typing of The Dead: Overkill, was released for Microsoft Windows in 2013, replacing the game's shooting gameplay with keyboard typing mechanics from 1999's The Typing of the Dead. It includes the original shooting mechanics as an option.
Plot[]
During the Cold War, the U.S. military begins testing a superhuman formula called Formula X, which turns test subjects into violent mutants. Following this, the bunker for the experiments is shut down and abandoned. In 1991, AMS Special Agent G is given his first assignment and sent to a small town in Louisiana to investigate a series of disappearances and hunt down crime boss Papa Caesar. Due to the mutant outbreak, G is forced to team up with police detective Isaac Washington who is out to avenge his father's murder, which Caesar masterminded.
The pair first storm a mansion owned by Caesar out in the woods; upon reaching the basement, they find Caesar gone, having fled the mansion, and tetraplegic scientist Jasper Guns horrifically mutated from injecting himself with an unknown substance. Upon defeating Jasper, G and Isaac meet Varla Guns, a stripper and Jasper's sister who swears vengeance on Caesar. G and Isaac eventually track Caesar to an abandoned hospital. After dispatching the mutants and battling a mutant woman called the Screamer, they find a ringing phone hidden inside the Screamer. As they answer it, Caesar taunts both G and Isaac before rigging the hospital to explode. G and Isaac manage to escape the explosion, and hitch a ride on Varla's motorbike. As the three get into an argument, Varla abandons G and Isaac, who then go through a mutant-infested carnival to investigate, where they fight a conjoined mutant named Nigel and Sebastian. They and Varla then manage to catch up with Caesar at a train station, but as they argue over what to do with him, Caesar escapes on a train as G and Isaac give chase. The pair make their way through the mutant-infested train where they fight a mutant mantis called the Crawler, but an explosion causes the train to crash in a swamp where Caesar takes Varla hostage and drives off before leaving a cassette tape. G and Isaac then make their way through the swamps in an attempt to find an alternate way to wherever Caesar and Varla were heading for, dispatching more mutants and a giant mutant called the Lobber in the process.
As they exit the swamp, G and Isaac manage to track Caesar to a high security prison. Before they enter, they run into its eccentric warden, Clement Darling, who points the two in the direction of Caesar and Varla, but claims to know nothing about the mutants. As G and Isaac fight their way through the prison, they finally reach the electric chair theater where they find Varla and Caesar strapped to the chairs. Clement then reveals that he was behind the mutant outbreak and that Caesar was just an accomplice before electrocuting him. Following this, Clement explains that his experiments were to save his dying mother. Clement then descends on a giant elevator along with Varla, his mother, and Caesar's corpse. Seconds later, two gigantic, physically enhanced, convicts wearing black masks lumber in through the door, and one of them (who is named Brutus) suddenly turns around and beats his fellow convict to death before turning his attention to G and Isaac.
After dealing with Brutus and descending the elevator in pursuit of Clement, G and Isaac fight their way through hordes of mutants inside Clement's underground lab before finally reaching his center of operations. They discover Varla's brain has been taken out and kept alive in a jar, while Clement's mother's brain has been transplanted into Varla's body. At first it seems the experiment is successful, but as Varla's body begins to convulse, she falls into a pit after being gunned down by G and Isaac, mutating her into a giant monster called the Mother. As the duo prepare to face off against the creature, the screen cuts to a missing reel screen for a few moments. Once the reel resumes, G and Isaac are outside claiming victory over Clement and the Mother, thanking the use of miniguns they found randomly lying around nearby. However, the Mother regains consciousness and the pair battle her again. After finally killing it, Clement appears and seeks to atone for all the problems he caused by "returning to the womb" and enters the monster's body.
G and Isaac are picked up by a helicopter along with Varla's brain in a jar. Isaac then releases the detonator to destroy the facility. G tells Varla of his feelings for her, prompting him and Isaac to discuss the moral and political messages in the game's storyline and potential backlash, particularly from feminists. Soon after, the two realize the helicopter is being piloted by a mutant and point their guns at it, ending the game in a cliffhanger.
In Extended Cut, there are two new levels featuring Varla Guns and her fellow stripper named Candi Stryper, who was in love with Jasper Guns. It is a side story during the main game (set after the second and fourth levels), featuring the girls traveling through a strip club and a meat-packing plant, fighting grotesque mutant strippers Coco and Sindy, as well as minotauroid female butcher Meat Katie. The side story ends with Candi dying of blood loss after the battle with Meat Katie.
After the credits roll, Caesar's tape recording is played, revealing a message to Isaac that Clement's plans were small-minded but he has powerful friends (most likely a reference to Roy Curien, Caleb Goldman, and Thornheart), and that Isaac's father is still alive.