This most recent version of the arcade classic takes place 19 years after House of the Dead II for the Dreamcast. Playing as either Lisa Rogan or Agent G, gamers will blast through wave after wave of zombies while searching for Lisa's father, Thomas, who has disappeared in an industrial complex that doubles as a home for myriad undead creatures. Fortunately for Thomas, but unfortunately for gamers, you should be able to accomplish your mission in little more than an hour.

Gameplay
The House of the Dead series is about as far from complicated as you can get, and the third title stays true to this tradition. Aim, fire, reload and repeat is the premise of the game, and it pulls it off flawlessly.

A new twist is the ability to choose the order in which you'll tackle several of the game's six levels, a choice that influences the routes you take through each one. On the surface this seems to offer some variety to the otherwise "on rails" first-person shooter, but choosing several order combinations still leads you through the same levels and ultimately the same final bosses.

The first (and to date, the only) game to support a lightgun peripheral, The House of the Dead III is best experienced using the extra hardware, which truly helps to capture the game's arcade roots. But if you're reluctant to pay for a peripheral that only one game supports, using the standard Xbox controller is surprisingly simple and will actually make it easier to aim your targeting reticule.

Regardless of your hardware choice, the developers have introduced an auto-reload feature designed to save time while targeting the massive number of undead creatures the game throws at you. Ironically, the auto-aim can at times take an eternity, making you wish you could turn off the feature and blast through zombies at what would surely be a faster pace with manual reloading.

This "considerate" inclusion of auto-reload also detracts slightly from the overall charm of the series, which until now has forced you to reload manually by aiming your lightgun off the screen. While the decision to insert this new feature may have been tied to the need to make it controller-friendly, it just doesn't feel quite like a House of the Dead game without it. The option to "opt out" would have been a simple but most welcome addition to the game.

Graphics
Having begun its digital life as a cel-shaded game but returned to its traditional roots late in the development cycle, The House of the Dead III is a significant graphical upgrade from its predecessors. Occasionally its cel-shaded beginnings will be apparent in a zombie's coloration or design, but for the most part the game's environments and characters take advantage of the lighting effects, textures and graphical power of the Xbox.

Blast a hole through the blubber of the game's fattest zombies and you'll see right through their absent abdomen to the environment or other creatures behind them. Enter a hallway filled with shocker zombies and you'll see their electroshock prods emit an eerie blue glow onto the highly textured walls. Walk through a room in complete darkness with only a flashlight, and you'll see the light realistically illuminate the area around and in front of you.

The only complaint about The House of the Dead III's graphics isn't related to the presentation at all. At issue is the likely scenario that by spending time transitioning the game from its cel-shaded origin to this grittier version may have reduced the amount of time WOW Entertainment had to develop more levels. And given the quality of the game's levels and characters, that extra development time would have been a good thing.

Sound
If you like groans, moans and the sound of blood splattering across the ground, you'll be entirely pleased with the sound effects in The House of the Dead III. If you're an audiophile with a highly tuned ear for Dolby 5.1 audio, well, you'll get good use of your center channel and subwoofer. Nothing in the game sneaks up on you from behind, which renders your rear speakers essentially useless.

The in-game soundtrack is effective, and it actually helps somewhat in setting up the action of particularly intense bouts of shotgun blasting. Of course, shotgun blasts are the primary sounds in the game, so don't expect to see the soundtrack CD on sale at a retail store near you.

Replayability
Let's face it, The House of the Dead III is a lightgun game with roots in the arcade, and how many times did you plug a paycheck's worth of quarters just to obliterate the next wave of zombies? That said, The House of the Dead III is a lightgun game with roots in the arcade, and how often did you actually go in expecting an engrossing plot or deep multiplayer options?

Although your performance has an impact on the number of unlockable features you'll see (additional footage in the final scene, for example), none will make you invest another 45 to 60 minutes to beat the game with a better rating. And yes, the game really is that short. Owners will likely play again when the occasional impulse to kill some zombies comes around, but it's not the type of game they'll sit up at night (or four hours from now) thinking about popping back in their Xbox.

Two unique features that slightly increase the game's replayability are the inclusion of a full version of The House of the Dead 2, which is unlocked after beating the game, and a short "documentary" about the making of The House of the Dead movie. These are relatively small additions, but they're additions to a game whose brevity is in desperate need of something, anything, to extend its duration.

The House of the Dead III is an extremely solid game for what it offers: frantic, next-gen monster killing with oodles of green goo. For fans of the series or people who know exactly what they're getting, the game will most certainly be a prized possession. For everyone else, The House of the Dead III will best serve as a rental when you just need to blow holes in the heads of the undead.

See more screens on the House of the Dead III media page