The Hanged Man

Its been a long while folks, but I am currently addicted to my PS2 and playing it like a madperson.

I not so long ago completed The House of the Dead 3 for the PC and Im sure you know that game since its very popular. The story doesnt differ much from the rest of the games but the gameplay is different. In HOD3 you use a shotgun instead of pistols or sub-machineguns. The downside to this is that the shotguns take very long to reload and have a smaller ammount of bullets every ammunition round. This makes it hard to fight bosses since the damage is not so much different than normal pistols or submachineguns in the other games. The other downside to the machinegun is that every shot you take, the blast area of the shot is very wide. This makes it EXTREMELY hard to get a headshot even if you are right on target. I can truly call myself a pro in getting headshots in whatever lightgun or even controller-based games like Black for the PS2 or Resident Evil: Dead Aim, but I cant seem to get even a single headshot in this game. Headshots are worth more points than normal shots and so its hard also to rack up points in this game due to the shooting system.

This story is about Lisa Rogan, daughter of Thomas Rogan(the character from the 1st game) pairing up with G to fight through hordes of monsters to find Rogan which has gone missing a few weeks ago. The story is explained begining of each chapter with a short cutscene of Dr. Roy Curien, the antagonist of the earlier games, and his son, Daniel Curien. It finally comes to show us that Dr. Roy Curien is finding a cure for his bedridden son so that he can live forever or whatnot. All these things happened before the first game, that is before the Curien Mansion Case. In Dr. Roy Curien's research of all these, he began investigating into the nature of life and death, and finally he went insane. This is how all the madness started from the first game onwards. As a summary, Dr. Roy Curien wanted to purge this world of all its evil(that includes everything), and leave this world clean for the new world to come. This plot has been reused many times in other games too, but it still seems to work anyways. Although Dr. Roy Curien dies at the end of the Curien Mansion Case(HOD1), he lives as a sort of monster(that is the last boss) in this game, and he wants to eliminate everything this time. The story of HOD3 is most current in the series, even placed after HOD4, which happens before HOD3. The story ends with Lisa and G finding Rogan along with the now grown up Daniel Curien, and finally the defeat of the Wheel of Fate by Daniel and Lisa.

The bosses in the House of the Dead series are named after the Major Arcana cards in the Tarot deck. The Major Arcana is composed of characters instead of cards like the 10 of cups or the 5 of swords etc. It is quite unique really, and quite interesting as well, to see how they twisted the forms from the original cards into boss monsters. The final boss, Dr. Roy Curien is named the Wheel of Fate, which is also more widely known as the Wheel of Fortune card in the Major Arcana. Dr. Roy Curien appears as a humanoid silver fully-metallic specimen in the game. He appears to be controlling a ring of metal telepathically and can control electricity. He uses that ring to shield himself and to damage the player(s). He is a formidable adversary indeed and its EXTREMELY hard to defeat him in this game thanks to the super lame shotgun system. There was one boss that kind of looked scary. Its name is The Fool, which also originates from the Major Arcana. This boss looks like a big big BIG sloth-like creature that has LARGE claws. It swings very scaryishly and its extremely hard to aim his weakspot.

True to the meaning of the card, the Wheel of Fate wants to cleanse everything. The meaning this card in a Tarot reading session shows that something new is starting, be it boon or bane and that whoever it is being fortold to should learn from it.

Another interesting boss is The Hanged Man from The House of the Dead 1. It takes the form a humanoid bat. The Hanged Man from the tarot is usually associated with death. This is not true, its only half of the true meaning of it. The Hanged Man signifies that death is coming to a certain something and things will begin anew. I wish to point this out to my friend who is facing a break-up issue that maybe he should look at his break-up from this perspective.

All in all, the game was an interesting one and the bosses are interesting as well. At the end of the game, someone picked up some cannister after the battle between Lisa, Daniel and the Wheel of Fate. This shows that most likely there will be a sequal in terms of storyline, because the story for The House of the Dead 4 is behind The House of the Dead 3. And there is another game completed in the queer life of the person you know and love, Kevin.

TaintedAvery









Currently addicted to:-







Shadow Hearts(PS2)
90% Completion