3/5 ★ – RawMetal's review of House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn.

System: Arcade (Round 1 Arcade) Started: May 25, 2022 (10:20pm) Ended: May 25, 2022 (11:02pm) Finally, I had the time to go to the local Arcade by myself during a weekday night and stumbled upon The House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn. Me being a fan of the arcade franchise, I had to play this game. Sucks how this entry is not called House of the Dead 5 but I guess they had to go into Scarlet Dawn for reasons I don’t know. Luckily the Arcade place is absolutely not crowded so I can complete a game without any disruptions and watch all the cutscenes I completed the original House of the Dead before as a free play at a convention. I haven't finished the rest of the franchise, but I have played them except for Overkill. But all I know is that there is a new villain in the story unleashing hordes of zombies after the first two mad scientists were gone and it's up to two agents. One agent, Kate Green is from the previous installment but the newest agent Ryan Taylor who is younger brother to James Taylor from 2 and 4 and kinda looks like a Rejected member from a Beatles Cover band. So you go into a total of 5 levels of the Mansion and you survive through waves of zombies, creatures and fight a boss at the end of the level. And since this game is a nod to B-movies, I always expect very bad and cheesy dialog which is a guilty pleasure of mine. The game is surprisingly long. In fact, this is the longest House of the Dead game in the franchise. I actually timed it as I started at 10:20pm and saw the player results screen at 11:02pm which is why the game actually had a level selection when you start up so that you can continue where you left off if you have people in line and wanting to play this game. Another newest feature for this game is actually choosing two sub-weapons to use. So far I used the Shotgun, Magnum, Flamethrower, Grenade Launcher, Gatling Gun, Lazer, and Sub-Machine Gun EX. As you progress through the levels, You will be given weapons to make things interesting. You can always switch out your weapons anytime but you have limited ammo. Once you're out of ammo for special weapons, you’ll get them back mainly if you die and add credits to continue. Not only the game is long, but there are a total of 5 including the final boss which looks like Giant Groot on Steroids with Angel Wings which is pretty metal but the Final Boss’ defeat is pretty much laughably dumb which I won’t spoil. I would add that the boss fights are just watching a movie until the crosshairs show then fire your weapon, so basically I’m playing a long Quick-Time Event game much like House of the Dead 4 and it's not even a challenge at all since the game directly tells you where to hit your target instead of guessing. At least there are two returning bosses I remember from the first game as a throwback. There are also pretty cheap moves in this game that actually forces you to cough up some more credits which I can name a few. This game also automatically reloads if you are completely out of bullets so you don’t have to hear “Reload” now constantly. But that really misses the charm of the franchise to be honest. Instead we get “nice” and “empty”. Not my favorite House of the Dead game. In fact, it could be my least favorite but I enjoyed it. This entry came out in 2018 so there should be at least an official digital download after 4 years but we either have to wait. I actually used credits for this game and calculated the final cost since I played it solo and it cost me exactly 20 bucks to finish through this game in one go. Playing this game with the SMG light gun is interesting since there are two trigger buttons to switch weapons. Obviously, you can download it if your PC runs well but going through the process of running it especially if you have a lightgun sitting around but you will miss out on the 4D experience. If you are a hardcore House of the Dead fan, I say it's a must-play especially with friends who want to laugh at bad dialog. but don’t expect a home run on this since the previous installments were better. If not, then play Dark Escape 4D Since the arcade cabinet does have the 4D experience since you have wind blowing in your face, rumble platform floors and lights illuminating inside the cabinet.