There are six House of the Dead games originating in a first-person light gun rail shooter format. The main series all have common traits including special agents pairing up to take on hordes of biologically engineered undead (referred to as 'creatures' in the wider series and as 'mutants' in Overkill). The games are divided into chapters, each of which culminates in a boss battle against usually massive, terrifying creatures. The bosses in the first four games as well as the sixth are all named after the Major Arcana of occult tarot.
On December 18, 1998,[2] the insane and disillusioned Dr. Curien plans to mobilize his armies of undead against the unsuspecting populace. AMS agents Thomas Rogan and "G" are dispatched to his mansion to stop Curien's evil plan and rescue Rogan's future wife, Sophie Richards.
On February 26, 2000,[2] business magnate and scientist Caleb Goldman reveals himself to be the mastermind of the 1998 Curien Mansion case and claims responsibility. Goldman initiates an undead outbreak on an unnamed Italian city while his "Emperor" project develops. Two AMS agents named James Taylor and Gary Stewart are sent in order to stop Goldman.
In the post-apocalyptic world of 2019, Thomas Rogan and his team of commandos infiltrate the EFI Research Facility in hopes of finding the source of the planet's collapse. Losing contact with him, his daughter, Lisa Rogan, and his former partner, "G", set out on a search and recover mission, unaware that what awaits them has ties to the distant past and the very genesis of the undead horde. Daniel Curien, son of the late Dr. Curien, later teams up with Lisa to help complete the rest of the mission.
In the year 2003, veteran AMS agent James Taylor (from The House of the Dead 2) and newcomer Kate Green are investigating the Goldman Incident of 2000. Following a sudden earthquake, they are shocked to discover that the undead from three years prior have returned, seemingly unharmed, and locked in a lab, but they soon break out and wreak havoc once again. Intent on preventing a nuclear disaster, they must once again cross paths with the seemingly deceased Goldman.
Arriving at Isla del Morte, they find the rave site messed up and deserted. Alicia, Karma and Simon leave the site to go find anybody around while Cynthia and Greg stay behind. As Greg and Cynthia are about to engage in sex in a tent, the former leaves to urinate. Alone in the tent, Cynthia is killed by a group of zombies. Meanwhile, Alicia, Karma and Simon find a derelict house and as they attempt to investigate the place, they discover Alicia's ex-boyfriend Rudy, Liberty and Hugh, who inform them of a zombie attack during the rave. The six leave the house to fetch Greg and Cynthia. Meanwhile, the zombies kill Salish when he is alone in the forest.
Kirk reveals the island's history; Isla del Morte was home to Castillo Sermano, a Spanish Catholic priest that was banished from Spain in the 15th century for his dark experiments, which the Catholic Church forbade. Castillo murdered the crew of St. Cristobal, the ship that was taking him to the island, enslaved the island's natives, and murdered anyone who visited the place. He then created an immortality serum which he injected himself with, allowing him to live forever and return dead souls to life and support his cause. Kirk leads the group to a spot in the forest where he has hidden a box full of guns and weaponry. Once everyone is armed, they decide to head back to the house only to find the courtyard filled with zombies. Liberty and Casper are killed in the ensuing fight and Alicia, Rudy, Kirk, Karma and Simon manage to take shelter inside the house.
When Kirk is alone, he hears Salish whistling outside. He goes outside and sees Salish now zombified. Kirk sacrifices himself by killing Salish and a bunch of zombies with a stick of dynamite, but the explosion also blows up the entrance to the house. The remaining four lock themselves in a lab inside the house, but the zombies break in. Karma finds a hatch in the floor which she, Alicia and Rudy use to escape. Simon sacrifices himself to kill the zombies by shooting a barrel of gunpowder, blowing up the house and the zombies. Alicia, Rudy and Karma find themselves in tunnels. They make their way through the tunnels, but Karma is killed by zombies as she attempts to hold them off as Rudy and Alicia flee.
After such conversations one could observe on his countenance signs ofsuffering and exhaustion. I remember that, one fine summer evening, Iwent out with him from the house of Ivan Gvosdikof. It suddenly occurredto me to invite him to come in with me and smoke a cigarette. I canscarcely describe the fright which showed itself in his countenance. Hebecame confused, muttered incoherent words, and suddenly, after lookingat me with an angry air, took to flight in an opposite direction. I wasvery much astonished afterwards, when he met me. He seemed toexperience, on seeing me, a sort of terror; but I did not lose courage.There was something in him which attracted me.
At last I wished him good-bye, and I felt a weight fall from myshoulders as I left the house. I regretted to have harassed a man whosetastes kept him apart from the rest of the world. But the fault had beencommitted. I had remarked that he possessed very few books. It was nottrue, then, that he read so much. Nevertheless, on two occasions when Idrove past, I saw a light in his lodging. What could make him sit up solate? Was he writing, and if that were so, what was he writing?
Our prison was at the end of the citadel behind the ramparts. Lookingthrough the crevices between the palisade in the hope of seeingsomething, one sees nothing but a little corner of the sky, and a highearthwork, covered with the long grass of the steppe. Night and daysentries walk to and fro upon it. Then one perceives from the first,that whole years will pass during which one will see by the samecrevices between the palisades, upon the same earthwork, always the samesentinels and the same little corner of the sky, not just above theprison, but far and far away. Represent to yourself a court-yard, twohundred feet long, and one hundred and fifty feet broad, enclosed by anirregular hexagonal palisade, formed of stakes thrust deep into theearth. So much for the external surroundings of the prison. On one sideof the palisade is a great gate, solid, and always shut; watchedperpetually by the sentinels, and never opened, except when the convictsgo out to work. Beyond this, there are light and liberty, the life offree people! Beyond the palisade, one thought of the marvellous world,fantastic as a fairy tale. It was not the same on our side. Here, therewas no resemblance to anything. Habits, customs, laws, were allprecisely fixed. It was the house of living death. It is this cornerthat I undertake to describe.
A third, a vagabond, half dead with hunger, pursued by a whole band ofpolice, was defending his liberty, his life. He is to be regarded as onan equality with the brigand who assassinates children for hisamusement, for the pleasure of feeling their warm blood flow over hishands, of seeing them shudder in a last bird-like palpitation beneaththe knife which tears their flesh!
I passed an entire evening at her house, with other companions of myimprisonment. She looked us straight in the face, laughed when welaughed, did everything we asked her, in conversation was always of ouropinion, and did her best in every way to entertain us. She gave us teaand various little delicacies. If she had been rich we felt sure shewould have been pleased, if only to be able to entertain us better andoffer for us some solid consolation.
The fourth day, the convicts were drawn up in two ranks, early in themorning, in the court-yard before the guard-house, close to the prisongates. Before and behind them were soldiers with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets.
Time went on, and little by little I accustomed myself to my new life.The scenes I had daily before me no longer afflicted me so much. In aword, the convict prison, its inhabitants, and its manners, left meindifferent. To get reconciled to this life was impossible, but I had toaccept it as an inevitable fact. I had driven entirely away from me allthe anxiety by which I had at first been troubled. I no longer wanderedthrough the convict prison like a lost soul, and no longer allowedmyself to be subjugated by my anxiety. The wild curiosity of theconvicts had had its edge taken off, and I was no longer looked uponwith that affectation or insolence previously displayed. They had becomeindifferent to me, and I was very glad of it. I began to feel at home inthe barracks. I knew where to go and sleep at night; gradually I becameaccustomed to things the very idea of which would formerly have beenrepugnant to me. I went every week regularly to have my head shaved. Wewere called every Saturday one after another to the guard-house. Theregimental barbers lathered our skulls with cold water and soap, andscraped us afterwards with their saw-like razors.
I drew out my pistol, got up, and struck him on the[Pg 149] forehead. Thewomen were more dead than alive; they were afraid to breathe. The eldestof the two men, quite white, was trembling like a leaf.
There were no workmen in the house, he had sent them all away; he hadhimself prepared the coffee and collation. As for the relation, who hadscarcely spoken a word all his life, he took his hat, and, withoutopening his mouth, went away.
Then the miller kicks open the door and approaches his wife, whip inhand. He has seen everything, for he was spying outside; and heindicates by signs to his wife that she has three lovers concealed inthe house. Then he searches them out.
There were two or three more, all broadly humorous and very droll. Theconvicts had not composed them themselves, but they had contributedsomething to them. Every actor improvised to such purpose that the partwas a different one each evening. The pantomime ended with a ballet, inwhich there was a burial. The Brahmin went through various incantationsover the corpse, and with effect. The dead man returns to life, and, intheir joy, all present begin to dance. The Brahmin dances in Brahminicalstyle with the dead man. This was the final scene. The convicts nowseparated, happy, delighted, and full of praise for the actors andgratitude towards the non-commissioned officers. There was not the leastquarrel, and they all went to bed with peaceful hearts, to sleep with asleep by no means familiar to them.
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