THE HOUSE OF THE DEAD 4:LIFE OR DEAD

The House of the Dead 4 is a light gun arcade game with a horror theme and the fourth installment of the House of the Dead series of video games, developed by Sega. The game is an interquel and takes place between the events of The House of the Dead 2 and The House of the Dead III, and introduced several new gameplay concepts. Players can control characters James Taylor, from The House of the Dead 2, or Kate Green, a new character to the series.
The House of the Dead 4 is the first game to run on the Sega Lindbergh arcade system board. A PlayStation 3 version featuring support for PlayStation Move and the two stages from The House of the Dead 4 Special was released on April 17th, 2012 on the PlayStation Network.^[1]
It is the last game in the series to use Tarot Cards as names for bosses.

Gameplay

The player can reload the gun by shaking it. The game also features grenades that the player can throw to destroy large numbers of enemies. Additional grenades can be earned by completing certain tasks or by shooting crates. At some points in the game, players are required to shake the gun vigorously in order to escape certain situations.
The game features branching paths. Most of the paths lead to the same point in the game's story. As with The House of the Dead III, there is an end-of-stage bonus where players can receive extra lives depending on critical shots, accuracy, and score. Another returning factor is the presence of the "Cancel" bar.
The game runs on a critical shots counter where the player is encouraged to go for headshots rather than spraying ammo at the enemy. It starts off as Good, Excellent, Amazing and then Perfect. Getting hit, or killing an enemy not by the head resets the counter.
The most common enemies have three attacks. A "normal attack", a "grab," and a "push". The foremost inflicts one point of damage, while the second forces a shaking sequence that, if successful, pushes back attackers for easier disposal, but if unsuccessful, will result in the player being bitten or the player's character being knocked down and vulnerable. Multiple zombies may also pile on top of both players in an attempt to stomp on them.
There are also a number of secrets in the game. Different hidden treasures, such as coins and golden shapes, which increase the player's score, as well as "lives", etc. can be found by interacting with the game's environments. There are also "treasure rooms" that can be accessed using different techniques (such as shooting a certain spot or throwing a grenade in a certain area), which contain multiple items that can be obtained at once within a limited time.

Video display

The House of the Dead 4 was the first arcade light gun game to feature a high definition widescreen display. The different displays used for each of the models are as follows: Mitsubishi's 2005 62" rear-projection DLP 16:9 ratio widescreen model for the "Super Deluxe" cabinet (although later models of the game would use Toshiba, Zenith, and LG rear-projections), LG's 2005 52" rear-projection DLP 4:3 ratio model for the "Deluxe" sized cabinet, and Sanwa's 29" CRT 4:3 ratio television for the "upright" cabinet (although it is a CRT set and can only accept a 480i signal, it has a high screen resolution of 676 dots by 625 lines). The game runs in 1080i on the Deluxe and Super Deluxe cabinets and in 480i on the standard cabinet.
The video signal is connected via a DVI to HDMI adapter for the Super Deluxe cabinet, VGA for the Deluxe cabinet, and S-Video for the Standard cabinet.

The House of the Dead 4 Special

The House of the Dead 4 Special logo

The House of the Dead 4 Special is a two-player attraction based on The House of the Dead 4. Players enter an enclosed room, sit down, and buckle up. The game makes use of two 100-inch screens, one in front of the players and another behind, as well as a five-speaker sound system, giving the impression that enemies are attacking from all directions. The seat shakes when zombies attack, and players are blasted with air whenever they take on damage. The seat automatically rotates to face the players towards whichever screen zombies are attacking from. The game also features a new addition of a life bar. As the players are hit the life bar diminishes. If the life bar is reduced to zero the game is over. There are no continues.
This game features a side story in The House of the Dead plotline, taking place shortly after The House of the Dead 4, with Kate Green teaming up with G to destroy the zombie infestation at its source, leading them to confront Magician (Type 0), a boss character who returns after having been obliterated in the two first installments. This game only features two bosses, Justice (Type 0053), whom G and Kate encounter in an underpass where James and Gary once encountered Judgment for the second time in The House Of The Dead 2, and Magician (Type 0), whom G and Kate encounter in a room of a building (which G believes it to be the source of the zombie infestation, and the building's interior is similar to the EFI research facility in The House Of The Dead III). In the end, players have to blast a button with a grenade. The button itself will activate Magician's clones if it's not blasted with the grenade, and the players receive a "bad end".
If the player successfully blasts him with a grenade, Magician will once again be destroyed, as he says "Nothing can erase my pain". After Kate and G leave to fight on, the Mystery Man limps into the room, saying that Pandora's box has been closed, but ponders if there is any hope left for the humans, remarking that "the Wheel of Fate cannot be stopped".
In a two-player game, players are judged on how compatible they are based on performance alone.^[5]
In America there are currently no locations that this version of the game can be seen: The machine at GameWorks in Schaumburg, Illinois was retired due to constant breakdowns. The machine that GameWorks in Las Vegas, Nevada had has since been sold to a private collector. This game has also been spotted in Europe, Japan, Brazil, Russia, Dubai, the Macau Fisherman's Wharf, and in Hong Kong Mega Box.