The Typing of The Dead: Overkill by Modern Dream is a remake of the game The House of the Dead: Overkill, porting the entire game from its Wii release to PC as well as adding the feature to attack by typing words on your keyboard. Being the sequel to The Typing of The Dead, Overkill looks to improve on its previous release and improve on its quick typing combat mechanic. Being mostly a port, is this game worth the money, or was this remake just overkill?
Story
As far as I could see TOTD:O (The Typing of The Dead: Overkill) is a complete remake of the original game on the Wii, keeping its story intact for all points. For those who don’t know the story I will tell you a little about it, if you’ve played the previous release feel free to skip the story section.
TOTD:O follows the life of Agent G and Detective Isaac Washington as they investigate the appearance of the zombie- I mean mutants and hunt down the mastermind behind them, Papa Ceaser. The story takes you through several different chapters, going from the starting mansion to swamps and even a Carnival. Through the chapters you chase down Ceaser, gunning down any mutants in your way, ending each chapter with a boss type mutant.
TOTD:O also includes the expansion levels from the PS3 release, involving the chapters for Varla Guns and a stripper named Candi Stryper, following them for an extra 2 chapters of striper goodness and meat packed fun… no puns intended there. They are also following after Ceaser but are stopped after a certain event happens within the second chapter for them which I will not spoil for you.
The story itself is entertaining, if a bit played out, as well as told in a steady and consistent pace as you go through the chapters. Story progression and background is told through the games several cutscenes, giving an intro and outro to each chapter to give you your goal and the end result of your actions. The game really keeps you in the loop, letting you know what is going on, rather than switching to the next chapter immediately.
The story mode isn’t particularly long, lasting around 15-30minutes per chapter and having 9 chapters, the expansion chapters included. The longevity of the game is in its arcade nature, pulling you back to play through levels again with friends or to collect all the collectables or beating your score.
Gameplay
There isn’t much to say about TOTD:O’s gameplay as it is very straightforward, it being an on the rails gallery shooter and all. In TOTD:O you go through the level watching the mutants slowly crawl towards you, with words or sentences popping up around them for you to type out furiously, once the word is typed correctly the mutant dies, simple. There isn’t much else besides this mechanic, as typing is the only thing you will be doing in the game, although it does try to keep it fresh with its incredible dictionary of random words and phrases to keep the words new and challenging.
The game also allows you to opt for the old control scheme of the original release with using the mouse to aim and shoot like any other shooting game. This changes the control scheme as you will need to aim and fire with the mouse, as well as reload with R and change weapons or throw grenades, making the game vastly different to its typing counterpart.
The original also includes with it an upgrade system, allowing you to select a weapon to use, or dual wield, as well as upgrade them to become faster or more damaging. To upgrade you must collect money in the levels, which is absent from the typing version, to be shot with your free aiming cursor.
With both styles of play you are spoilt for choice in the experience you want, as you can go for the typing practice of TOTD:O or the upgrade and aiming system of HOTD:O. Either way you will have a fun time and learning experience.
Overall Thoughts and Feelings
TOTD:O stays true to its keyboard hero ways and is a genuinely good way to improve your typing skills, spelling ability and increasing you word per minute count. For those who want to better themselves, I would highly suggest this game, as typing the words besides shooting can definitely amp up the suspension and drive to type faster and faster to not get hurt in-game.
TOTD:O improves a bit on its UI and graphics, switching out the clunky and rather large graphics from earlier releases for a small and professional look. It is more pleasing to the eye in my opinion as I hate when ammo notifications take up a large portion of the screen. The improvements they made on the game are really noticeable and look worthwhile for the purchase.
Even though it is a port and a separate release that is shown as a remake, the music and sounds don’t seem to have changed much in the new version. However, even if they have not been improved they are still amazing, as well as new music tracks being added including remixes of old music which can bring a certain nostalgia to the game.
At the time of release there is sadly no multiplayer, which is one of the biggest draws for the game, but developers have promised a patch later on to implement this feature.
I give The Typing of The Dead: Overkill a 4/5 as it is a great remake of a game and a well-deserved port to the PC console for fans of the series. The game falls short as it doesn’t add enough to warrant a second purchase of the game and doesn’t innovate too much on previous versions. Fans of the series, both House of the Dead and Typing, will love this game for its humour and improved combat systems.
Disclaimer:All scores given within our reviews are based on the artist’s personal opinion; this should in no way impede your decision to purchase the game.
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