The House of the Dead (series)/Headscratchers

• So I saw a small amount of gameplay footage and there were zombies with blowtorches. Where did they get these things? Are they créme brulee zombies? For that matter, where do any of the zombies get their weaponry?
  • That would be 4, where Goldman did his magic on an entire city (not even any poor innocents to rescue). When everyone around is a zombie, you'd expect at least some of them to have/be able to round up some weaponry.
  • According to Overkill, they're mutants, not zombies. Some are even capable of speech.
    • Yes, but those were created by an entirely different project from what Curien and Goldman were up to. In the rest of the series, they're zombies.
    • Except Curien and Goldman's work was based on Clement's, and in every game in the series mutants/zombies can wield weapons, which would imply that 'mutant' is the more accurate term.
• Way back in the original House Of The Dead, the battle with Hanged Man takes place on the balcony over a courtyard. The final leg of the battle has him knocking your agents off the balcony, hanging by their fingers over a five (Or so) story drop, while Hanged Man tries to divebomb you. My question is... How did they reload? I know reloading is awfully nebulous in the games already, what with being able to carry five hundred clips and replace them in under a second, but still...
  • It IS slimly, slimly possible to reload almost any kind of gun (particularly one-handed pistols) with only one free hand. It is HELL of hard, and when suspended as they are, it would probably involve ejecting the clip and letting it drop while trying to "fit" the clip in with half your hand while holding the pistol with the other half. Like I said, harder than hell. But under such circumstances, you would be amazed at what a person can accomplish.
  • All that AMS training really paid off, it seems...
• Why is the big headless armored guy who accompanies the first boss of "House of the Dead II" named "Karl" of all things? Seems like a silly name to give to such a menacing character.
  • Watch this at the very end, 10:37. It's not Karl, it's Kuarl. The imp is Zeal, incidentally. Together, they form Judgment Type 28.
• How could The Emperor rule, destroy, and hate mankind in that exact order?
  • He was created by Mr. "Protect the loyfe cycle" Goldman. I'm surprised that statement was as coherent as it was.
  • You expected a coherent worldview from an artificial tyrant? Anyway, he doesn't stand much of a chance of ruling, destroying, or hating anyone now, y'know, being vaporized and all.
  • For the sheer hell of it, I'm going to guess that first, he rules mankind, then he exterminates mankind, and then he spends however many years he has hating mankind and its memory after the fact.
  • Hell, AM exterminated all but five humans, and he still has a hate-on to end all hate-ons for humans. Just look at his quote on the matter.
  • I'm gonna go ahead and guess that he was going to destroy and hate mankind simultaneously.
• In HotD 1-4, is there any reason given for the Big Bad to do the initial zombie undead outbreak, rather than just unleash the final boss? The ultimate plan always revolves around the final boss being unleashed, yet they bring out the zombies first, which turns the AMS on to the fact that there's a plan in motion in the first place; the AMS kills the zombies, then they kill the boss. Why not just unleash the boss?
  • Well, HOTD 3 has no endgame plan. Lisa and G were simply looking for Rogan, and they wind up releasing the final boss in a bid to wipe out the last of Curien's projects. HOTD 3 also provides some insight into why Curien attacked his own staff with an army of zombies in the original game; the depth and possibility of his research drove him nuts. As for why Goldman waited before releasing the final boss in HOTD 4? His snide remarks implied he was testing humanity's worth (and desire) to live. You still got me on HOTD 2, though.
  • There's some kind of "statement" (I'm not sure where it comes from. Japanese fact file, maybe?) that The Emperor "wasn't ready" when it confronted the AMS agents atop the Goldman building (by the time you get to HOTD 4, The World had plenty of time to fully mature and - as demonstrated in the game - was essentially indestructible). This explains why Goldman didn't just unleash The Emperor right away and how the AMS agents were able to defeat it at all.
• Okay, it's been long enough. Who is that mysterious man in the suit in the "best" endings for both 3 and 4? Seems to be a pretty blatant Sequel Hook, but right now we know exactly jumping jack squat about him.
  • It's assumed by most fans that this mysterious guy is Harry Harris from the second game. Signs point to a similar voice and the limp (Harry suffered an injury in the second game which could have left him with a limp).
• What is wrong with the infamous voice acting of HOTD 2? It is just so bad that it reaches a level which feels like they deliberately told the voice actors to sound as boring as possible. Even if they just get some random people off the street, they can most likely do a better job then what they had.
• About the second game: Apart from being set in "Venice"..... after getting through the city, you reach Goldman's Skyscraper, kill him, and that's all. In the fourth game, however, you go again in the very same building (the bridge even has the hole made by the Hierophant boss), but the city is totally different!! What the heck!?
  • They rebuilt it?
• What caused the apocalypse in HOTD 3?
  • The events of HOTD 4.
• How did Curien survive HOTD for HOTD 3?
  • Hmm, good question. It's possible that he died normally at his mansion, but he had copied his brainwaves or something similar into the Wheel Of Fate at the research lab.
  • In the intro of HOTD 2, we see Goldman approching Curien's body. He presumably fitted him into the Wheel of Fate, a resurrection device that operates over the course of twenty years.
• When the Magician is rebuilt for HOTD 2, why doesn't Goldman protect his weak spots?
  • Considering that Magician is apparently a genetic creation rather than a robot, it may not be that easy. It may have taken a lot more work than just welding a few metal plates to him (Or those parts are exposed for a reason. What the reason is I don't know, but still...) and Goldman was busy designing the Emperor anyways.
• In the second game, why does Zombie Goldman appear in the Bad Ending? What kind of Bad ending is that supposed to be? And how could he be zombified after falling from the roof of a skyscraper?! He should have turned into zombified hamburger instead!
  • Short answer: Sega's love of Gainax Endings. HOTD 1 had Sophie become a zombie in the bad ending (Which is really more of a moderate ending), so they decided to repeat it with HOTD 2. As for why he's not mush, I may be wrong, but while falling from the top of a skyscraper onto concrete is quite messy for one's internal organs and bones, I'm not sure you'd actually splatter. Your blood and vital organs, perhaps. Mix in some handwaving about the virus repairing and revitalizing as it reanimates, and there you go.
• HOTD 2: How the hell can Kuarl (a huge suit of animated armor with no visible head) roar?
  • Who knows what's under the armour? He still seems to breathe, somewhat, so it's possible that somewhere in whatever passes for internal organs there's still a larynx. It's not like he spoke any actual words, so he doesn't need a tongue.