House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn

In 2006, three years after the events of The House of the Dead 4, AMS agent Kate Green joins forces with Ryan Taylor, the brother of her late partner and mentor, James, on an undercover mission in a dinner event within Scarecrow Manor. The manager unleashes his army of mutant creatures upon the dinner guests. Realizing the threat to the world, Kate and Ryan begin their quest to stop the manager and the outbreak he started.

Within the manor, Kate and Ryan find clues which reveal that the manager, Thornheart, is connected to the late bioterrorists Dr. Curien and Caleb Goldman. Kate explains that in 1880, the trio's ancestors formed an organization that was the catalyst for prior incidents that the AMS investigated. Thornheart contracted a fatal disease and was long believed dead, but survived and began developing a project named Noah's Ark after Curien and Goldman's deaths.

Kate and Ryan battle resurrected creatures from the 1998 Curien Mansion incident, Chariot and Hangedman, and a squid-like being named the Priestess. In a church, they find Thornheart, who states that the purpose of Noah's Ark is bring "new [human] evolution" to the world. He releases the Moon, a tree-like behemoth with air manipulation powers. The Moon gradually grows larger and stronger; realizing this, Ryan stabs an iron rod through its head. Lightning strikes the rod, electrocuting and killing the creature, which Kate believes was James intervening from the dead.

The next morning, Kate and Ryan rest as they watch the sun rise.

• Ryan Taylor: James Taylor's brother who joins Kate to solve the Scarecrow Manor case.
• Kate Green: James Taylor's former partner who joins Ryan to solve the Scarecrow Manor case.
• Thornheart: The manager of Scarecrow Manor who unleashes his army of creatures upon the guests. He is also revealed to be the "Mystery Man" from The House of the Dead III and The House of the Dead 4.

• The Chariot (returning from The House of the Dead)
• The Priestess
• The Hanged Man (returning from The House of the Dead)
• The Moon

House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn received mixed reviews from critics. The design of the arcade cabinet was largely cited as atmospheric and eye-catching.[5][6][7] Wilcox Arcade felt the air blasters and vibrating seats were particularly effective.[8] Gamerism also praised these features, but found the cabinet's sound mixing to be poor.[5]

The graphics were generally praised for their high fidelity.[8][9] SEGAbits lauded the inclusion of enemies and bosses from the original 1996 House of the Dead game.[7] However, some critics lamented the lack of violence and felt that the human character animations were unimpressive.[6][9]

Scarlet Dawn's gameplay drew mixed responses. Most critics enjoyed the larger enemy hordes and the added strategy of picking special weapons before each stage.[7][9] Others took issue with the auto reload mechanic.[5][8] Gamerism noted frame rate drops, which they felt added an unfair element to the game's difficulty.[5] The lack of English subtitles was also criticized.[5][8]

The boss fights were criticized for being overly scripted.[5][8][9] Chris Plante of Polygon said that the fights "tend to make it a little too obvious that I’m just pointing a cursor where the game tells me until the health bar hits zero, or I trigger the special move that will deliver the fatal blow."[9] Some critics found the final boss in particular disappointing.[5][8]

• Official Japanese website