is a horror-themed light gun shooter arcade game and the fourth installment of the House of the Dead video game series, developed by Sega. The game 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 (on the left side), or Kate Green, a new character to the series (on the right side). The game was followed by House of the Dead: Scarlet Dawn. 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 17, 2012 on the PlayStation Network. Gameplay Player characters are equipped with submachine guns in this game, as opposed to semiautomatic pistols in the first two or shotguns in the third. The gun will fire in fully automatic mode as long as the trigger is depressed, and can be reloaded by shaking it or pointing away from the screen. Players can also find and throw grenades to destroy large numbers of enemies at once. 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 headshot level combo, 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 shoot the enemy's weak points 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 weak point 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