The House of the Dead 2 is a first-person light gun shooter arcade game with a horror theme and the second game in The House of the Dead series of video games.

The House of the Dead 2 is a rail shooter light gun game. It includes an auto-reload feature that allows players to point their guns off-screen to reload their weapons without pulling the trigger. Plays must shoot their way through hordes of zombies and other monsters while attempting to rescue civilians being attacked. Health is represented by torches at the bottom of the screen and are lost when the play is hit by an enemy or shoots a civilian. Bonus health can be awarded by rescuing civilians and finding first aid kits hidden it crates/barrels. Like the first game, it incorporates a branching path system that allows for a variety of different routes in each stage depending on the players actions. This is expanded upon with far more paths than the original and can even lead to completely different stage layouts/locations, although the general story itself will always remain the same.