Review Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick Developer: THQ Publisher: THQ Genre: Action/Adventure Release Date: June 2003 Platform: Review by Scott Jelinek October 25, 2004		Buy this game at Trade for this game at:

Hail to the King Baby!!

There are two types of people in this world, those who like Evil Dead, and those with a sense of morality. If senseless violence, sexist dialogue and foul language offends you, then never mind the rest of this review, this is not a game for you. For the rest of us degenerates, Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick offers a mixed bag of Bruce Campbell and exploding zombies.

The game takes place in the town of Dearborn, shortly after the end of the last movie. Some very bad things happen to open the gates for a legion of undead to enter the world. Once again, our hero Ash must save the world. To do this, Ash tracks enemies through time to visit Dearborn in various points of its history. Along the way, he encounters a slew of undead, which he dispatches with various weapons, but mainly his trademark chainsaw and boomstick.

What makes this a hard game to review is what makes the Evil Dead movies hard to review. The game is low budget, and is put out at a budget price. The graphics are substandard, borrowed from the State of Emergency engine, which is a horrible game. There is not a huge variety of enemies, and most the game is spent going through the same town time and time again with different graphics. The quests are simple, most of which are go here and get this item types of quests.

Yet, even though the gameplay is lackluster, it is the addition of Bruce Campbell as Ash that makes the game worth playing. The game does an excellent job at catching the flavor of the Evil Dead series. Ash delivers some classic one liners as he slices and dices through countless hordes of zombies. Ash also shows his frustration with the stupidity of the people who surround him. He is a master at sarcasm and having no tact.

The game is primarily an action game, with some adventure elements thrown in. The game is separated into three chapters with easy boss monsters at the end of each section. What perplexed me the most, the hardest part of the game is by far the first chapter. When you first start out the game, you have little health, little spells and you are fighting the same monsters you will see most of the game. I quit playing the game many times with the frustration of the beginning chapter.

Another thing that is annoying is that you cannot skip cut scenes. Sometimes they run a little long, and if you have to reload and play them again, they get annoying. Your only option is to sit and watch.

In the end, this is a fans only game. It will not win any new fans over to the series. Those who love Evil Dead will enjoy the game and the one-liners. The ending alone is worth playing through the game for. It retails for under $20, so there is no excuse not to pick it up and enjoy Ash’s latest exploits.

Final Grade: C
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