Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick

"What can I say, it's Evil Dead!"

Ok, this is an Evil Dead game, like the movie Ash starts by telling a story of what has happened to him, except this time it's more so in game form.

Story 7/10 - Not a great story, but it's Evil Dead, and most of the things in the game pertain to the movie. Dude makes big mistake, and plays spell from Necronomicon (book of the dead) and then the Deadites (living corpses, or zombies) attack Dearborn, and Ash jumps in to save the day. Simple enough.

Graphics 8/10 - Not great but still pretty good. There are minor things you have to notice. Like the chain saw for one thing is always puttering, or the cool blood you get when you slash the zombie and the blood takes the motion of the saw... Most of the deadites are cheaply made, but that's a good thing, because you will be fighting up to 20-30 of them at a time, and you won't have any signs of a slowdown. But over-all pretty good graphics.

Sound 10/10 - The greatest thing about this game is BRUCE CAMPBELL plays his own voice! The voice acting is top notch, and there is no flaw there. As you kill deadites Ash will say some really funny stuff such as ''We've secretly replaced this deadite's brain with a chainsaw blade, shhhhh.... let's see if it notices'' The music is neat too. You will hear ambient music as you go through Dearborn, and when deadites are in the area, the music changes. Depending on what time era you are in the music is different too. As I said before, Bruce Campbell playing his own voice is the greatest feature in this game.

Gameplay 9/10 - Movement is very smooth, and Ash can attack all the way around himself. Very simple buttons, square for left hand X for right hand. There are a bunch of different weapons, and some of the weapons are upgradeable, such as your ''boomstick'' The only bad thing is, Ash takes a few seconds to start running, so when you get stopped by a deadite, and you need some space between it and Ash, you will probably get mauled before you start moving. But other than that, you should feel right at home with the controls, easy, simple, and responsive....

Buy or rent? - Definitely a rental. You can beat story mode in about 5 hours or less (if you know what you are doing) And you probably won't play it any more than twice... There is a pretty fun arcade mode, and and and extra video of the making of Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, but that's about it. It's not a total waste if you buy it either, it only cost $20.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 06/25/03, Updated 06/25/03