We check out a new build of
THQ's upcoming action game. We
recently received a new and fairly complete build of
Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick for the PlayStation 2,
and after putting the game through its initial paces,
we've gotten a good feel for it. The game puts you back
into the unlucky shoes of Ash, the square-jawed hero and
S-mart employee played by Bruce Campbell in the two
Evil Dead films and Army of Darkness. Ash
finds himself back in Deerborne, the sleepy town
featured in the first two films, and of course things
are fairly chaotic there, thanks to the Necronomicon
Ex Mortis, the ancient "book of the dead." The book
has basically invaded Deerborne, turning the residents
into hideous undead creatures, and you have to take
control of Ash and fight your way through the deadite
hordes before they swallow his soul.
A Fistful of Boomstick is a mix between an all-out
action game and a survival horror title. Ash has his
trusty shotgun and arm-mounted chainsaw that fans know
from the movies, and you can find other weapons lying
around as well. For instance, early in the game, you'll
pick up a shovel to bash undead heads with when you've
run out of boomstick ammo. It seems kind of strange to
have limited ammunition in an Evil Dead game,
considering the way Ash blasts through deadites in the
movies, but of course this makes the game more
challenging, so it's understandable. You can hold down
L1 to lock on to enemies, but once you're locked on, you
don't actually circle-strafe around them as in most
games, so the lock-on is really only useful for aiming
the shotgun. Melee fighting with the chainsaw and other
weapons like the shovel is a little bit awkward, and you
end up sustaining a bit more damage than you'd expect
sometimes, because it's hard to change direction in mid
swing. Ash is often surrounded by a whole bunch of
deadites at once, and it can be hard to cut your way out
of the throng.
The new Evil Dead game resembles other survival
horror games in that the combat is broken up with a bit
of character interaction and item collection. You're
mostly searching for keys to open specific doors or
certain characters who will help you advance. Each area
has a to-do list with conditions like "check out the
lumber yard" or "enter the TV station" that guide you
along. Generally the conditions are fairly easy to
satisfy and don't hold up the gameplay too much.
A Fistful of Boomstick uses the State of Emergency
engine, and it runs very smoothly all the time, even
with quite a few zombies pursuing Ash at once. The
graphics are functional but not overly flashy, and Bruce
Campbell provides the voice for Ash, who makes some of
his trademark quips while he's fighting the deadites.
While this doesn't seem like Campbell's most inspired
performance, it does add to the general atmosphere of
the game and evoke the spirit of the movies.
The last console Evil Dead game, Hail to the King,
wasn't received very well, but A Fistful of Boomstick
seems to be shaping up a little better and should prove
to be reasonably entertaining for fans of the films and
survival horror games.
By Brad Shoemaker, GameSpot [POSTED: 02/20/03 - 03:26 pm
pst]
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