Meet My Boomstick (Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick (PS2))

Member Name: Hawkimus

Product:	Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick (PS2)
Date:	16/05/06 (158 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Funny game based on the films.

Disadvantages: Its not 500 levels longer

This is a third person action game, including a puzzle solving element.

Price: I bought it for £30 with another game in comet but im sure you can get it cheaper. Amazon have it for as low as £2.98

Its 1 player

Rated: 18

It took me about 15 hours to complete, 7ish the next time round.

You can only play as one player - but he is Ash - voiced by the original Ash - Bruce Cambell - What more could you ask for.

Warning - Not for kids - lots of blood, gore and adult comedy.

Story

The story begins by Ash being in a bar telling his previous encounters (the films) to a bartender. Then he turns to a television set and see the demonic book of the dead being read out loud meaning that once again - the undead are unleashed!!!!
Unfortunately for our hero his favourite bartender turns into to one so he ends up shooting him! Then we join Ash as he takes to the undead filled streets of his home town - Dearborn.

Ash must reach the tv station and reverse this disaster so that all of the undead will return to where they belong. He is armed with only a shotgun and must progress through the town, through police roadbloacks (the puzzle element gets you past these guys) and reach the tv station where he finds out that he must get the proffessors notes to perform the ritual. This involves going to the university. This isnt easy as the deadites (undead) pop out of walls and are around every corner. There are also portals where they continuously emerge from. These have to be closed - but how? - Ill let you guys figure that out ;-).

Upon doing all things neccessary to stop the undead, the story takes us into the museum where now accompanied by a cute girl whom Ash saved ( funny line - Girl: "oh ash how can i ever repay you for saving me" - Ash: " you didnt happen to catch the movie 'deep throat' by any chance?" ) and a proffessor who claims he is an expert on these matter, they must find the source of the books powers and find out who is responsible.

Well the plot twists, puzzles are solved, monsters are killed and we find ourselves transported 300 yrs into the past, still in Dearborn. With more portals to close and books to chase and other subquests, our hero manages to prevail and jump into a new portal, now taking him into Dearborn at the time of the civil war. New monsters and new allies make Ash's work all that little bit harder. We have a showdown in a fort and are once again transported back to present day Dearborn which is now a wreck, an evil has taken over the town and only our hero can stop it.................


Graphics

Bruce Cambells character has been portrayed well and his movements very realistic in everything he does, from running to using his weapons and reloading. The scenaries are very nice to explore and look at, musch attention has been paid to getting the different time frames right so that you feel you are there. Alot of work has been done to make this game look authentic and highly detailed. So overall the graphics are great.

Sound

AMAZING! Bruce Cambell voiced his character who talks to others, taunts enemies and even taunts you if you just leave him standing there doing nothing for a while. The sound effects for the weapons are very real, eg the chainsaw. The monsters all have their own sounds and added to the music playing atmospherically in the background it all rolls into a wonderful package of full game entertainment.

Gameplay

Gameplay is very much hack n slash and shoot the living hell out of the deadites with blood flying all over the place, however it also has an element of puzzle solving in it. To progress through the game you must solve puzzles and acquire items to use. Talking to people who are still alive can give tips or new tasks. The tasks you must do are on your 'to do list' which can be accessed at any point in the menu, along with your inventory and spells list.

You have the ability to explore the entire town of Dearborn and any restricted areas can easily be overcome by solving puzzles.

The controls are easy to use and offer a variety of combo moves using both weopons you yield to pull of a devastating move. You use the shoulder buttons to change weapons and ammo and select spells. you have a block button an interact button and two attack buttons. The analogue controls movement while the other the camera.

Spells - The further you get in the game , you will discover that to get further you will need to use spells to perform certain tasks, these can be found in the form of pages from spellbooks and are things such as - possess deadite, superhuman strength(temporary) and lighting shock. To perform a spell you must insert the right button combination when the spell has been acquired.

Items - Items come in all forms from Bars of Silver to Keys - Where and when to use them will be up to you to find out, but most of the puzzles arent that hard. However some do require you to think that little bit harder.

For those of you who havent seen the films, Ash was forced to cut off his own hand and then attatched a chainsaw in the place of it to take out deadites with ease. This hasnt changed here. The character runs around with only a shotgun to begin with, but can yield two weapons at once, one a gun/sword etc and one a chainsaw of sorts - there are a few to be found.

Weapons - Ash's arsenal at the beginning is limited, but as time goes on you will find a whole host of goodies enabling you to take out the baddies in all sorts of ways.

Some of these weapons are :

Left hand -

Shovel - A simple melee weapon, good for saving ammo early on - do you dig?

Sword - there are two types of sword which work faster than the shovel and do more damage - very nice to watch!

Dynomite - Boom! A launcher can also be found for this handy item.

Handgun: Comes in present day form and civil war form - different types of ammo available.

Shotgun: comes with 3 different ammo types, always good for effecting multiple targets. (can be upgraded later if you solve a puzzle)

Right Hand -

Chainsaw: can hack n slash the undead like theres no tommorow - can be upgraded twice.

Gatling Gun - I wouldnt want to be standing in front of this when it starts up!!!!

All weapons tell you their fire rate, damage level and range.

Also aside from the main game are time challenges where you must play in certain parts of certain levels and perform a set number of kills or challenges with limited weponary and ammo. This allows you to unlock bonus features if you complete them and get gold. One of which is an interview with Bruce Cambell himself. There is also artwork and the making of the game.

Overall


This game is an excellent sequel to the films and also hilarious, Ash's wit just gets funnier the more you progress. The gameplay is fast-paced but can be slow too. There were only 5 levels but they are long and fun. The diffuclty progresses as you do witha nice boss at the end of each level to challenge you (each boss has a different way to kill it). Did I like this game - NO! I LOVED IT! - Would I recommend this game? YES! Play the game and see for yourself.

The only other thing i can say is be wary of the sequel - Evil Dead - Regeneration - although it still has the humour in it, it lacks that certain something that made this first one so good!

Peace!

Also published on Ciao

Summary: Good game, too short, but very enjoyable