Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick

This game brings all the Evil Dead fans hours of fun with deadites who have taken of Dearborn again...and again. With some cool moves and a bunch of new insults Ash takes on deadites in the past and present. He meets some relatives and some enemies and comes out victorious. This is a great game but see the movies first and you'll understand. 10/10.

This second game based on the "Evil Dead" franchise is decidedly better than the first game "Evil Dead: Hail to the King" in every way. The plot takes places after the first three films and has you (as Ash) battling the hordes of the undead after passages of the Book of the Dead are read aloud on a live local television show. The gameplay itself is very easy to get a hang off and while the game starts of a bit on the repetitive side, fans of the movie will still likely get a kick out of it. My main fault with it is that sadly the main bosses are easier to dispatch then some of the common enemies (who are not that tough except for the numbers in which they attack you). Oh yeah, and the game ending movie is one of the coolest I've seen in a while.

My Grade: B

The first Evil Dead game was a massive disappointment; it took me all of ten minutes to realise that it was unplayable, and for that reason, I never really saw the point in bothering with the Playstation 2 sequel. But now that older games can be picked up on the cheap, I decided to check this one out and I'm glad I did! I'm a massive fan of the Evil Dead series, and while I can't really say that this game truly captures the atmosphere of Sam Raimi's awesome films, I can say that it is great fun to play and the fact that Bruce Campbell has returned once again to voice the bumbling deadite slayer Ash is a huge bonus! The game centres on the town of Dearborn, where S-Mart's best employee Ashley J. Williams lives. Some occult obsessed professor has decided to translate the Necronomicon into English and on a live TV show - he makes a very silly decision - playing the tape with the incantations on it live! It's not long before Dearborn has been plunged into darkness and deadites are walking the streets. It's all up to Ash to save the world from evil once again...

The first thing you'll notice about this game is that it's GORY! Ash throws his chainsaw around and limbs leave bodies and blood goes everywhere. The combat system allows Ash to carry two weapons; obviously, chainsaw and boomstick from the outset, although there is more variety the further you get into the game. The game's engine allows multiple enemies on screen at once - and this means that Ash sometimes finds himself in the middle of literally dozens of deadites! It's impressive to watch, and great fun to control. The fact that so many enemies can be on screen at once means that the game has a real 'fast and furious' feel to it, and this is what makes it so much fun. However, this also has a flip side to it. The focus is always on the combat, so the rest of the game feels a bit empty. The locations are all very similar and you're not able to interact with much of it, which can mean a lot of running around in circles. Furthermore, the constant stream of enemies can be a nuisance, especially when you're looking for something. And it's really easy. But Bruce's dialogue makes it all worthwhile in the end; that's where this game best succeeds at being part of The Evil Dead franchise. Some of his lines really are awesome, my favourite is "We replaced this deadite's brain with a chainsaw blade...let's see if he notices". Overall, how much you like this game may depend on how much you like the films; but I definitely recommend giving it a go as A Fistful of Boomstick is a lot of fun!

I'm a huge Evil Dead fan and I decided to buy this game in a second hand shop.

Well, I hated Hail to the King, so what do I make of this one?

I hated it. But the graphics are good and the controls are nice.

Why did I hate it. It's REALLY confusing and you have no clue what to do. It took me all day to get through Level 1. How was I suppose to know you had to blow up the strip club with dynamite? That's the game's biggest problem; It doesn't tell you what to do. It's not fun running around confused.

There's only 9 levels in the game. Maybe if it had 20, it would be better.

Well, at least this game is better than Hail To The King. At least this game was playable.

Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick is a very cool game. It's fun to play, with plenty of gore, groovy weapons and cool Deadites. You can run around the town, the park, the church and shops dismembering zombified citizens. The one liners from Bruce Campbell as Ash are very funny and he gives a performance so true to the Ash in the films. The graphics are very good in this game, the attention to detail in the gore and blood splatter for instance, is impressive. The spells are fun to use, especially the Possession one. The game play is average, took me a week to complete, but I disagree with reviews who have said the game was boring! The weapons were very cool and there are plenty the to choose from and have fun with, and the chainsaw was a fun tool to use against the zombies. I love Evil Dead! All the films and this game rock! I like this game!