Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick

Bad-
You run around houses and streets but you cannot REALLY explore like climb on things and open doors to look around.
Annoying linear design as you have to go here to get this and then go there and so on.
Chopping & shooting gets boring quickly and is not really varied.
The 'bosses' are easy to kill.
Way too short with only 5 different timezones to explore!!!
The puzzles are too easy as well!

Im a fan of the Evil Dead movies but in this age of PS2 gaming, you have to pull out all the stops to impress and this just doesn't. Probably for fans only, which is a very narrow way to market your game these days (and a shame because it could have been so much better than average!)

Thankfully, A Fistful of Boomstick seems to have ironed out many of these glitches and niggles, but has, unfortunately, substituted them with different ones, making for an improved, but still ultimately unsatisfying experience.

Where Hail to the King attempted an atmospheric, survival horror type game very much along the lines of Resident Evil, Boomstick (not a typo for "Broomstick", as a certain heavy metal magazine recently seemed to think it was) instead opts for more action-packed and cartoony feel. This is basically Medievil in Evil Dead clothing, and for a while this works pretty well. You no longer have to worry about keeping your chainsaw fuelled or switched on, as it now chugs away quietly to itself the whole time, ready to be called into action at a moment's notice. Similarly, your inventory is now infinitely large - no more storing items in chests. Graphically, Boomstick is also much improved compared to its predecessor, as you'd hope given the difference in capacity between their respective platforms. Your screen alter-ego Ash - part superhero, mostly idiot - seems based on the Frazetta-inspired poster for Army of Darkness, rather than on the real Bruce Campbell (who happily returns to voice duties here as he did on Hail) - all rippling muscles and washboard stomach. Your environments are well-rendered and unfold smoothly before you, and there's a certain amount of variety as you progress through the different levels; all set in the same town, but in different time periods, encompassing the American Civil War, the present, and a post-Apocalyptic future.

So, shotgun in one hand and chainsaw in the other (or rather replacing the other - you'll know what happened to Ash's left hand if you've seen Evil Dead 2, and if you haven't, you should, immediately), your quest is simply to kill zombies, solve some simple puzzles, and... er... kill some more zombies. And here's where the game lets itself down. Much like the third movie, it's a lot of fun to start with, as you watch another Deadite's blood arcing majestically from your whirling chainsaw blades, and have fun whacking the buggers with a shovel, but it isn't long before it all becomes repetitive. Incidental pleasures aside (such as finding an area where you're set upon, Agent Smith style, by hundreds of identical zombified cops) there really isn't much to sink your teeth into, and the game is neither particularly scary (unlike Evil Dead 1) or particularly funny (unlike Evil Dead 2).

In short, Boomstick is another misfire. There's plenty of scope for a truly great Evil Dead game, but Hail to the King wasn't it, and, whilst an improvement, neither is this.