Story: Set in the aftermath of the 'S-Mart'
ending of Army of Darkness Ash again returns to the cabin in the
woods with his girlfriend Jenny, in the hope of facing some past
demons and finally clearing his conscious of this 'evil' that has
haunted him. Promptly the 'evil' is awakened and returns to snatch
Jenny away from Ash. What follows is an adventure through the woods
(and time) in an atempt to rescue her soul and cast the evil back
to where it began in time.
So whats it
like?
Gameplay: Very difficult to control as Ash
has a tendency to wander off in his own direction at the worst of
times. The use of dual weapons is handy and once conquered is effective
but ammo is hard to find and teh fuel on your chainsaw tends to
run out quick so you have to keep switching it on and off. The puzzles
are interesting without being too demanding mostly comprised of
lateral thinking.....think Resident Evil meets Krypton Factor
and you'll have an idea.
The story is
huge and there is an awful lot of plot which can bog the game down
when really all we wanna do is chainsaw some zombie if you know
what im saying. With the only real bastard being the number of enemies
you have to fight, there always seem to be too many to deal with
and without a game shark cheat cartridge the game seems impossible.
Graphics: The pre rendered backgrounds are
superbly detailed, the cabin in particular is identical to the set
used in Evil Dead II, and the effort has paid off here.
Ash is nicely rendered aided by Bruce Campbell's voice (he could
make even a fire brigade video sound cool). Although the backgrounds
are superb what was really needed was a dynamic change of perspective
like in Silent Hill, with malevolence conveyed by the fear of whats
creeping up behind you. This lets the game down.
Sound:
Brilliant
sound, creeping orchestral music using strings to create fear and
creeping menace like Joe LoDuca wrote the music himself. Great sound
effects the purr and roar of the chainsaw are a beauty to behold
but the winner here is Bruce Campbell. With catchphrases a plenty his dry wit lifts
the game when it seems all your doing is runnig around. I love Bruce
Campbell and you should too damn it.
Overall
Impression:
Excellent try. Gaming is the future of the Evil Dead franchise so
much more can be done within this medium than with the limited budget
that a fourth film would get. The story is a little too complex
and the only real fun element is the involvement of Bruce Campbell.
Rumours of a sequel in the works for the PS2 sound encouraging but
lets have more liek Silent Hill than a poor attempt at a Resident Evil clone.
A game
that can only really be appreciated by Evil
Dead Fans.
