Being an Evil Dead fan ever since I first saw the trilogy of movies, I just couldn't wait for a decent shot at making others hail to the king. In Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick, I certainly had a great opportunity to hack, slash and mash the deadites back to hell.
The graphics in the game are decent. When you look at Ash, he looks really cool and there is an okay variety of deadites that scurry around town looking to swallow your soul. The animations for these characters are also very well done, and suffice for a PS2 game. The only problem with the graphics, the environments as they aren't very interactive at all. You can blast a few things, like cars, walls, etc., but not everything. I know it sounds a bit picky, but you should be able to destroy whatever it is you want with the arsenal you can acquire throughout the game. Aside from the environments and its textures, the game's graphics are satisfactory, but not stand out. The gore, the blood and all things dead look pretty cool as there are larger and smaller enemies that urge your chainsaw.
The gameplay itself is pretty good also, there isn't much complication, and the variety of combo moves are not plentiful. However, the little things like the over-the-shoulder shotgun blast is really what make you get a liking for the game. Not only is it a nice animation, but it is also an effective way to fight your way out of a swarm of many, many deadites (Up to 30 will attack you at once, so be careful). The left-handed and right-handed weapons/attacks are pretty useful as well. The chainsaw is fun, and you'll smile sadistically as you rip through hordes of zombies with it. The control is pretty simple, square for your left hand (most often boomstick) and X (ex) for your right hand (most often the chainsaw). You can alternate blows by alternating the buttons, which can lead to some pretty serious combo attacks, and some pretty messy streets. For example, you can impale your opponent with the chainsaw and while he's impaled, blast him with the boomstick.
Another cool thing about Evil Dead, the spells. You can do a wide variety of them, including possess numerous types of the deadite race (which comes in both handy and mandatory in the later levels). There are also attacks to kill the prey and to stun them. Your green mana bar is replenshed by killing deadites and collecting orbs from their departing souls. Throughout the game you can add to the max of your mana bar by collecting the corresponding green bar type crystal container thingys. Your health bar can also be increased by obtaining a red glass drop, and you can replenesh your health by killing deadites and collecting health they drop, or by collecting the medi-kit.
Getting more specific about your arsenal, you can upgrade specific weapons at a point in the game. In the Colonial Dearborn level, you find a billy tin and the blacksmith combines it with your boomstick to get a shotgun that fires 8 rounds without a reload. Very handy indeed, the silly deadites won't see it coming. Other parts you collect, are vital in getting the weapon to be useful. In the musuem level, you find a gas pump that isn't useful at all until the blacksmith rigs it with a lighter (which you must find) to make the conversion into a flame-thrower. There's also a nice little something he makes for you, that you get to use in the Civil War era and the level after. Some of the weapons are truly unique, like the leecher which leeches onto a deadite and sucks everything out of it until complete destroyed. Different types of ammo are available for the guns, most notably the explosive shells for your boomstick that have you saying "Blam! Blam! No more mister nasty face!". Overall, the weaponary is great, and makes the game really fun to blow away those dead-skinned pieces of hell.
Finally, the replay value of the game. There are two modes to the game, the main story mode and the arcade mode. The main story mode consists of you, Ash, running around killing deadites, collecting items and blowing away bosses. It has an expected Evil Dead storyline, which is good, and Bruce Campbell to do all the voice overs for everyone's favourite Joe Hero, Ash. Ash's lines are great, and you'll hear quite a few one liners when you make a gore fest out of your enemies, unfortunately the rest of the voice overs for the others isn't all that great. It doesn't really make the game lose any value, it's just unfortunate. Overall though, the game's story and characters have a comedic horry plot to follow, which is welcome openly. The five stages range from differnet time periods of Dearborn, with exception to the museum level, which takes place in Dearborn, but strictly in a museum. The first time through the story should take about 4-6 hours, as the puzzles might have you scratch your head for a bit longer than you'd like. Ofcourse, you'll kick yourself and figure out what you need to do, or finally find that oh-so-obvious thing you missed.
The Arcade mode is okay, but it doesn't give the game the staying power it should, or could. You'll want to go through it all atleast once to give it a shot, but aside from the high scores, there isn't anything to play for. All your unlockables are obtained when you beat the story mode, as you are rewarded with galleries of concept art and character models throughout the game. It's too bad, because you would hope for a game that is as fun as this, to have some sort of shelf life after the first time through everything, but it doesn't. It's great hacking up everyone to bits, but the game just doesn't offer anything else when you've done it all once.
So, in conclusion, I'll give Fistful of Boomstick an easy 7. It could have been much better, but it could have been horribly worse at the same time. The extras are nice for fans of Evil Dead, like the quick movie about the making of the game, and some interviews and discussions with Bruce Campbell. The game is definitely worth a rental, and you'll be able to beat well before the return time, so don't worry about late charges. I'd only recommend this purchase because of its low retail price of $19.99 (US) or $29.99 (CDN), but even then, only the hardcore Evil Dead fans might truly appreciate owning it.
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