The Evil Dead franchise has had a pretty spotted history where video games are concerned. Previous attempts at capturing the spirit of the cult horror series have been mediocre at best, and nigh unplayable at worst. Evil Dead: Regeneration comes close to righting the wrongs of the past, but is held back by repetitive, monotonous puzzles that kill the momentum late in the game.
The plots of the Evil Dead games always follow the same general outline: Some foolish mortal reads the forbidden words of the Necronomicon aloud, unleashing demonic spirits into the world of the living. Because of his history with the book, it falls to department store associate Ash, voiced by the always-excellent Bruce Campbell, to send them packing.
The first two Evil Dead games had middling production values and limited ammo, effectively bottlenecking any fun that was to be had. Regeneration fixes this with unlimited ammo for all weapons and a much improved combat system that emphasizes simplistic-but-fun combos for mass execution of deadite scum. It's not complex, but skewering a zombie with your chainsaw and following it up with a shotgun blast to the face is a simple thrill that never loses its oomph.
Production values soar in this game, too. It's not the best looking game in the world, but the graphics are crisp and sharp, especially if you have the means to take advantage of the native 720p support in the Xbox version. Weapon effects are spot on and Bruce Campbell turns in yet another inspired performance as Ash, and the quips your new half-human, half-deadite midget companion Sam throws out are genuinely witty.
Unfortunately, the game doesn't even bother when it comes to puzzles. Around the middle of the game, the same puzzle repeats itself on a regular basis, requiring Ash to protect Sam as he feeds souls to ugly looking guardians blocking the duo's path. Trouble is that Sam will always, always take the most convoluted route possible. At one point, Sam backtracked through half the level, even though the soul eater was mere inches from him! Rather than fun, these portions seem like a misguided attempt to artificially increase game length.
Overall, Regeneration is about taking the good with the bad. If you're ready to deal with an abundance of some truly mundane escort missions, there's a lot to like here for fans of Campbell's work in the films.
-George
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