I should probably confess
now, I’ve never seen any of the Evil Dead movies. Should I have
though? I’ve heard some good things, but otherwise I’ve heard that
the movies are crap. So when I saw that a new Evil Dead game had
been released on the Playstation 2, I was kind of intrigued. Not
because it was suppose to be good or anything, but because it was
something that I could be able to familiarize myself with the
movies. Well, hack n’ slash games are fun sometimes, though like in
Hunter: Reckoning, the hacking in Fistful of Boomstick gets very
old, really quick. Basically the only real thing that I can
compliment this game about is that the cover is actually pretty
cool. The phrase “don’t judge a book by its cover” comes into play
here, because the rest of the book isn’t too hot, if you know what I
mean.
There’s not really much of a story to expect from a slasher/horror
type game like this, or any movie for that matter. They’re all
pretty much the same, though not all on the same page, but
definitely in the same book. Anyway, Fistful of Boomstick starts out
with Ash sitting in a bar watching some kind of occult talk show. On
the talk show, the woman says that she has a copy of Professor
Knowby’s last known film. As Ash watches in disbelief, the host
plays the reel, and all of a sudden the Evil Dead (Deadites) are
awakened/released, and now they’re wrecking havoc all over the
place. What is a man to do? Why, go out and slay em’ all, that’s
what.
Fistful of Boomstick had a lot of interesting concepts that could
have made it one of the better games released in May, though the
control has dropped its status to one of the worst games to be
released in May. First and foremost, you’re not going to find any
depth in FoB whatsoever. None, nada, nilch, zero, zip - so what do
you do? Mindless hacking and slashing of the evil Deadites. Sounds
fun huh? Well, like I said, it could have been fun, but the biggest
downfall of the game is the control. Trying to control Ash with the
camera as bad as it is, is like trying to play a racing game with
the camera on the side of the vehicle instead of behind it. The
camera is way too “loose”, and it swings around really fast, and
ALWAYS stays behind your character. The camera isn’t the real
problem though, honestly, it wouldn’t have been so bad if there was
better control over the camera, or at least the ability to zoom in
and out so that you don’t get all motion sick.
Controlling your character is loose and flimsy, and is ultra
sensitive to the lightest of touch on the analog stick. This can be
both good and bad - good because you can usually turn to enemies
behind you before they get a hit on you, but bad because when trying
to turn corners, your character and the camera will rotate so fast,
that you might miss a Deadite running at you ready to attack. Other
than the control, the way the game throws different things on to
your "To Do List" without giving you hardly any clue as to where to
go is another one of the game’s faults. Now it might not be so bad
if some of the places weren’t so confusing, but even in the first
level of the game where you have to get into the yard of a strip
club to beat down some random Deadites, there’s really nothing that
gives you any sort of a hint as to how to get in there, as the doors
are locked (with no key anywhere in sight) and police jerkoffs won’t
let you in inside. A challenge? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it
does a great job at testing patience, and no because a challenge is
in a game like Ikaruga where the difficulty can get really tough,
not a game where the interface and gameplay is so bad that you want
to break something.
So now that my point about how much of a suck-fest the control and
camera is, how about a bit of a redeeming factor - the fighting. Yes
it’s kind of corny, yes it’s hack n’ slash, yes it gets boring, but
for a short amount of time, it’s actually fun to play. As you search
different areas, you’ll find different weapons that you can use
against the Deadites (as if you’d use it against yourself, hmm). My
favorite weapon in FoB is, in fact, Ash’s boomstick. Also known as,
a double-barreled shot gun that packs a ton of power. Aside from the
boomstick, you’ll be able to use other weapons like a shovel,
chainsaw, and pretty early in the game you’ll find a spell book so
you can cast spells. One thing that really surprised me, and
actually made me laugh, was after I had found the spell book and
pressed the R1 button to activate it, Ash will start to say the
spell, and then he’s like “uh, well, um, yeah” and stuff like that
and the spell backfires on him. That had me laughing for the better
part of the next 5 minutes as I constantly pulled the spell book out
just to hear what he would say, and see him get blasted on his bum.
The spell book came in handy a couple times, but otherwise I hardly
ever used it, and just stuck to my favorite combination through as
much as I could.
The early Deadites are pretty easy to kill, and as a “Beginner’s
course” as I call it, will only come at you one, two, or three at a
time. Ha! Don’t expect this to be the same throughout the rest of
the game, as eventually you’ll be surrounded by up to 20 or so
Deadites at a time. This comes at a small price though, the controls
for attacking aren’t very fluid at all, and so it’ll take you a
couple seconds to attack on one side, and then turn around to attack
behind you. In those two seconds though, you could have been hit 2-3
times on whatever sides that you’re not attacking on. This is where
using the Boomstick becomes very boring and tediously repetitive, as
you eventually have to run out, run back in and attack, run back
out, run back in and attack, and continue that until all of them are
dead (again). Then, you’re attacked by even MORE of them, and so
it’s back to square one.
The ability to use two weapons at a time is helpful in those big
gangbang situations, though the movement between weapons and trying
to turn the other direction to attack is still as slow as molasses.
Depending on the weapon combinations, depends on what kind of double
attacks you can use. For example, my favorite weapon combo is the
shotgun and the chain saw. Why? Well, with all of the other weapons,
you can only attack in the way you’re facing with both weapons. With
the shotgun/chain saw combination, I can attack forward using the
chainsaw with one button, and shoot backwards with the shotgun
without having to face the other direction with another button. How
someone could be able to hit a target 100% every time without
looking is beyond me, but this is a game so who the frack cares.
Well, I’m glad that I got the slightly fun part about the game out
of the way, because everything else is boring and not fun at all.
Exploring is a big part, but when it’s as boring as in Boomstick,
it’s worth about as much as an aluminum can. You can save just about
anywhere you want, though you have to find "Save Tokens" that are
placed in different parts of the game before you’ll be able to.
They’re not really hard to find, nor are they very scarce, in fact,
you find them quite frequently.
The load times in Boomstick are really bad, taking almost up to 3
minutes to load the game up when I first started playing. It got a
little bit faster after that, but not by much and still was about a
1 1/2 - 2 minute load time before getting to play.
The Playstation era is long gone, so I wish developers would stop
using the technology back then for their games. The developer of
Boomstick has done exactly this, because Fistful of Boomstick looks
nothing like a next generation title should be, and looks more like
one of the last games released for the Playstation. The intro
cut-scene is all right, though none of the characters have any kind
of depth of emotions, nor do the graphics portray any kind of
emotions. The level designs are kind of simple, and I was
disappointed that none of the environment was destructible like in
the new Hulk game, as I was itching to take my shotgun and chain saw
to doors and benches and playgrounds and such. About the only thing
that looks next generation like is the blood, and there is a ton of
it. Whether you’re hacking away with a chainsaw, or using the
decapitation machine (shotgun), there is an ample amount of blood
spewing out around everywhere, and so that was kind of cool to
watch. After about the first 20 minutes though, the blood spewing
got old, stupid, and just plain pointless to be so much freaking
blood. I mean, they’re dead right? How much more blood can they have
in them? The frame rate looked to keep a pretty constant pace,
though, for PS1-era graphics, there was some slow down when a big
Deadite group started to attack you. There was also slow down when
trying to switch between weapons simultaneously, though that might
have just been pure crappy programming.
The sound in the game I could live with, though the background music
(when there was any) got spooky at times, the sound effects and
one-liners by Ash are what I enjoyed the most. First the sound
effects, which consisted of, but not limited to, blood splatter,
Deadites moaning, decapitation machine shots, chainsaw, chainsaw
against skin, and many other interesting effects that kind of help
bring the game sort of alive (to bad for the Deadites). As for the
one-liners, Ash had plenty of comedic things to say in the game, and
if you hit the triangle button without there being any doors or
people nearby to talk to, he’ll say something smart-ass. For
instance, one thing he says is "Nice complexion, for a dead guy",
and another is "Does your mother kiss that face?". Wasn’t enough to
make the game any better than it already was, but is definitely why
this game isn’t a complete piece of sh-CRAP.
Overall I can’t say that I recommend Fistful of Boomstick for
any kind of a purchase, but if there’s nothing else to rent and this
is still in (which I bet it will be), then it might make a little
rental worthwhile for about 30 minutes with the chainsaw and shotgun
action, though afterwards it turns into routine boredom. Only Evil
Dead fanboys/girls should buy this game, otherwise it’s best to be
left in the clearance bin so you can use your hard earned money on
something else, such as Advance Wars 2 or Wario World...
(that wasn’t a plug, I swear!).
Clayton's Take
(Alkaiser): Well, I have seen
Army of Darkness,
so I enjoy this game a bit more than Rock did, although I still have
the same basic complaints that he has. This game carries a lot of
the great aspects of the movie over, like Ash picking up the
chainsaw and attaching it to his arm, and him getting zotched if you
enter a spell button combo incorrectly. (Klatu, Nicto...mrhehrm...I
did it...I said the words...now I'm taking the book!) You even have
your S-Mart name badge in your inventory!
But seriously...Dynasty Warriors 4 has a much more complex engine
and everything, literally everything in DW4 looks better than Evil
Dead, and there are TONS more things on the screen in DW4. Evil Dead
claims to have up to 50 monsters on the screen...well, there are
hundreds in DW4, and the screen is much better lit there. You can't
if Ash is undead from the way he looks on the screen. It might have
been a good idea to have some part of the game that actually have
decent lighting, but apparently, that wasn't on THQ's To Do list
anywhere, as it would have made everyone painfully aware of how
crappy the game looked.
Why can't I destroy the environment? I had the same problem as Rock,
I wanted to go and cut up cars, and park benches and all that, a la
Rygar...all you can cut with the chainsaw are slats of wood that act
as doors, and Deadites. That's a waste.
On top of that, the missions do become fairly pointless. In the
first area of Downtown Dearborn, you're supposed to get some stuff
from out behind the Police Station, only there are Deadites crawling
in the place. Well, with 5 sticks of dynamite, my trusty Boomstick,
my chainsaw and a lightning spell, I figured I could take 'em. I'm
probably right, except for the fact that THQ made them
invincible...I isolated one of the Deadite from the group and wailed
on it for 2 minutes, when normally, 4 swings will cut one down. It
just kept getting back up. What the hell, man?
All this just serves to remind everyone that, yes, THQ does not
belong in the Main Hall at E3, and has been deservedly banished
along with Acclaim, and that it will snow at their L.A. headquarters
before the day arrives when they put their name on a truly great
game. Crappy licensed games and wrestling...that's all you'll ever
get outta THQ.
