Developer: Cranky Pants Games, Beenox
Publisher: THQ
Rrp: £ Varies
Released: 30th September 2005
Available on: Amazon
Played Using: An Xbox 360, Control pad
Your friends are dead, everyone thinks you did it and that you’re insane. Also you had to cut off your right hand because it… well, it got evil. Good thing you aren’t insane isn’t it? No one could think Ash Williams is insane, can they? I mean the very idea. It doesn’t matter either way, the Necronomicon is back and is causing all sorts of craziness to be let loose.
Evil Dead: Regeneration is a hack & slash game set in an alternative reality to the film series, in this case Ash didn’t travel in time. Before we go on I have to make sure that you dear reader understand something. Evil Dead as a franchise is cheesy, like really really cheesy. If you can’t stand some purposely cringe worthy dialogue then its likely this game won’t be for you.
The game features the vocal talent of Bruce Campbell voicing the main character, Ash. It isn’t Evil Dead if you don’t have Bruce Campbell.
Quite early in the game you get teamed up with Sam, a half-deadite of diminutive statue. Sam is absolutely essential to complete the game as he will be involved in solving most of the puzzles, usually by dying. You see, you can kick Sam into objects and if he dies (which happens a lot) he gets resurrected shortly after, usually with some comment. Thankfully Sam isn’t someone you need to escort, he can actually take care of himself in a fight… mostly.
Unfortunately Sam is one of the most irritating characters I’ve ever had to deal with in a game, I know he was written to be so but an irritating character, even if intentionally written to be so, is still irritating.
Using a control pad on this game is… problematic, doable, but problematic. The buttons aren’t mapped to what you would expect. For example; when you’re on the menu screen before you even get to select to start a new game [X] lets you enter but [B] is what actually selects. This wouldn’t be so bad but there is no option to change the control scheme be it for control pad or mouse and keyboard, in fact there’s no graphic options either, not related but just mentioning it.
This odd control scheme spans into the game itself and is the games main weakness. There are many times when, during combat, I’d accidentally access a menu rather than attack etc. This not only breaks the flow of the combat but is also generally quite irritating.
Combat… this is a strange one to explain. When it works the combat in this game can feel quick and satisfying. Unfortunately, as I have already stated, it is all too easy to accidentally click the analogue stick in and break the flow of the combat.
Ash can lock on to a target with the [Right Bumper] allowing him to focus attacks. Unfortunately you can select the target in question, just try to retarget again.
During the course of the game Ash will gain access to further weapons for both his melee and ranged attacks. These different weapons will be instrumental in passing several environmental puzzles. You can change melee weapon with the [Start] button and ranged with [Select].
There are extras that you can unlock by finding pages of the necronomicon that are hidden around the various levels. Ordinarily I wouldn’t bother with such things but in this case some of these extras are interviews with the voice actors which, for a fan, is pretty cool.
Unfortunately the controls aren’t the only problem with this game. During cinematics and cutscenes the framerate takes a real nosedive into the realm of single digits, these are skippable but then you lose the point of why you’re doing any of this.
The game is also guilty of being down right infuriating at times with areas that will spawn enemies indefinitely until you solve a puzzle and sometimes even allowing them to stunlock you.
If it weren’t for the controls and weird frame rate drops this game would sit better with me. It is, at best, a mediocre game with some funny elements. I really wish I could be kinder to it, but even my love of Evil Dead can’t give this a clean pass.
If this appeals to you perhaps try;
Tomb Raider
Prince of Perisa: The
Sands of Time
Enslaved: Odyssey to the West
