Yeah... the cover art isn't very good.
The last Evil Dead movie, at the time, released at around 1992 or so, so why would it get a videogame in 2004 is beyond me, but where there is a franchise there is money to be made, so THQ was quick to bring it to the PS2 era consoles. A Fistful of Boomstick is an action-adventure game taking place after the Army of Darkness, in which you, as Ashley Williams, must stop the Deadite invasion.There're two modes of play Story Mode and Arcade Mode. Story Mode puts Ashley in six different zones or areas, which you must traverse as you fulfill goals from your 'To-do list'. Ash can equip two different weapons, his Chainsaw arm can be outfitted with two types of saws, a flamethrower and even a minigun, while he carries another weapon, mostly guns but a few melee weapons like swords and shovels or even dynamite. X uses your Saw-arm while Square uses your other weapon, hilariously enough, you can only target enemies when you have a gun on your left arm, but you can't aim if you are holding a sword but have the minigun equipped!
You'll be visiting the woods throughout different eras, so get used to it.
There're various spells too, that consume energy from a green gauge, that range from making you stronger to allowing you to possess enemies or even summon Deadite dogs to aid you. You fill this green gauge by defeating enemies, and you shouldn't be too lavish with your casting since many puzzles require spells in order to proceed and if you lack the magic points, well, you gotta go around town and defeat enemies until you can cast it. Most puzzles and goals are fairly easy to figure out, but there're a couple that are impossible to figure out on your own. How was I to know that I had to throw a dynamite stick on the strip club's courtyard? Everything hinted towards me needing a key to enter through the back. how was I supposed to know that I had to throw a Dynamite stick to get out of the room I entered with Dog Possession? Absolutely nothing hinted towards that object being destructible. There were a few other poor design choices, quite a few times I had to go around the entire stages again to see if something new triggered after talking to a new NPC or what have you, which is pretty lame.While this is mostly a very simple action game, there're a few survival horror elements in place. Ammo for your guns is limited, but to be fair the game is fairly generous with it, and medikits are limited as well, not to mention that the game doesn't restore your health after clearing a stage or a boss. Saving can only be done by collecting save tokens or clearing a stage. It's a bit weird having these elements in the game, but they aren't intrusive nor add anything to the game.
I think the State of Emergency engine worked well for this game.
The game is relatively short, but you unlock all six areas in Arcade Mode by beating them, Arcade Mode being a mission-mode of sorts which tasks you with doing silly, self-contained missions and aim for a high score. Yay? As for the game itself, as bland, simple and sometimes poorly designed as it is... it's kinda fun. The combat is clunky, but tearing deadites apart is fun sporadically. Still, the game's biggest draw is how true to the franchise it is... well, to Army of Darkness anyways, the humor, dialogue and setting feels very natural and faithful to it. There's time travel involved, and Ash even gets to meet his ancestors, on most games this plot device would've been meh, but here they knocked it out of the park. What I mean to say is that it actually feels like I'm playing a continuation of Evil Dead 3.Evil Dead - A Fistful of Boomstick is nothing to write home about but as an Evil Dead game it passes with flying colors. Even if you're not familiar with the franchise, I think the game might be entertaining since the humor, setting and Ashley Williams himself are very entertaining on their own. That said, as far as gameplay goes, it's nothing special, just your average, everyday third person shooter.
6.5 out of 10
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