Using spells you pick up along the way combined with the energy of felled deadites, you can also shoot lightning, stun groups of enemies, increase your strength, or possess the carcass of a deadite and turn it against its comrades. The game throws a few boss fights at you, and though they're slightly more strategic affairs than the standard combat, none of them are terribly challenging. When you get up close, the most you can really do is break out a three-swipe combo with the chainsaw, which gets old fast. If you have sufficient ammo, which the game is pretty generous with, you can usually just auto-target your enemies into oblivion from a safe distance. Though most deadites end their term in a spray of giblets and dismembered limbs, the combat itself isn't so satisfying. The deadites are generally slow and not too smart, and they're really only dangerous in large packs. The game quickly equips you with Ash's signature combo of a double-barreled shotgun and an arm-mounted chainsaw, and though you'll find a wide variety of other weaponry, including dynamite, Molotov cocktails, an assortment of handguns, a flamethrower, and a Gatling gun, the simple pairing of chainsaw and shotgun will serve you well for the majority of the game. Ash won't have to leave the Dearborn city limits to get the job done, but he will have to travel back to Colonial and Civil War-era Dearborn before he's through.Ī Fistful of Boomstick forgoes the slower survival-horror pacing found in Evil Dead: Hail to the King, THQ's previous Evil Dead game, opting instead for more-straightforward action. As usual, it's up to Ash and a heaping helping of machismo to send the deadite horde back to hell.
EVIL DEAD FISTFUL OF BOOMSTICK TV
The game banks big on the appeal of Ash's absurdly brash candor.Īs has become routine for the character, Ash once again finds himself dealing with a mess of the wicked zombies known as deadites, this time thanks to a bow-tie-and-monocle-wearing archaeologist and a ditzy TV host who unwittingly unleash the undead on Ash's hometown of Dearborn, Michigan. Whether or not you'll take to A Fistful of Boomstick will hinge primarily on your appreciation of Bruce Campbell's speaking voice and your love of cheesy one-liners. The gameplay is a mix of sloppy third-person action and even sloppier puzzles, putting the weight of the game squarely on Ash's tongue-in-cheek macho colloquialisms. Now, THQ and VIS Entertainment are trotting out Bruce Campbell's Ash character and the twisted deadites once again for Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick. Yet, here we are, 22 years later, with a hyperstylized indie sequel/remake, a bizarre high-fantasy sequel, a video game, and a massive cult following. It seems unlikely that Sam Raimi and Bruce Campbell could have known just what they were starting back in 1981 when they shot a tiny independent horror film called Evil Dead on a shoestring budget.