Evil Dead a Fist Full of Broomstick continues the enduring misadventures of Ash (our amusing, spineless/somewhat valiant champion). If you are even vaguely familiar with the Evil Dead series or if you are a fanatic of the cult classic movies then you will want to procure yourself a copy of this game (or at least rent it). Months back I was tremendously excited to hear of this game’s forthcoming because Evil Dead: a Fist Full of Broomstick is based on the State of Emergency gaming engine. It’s quite astounding that this game actually came onto store shelves at $20 because as many vendors know, not that many people are cult movie fans so a lower price tag would possibly make those who have never heard of the series maybe pick a copy up at the store if randomly seen. Evil Dead: a Fist Full of Broomstick actually follows the same storyline as the movies. The game goes on with a professor who was a colleague of the professor who was doing studies of the Necronomicon inside the cabin (in the Evil Dead movies) is being interviewed on television, the journalist brings up Ash (which is you) and they begin to chastise him and the fun begins.

    The controls in the game are exceedingly uncomplicated and the player should not have any trouble at all figuring them out. You are provided many other attacks depending on what weapon you have and you are also given a versatile little lock-on element that never lets you down in the game. Within the game there are hundreds of enemies so you will have to run away from time to time, so you can always turn to the behind the shoulder shotgun barrage which is easily implemented with the addition of the lock-on feature. The stages are based on missions instead of individual parts so there seems to be a seamless transition from mission to mission without the game pausing (or at least not as many infuriating loading screens as one would think). The storyline is pretty deep than one would have expected, plus an superfluous special addition is our favorite character’s voice being done by Bruce Campbell which makes the game a lot more pleasurable than it starts off to be.

    The graphics in this game are exceptionally surprising however, the cut scenes are nothing special but, they are above average. In game, the graphics are polished and accurate. There is much of a cartoon like look to the game but this makes the game more humorous than expected (with the hideously massive amounts of blood). The zombies’ animation are done very well, I think they spent a lot of time on using the advanced motion capture technology with real human test subjects instead of just animating the zombies using a step by step animation method by ”guessing” how a zombie would walk. The graphics are slightly above those of a regular Ps2 game and I commend THQ on their work in this aspect.

    The sound was “ok”, I’m not going to say the sound was groundbreaking but it was “ok”. The zombie groans, shotgun blasts and chainsaw rips were good but it felt like there was some parts of the sound missing where there should have been sound. You would kill invading hordes of creatures with your chainsaw and there would be no ripping chainsaw sounds, and I think THQ could have done more to fix this problem, but it doesn’t really take away from the game too much. The music is great and it correctly fits the ambience of the environment (with your zombie enemies, dark skies and bloody warfare).

    In general, I think the game is absolutely worth the $20 price tag and anyone looking for some good, bloody, get some anger off of your chest fun…look into purchasing this game. There is really not a lot of replay value in this game but that is ok, because the game more than makes up for that. I believe for the most part, through this game, THQ has somewhat redeemed themselves to me and the next game they will be coming out with I will unquestionably be looking into frequenting. Zombies, guns, the Necronomicon, evil professors…how can you get any better than that?