Playstation 2 - Evil Dead: Regeneration

Format
Playstation 2
Publisher
THQ
Developer
Cranky Pants Games
Country of origin
US
Genre
Shooter

Evil Dead : Regeneration

By David Rasmussen
23rd Oct 05

Ever made a gaming decision because there was that particular voice actor working that particular role that you just had to play? Picked up a title because you looked forward to that particular talent reprising that particular role, even though you had your doubts about the game? Ever do that before? Probably.
For me if there’s one talent I do that for it’s Bruce Campbell. And not just any role will do, mind you… though I guess if he did come out into more games I would be interested… but in this case (for this review) the role has to be the King himself , you know him and if you’re a fan of the trilogy then you love him, Ash.
You know, THE Ash, the Ash with whom the only thing he -- well, he doesn’t really want to catch it but… oh, heck, my Editors won’t let me talk about it anyway so let’s move on.

That’s right, Bruce Campbell is back as Ash rides again right into the dark maw of THQ’s latest “survival horror” 3rd person shooter game Evil Dead : Regeneration. So get ready to grab your boomstick, your favorite chainsaw, and the desire to dish it out and tell the undead to come get some ‘cause the King has returned! Oh, and hopefully this time the game fares better than Fistful of Boomstick!

Now that’s not to say that Fistful of Boomstick is a HORRIBLE game, or (in the words of Matthew Perry… allegedly…) “sucks”, but the game could have been better.
You do remember Fistful of Boomstick, right? It couldn’t have been that long since I last… oh, wait, it was that long since I reviewed it. My bad. Anyway to recap, Fistful of Boomstick kicks off as you find Ash drinking away his sorrows at his favorite bar (probably has to do with an anniversary he doesn‘t want to remember, mostly since it seems to involve death as the end result). Too bad he won’t be spending anymore quality time learning his tolerance to alcohol and whether or not he can become drunk enough to see pink Deadites since the local supernaturally themed “talk show” has just played a recording of good old Professor Knowby reading from his favorite bedtime storybook, the Necronomican, which opens a portal into hell itself (which seems to make an appearance in Regeneration as an “alternate reality“ that is basically a knockoff Outworld from Mortal Kombat).

Wielding guns and other weapons with a limited amount of ammo (that you find along the way), pages of the Necronomican which allowed you to wield magic, and a chainsaw topped with a full load of Deadite smashing power, you head out and bring it to the Deadite throughout the city and throughout time itself. Yeah. Apparently you get thrown back into time during the gameplay and have to fight your way back to the present only to find it’s gone all alternate reality evil on you and then the game wraps after you off the last big bad and make the world safe for people everywhere.

Now the problems. The game is action packed and it’s great to hear Bruce Campbell deal it out as Ash, but the game is also way too short and has zero replay value! Once you beat this game there’s no incentive to play the game over and over again EXCEPT maybe your love of Bruce Campbell‘s Ash character -- though as in love I mean admiration and nothing too physical. That (at least) THQ seemed to try and fix when they put out Regeneration this past month… the replay thing, mind you, and not certain gamers attachment to Bruce Campbell… that might not be curable.

In Regeneration you find Ash in the nuthouse. Why? Because they came to take him away, ha ha, they came to take him away, ho ho he he ha ha, to the funny farm where life WAS beautiful all the time… until the deadites showed up… ugh, gotta stop flashing back on old songs Dr. Demento used to play.
Ok, why is he locked up? Apparently it’s illegal in the state he lives in to be nuts (imagine that)… and then there’s the little matter of him being accused of “killing” a cabin load of people out in the woods who were already technically dead when Ash started killing them… again.

Yeah, apparently the game takes place after Evil Dead 2 : Dead By Dawn... Or Army of Darkness if you prescribe to the theory that Army of Darkness starts in the aftermath of Evil Dead 2... Something. Anyway Ash is locked away but his lawyer (of the female persuasion) has found evidence that he might not be crazy after all in Knowby’s diary… waitaminute, didn’t that surface in Fistful of Boomstick?

Anyway it looks like Ash’s headshrink (who is supposed to see if Ash is nuts or not) is in need of a headshrink himself since he’s using the Necronomican to tear open a new one into the world in the form of a demon portal… only something goes wrong and MANY PORTALS OPEN! Yeah. And while he’s at it the nutty German would be world smasher guy gets dragged into an alternate reality swarming with Deadites, where he tries to get the diary the lawyer now has so he can figure out what the hell he did wrong.
But before we continue let’s deal it out… as in the giving of ANOTHER Chet R. Chase Award!
This one goes to you, voice actor who played the evil German headshrink, thanks for the strangely appropriate yet still stereotypical German voice acting! This Chet R. Chase is for you! Ok, let’s move on.

As for Ash? The events that transpired leaves Ash trapped in an asylum filled with Deadites, and lots of free time on his hands to practice his patented anger management system on the newly dead… now all we need to do is hook him up with fellow anger management needin’ voice actors Michael Ironside (Splinter Cell) and Jack Nicholson and we should have ourselves a fun time… not this time, but maybe one day….

Of course once Ash finds out about the portals (thanks to a Superman style disembodied head appearance of Professor Knowby -- who appears several times during this game) he reluctantly heads out to shut them down, along with his “new partner” a short human/deadite combo who has managed to retain his humanity despite the merging (warped into this by Ash’s former shrink slash mad german scientist) named Sam who is excellently played by Ted Raimi. And no, you’re not seeing things, I just put the words “excellently played” and Ted Raimi in the same sentence. Go figure.

Yes, this time out Ted Raimi (who has his brother to thank for breaking into acting I suppose… allegedly) delivers a nicely done performance. And yes, this time he won’t annoy you, though I suppose he should since you’re suppose to abuse his character often (half for fun, half because it’ll help you beat the Deadites and get through a few of the puzzles)! He and Bruce Campbell form an “odd couple” of sorts, without the coupling of course, as they end up having to work together to save the world and Ash’s lawyer, who is stuck in the middle of the wild reading Prof. Knowby’s diary only to… ah, you’ll find out.

Unlike last time when you worked solo, this time you’ll have help in your war against the Deadites and you’ll need all the help you can get! Sam is quite useful, and you’ll find that he’s going to help you get through quite a few tight spots! And this time it means you won’t have to hit a button to hear Bruce Campbell speak, he and Sam will have lots to say during this game so you’ll have lots to listen to, including lots of dialogue during quiet time scenes when your moving from one area to the next… and sometimes during not so quiet time when your trying to kill things.

Weapons are not plentiful but a few new tasty weapons, including a harpoon arm attachment which lets you spear enemies Scorpion style for a quick “COME HERE!“ move and a more powerful “boomstick”, do land into your hands for some quality killing time with your new Deadite “friends” -- just be sure to dig around any large amounts of trash/debris for these upgrades. That and it seems you have a new (I.e. “borrowed”) power. It seems once the first portal is collapsed then Ash gets a major Deadite infusion which brings out Bad Ash (remember Bad Ash?), which is… sadly… seemingly a ripoff of Torque’s rage demon from The Suffering (and, oddly enough, same time released as this game sequel The Suffering : Ties That Bind).

Yeah, and once that happens you’ll get a meter which tracks how much Deadite power you take in which allows you to trigger Bad Ash for a short period of time, which grows longer the more you raise the meter bar. How do you do that? You do that the same way you raise your health bar -- the discovery of platforms with a floating holo rune, red for health and yellow for your rage powers. More on that in a bit.

The form is powerful and all (for a brief time), and unlike Torque’s rage demon you don’t have to manually shut it off yourself to avoid instant death…. But still! Anyway it’s not as much Bad Ash as it is Hulk Ash since he just destroys things and doesn’t seem to cop an attitude problem like the original Ash.
Yeah, yeah, I know, Bruce Campbell -- SMASH!! (sigh)

Yeah. Platforms with floating holo runes. This replaces your old magic system from Fistful of Boomstick. That means you only have a few abilities (actually you seem to only have the one ability, the ability to possess Sam to help you get through some areas you can’t go yourself) and you can’t enjoy the fun of hearing Bruce Campbell mess up the spells like before which is a shame.
I don’t know about this new “magic” thing, but I think that should be a downer since you lose the buttload of powers the magic system from Fistful of Boomstick gave you which really dealt out the punishment -- but since it’s not like that same system was all that necessary since you pretty much just shot and decapitated everything anyway I guess this system works better since it’s at least necessary to complete each level.

Now how about the replay value? Well this time there IS incentive to play levels again. What is that? Extras, my friend, extras are blowing in the undead wind. There are pages scattered about the game, but this time they don’t handle magic as much as they mark extras you can earn. Replay value in this case means going back to refind certain pages you missed which is nice since you can play some levels again and have an actual reason to go back to play again… but do NOT do it while your playing! Your replay save data will overwrite your present game save data, so if you are in a tight spot and don’t want to lose your place you’ll be doing just that if you go back for, say, an extra you missed.

Also going back means playing the level as you were in that level, you can’t bring upgrades in weapons back though you do get your longer health meter which is one plus. There are 20 extras in all, hidden throughout the game, and most are not too hard to find if you are willing to do some searching and poking around each level intensively for each. Incentives to find these include hearing Bruce Campbell talk about the game, see production art, and Bruce Campbell clearing up the rumors on that Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash movie AND Evil Dead IV (and that‘s after uncovering about 15 out of 20 extras)! Though, to be honest, in Evil Dead IV‘s case the information given seems to be a bit dated since Spider-Man 2 is referred to, or did Bruce mean Spider-Man 3 in that comment?
Anyway last I heard they WOULD do Evil Dead IV but only AFTER Sam finished Spider-Man 3... And MARVEL doesn’t make him do Spider-Man 4 after the soon to be failing of X-Men 3.

Now it’s not the best gaming, but still it‘s not the worse gaming either.
The game is… well… average I guess. I mean you’ve seen this all before, but still the fighting is done fine and once you get more gear the fighting becomes deeper with more ways to kill. Yeah, you don’t have the big arsenal of Fistful of Boomstick, but you use it better here. For instance once you find the harpoon attachment for Ash’s right arm you can have Bruce Campbell do his own Scorpion improv (without the “COME HERE!”) where he latches enemies, yanks them in and sets them up for a juggling move that keeps them up up and away with his boomstick (and by that I mean you can juggle a Deadite with your shotgun for quite abit which is downright cool!)

One minus, however, seems to be the inability to change target locks. If there was one I either missed it or didn’t master it, so I guess having the instruction booklet would have made all the difference.
Another minus is the fact that the game is pretty much repetitive throughout. Go through a level, kill Deadites, find your way to the portals (once you start that) which requires to you feed a large demon head spirit energy which you find in large Alien knockoff eggs that you cut open and Sam absorbs, to go through it to access the portal area. From there you fight a level boss and move on. As I said, repetitive.

Yeah, Regeneration is a fun game, and it’s got some nice moves to it and all, but there (once again) isn’t anything to break the sameness of each level’s objectives for the most part, which might be abit of a downer for you… but hey, it’s got Bruce Campbell in it!
Ok. I think the breakdown will explain the rest.

Bruce Campbell’s Evil Breakdown : Regeneration Edition
What’s Hot?
Well despite the fact you don’t have the large amount of spells as in Fistful of Boomsticks, nor the variety of weapons you are still livin’ large here. With unlimited ammo (your guns will never run out of ammo), some interesting moves (including nice combos and a God of War size moves list), two people who do an excellent job at being the stars of the game (Bruce Campbell as Ash and Ted Raimi as Sam), not to mention a fair reason to play this over (besides the nicely done gameplay, voice acting and action) you can find some good reason to plunk down some money for this one and pick up Regeneration today.

What’s Not?
Though if I were you I’d rent now and wait for the game to drop to $20 or less for ownership.
The game is still average gameplay, the levels are a tad repetitive, and I wouldn’t exactly be calling this a “platformer” since one of the essentials of platforming (the precision jumping) is not exactly present here. Not to mention the fact that you’ll put this Evil Dead back into it’s grave in under 20 hours (though I think you might go over the amount of time you would have needed to play Fistful of Boomstick) and eventually you’ll nail all the extras as well and move on. Also the moves list could have been better organized for easier reading and quicker finding of specific moves for specific weapons or weapons combinations, as well as an easier way to cycle through enemies with your target lock thing.

Still it’s one of the better Evil Dead games and if I had to pick one I’d like to play at least a few times a year it’d be this one (unlike Fistful of Boomstick which only gets one replay a year in my book). So you could do worse, but you could do a little better too. Wait until it’s $20 or less then buy.

Moments to Remember?
Now that’s no problem. With even Ted Raimi turning in an excellent performance in this game I can’t fault the game for memorable moments which it’ll have. Yeah, yeah, I’m a little hard on Ted Raimi since I can’t remember the last time I felt that positively about him -- though to be fair to Ted Raimi I do like him more than I like David Duchovny’s voice acting which I always equate to an alternative cure for insomnia.

What to Ignore?
Hmmm… I don’t think there’s anything to ignore here… well… maybe a few things, but if I told you that then you wouldn’t be surprised when… and… never mind, find out yourself.

Overall?
Well, one more time to wrap up this sentiment. The game is a step above Fistful of Boomstick despite having less bells and whistles in the armory dept. Yes, you’ll play this longer (though it‘s still under 20 hours of gameplay), enjoy it more, and have a better experience here than with the previous game (or games since I heard the games before are not exactly gold standard gaming). If I had to choose? This is the Evil Dead game I would keep, though I’d probably hold out for a $20 price tag before I throw down my hard earned credits on it.

And yes, once again as I have done in the past and now, I will journey outwards towards the local Blockbuster if (though hopefully when moreso than if) the next Bruce Campbell Evil Dead game hits… ‘cause until Sam Raimi finishes Spider-Man 3 (and MARVEL doesn’t panic and make him do Spider-Man 4 in the aftermath of the soon to be disaster that will be X-Men 3) you won’t have an Evil Dead IV movie to fill that need for Bruce Campbell for a few years yet to come… if you‘re lucky. And since I’m not the biggest fan of the horror genre I’ll get my Bruce Campbell Evil Dead fix through the games, thanks.
So until that groovy day shines down on your local cinemaplex, and Evil Dead IV opens it’s dark doors to many theater going fans, you’ll just have to play Regeneration and hope for the best.

Eh? What about the Anime route that Kurt Russell was rumored to have gone with a third Escape movie? Have you seen anything of that past the one 30 second trailer tagged onto the recent Escape from New York Special Edition re-release? No? Me neither. Despite the fact he was working with Production I.G. to do it it seems that nothing has been done, or it hasn’t been released yet if they did do it. So in that light what are the odds of Bruce Campbell/Sam Raimi being “inspired” to do an Evil Dead Anime movie when not even Kurt Russell can get his Anime Escape movie out? I don’t see that route being taken anytime soon.

-- David Rasmussen 23rd Oct 05

Playstation 2 Evil Dead: Regeneration Images