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First Encounter:
Ash Comes to Xbox
By Carlson
What would the world be without low-budget horror movies? No more
campy fountains of blood spraying out of walls, no glib one liners,
chainsaws only being used for cutting wood, and a lack of
shotgun-toting heroes. Things would get very dull, I think. For
years now, the classic Evil Dead series of horror movies (well,
more like comedy movies with a horror theme) have been a source of
vast amounts of amusement for me. After a while, though, the memory
faded a bit, and I stopped remembering it. With that in mind, I was
more than mildly thrilled when the folks at Xbox.com asked me to
take a look at Evil Dead: A
Fistful of Boomstick. I mean, come on … What could be more
fun than running around as Ash and beating the snot out of the
Deadites?
Campy horror … gotta love
it!
Enough talk, it's time for a little First Encounter action. The
game begins with our pragmatic shotgun toting hero wandering the
streets of Dearborn, Mich. It looks like the Deadites have taken an
interest in this rather quiet town for some reason. I immediately
notice something missing. The trusty old tool of mass destruction
and mayhem is not present. Ash seems to have lost his chainsaw!
Well, at least I still have my trusty old boomstick: a double
barrel Remington. Made from cobalt blue steel, with a Walnut stock
and a hair trigger, it is S-Mart's top of the line and can usually
be found in the sporting goods section. Only the best for good old
Ash. Good thing for me, too, since here comes the first batch of
Deadites. They do have a distinct similarity to some of my friends
at 5:00 A.M. on the day after a New Year's celebration … As a
result, I really didn't feel too bad about putting them out of
their misery.
So, I continue my leisurely stroll up the street, blowing demented
Deadites into little bits of bloody goo. The only problem so far is
that I seem to be running low on ammo. Ooh, what's this? A shovel!
Now I have choices! I can shoot them or beat them. Or beat them and
then shoot them. Or beat them, shoot them, and then beat them some
more. Or, well, you get the idea. Now, this is more like it! At any
rate, I start to run into a few normal people, too (at least what
passes for normal in this particular town), including a few cops, a
few ladies of questionable moral fiber, and an irritable redneck or
two. Naturally, these folks were being chewed on rather avidly by
the Deadite population and needed some assistance. Through this
whole thing, Ash keeps up his usual banter with a timely, "I love
it when the parts go flying like that." It's a good thing they got
Bruce Campbell to do this project because I can't imagine how it
could work without him. Besides, the guy is just plain funny. Now,
all I need to do is find that chainsaw, and things will be back to
normal … or at least normal by Evil Dead standards.
Looks like a ghoulishly good
time.
Even if you haven't seen the Evil Dead movies, this game is well
worth checking out. THQ has filled it with more than its fair share
of campy bad puns, gooey undead, and enough blood, guts, and
carnage to make any low-budget horror movie proud. The graphic
style is almost comic and seems to lean towards being intentionally
funny, as opposed to "serious" rendering and art. If you come into
this one expecting to take things seriously, you are going to be in
for a rude awakening. Everything has been done with an eye towards
the glib, off-beat, and certainly off-color humor that the Evil
Dead movies are famous for—wry comments, crass taunts, body parts
flying all over the place, behind-the-back shotgun blasts,
over-the-shoulder shotgun blasts, and a few new tricks as
well.
There goes Ash with a flamethrower … Hmm, I can think of a couple
ways this could turn out, and every one of them is going to be
messy.
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