Evil Dead Games: Evil Dead Regeneration

What's goin' on kiddies? Welcome back for Day 4 of Evil Dead Games. Well shockingly enough we will heading back to THQ to bring us another heaping of blood, gore, one-liners and decent creature creation and once again published some more chainsaw and boomstick. Produced by (get this) Cranky Pants Games (Red Faction II, Evil Dead: Regeneration and Destroy All Humans! Path of the Furon) . This is Evil Dead: Regeneration.

They think I am crazy.  Just because I hacked up my friends and girlfriend.

Feeling again the vibe of an action hack and slash game again this almost feels like an alternative reality or Earth where Ash did not end up going through the temporal portal that sent him to 1200 AD at the end of Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn. Instead he is captured by the state troopers and dropped by at the Sunny Meadows Asylum.

Locked away in the wacko basket for the criminally insane, the truth as always far more worse than anyone suspected. Ash (voiced again by Bruce Campbell) is visited by his lawyer Sally (Nika Futterman of Star Wars: The Clone Wars, Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm, The Last of Us, Tenkai Knights, Sofia the First and Dead Rising 3) and is convinced he is stuck here and no one will believe when Sally slaps Professor Knowby's diary down on the table. Sally points out that Ash's shrink, Doctor Reinhard (Jim Ward of Spirited Away, Spider-Man, WALL-E, Despicable Me 2 and Batman: Arkham Knight) seems to want to keep Ash who survived two encounters with the Evil Dead that he may lead to some of the incantations that he may be useful.

Okay bub, yer goin' down.

Reinhard releases the evils with the book but needs the necessary passages from Knowby's diary and the asylum is flooded with the Kandarian demons taking over inmates and guards alike. Ash jumps to attention and steadies himself for the craziness to ensue. After fending off the deadites and the level boss he is visited by the ghost of Professor Knowby ( Jim Ward of Spirited Away, Spider-Man, WALL-E, Despicable Me 2 and Batman: Arkham Knight ) who tells Ash he must close the existing portals that Reinhard has opened in order to stop it from taking over the world but he will need help. Yeah, finally after 3 movies and 3 games prior Ash gets a sidekick in the form of a midget that was made partially deadite by the name of Sam (Ted Raimi of The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II, Intruder, Army of Darkness, SeaQuest 2032, Wishmaster, Hercules: The Legendary Journeys, Xena: Warrior Princess and Spider-Man). So grabbing his clothes, boomstick and chainsaw Ash is ready to give the deadites the business end of each and save the world.

The overall gameplay is similar to Fistful of Boomstick for the hack and slash options. There plenty of little puzzles to solve and fighting off the hordes of deadites is not unusual but different levels offer up different weapons including a harpoon gun and a flamethrower. While killing a friend, colleague or fellow survivor in game is considered a huge taboo, Sam can die over and over again in some of the most goofy and comical means like chucking him at deadites or kicking Sam in through doors to unlock them.

Unlike the previous games Ash seems to have unlimited ammo and gas for the boomstick, harpoon gun, flamethrower and chainsaw which really takes away any feeling of desperation and doesn't make you have to be as observant as you did in Hail to the King. He has a rage meter that fills up after x amount of enemies are slain allowing him to invoke Bad Ash and just slaughter anything in his way and also means his life meter won't ebb down as quickly.

The graphics are fair, the soundtrack is great and the gameplay is decent but it really is more silly than scary this time around. The story wasn't bad and I did like the absence of the Army of Darkness story arc making him a little less confident. All in all not a bad game but not a whole lot of re-playability.

You're toast. No bones about it.