Evil Dead: Hail to the King

If you received this game for Christmas, we're very, very sorry...

For the most part, I'm a pretty mild-mannered gentleman, especially when it comes time to review bad games, especially movie-licensed video games. With a few exceptions, most movie-licensed video games range between being mediocre to a steaming pile of poo. Even then, I try to stay as fair-headed and play as far into the game as I can before I give my opinion. So, after beating Evil Dead: Hail To The King within a few hours, despite frustratingly bad control, poor gameplay design, and mediocre visuals, there's only one thing left to say: This game sucks.

Yes, I hear the speedy rapping of keyboard strokes as flame mail from hardcore fans of the Evil Dead movies comes my way. Well let me state the obvious here: zealous fans of the Evil Dead movies will likely love this game, and for two big reasons. The game's story stays true to the series, adding a few twists here and there that will definitely be treat for anyone who has seen the Evil Dead flicks (you'll see Annie from Evil Dead 2, but are you in for a surprise). It begins with Ash, the chainsaw-wielding hero going back to the dark cabin where everything began in order to confront his fears and nightmares. Of course, we then find out pages from the Necronomicon are missing and so is Ash's new lady, Jenny. From then, it's a wild ride into a portal back to medievil where EVERYTHING started. Secondly, the sounds in the game are pretty good, whether it's the haunting music, or the voice acting. And thankfully, all of Ash's trademark sayings are contained within, with Bruce Campbell himself delivering the lines and includes some new one-liners that will definitely get Evil Dead fans rolling.

But let's take away the story and sounds and let's talk about gameplay... or lack there of. Evil Dead's play mechanics can be described very simply: Resident Evil clone. This wouldn't be bad, if the game was a Resident Evil game. Using RE controls for this game was a bad choice, especially when you have to dodge hundreds of Deadites. Of course, you could waste your time killing every Deadite in your path, but that's an act of futility since they constantly respawn. What makes this doubly worse is that ammunition is pretty scarce and well-known, powerful weapons like Ash's "Boomstick" lack any kind of boom. So, you're left with the hand-to-hand weapons and thankfully Ash's chainsaw rips through undead with ease. Of course, there's the bad side that you have to keep it fueled since the chainsaw guzzles fuel rapidly. So basically, you're left dodging most of the small guys in order to take on the brute bosses, and with the frustrating control, lackluster hand-to-hand combat, and bad collision detection, your success in this game seems to depend how frugal you are with your items rather than based on any skill.

Visually, this ain't the Dreamcast quality visuals were talking about either. Overall, it looks like they took the PS version of the game, translated for the N64 halfway, then decided to take that code and port it to the Dreamcast. That means drab colors and pixelizated backgrounds... yuck. With exception to the Ash character, characters in the game animate like crap; if undead creatures truly existed, I think they would be insulted at how badly animated they're represented in this game. And wasn't enough to xerox the control and gameplay of Resident Evil but Evil Dead has to look like it as well. Pre-rendered backgrounds are pretty not good, with pixelization readily apparent in each scene. And with pre-rendered backgrounds, you better have good camera angles so players can navigate easily. But of course not! Too often, camera angles will leave you wondering what direction to go, but it truly creates confusion and difficulty when fighting. It's one thing to shoot things in pre-rendered backgrounds but to fight hand-to-hand? Blech...

The killing joke of this game is how quickly you'll beat the game ¿ despite the aggravating controls and camera angles, this game can be beaten within a few hours. That can be looked as a bad thing ¿ because you were expecting the game to get better - or a blessing ¿ thank god you can finally throw this turd away. And as much as we all wanted this game to be good, even average, Evil Dead: Hail To The King is another victim of a horrible movie-to-video game translation and should be laid in a nailed-shut coffin, and shipped to the bargain bin cemetery.

--Anthony Chau, IGNDC

In This Article

Evil Dead: Hail to the King Image

Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Rated "M"
DeveloperHeavy Iron Studios
Release DateOctober 30, 2000
PlatformsPlayStation, PC, PlayStation 2, Dreamcast
Evil Dead: Hail to the King
Evil Dead: Hail to the King