Evil Dead: Regeneration

Moby ID: 19589
PlayStation 2 Specs
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Description official descriptions

Taking place right after the events depicted in the movie,Evil Dead 2, Ash is arrested for the murder of the Deadite bodies found at the cabin and convicted. Found psychopathic, Ash is sentenced to Sunny Meadows, an institute for the criminally insane. Though free from the madness that plagued him in the woods, Ash learns that the Necromonicon Ex Mortis, the Book of the Dead has fallen into the hands of Dr. Vladamir Reinhard, the person in charge of the asylum. In the basement, Dr. Reinhard experiments on unlocking the secrets of the Necromonicon. Using a helpless inmate named Sam as a test subject, the mad doctor frees the evil and once again Ash must live the nightmare as evil forces break free and inmates are turned into zombie deadites!

Evil Dead Regeneration is a third person action game like The Suffering. Players control Ash, who fights with a variety of collectable weapons, which include the trademark chainsaw-hand and shotgun, as well as a pistol, flamethrower, grenade launcher and a harpoon gun to pick up. For the most part, Ash will need to hack and shoot at various zombie creatures until their bodies become weak. At that point the player can press a button to have Ash unleash a finishing move using his weapons. Ash can also collect "evil essence" in order to turn himself into "Evil Ash", a more powerful version of himself.

Also along on the quest is Sam, turned into a half-Deadite by Dr. Reinhard, he acts as Ash's sidekick in a quest for revenge. Sam can be controlled after finding certain "possession" symbols in the game. Ash can also kick Sam in order to attack enemies and activate puzzles.

Ash is still voiced by Bruce Campbell while Sam is voiced by Ted Raimi.

Spellings

  • 恶魔灭绝:重生 - Simplified Chinese spelling
  • 이블데드: 리제너레이션 - Korean spelling

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Credits (PlayStation 2 version)

174 People (155 developers, 19 thanks) · View all

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 65% (based on 28 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.5 out of 5 (based on 20 ratings with 2 reviews)

A is for Ass-Kicking, B is for Bruce, C for Campbell

The Good
And D id for Deadite.

Evil Dead: Regeneration is a game made by and for Evil Dead fans. You control Bru... I mean, Ash with his chainsaw on his right, his boomstick in his left and his witty one liners, with the voice of Bruce Campbell himself. That is 9 points in the Awesome scale.

You have a sidekick, a deadite called Sam, voiced by Ted Raimi, that surprisingly manages to create one of the best voiceover performances I've ever heard in a game, kudos to him too. His role is mainly a comic relief, though, but sometimes you have to control him in mini-missions required to advance in the story that normally end with him being kicked in the ass, by you.

The graphics are clearly inspired in the movie series, the sense of humor, the camera tricks... everything looks like it has come right off the film into the game.

The Bad
It's awfully short! And easy. I expected the game to be a little challenging, but it was a walk in the park. Even the boss fights were, in the worst case, a matter of two attempts.

There are too little finishing moves; I wanted to put this in 'The Good' part of the review, but I can't. They're awesome, but there are like two or three of them in total.

Sam's mini-missions are easy as cake and repetitive, too.

The Bottom Line
If you are an Evil Dead fan, go ahead, play it, you can finish it in an afternoon and you'll enjoy it. This game needs a sequel, pronto. It has to be bigger, longer and harder.

Xbox · by Tiroloco (15) · 2008

A simple, yet fun action game coupled with light puzzles and a sharp sense of humour.

The Good
The iconic Bruce Campbell returns again in the flesh, um, er . . sorry, I meant to say texture-mapped polygons, with accompanying voice over track - as Ash, as he again puts yet another wave of deadites on the receiving end of his trusty chainsaw, in this latest video game outing.

It must be said, the previous two entries from the THQ stable were hardly anything to write home about, and that’s why I was quite surprised to find Regeneration was actually better than I had anticipated. It is easily the strongest game entry in the series thus far. It was kind of like having a coffee from a vending machine, and discovering it actually tasted like coffee, and not dirty dishwater.

In the past, the Evil Dead games have traditionally leaned toward Alone in The Dark/Resident Evil style play formula, though quite notably lacking the freshness, polish and overall strong design of the aforesaid games. With Regeneration, this mind set has been entirely scrapped in favour of a more straightforward approach. Instead, opting for a combination of arcade style hack n’ shoot action, also with platform elements, and some light puzzle solving, which proves a step, or perhaps more aptly several steps, in the right direction - as I’ll expand later.

The game sets the tone from the start by opening up proceedings in the old cabin in the woods, where you can get to grips comfortably with the basics, by carving up a few deadites. The games’ premise is actually meant to be sort of an alternate sequel to the events from the ‘Evil Dead 2: Dead by Dawn’ movie, where instead of Ash being sent through time to the medieval era, instead he is convicted of murder after the gory events that took place at the cabin is interpreted by the court as simply a mass killing spree, he is then sentenced to be institutionalised.

Now Ash finds himself in the Sunny Meadows asylum for the criminally insane, whilst the resident Doctor Reinhard has gotten hold of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis (The book of the dead) and is using it for all kinds of diabolical experiments in the basement, and has managed to unleash the evil again, so it’s up to Ash to put things right as only he can, . . though with a little help this time around.

I did say little, Ash is teamed up with a knee-high half deadite half human midget called Sam (one of Reinhard’s experiments) - who favourably adds the contrast to the game-play. Sam follows Ash everywhere, and even pulls his own weight by fighting with the deadites alongside you. Sam also proves to be an effective weapon - you can kick him onto deadites and he will pluck off their heads, or else leave them vulnerable for you to polish them off. Sometimes puzzles’ requiring Sam is also presented, where by he can get booted to high places Ash can’t go. Sam can be killed, but he always comes back again. Hence the subtitle of the game, Regeneration. Clever eh, er, . . okay, very droll.

The combat side of Ash’s exploits is amicably very simple, yet remains suitably gratifying - you will dual-wield two weapons at once, e.g. the classic chainsaw & shotgun duo, and can perform a variety of attack combos simply with a series of mouse clicks. Something interesting here is you no longer have to collect ammo for your weapons. Rather, it is quite refreshingly infinite.

During the course of the game, Ash comes into different hardware to play with; Particularly entertaining is a multipurpose harpoon gun, which can be used to snag the enemies, and draw them back for an up close and personal finishing blast. When the deadites are softened up, they will start emanating a glowing green gas, cuing you to perform a finishing blow. These finishing moves are like a vigorous chainsaw blow to the chest, or the SO chic over the shoulder shotgun blast. These are like mini cut-scenes, where the pace goes into dramatic slow motion, and are fun to watch.

Similar in fashion to The Suffering, Ash has a rage-metre - which can be built up through collecting deadites mana essence, which they leave behind after being dispatched. When Ash’s rage gauge is full, he can turn into ‘Evil Ash’, which will make your attacks much stronger for a limited time. This is at no time necessary to progress, yet still adds a little extra variety to the play.

On a regular basis Ash’s progression is halted by some kind of obstruction. Ash has the ability to ‘possess’ Sam at these points. Usually when playing as Sam, you will have to find some small opening to crawl through, and then find a means of opening up a path for Ash. During these sequences, Sam still has to contend with deadites, though notably fewer. At times there will be a huge deadite. In this instance, Sam can jump on the monsters’ head, and literally control the rampaging beast, in order to smash open a new area. These frenetic moments proved to be quite entertaining.

Just for some added exploration incentive, you can find notes to collect scattered throughout the game world. These will unlock extras like video interviews with Campbell and Raimi.

There is a handful of suitably ‘classic’ Guardian battles along the way. These sections remind one of like-minded encounters on some old NES platform game. You know the drill - learn the bosses attack patterns, and never relent on your trigger finger.

What I liked most about this game is the fun repartee between Ash and Sam. Throughout the game, Sam chatters nonstop, and Ash always has some wisecrack to dispense. Of course, some of the speech gets quite repetitive. But I really didn’t mind for this game. The lines are often genuinely funny, and the readings are simply superb.

The Bad
The platform sections don’t come off strongly. This is because Ash’s jumping is rather rigid and stiff. So this often results in Ash plummeting. But the flip side of this is, Ash simply climbs back up, and you can try again straight away.

In terms of visuals, Regeneration looks as if it could have come out five years earlier. And yes, the game originated on the PS-2. Of course, on the PC you can run it on higher resolutions, but this only makes so much difference. The set pieces presented are often quite dull, with not much going on. The deadites you face are fairly detailed, and don’t look bad by any means. Though there is nothing here which is going to grab your attention in a huge way.

The overall game-play is very methodical. And once you are familiar with all the routines, there really isn’t any extra depth to it. On top of this, the game only offers about seven or eight hours of play.

The Bottom Line
It seems what THQ/Cranky Pants set out to achieve with Regeneration was to simply get back to basics, and cut out most of the tedious and frustrating elements which plagued the previous games’ in the series. Of course the downside to this simplification of the play formula is that the game is perhaps just too easy. That said, for the (albeit short) time Regeneration lasted, I had trouble putting it down, and it grew on me in a big way.

My final words are, if you’re looking for a serious challenge, then give this one a miss. But, if you don’t mind a bit of mindless hack n’ blast em’ up action with some generous dashes of puzzles & humour, I think you can have some fun with this.

Windows · by Nick Drew (397) · 2007

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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by John Chaser.

Additional contributors: Unicorn Lynx, DreinIX, Rik Hideto.

Game added October 20, 2005. Last modified November 20, 2024.