Evil Dead: Hail to the King

Dreamcast

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Descripción

Ambientado en una de las mejores trilogías cinematográficas de la década de los ochenta, las tres películas de culto del cine de terror del célebre y excéntrico Sam Raimi, tituladas "Posesión Infernal", "Terroríficamente Muertos" y " El Ejército de las Tinieblas"; el título que nos ocupa hace un resumen de los tres capítulos de una manera totalmente brillante y perfecta en lo que acontece en el ámbito del guión.

Así pues, Evil Dead: Hail to the King nos sitúa transcurridos ocho años después de la última película. El tenebroso argumento es el siguiente: Ash, el héroe destacado de la serie (mas por su físico que por sus hazañas...) vuelve a la cabaña del bosque donde empezaron todos sus sufrimientos, tales como apariciones y sucesos paranormales, hasta llegar al punto de enfrentamientos con cadáveres vivientes y fantasmas absolutamente demenciales. En esta ocasión las cosas presentan mas mal aspecto que nunca y de nuevo habrá de enfrentarse a legiones de monstruosos zombis.

La razón ha este nuevo brote de muertos vivientes se debe, según las pistas de su novia Jenny, ha que algún malvado ser esta invocando el Necromicon, libro maldito sobre los muertos vivientes (libro de magia negra escrito con sangre humana y huesos) para crear un auténtico caos de muerte y destrucción. Jenny es raptado por estos seres de ultratumba y esa es la gota que colma el vaso de la paciencia deAsh. Detrás de todo este terrorífico guión se esconde un Survival Horror en toda regla para la consola blanca de Sega.

Description

Strap on your chainsaw, pop open your Necronomicon and come get some, baby! Ash, the square-jawed, insult-spewing, shotgun-toting, chainsaw-armed hero from the cult classic Evil Dead™ trilogy is back! Picking up eight years after the last installment of the Evil Dead™ films, Ash is drawn back to the infamous cabin in the woods only to again face evil forces that have crossed over to our world. Our hero finds himself slicing and dicing carnivorous Kandarian demons, vicious deadites and other unspeakable atrocities spawned by the notorious Book of the Dead. And in true Evil Dead™ fashion, Ash must once again attempt to save the world from an appalling and horrific end.

Speaking of appalling and horrific ends, Evil Dead: Hail to the King has certainly seen it through the eyes of online video game editors. Sadly, the game is not that bad – we certainly named ten worst games than this this year (see our feature on the Ten Worst Games). Unfortunately, Evil Dead would have made a “Twenty Worst Games” list because of poor controls and simple graphics, especially for gamers who’ve never heard of the Evil Dead. For fans of the cult classic, Evil Dead will make an interesting item in their collection of memorabilia.

It all starts with the graphics, which although dark and scary, prove too many times to be too dark and not scary enough. Deadites, dead ghosts that plague you through the game, show up more times than Bruce Campbell’s wit, and they all look the same. Other uninspired enemies, like the hellbillies or the gruesome scout troops, look like they came from an episode of Scooby Doo. The backgrounds, using the pre-rendered look of Resident Evil, are just as mediocre as the monsters. The one bright spot are the cutscenes, which are funny, and when strung together make an impressionable mini-movie.

The sound is semi-saved by Bruce Campbell’s ( smart-ass wisecracks, but be prepared to hear the same ones over and over again. Still, even with the repetition, they’re fairly funny, and since they used Bruce himself, it’s kind of special – kind of. What kills the sound rating are the other annoying voice-overs, especially the extra loud-screeching of the character screaming “I’ll swallow your soul!”. You kind of wish they’d swallow something just to shut them up after a while.

The controls will feel especially wrong to gamers who have slugged through such survival horror epics as Resident Evil and Silent Hill. Turning Ash around is especially gruesome, since characters attack from all angles, and hitting characters square on with weapons is apparently by luck only. Another annoyance is getting Ash past certain characters whom you don’t wish to tango with. Apparently, one skeleton could block the widest path, and you’re forced to fight which is tricky when you’re low on health.

But does all of this add up to the worst game ever? Certainly not – we could name a dozen games with worse controls and worse graphics. But we expected more form the Evil Dead franchise, which makes this a bitter pill to swallow. Still, you could waste an afternoon or two on this and still find yourself fairly amazed with some of the puzzle elements, the hunt for horror exploration aspect, and all the chainsaw-ripping, zombie-blasting gore