If you're a fan of the Evil Dead setting or Bruce Campbell himself, you'll enjoy the overall gameplay and fun of ED: R.
The game directly follows the second film’s ending where Ash (Bruce Campbell) is sent to a psychiatric facility because of the world believing that he went crazy out in the cabin in the woods and killed all of his friends. His lawyer comes to visit him with the diary of the professor who found the Necronomicon and who also owned the cabin the woods. Sally, the lawyer begins to believe what Ash is saying is actually true, even though it sounds insane. Meanwhile, down in the basement of the facility, Dr. Vingo is actually in the possession of the Necronomicon and is reading from it wanting to make the human race extinct. This is where the story begins and you’ll soon find yourself killing multitudes of zombies just like in the movies with different weapons you’ll come upon during the games ten levels. The storyline progresses not only through the ten levels, but also through in-game cutscenes in between each level that give the story more meaning to the player. One might even find that the story within the game is better than the two Evil Dead movies released so far. As the storyline progresses, you’ll learn that you need to shut different portals that Dr. Vingo has started opening up to keep out the deadite invasion on earth.
You won’t be alone trying to save the world though. In the beginning, you’ll soon come upon an unfortunate sidekick named Sam, who is a half-human, half deadite midget who cannot die. Well, he does get slashed apart, blown apart, and oftentimes killed by Ash himself, but the half deadite midget keeps coming back to life to help you along your way throughout the games different and unique levels. Just like in the movies, Ash has quite a few one liners that will either make you chuckle or sigh, it depends on what type of person you are and a great thing about the one liners is that Sam will add to them among giving his own which makes the dialogue in the game that much better. Chances are if you liked the movies, you’re going to love this game. One nice thing in the gameplay, is that during the game, you’ll find that you’ll be collecting these little yellow spheres to build up Ash’s rage to a point where you’re able to become a deadite demon in a way where your attacks are more powerful and you’ll be able to relentlessly pummel through all the different enemies on the screen to your pleasure.
The level designs are unique and different from each other, but you’ll find that the objectives in each one are the same and this will more or less become tedious because you’ll know what you have to do each time to beat each level and this takes away from the puzzle solving feature that could have been implemented more into the game’s different levels. Sure, there is some sparse puzzling solving features within the game, but after the first couple of levels, you’ll soon begin doing the same thing each level, just with a different background.
As you know, Ash severed his own hand in the Evil Dead movies because of being infected with the deadite disease and then attached a chainsaw as a weapon to help him on his way. Along with the chainsaw, you’ll come across different attachments including a grappling gun, a flamethrower, and an enhanced chainsaw that’s more powerful than the original. Now, that’s only for the one hand and everyone has two right? Well, most everyone has two. For the other hand, you’re given the choice of a handgun, a shotgun, and of course, a missile launcher gun, which Ash affectionately calls his ‘boomstick.’ And for good reason too as the missile will stick into an enemy and then a few seconds later, it’ll explode making pieces of the zombie splatter everywhere. One cool move you can do is a finishing move to end each deadite’s life. When you’ve brought their health down enough, you can simply push a button when close by and Ash will proceed to ‘finish them off,’ by way of just blowing off their head, or a few other cool unique moves. All the time Ash is taking care of zombies, Sam is helping himself to ripping off the heads of the different deadites helping Ash out in his quest to shut the different portals. At different times, there will be places where Ash can’t proceed through a level because something blocks his way, but you’re able to take possession of Sam to possibly crawl through a vent or through a small corridor to help find Ash a way inside. Having the ability to control two different characters, with different moves adds some gameplay to the storyline also.
The graphics in the game are decent enough for the type of game. The different levels are all uniquely designed consisting of the opening facility and its basement, a shipyard, a swamp, a forest, and a few other settings where you’ll have to battle your way through multitudes of deadites to progress through the decent storyline. The in-game movies between the different levels are nicely down and really help to interest the player more throughout the ten levels. One complaint about the game’s visual is the camera angle, sometimes when controlling Ash or Sam, you find that the camera will sometimes not always be at an opportune spot to give you a decent visual of what you need to do. Although the game’s graphics are decent enough for the gameplay, the graphics in the game are much behind the times for the year 2005, but it just gives more of a classic B-rated movie feel I guess.
The sound in the game is pretty good. Voice acting of Ash is done by none other than Bruce Campbell himself and his one liners throughout the game really bring the setting of the Evil Dead movies to Regeneration. There really isn’t that much music in the game, except when you’re controlling Sam or when Ash turns into his deadite destroying demon. The different weapons within the game don’t have the most quality sound, but they didn’t in the movies either.
In the end, this is quite possibly the best Evil Dead game to date and also features one of the best storylines in both the previous games and movies. Fans of the Evil Dead movies and Bruce Campbell himself will really enjoy everything from the classic one liner dialogue to the ability to light a midget on fire and then punt him into a cauldron to progress through a level. The graphics may be a little old and the puzzle solving aspect of the game may look dim after the third level, but it’s still a decent game. To add some replay value, the developers hid different material throughout the game that will unlock cool things at the opening menu. Stuff, like being able to watch Bruce not only perform his dialogue, but talk about the game itself. There’s also some other things to unlock like artwork and previews, but not really anything that will add to the gameplay, just to your enjoyment of the Evil Dead lore.