Customer Reviews

Evil Dead: Hail to the King

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(6)

 

 

Wow! If it wasn't for the Evil Dead licence, this would be the worst videogame ever created. It is basically Resident Evil lite, with all of RE's faults and none of its strengths. In place of slow moving zombies which need to be dispatched before they can reach the player's throat, Hail to the King provides endlessly spawning floating zombie demon things that get really annoying after playing for longer than five minutes. In the end, the game boils down to mindlessly slashing enemies over and over and over again. Even the concept of health and ammo conservation is eliminated due to the fact that enemies conveniently drop items exactly when you need them. The only challenge left in the game is figuring out how to move ash around while fighting multiple deadites on either side. While Evil Dead: Hail to the King is not the absolute worst game ever conceived and produced by the human race, I strongly advise you not to buy or rent this game unless you really love Evil Dead. You might even want to avoid it if you do love the movies, as the story is clumsy and Bruce Campbell's voice work is sub-par. Just stay far far away.

i have to respond to some of the negative reviews for this game. the graphics are not very good (quality wise but concept is great) and the gameplay isn't very exciting. it's a clone of resident evil and it wasn't done nearly as well.

that said, it offers some positives if you enjoyed RE and are also a fan of evil dead. i think much of the evil dead reference is lost on the younger demographic which makes me question the reason they bought the license in the first place.

however, had this game nothing to do with evil dead i would of rated it 2 stars instead of 3.

Just got the game. I have to tell you that as a die hard Ash fan, it is awesome. The prelude tells the story like both ED2 and Army of Darkness with floating pages of the Necronomican and Bruce Campbell's naration. It is certainly very funny and well-done and will appeal to fans of the series.

The game play, however, seems a little clunky. I thought it was going to be a first person shooter game, ala Doom, but it is more cinematic and from a third person (director) perspective, which makes it hard to control. Sometimes you walk in one side of an area, and you are walking a different direction when you leave. That is really my only complaint.

There are problems to solve, and the graphics are very nice. Ash can be made to say such Ashisms as "Come Get Some," "Groovy," and "Yo." Apparently you hear more as the game progresses.

Still can't get into the Delta 88 and haven't found my boomstick, but I'm trying. I can easily recomend this game to fans of the series, but more experienced gamers might find it limited. Me, I'm happy.

"Who wants some?"

This game has recieved mostly favorable reviews, but a couple have been unfavorable and a little unfair. The main critisisms seem to be in response to the inexuastible amount of re-spawning enemies, and the fact that if you try and face those enemies; 1 after another, you will never win. Gues what, there is a reason for this. You see your not suposed to keep hacking and blasting until you die , you have to run once and a while. Learnning to dodge enemies is the fundemental aspect of the game. Attacking only when faced with 1, or 2 enemies and imediately getting out of there; either backwards, or forwards, while keeping in mind either ammo, fuel, health, and anny combination of them. As far as the graphics, I thought they were done preety well, all the stuff going on, like the blood dripping off of Ash's chain-saw up to about 5 minuites after youve beaten an enemy, the dust rising off of As's feet as you walk, the fog, the nice lighting effects, and the snow, or whattever that starts to fall in the woods every so often. One of the best features is the music, very well orcistrated. Also, though it is not a very long game (thq did that on purpose) the more you play, the funnier Ash's lines get as you finnish an enemy." Chew on this! Say hello to disco for me!" I don't think it is the gratest game, but thq and the respective creative talents did a fine job and deserve there praise. I hope that they creat the sequel that they were planning for one, or more of the next generation systems; now that they have this as their starting point. It will be much better, I'm sure.

If you loved Army of darkness,you will love this game. Ash is just as funny in the game as he was in the movie. The game picks up from where the movie left. Ash must save his new girlfriend and must again travel back in time. This game is a lot of fun, but best of all it is a two disc game. Which means a lot more fun.

To start off with, I will mention something that I have not seen in any of the reviews. This game is a combination of a third person view, but from a single camera angle.

Most people are aware that third person is a view from behind the player. This game is similar, except that in most rooms you only have one angle for the ENTIRE room. You see Ash at a distance, but most of the time the camera never moves, unless the room is so big it can't fit all onto one screen.

I have never seen a game set up this way before. I rarely play third person, I really only like first person. Anyway, this single view was hard to get used to for me.

The opening animations are pretty good. Bruce Campbell does the voice overs, except the animation doesn't look much like him.

The default keys are very strange. Usually the keys somehow relate to the weapon. Not in this game. R starts the chainsaw, E turns it off, F uses it. Now who would just think of that?? You can redefine them, but that still is pretty lame.

Overall, not a bad game. Good graphics overall, good sound, and fairly good layout.

The bad parts is Ash has very strange weapon controls, since the camera angle in each room does not change, it takes time to get used to moving him around. Almost every step you take a deadite pops up. I've never seen a game with enemies coming up so often. The deadites take forever to kill. I hit one of them over 10 times with the axe and finally killed it. I guess you could say the game is a combination of contstantly being attacked along with enemies that are hard to kill.

You do need some horsepower to play this. I have a Pentium III 800 with 256 MB of RAM and a 3dfx video card with 16 MB, and even on my machine it runs alright, but it could do better. The loading times take longer than most other games I have played. I don't have much loaded in the background either. My setup is beyond their requirements.

So essentially, the game is just alright. The price now is all I feel it is worth. This is coming from a HUGE Evil Dead fan. Unfortunately, the game was a little disappointing to me. Like I said though, I've seen worse. If you have ever played Alien Trilogy for the IBM world, you know what I mean.

Finally, I don't know how often you are supposed to be able to save games. During the entire cabin scene I couldn't save, and once I walked outside, I still couldn't. Go figure.

Overall, for HUGE fans of the movies, its not too bad. Takes getting used to. For those who love and worship this game, I guess they had less expectations than I did. If I had the chance to buy it again, I probably would, but I wouldn't pay anything more than what I did. It's not *that* good.

I can understand how people have been given this a bad rating. The graphics aren't up to par and the gameplay can be clumsy. The only people who I think will like this game are fans of the movies and people who can tolerate its flaws. Now, lets get down to the basics shall we?

PROS: Creates excellent atmosphere by is use of lighting and shadows, especially in the cabin. You feel like you are really there in woods. Some the characters make appearances too, like Linda and Annie, who makes a surprise appearance. You will see familiar characters like that throughout the game. One other thing I liked was the music. It definately help make atmosphere because of how it was orchestrated. Cuts in at perfect times. And last but not least, the graphics. Thought not up to date, it really makes you feel like you are there. The backgrounds well done and animated.

CONS: I don't have many, but there are flaws. The only flaw is the gameplay. Ash can be a bit touchy to control and, because of the camera angles, can get stuck in corner which can result in death. The other flaw is how linear the game is. It is next to impossible to get lost(instead in the maze). That also makes the game rather short too.

Overall, this is an excellent game recommended to only fans of the movies and people who can tolerate its flaws.

When I first heard about this game, I couldn't wait to get it. Now that I own it, I feel like going skeet shooting with the discs.

The movie aspects of the game are really cool, but thats about it. Ash is extremely difficult to control. Weapon selection is very limited. The graphics look like something from the mid 90s and the number of deadites become annoying after about five minutes.

I can't believe Bruce Campbell and Sam Raimi actually allowed themselves to be associated with this [game]. If you've never seen the Evil Dead Trilogy, do yourself a favor and watch it, just stay clear of Hail To the King.

BTW, I gave this one star, but seriously, it's really not even that good.

This is another game that involves a lot of key board word on the gamers part, but don't let that stop you from getting it. The game plays pretty good even though you have to keep reloading your weapons and filling you gas tank. That just means you have to work a little harder to beat the game.

If you are an Evil Dead fan, or Resident Evil fan, you will probably enjoy this game. But be prepared, because you will CONSTANTLY be fighting off enemies, other than that the game is pretty much cut and dry, except for a few puzzles of course. Anyway, I enjoyed it and hope you will too.