Evil Dead fans everywhere rejoice - a game based on the movies has come out that's actually good! Evil Dead: Regeneration, while by no means a classic, is definitely an entertaining romp and it's fair to say that slicing up the living dead with a chainsaw has rarely been this much fun. So come on in and… JOIN US!

Our story begins in that lonely cabin on that fateful night where Ash and his friends accidentally awaken the evil dead. The scenery has been authentically recreated down to the smallest detail - even Professor Knowby's audio recording, which was responsible for releasing the power of the evil dead once more, is playing in the background. After using your shotgun and chainsaw to lay waste to your zombified buddies, and a few nameless extras, the laughing begins, as the whole room starts cracking up - candles, window shutters and even that crazy moose head, which you get to shoot to pieces. Using first person camera work taken straight from the movie, the evil presence charges into the cabin and grabs Ash, pushing him out into the forest, smacking him into a few trees along the way, until he lands in a clearing, where a new ability appears - you can now harness the power of the evil dead to transform into a deadite-style demon and attack with super-powered rage.

Six months later and Ash is in the maximum security wing of the Sunny Meadows institute for the criminally insane - well, he did hack his friends to pieces with a chainsaw, claiming that they were possessed by evil spirits, so it was bound to happen! Ash's lawyer, Sally, comes to visit, telling him that she has discovered something ominous. The head of Sunny Meadows, Dr. Vingo Reinhard, has gained possession of the Necronomicon, the Book of the Dead that is the source of the evil forces. Sally has stolen Knowby's diary, which Reinhard was studying with the intent to unlock the full power of the Necronomicon and is going to seek help, telling Ash to hang on in there until she returns. However, things are worse than she feared - Reinhard is totally insane (ironic really, considering that he's in charge of a sanatorium!) and is on the verge of achieving his apocalyptic goal. He sets things in motion but is unable to complete the process when he finds that Knowby's diary is missing. As a result, a bunch of portals open up in the surrounding area, wreaking terrible havoc, as the evil dead surges forth, possessing most of the living and transforming them into zombified monsters.

The second level, where Ash is unarmed at first and fleeing through Sunny Meadows while all hell breaks loose, is excellent - doors slam shut, people are thrown around by unseen forces, exploding in showers of blood, and once Ash gets his shotgun and chainsaw back, you can get stuck into hacking up the onslaught of enemies. The combat system is nicely implemented and as well as just swinging that chainsaw around (which is attached to Ash's arm, as he had to cut off his hand because it was possessed!) there are a number of great combos to pull off. You can charge up the chainsaw for a power move, where it shakes almost uncontrollably and then lets rip, knocking enemies flying, and then follow up with a mid-air shotgun blast if you're so inclined, you can jump and slash, knocking an enemy to the ground and then slicing and dicing while they're down, plus there are some awesome finishing moves, which you can activate after blocking, during combo moves, or when an enemy has been weakened. Limbs fly and blood spurts from the arm stumps of the animated corpses, yet still they come back for more and try to head butt you! When they're glowing green you know they're vulnerable to a finisher move and if they're down you sometimes get a slow motion close-up, where Ash thrusts his chainsaw right through the body and blows their head off with his shotgun. Hail to the king, baby!

While the weapon set is very limited, the chainsaw and shotgun are such a satisfying combo to use that it never gets old. As the game progresses you also pick up a pistol and a boomstick, which fires explosive stakes into enemies. Throwing reality away, ammo is unlimited, making the carnage that much more fun. You also get a couple more arm attachments - a very handy hook shot, which is used in various puzzles, as well as impaling enemies from a distance and then reeling them in to blow them away with your shotgun, plus a flamethrower, which is also great fun.

However, by far the best aspect of the gameplay is the introduction of a sidekick; Sam was a patient at Sunny Meadows who Reinhard has been torturing and experimenting upon for the past couple of years. He's a half-mauled midget (and not a pretty sight to look at), imbued with the power of the evil dead but his mind has not been corrupted, so he's a deadite but he's on Ash's side. However, Ash's hatred for all things deadite gives way for literally endless banter between the two heroes throughout the game, which will have you chuckling all the way.

The voice acting is fantastic, some of the best I've ever come across in a game. Bruce Campbell reprises the role of Ash and is superb, delivering every line with relish and style, while Ted Raimi voices Sam and is simply hilarious whenever he opens his mouth, which is pretty much all the time! If the name sounds familiar, that's because he's the brother of Sam Raimi, writer and director of The Evil Dead, although the younger readers amongst you have probably only know Sam Raimi as the director of the Spider-Man movies. As you would expect, there are endless amusing one-liners in the game - "This place is crazy," says Ash, "even for a nuthouse!" Ash and Sam come out with some classic quips too - Ash replies to Sam one time by saying, "Ever heard the saying, ask a stupid question, eat chainsaw?" On the final level, after I set Sam on fire and kicked him off a cliff to his doom, Sam regenerates and says, with great indignation, "You sir, are an asshole!" With a very witty script, both for the cut scenes and in game, the story and banter between Ash and Sam really adds personality, making this almost like a playable Evil Dead movie. Fans of the films will absolutely lap it up!

Sam isn't just in for comedy value (although he really is very funny), as he plays an integral part in the gameplay. Sam cannot be killed - well, he can, and he dies all the time, but every time he explodes in a shower of gore and limbs, he rises from the ground once more. The point is, Sam is a weapon in his own right - you can summon him in front of you at any time and kick him at an enemy, which he then attacks and either pulls its rotting head off, or keeps it busy so you can pull a finishing move. There are also plenty of puzzles that require you to kick Sam at objects - one of the earliest has you kick him into a furnace, resulting in a lethal explosion that blows open a new route.

However, the best puzzles come at the times when you can possess Sam's body. You take control of the midget, using his spirit power to paralyse and decapitate enemies, while taking him through tight spaces that Ash can't fit through, in order to open a route so that Ash can continue. It soon becomes apparent that regardless of the solution to the puzzle, it always ends with Sam's demise in one horrible way or another - sucked into a big fan, caught in the cogs of a mechanism, blown up, electrocuted, crushed, burned, or squished by a giant deadite - it's great fun when you see the set piece and chuckle in anticipation of another gruesome death! This game really brings out the sadist in you, and I kicked Sam to his death in many ways on many occasions. On one level I discovered that I could target a distant telegraph pole that I was meant to blow up - but it looked so funny when I kicked Sam far into the distance like a football, only to see him bounce off the pole and fall into the electrified water below, that I did it about a dozen times before I finally blew up the pole and moved on!

However, while the gameplay definitely has some flair, it is also limited in its nature. Apart from the addition of Sam and the unusual combat system, both of which are excellent, the gaming is third person adventuring by the numbers, as you move through each area, clearing out deadites, negotiating your path around obstacles and solving puzzles. The level designs are well thought out and it kept me playing until the end, but it's not going to change the face of gaming. It's also very short - I wasn't particularly paying attention to the time but I think I clocked in at around six hours. Still, the innovation of using Sam in so many sacrificial ways is a very cool one and very original too. There are sections in some levels where you must guard Sam after he captures a spirit that must be fed to a guardian, as he runs back to the guardian while the deadites attempt to prevent him getting there in one piece. When it comes to feeding time, let's just say that the guardian finds Sam very tasty every time! Sadly, the bosses are disappointingly formulaic and dull to battle, with the end of game boss being a real anti-climax, although the ending of the story is very entertaining and well worth the effort, which almost makes up for it.

Graphically, Regeneration is an accomplished title - the feel of the films has been perfectly captured and each location is rendered with plenty of detail in the scenery, making for interesting and nicely varied environments, as you make your way through Sunny Meadows, a forest, a cemetery, an abandoned mine, a harbour and more. The animation on Ash and Sam is excellent, with Ash's chainsaw moves and shotgun action fluid and convincing, while the enemies all look great, with lovely death animations and plenty of blood and gore. The cut scenes are excellent too - they're very well directed, up to the same high quality of the films. The sound effects are also superb - the chainsaw and other weapons sound totally realistic, voices and sounds echo very well in large chambers and the soundtrack is just right - eerie, ambient music during exploration and rousing, deliberately cheesy orchestrations for the action, heavy rock when Ash is in evil mode and a wonderfully quirky signature theme when you take control of Sam.

Evil Dead: Regeneration is an entertaining but short-lived game that's well worth a look for its excellent chainsaw-based combat and the usage of a regenerating sidekick who you have no choice but to kill in a number of horrible ways to progress! A strong sense of black humour is prominent in the gameplay, the excellent story and the in-game banter, which keeps your interest in what would have otherwise been a run-of-the-mill third person adventure. Fans of the genre should enjoy it, while fans of the films owe it to themselves to give this a play. So grab yourself a boomstick and fire up the chainsaw - it's time to stick it to some primitive screw-heads. Groovy!

Reviewed by Geoff Holland for AceGamez (All Rights Reserved).