Evil Dead: Hail to the King | 2000
"Evil Dead: Hail to the King" is a survival horror video game developed by Heavy Iron Studios and published by THQ. It is a sequel to the 1992 film "Army of Darkness," and was released for PlayStation, Dreamcast, and Microsoft Windows. This game is the second video game based on the Evil Dead film franchise, following the 1984 title "Evil Dead," and it is also the first game developed by Heavy Iron Studios.
The game operates similarly to "Resident Evil," featuring pre-rendered backgrounds, fixed camera angles, and limited ammunition and chainsaw fuel. Players control the character by rotating with the D-pad or analog stick and moving forward or backward with the D-pad.
The enemies players encounter include Deadites, animated skeletons, and possessed "Hellbilly" and Wolverine scouts.
The game is set eight years after the events of "Army of Darkness." Ashley "Ash" Williams, who has returned to work at S-Mart and started a new relationship with coworker Jenny, is plagued by nightmares about the Necronomicon and Deadites. To help him, Jenny takes Ash to Professor Knowby's old cabin to confront his inner demons.
However, upon arrival, Ash's possessed severed hand appears, playing an old tape from Knowby that recites the Necronomicon's incantations. As Ash tries to stop it, evil awakens in the woods, shattering the windows and kidnapping Jenny. When Ash attempts to grab an axe above a mirror, his evil twin, Bad Ash, emerges and knocks him out. After awakening, Ash rushes to his workshop to reattach his chainsaw hand and set out to stop the Necronomicon and rescue Jenny.
Reading Professor Knowby’s notes, Ash learns about Father Allard, a priest who collaborated with Knowby to decode the Necronomicon and send the evil away. After consulting with Father Allard at the church, Ash embarks on a quest to collect the five missing pages of the Necronomicon and the Kandarian dagger. The latter is obtained from the possessed Annie Knowby in the fruit cellar of the cabin. When they find the possessed Jenny, Father Allard uses the pages and dagger to create a portal and exorcise the demon from her body. However, Allard reveals he has been disguised as Bad Ash and kidnaps Jenny, jumping through the portal as Ash chases after him. They arrive in a 9th-century Arabian town.
Ash finally pursues Bad Ash, who is trying to consume Jenny through Dark Ones and transport her to their realm. Bad Ash attempts to use Ash as a "calling card." They battle, and Bad Ash transforms into a giant scorpion-like Deadite, but Ash defeats him and uses the Necronomicon's pages to pull Bad Ash into the portal. Once Jenny is free of the demon, Ash uses another spell to open a portal and return them home.
Upon their return, Ash and Jenny discover the horrifying truth: they have arrived in a version of Dearborn, Michigan, ruled by the Dark Ones. As Ash screams at the sight of several Necronomicon books in the store window, the game ends.
The PlayStation version of "Evil Dead: Hail to the King" received "mixed" reviews, while the Dreamcast and PC versions garnered "generally unfavorable reviews" on Metacritic. Allgame described the graphics of the Dreamcast version as "stale, static, and lifeless," noting a need for "better controls, better combat, and a better look and feel." Greg Orlando from NextGen quoted Carl Sandburg's poem "Yes, the dead speak to us," stating that the same console version "belongs to the dead and the wasteland." Atomic Dog from GamePro remarked that "fans may find comfort in the storyline, but most gamers will recoil in fear." The PlayStation version mentioned that "hardcore fans may be drawn to this evil game out of a terrible curiosity, hoping that a better version will emerge someday."
