Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000). Play online

Summary

Evil Dead: Hail to the King felt like a love‑letter to both the movies and classic survival‑horror games. Developed by Heavy Iron Studios and released for the PlayStation, it continues the Army of Darkness storyline and lets me wander the iconic cabin and woods before venturing into a creepy town, a graveyard, and even a medieval setting thanks to a brief time‑travel segment. The game uses pre‑rendered backdrops and a semi‑fixed camera, much like early Resident Evil titles, and I rotate Ash with the D‑pad while moving forward or backward, juggling limited ammo and fuel for the chainsaw. Bruce Campbell himself recorded new one‑liners, giving the whole experience that familiar, sardonic humor.

Deadites, animated skeletons, Hell‑billies and even Wolverine scouts populate the nightmarish levels, keeping each encounter tense. With a limited arsenal the combat feels strategic, and the odd comedic line from Ash balances the dread. Critics on Metacritic gave the PlayStation version mixed reviews, noting that only die‑hard Dead‑head fans might appreciate its quirks.

Storyline

Evil Dead: Hail to the King picks up eight years after the events of Army of Darkness, with Ash Williams back at S‑Mart and starting a romance with coworker Jenny. He’s plagued by recurring nightmares of the Necronomicon and the Deadites, prompting Jenny to take him to Professor Knowby’s old cabin to face his fears.

At the cabin Ash’s possessed severed hand triggers Knowby’s cassette, unleashing the evil once more. Bad Ash bursts from a mirror, knocks Ash out, and the hero reassembles his chainsaw‑hand before hunting down the missing Necronomicon pages and the Kandarian Dagger, which he retrieves from a possessed Annie in the cellar. Consulting Father Allard, Ash learns the ritual to close the portal, only to discover Allard is Bad Ash in disguise, who drags Jenny through a portal to a 9th‑century Arabian village.

Ash confronts Bad Ash, who transforms into a giant scorpion‑like deadite, and defeats him using the pages to pull the monster back into the portal. Returning home, Ash and Jenny find Dearborn ruled by the Dark Ones, with shelves of Necronomicon books staring back as Ash lets out a terrified scream, ending the game.