Evil Dead: The Game is a fun, if somewhat uneven, asymmetrical multiplayer game that puts the Evil Dead license to good use. It’s rough around the edges, but the core is a lot of fun, especially if you’re already a fan of the franchise.
Evil Dead: The Game
Developer: Saber Interactive
Price: $40
Platforms: PS4, PS5 (reviewed,) Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Nintendo Switch, and PC.
MonsterVine was provided with a PS5 code for review
To say I’m a fan of Evil Dead would be an understatement. Evil Dead 2 is my second favorite movie (Back to the Future will always be #1,) and I put a gross amount of time into Poker Night at the Inventory 2 primarily because Ash was in it. At the same time, I’m not particularly experienced with asymmetrical multiplayer games, so I wasn’t sure how I’d enjoy Evil Dead: The Game. While it could use some tweaking, it’s an overall strong use of the Evil Dead series.
In Evil Dead: The Game, you play as either a survivor or a demon. There are four survivors and one demon, with a bunch of hostile NPCs to assist the demon. As the survivor, you need to go through a series of steps in order to seal the demon and its ilk back in the Necronomicon, while the demon attempts to stop this at every turn. It’s a concept that makes sense with Evil Dead and works pretty well for the core gameplay loop. The tutorials are straightforward and easy to complete too, which is always a plus when there are as many things to learn as there are in this game.
Evil Dead: The Game does feel unbalanced though, as survivors seem to have an edge against the demons inherently because of how much easier their objective is. I’m not great at the game, but my teams rarely struggled outside of the closing stretch, even when down a player. Being a demon is tough, and I hope they get some buffs in the future.
“Every creepy track, vicarious sound effect, and quip from Ash and his fellow survivors are top-notch.“
The survivors each have their own role to play, though there’s a different Ash for each class if you’re deadset on playing as the best protagonist in horror. You’ll primarily be sticking together as a team to help keep your fear meter down, as being on your own in the dark increases it very quickly and impedes your progress. Most of the time, you’ll be defending objects like the Kandarian Dagger or the Necronomicon Ex Mortis by slashing away at monsters with melee attacks. Guns are harder to come by, but pack a much bigger punch, meaning you’ll likely save those for desperate moments or the closing stretch.
Meanwhile, the demon comes in one of a few different classes. Depending on your playstyle, you might lean more towards the manipulative puppeteer Eligos or the minion-summoning Evil Ash. As I said before, it’s a bit hard to be the demon, but the way the different demons play is at least very enjoyable. Setting traps and possessing people to mess with the team is a blast, and feels very in-line with Evil Dead as a whole.
The single-player missions are on the rougher side of things, unfortunately. The missions are unfair-levels of hard, as enemies do a lot of nigh-unavoidable damage – more than you can heal. There are no checkpoints, and the missions are just long enough to make that very annoying. The fact that things like characters are locked behind completing these missions makes it even worse, so I really hope that the single-player side of things gets a good glow-up in the coming weeks.
When it comes to the aesthetic, Evil Dead: The Game absolutely nails it on all fronts. There’s a pervasive eeriness that adds to the dark and foreboding atmosphere, and you can tell that a lot of love for Sam Raimi and his franchise went into it. The way you move in the first-person as a demon looks straight out of the film, and there’s nothing quite like getting violently puked on by a demon to cement the fact that this is an Evil Dead game.
The sound design is brilliant too. Every creepy track, vicarious sound effect, and quip from Ash and his fellow survivors are top-notch. Chainsaws have never sounded so nasty, and I mean that in the best way possible. Bruce Campbell in particular is always a highlight to listen to, and I hope to hear him as Ash in future games for as many years as he’s willing to do it.
The Final Word
Evil Dead: The Game is a fun but somewhat flawed take on the best horror franchise around. The care that went into the world and aesthetic of the game is top-notch, and it can be very fun to play. It has some balance issues and could use a tune-up on the single-player front, but otherwise, there’s a lot of potential here for fun nights with friends.
MonsterVine Rating: 4 out of 5 – Good
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