Sam Rami is one of the finest directors on the planet, has brought us such greats as the original Spiderman trilogy, Drag me to Hell, The Quick and the Dead, and his masterpiece horror trilogy Evil Dead. Three glorious films that incorporate goofy horror, extreme violence, and best of all, introducing the absolute legend that is Bruce Campbell. Now The Evil Dead films have indeed influenced gaming in many ways, even having three video game adaptions. These were fan favourites but were met with mixed critical responses. In 2022, we have another gaming take on the Evil Dead, and it's set to be the ultimate adaption, having everything we loved from the films. Including Bruce Campbell.
So, grab your boomstick, and get ready to kill some deadites! Groovy!
What is Evil Dead: The Game? 
Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical 4 v 1 multiplayer game, with a similar premise to that of Dead by Daylight. There are two teams at play, one made up of humans battling it out to defeat The Dark Ones, while one player is responsible for summoning demons, aiding the forces of darkness, and eventually killing off the humans. Included in the roaster for the human characters is the lovable and goofy king of groovy himself, Ash Williams, and he’s accompanied by 3 friends, all of whom make up different classes in the game.
Mechanically speaking, Evil Dead: The Game will sound very familiar on paper, as four players will have to work together, scavenge for resources/weapons, and carry out a few tasks to complete the goal of destroying The Dark Ones via a “Purification Ritual”, stopping the incoming invasion from the Deadites. While one player is tasked with summoning an increasingly deadly army of deadites, to stop the humans and thus ensure the arrival of the dark ones who will consume humanity. It’s your typical battle of good vs evil, and while you play as the legendary Ash Williams and co on the human side, I must admit that being evil is quite fun too!
Who wants some? Now I have to say, this is quite possibly one of the best films to game adaptions I’ve ever seen, for the aesthetics and general tone of the gameplay. Everything here feels like a loving recreation of the first two films, in video game format, done so by people who really cared for the property.
You have everything you could ever have wished for in an Evil Dead game, with the setting perfectly replicated, the creepy-looking deadites, the sound design, the gore, and of course, Ash Williams played by Bruce Campbell. The developers have managed to capture everything that made the Evil Dead films great and translate that into a video game that pays sweet homage to the films. Even getting down the small details such as the demonic Deer head in the cabin, and recreating that terrifying viewpoint of the unseen evil, as it travels through the woods searching for human survivors.
All the action, gore, one-liners, locations, characters, and goofy moments are faithfully recreated in such epic professionalism. All of this really made me wish that these developers would work on a single-player game based on the movies. The design and feel is absolutely …. Groovy!
Good, Bad, I'm The Guy With A Gun
While it may not sound utterly new and exciting, I feel with its Evil Dead aesthetics, the inclusion of the amazing Bruce Campbell, and the general awesomeness of being either good or bad, Evil Dead: The Game has a lot going for it. Plus, the core mechanics/gameplay are super entertaining.
Being a human will mean you start with nothing and must scavenge the nearby surroundings for weapons, before heading off to complete your objective. Humans will need to find weapons to defend themselves with but also pieces of a map to narrow down the location of important relics which will then carry out the “Purification Ritual”. There are 13 characters to play, and 4 classes to choose from, each with their abilities and skill trees you can upgrade.
Like any good old squad base game, the classes have their own active and passive skills, which are usually buffs, defence perks, extra damage, and creating amulets. The last skill is pretty important, especially when it comes to the end game. But finding weapons is critical as things can get very hairy towards the endgame. So separating and looking out for that mighty “Boom-Stick” is needed, but as a human, splitting up is never a wise move if it can be helped.
Playing as a human is quite thrilling, especially when you’re in a group that clicks together, and pulls off some amazing teamwork. Evil Dead: The Game really pushes the risk and reward factor when it comes to teamwork and not aiding another player, or sharing the load when it comes to Deadites will result in trouble fast… maybe a little too fast at times.
Combat feels impactful, whether you’re a human or a demon. Playing as a human is straightforward as you can run, attack, and carry out special actions. Landing a blow with an axe or that meaty chainsaw attachment Ash has, feels gratifying and delivers some specular gore. All firearms pack a punch and have some importance in a fight. It’s better to have a shoddy revolver than trying to beat a Deadite to death … ewww.
Although the terrain and lack of some basic manoeuvres, such as jumping, can mean certain aspects of the environment are a pain to traverse. There is also the manner of the end game, which sees players having to fight the last remnants of the Deadite invasion, within a safe zone. Again, nothing special in concept, but the intensity and unpredictable nature of the safe zone could mean instant death. It also doesn’t help certain amulets are vital for the endgame and if you don’t have them equipped then, you’re going to have a bad time! This wasn’t the case every time, but in most instances when playing (after a couple of hours into the game) and the team would equip the same key abilities as we knew they would help massively for the final showdown. The tutorial really underplays the insanity the endgame brings and how powerful the Deadite army can become.
So, there are some balancing issues for sure, but as humans progress through the skill trees, it does somewhat smooth out. Plus, with the right team working together to your strengths, then you can pull of the mission even in the worse situation.
This is my Boomstick!
Where Evil Dead: The Game really thrives is from its sinister delight of being evil and being in control of the human’s torment is quite enjoyable, to say the least. Those who decide to favour evil will start as a floating, disembodied entity (such as in the original films), which will search for the human survivors and various ways to stop them in their tracks. There are multiple spawning points, that allow for demons to be raised, thus slowly bringing together a small army of deadites, progressively getting more powerful as the game goes on.
But aside from using the forces of darkness to bring up demons, players can also utilise Fear to their advantage. The Fear mechanic affects the human players and if poorly managed, will result in some goofy and awful outcomes., Fear increases when human players are separated too long and are engulfed by darkness or by setting off traps set by the player in control of the demons. So this means that teamwork is immensely important, such as staying together, staying in well-lit areas as much as possible, and being cautious of traps are incredibly vital for survival. This cat and mouse style gameplay has always been enjoyable, and with the right number of meaningful and fun mechanics in play can mean plenty of replay value.
The human players utterly consumed by fear will become more susceptible to possession by the player in control of the demons. This means that a human character can suddenly turn the tide on the situation and attack other human characters, or at the right moment, end the game. One instance of possession saw the driver of a car being taken over, which resulted in the car crashing, disturbing our plans massively.
It's immensely fun being the bad guy, and the gathering of mechanics to cause as much pain and suffering as possible really does make it so much fun being bad. And this makes it so rewarding when playing as the humans, as the forces of darkness really do give you a kicking through the round… And this can lead to some balancing issues which I saw first-hand in some rounds.
The Groovy … and not so groovy 
While Evil Dead: The Game has so many fun elements at its core to make it an extremely fun multiplayer experience, there were some things that let it down in the long run.
First, there’s only one environment for the game. While as mentioned the environments are perfectly recreated from the first two films, it’s a shame there are no other locations. For sure the cabin is the most iconic area of all the films, but maybe having the castle where the massive battle occurred in Army of Darkness took place would have been neat. Or more so, having a level set in the S-Mart might have been cool as well.
While movement can be a little tank-like at times, it’s nothing compared to the driving. Wow, the physics for driving in all these types of games (like Friday the 14th) is always bad. At times, driving is vital and can be passable, but then there are times when it’s just bad and a little buggy. But I feel the balancing at times is more a worry, seeing as some games can end badly if you don’t get certain key weapons or abilities as a human.
Lastly, there are single-player missions here too, which can be played and once finished, unlock new characters, such as the legendary King Arthur Pablo from Ash vs. The Evil Dead, which is really sweet. But these missions are quite frankly the worst part of the game, as it feels quite soulless in comparison to the rest of the game. These single-player missions end up being dull fetch quests where you fight some demons, get a bit of lore via still images interrupting your game time, and lack any interesting dynamic events or special goals. Hell, even a horde mode would’ve been highly welcome here! Or image a mission where Ash is in the cabin as the Necronomicon is being read, resulting in the cabin being teleported, and that freakish tree monster is trying to get you. That would’ve been amazing!
Also, there are no checkpoints in the single-player missions … which is annoying.
Hail to the King baby! Despite these shortcomings, the core of Evil Dead: The Game is so utterly compelling and so much fun, that you could easily spend a ton of hours simply going around the cabin and the woods, with friends, blasting deadites, and stopping the end of days. The core mechanics are really solid, and the execution of the combat, and teamwork elements, not to mention how much fun it is being an evil d***, really do make up for the parts which are lacking.
However, I do hope more maps will come along, as there are plenty of characters to play as, and progression to level through, but once these are done, games like this survive on new maps and content. Dead by Daylight still has an immense life due to various guest characters, and new content. And I hope we get to see at least some better single-player missions, new characters, and maybe a new level of two.
Overall? Evil Dead: The Game is such an immense multiplayer experience that fans of the films and fans of the horror/hunter genre will surely love it. While it’s lacking in the number of locations, and there are some balancing issues, the core gameplay loop, aesthetics, and immense fun to have as either the humans or the demonic forces of evil (which is more fun). Evil Dead has always had a rough time when translating to video game format. But what we get here is a shining beacon of light that says “Evil Dead can make a great game”. And I would be thrilled to see the new content being added to the base game, but also a chance for the developers to work on a single-player Evil Dead game too.
With the price being decent, the core gameplay is fanatically epic, and if you’re a horror/Evil Dead fan, this is really a no-brainer.
Hail to the King baby!
++ Solid and fun gameplay loop
++ Fantastic aesthetics and Evil Dead goofiness
+ Looks and sounds awesome
-- Lacks any meaningful single-player content
- Needed another map or two
- Some balancing issues with the endgame
A PC review key of Evil Dead: The Game was provided by the publisher for the purpose of this review.
