As I write this I can hear sounds coming from outside the cabin, and I’m remembering the first time I saw The Evil Dead. Here’s my review of Evil Dead The Game.
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In the hack-and-slash days of 80’s horror flicks, when association to anything considered immoral or sinful was a death sentence, the Evil Dead stood as its own genre of horror. With a budget of just $375,000, The Evil Dead grossed 2.3 million at the box office and became a cult classic among horror film fans, thanks in large part to Sam Raimi (Army of Darkness, Spider-Man, Oz the Great and Powerful, Doctor Strange in the multiverse of Madness).
Evil Dead The Game was on my list
Over the last 35 years I have played every Evil Dead game that has been released. I’m a huge fan, to say the least. Unable to resist the call from the Necronomicon, I broke my standard operating procedure to avoid buying new releases and picked up a copy of Evil Dead The Game on PC.
After loading up the game I immediately felt good about the experience. The menus and the look and feel of the design were all very intuitive. The designers really leaned into the experience, but a bit on that later. Let’s talk about game modes.
In total, there are 4 game modes: Survivor Vs Demon and Asymmetrical 4 Vs 1, single player challenge, Tutorial, and Collection.
Like Dead by Daylight, Evil Dead The Game is mostly played in multiplayer 4 vs. 1 mode.
Survivor Vs Demon
This is the main mode of the game, where you battle with 3 other friends or random players to fight against the Kandarian demons and save the Necronomicon. Players can also be the demon.
There are also options to play with others against an AI demon, or you can play with AI controlled Players against an AI controlled demon. This mode is fine for practice since it is the full experience, however, you do not get any XP for your characters – though you can play with up to 5 friends in practice mode, which is pretty neat.
As survivors you have 30 minutes to find 3 map pages which are hidden in different sections of the main play area. The game does tell you the location of each map in general, but once you get there you have to actually find its specific location. After all maps are collected, you’ll grab the Kandarian Dagger and the page from the Necronomicon and head on to defeat the main antagonist, a Kandarian demon, and protect the Necronomicon. A 30 minute timer is running throughout and stops once you hit this stage.
The 30 minutes seems generous but it really isn’t. In our 4 attempts we struggled with meeting our objectives in all but one instance.
The time is based on how fast you can find the map pages, and also how good the demon player is at finding and stopping you. During the match you’ll find weapons, health, and stat points in storage containers. The stat points are used during the match to upgrade your melee ability, health, fear, stamina, and armor – if you are looting you should have no problem obtaining full stats by the end – but keep in mind, stats are for the current matches only.
As the Kandarian Demon you are trying to put fear in and kill the survivors. You have full access to roam the map. When you begin you’ll be in the wind form featured in the movies, moving at a faster speed, knocking down fences, and collecting red orbs called Infernal energy. Infernal energy gives you the ability to take possession of Deadites, Cars, Trees, Loot Boxes, and more – all the tools you’ll need to instill fear in other players.
Playing as the demon is a bit confusing because there is a lot going on and it takes awhile to find the other players if they are on foot or using stealth to evade you. Once you do find a player’s location you’ll set traps and possess various items until you achieve your objective. The Demon also has upgradable match stat points where players can spawn better Deadites, or even your boss character, which for me was Evil Ash.
Missions
This is a single player only mode. As of this writing, there are 5 different missions, which once completed unlocks characters, outfits, and collectibles called Dr. Knowby Tapes. It may not seem like a lot, but the missions are incredibly hard and unforgiving, once you are dead you have to start over. I tried the first mission twice and died, twice. However, they are fun and can really bring you back into the set pieces the movies are loved for. The first mission is actually taken from the pages of Evil Dead – where’s Linda’s head? Lol.
Tutorial
This is probably one of the better tutorials I’ve played for a game like this. Players go through an abbreviated version of the multiplayer experience, which takes players through a rundown of everything that is needed to play online – this tutorial is required before you can play against other gamers.
Collections
Collections is essentially the upgrade area. Unlocked from the onset players have access to 9 survivors, with 4 more unlockable as you complete missions. Ash from Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, and Army of Darkness are unlockable, as well as Evil Ash.
As far as demons go there are 3 sets to choose from: Warlord, Puppeteer and Necromancer (AKA Evil Ash from Army of Darkness). Each survivor is classified as Support, Hunter, Warrior or Leader. Skill trees are different for each class but not for each character – so Ash 1 and Cheryl are support and have the same tree. However, only one character can be used at the same time, so if you and a friend want to play as, say Evil Ash, you’re out of luck. You’ll have select different character.
My take
Evil Dead The Game is a wonderful entry into the Evil Dead universe, but it’s not without it’s problems. Still, a patch here and there will likely see most of them fixed in time.
If Saber Interactive is open to suggestions I’m happy to give them; namely, can we please stop kicking my friends out of my party after every match? That may be my biggest complaint so far. While I can’t imagine this would be a problem in the long run, it is a bit frustrating to see a game like this released and still have what appear to be time-out issues masked as unique experiences. That’s for the UX team I know, but it just seems like something that should have been taken care of prior to launch.
I play on PC and don’t have the most robust setup, but the game performed fine as Survivor on High Quality. Most of Demon also played well until the final battle where all hell was literally breaking loose – my FPS dropped from 70 to about 20 during this stage of the game (but this was the only time).
The game is fun, especially for an Evil Dead fan. If you’re a Dead by Daylight fan do not compare it Evil Dead The Game, they are not the same. Dead by daylight is a kill and survive based game, while Evil Dead The Game is more objective based.
As a demon you are trying to throw as much as possible at them because you either want them to die or lose all of their time, but killing one by one is rare because survivors can resurrect fallen teammates, and there is a lot of health around the maps. A little different, but its a lot of fun and it works.
The scratching is getting louder outside, I better get ready, If I survive I will be back when the first DLC comes out.
Will you be streaming Evil Dead The Game with friends?
Catch Jason streaming on Twitch.