Hail to the King…of asymmetrical multiplayer

I have been beyond excited for the release of Evil Dead: The Game; for starters my family and I are huge fans of these asymmetrical multiplayer games that have been coming out as of late. Dead by Daylight; the Godfather of them all was where we started and then got into Friday the 13th. With its mix of hiding but allowing for the teens to actually attack Jason it was primed to replace DbD as our primary game. Alas due to rights and other legal things, that game sleeps at the bottom of Camp Crystal Lake (probably) never to see the light of day again. See, the reason we loved Friday the 13th was the very thing that made it different from Dead by Daylight; we could attack the killer. This is huge, everyone watches horror movies and yells at the screen about what they would do to a killer, well this game gave you the chance. Now you had to figure out some exacting conditions to be able to actually lay down Jason for good but what it showed is that the survivors didn’t have to be helpless in these games.

Developer Saber Interactive has taken Evil Dead: The Game to the next level; by amping up the horror, action, blood and of course having ‘The Chin’; Bruce Campbell on board they have successfully shaken up a once stale genre. Let’s start with the gameplay, in Evil Dead it’s broken up into three phases; the first phase is locating three pieces of a map that will spawn randomly in a location across the impressively vast map. Once survivors assemble the map its on to phase two, here they need to assemble the pages of the Necronomicon and gathering the Kandarian Dagger; the only weapon that damage an Old One. For the uninitiated it was Bruce Campbell’s ‘Ashley (Ash) J. Williams’ who unwittingly summoned the Kandarian demon when he read from the ‘flesh’ bound book in the original Evil Dead movie released back in 1981; and here he is almost 40 years later STILL paying for that mistake. Everything culminates in a final showdown with The Old Ones, where players will use the power of the Kandarian dagger to destroy them, and ultimately have to protect the Necronomicon while it powers up to send the Evil back to Hell.

MSRP: $59.99
Platforms: Xbox (reviewed), PlayStation, PC
Price I’d Pay: $59.99

All the while survivors are trying to accomplish this, the forces of Evil are trying to stop them. Players will have to use any weapons they may have found from chainsaws (Only for Ash though, and if I have to explain why that is; I highly suggest you watch either the movies or the Ash vs Evil Dead tv show from 2016) pickaxes, crudely made spears, meat tenderizers and more to (literally) disassemble hordes of deadites that want to take over the world. The melee combat feels really good in Evil Dead: The Game, using the trigger and bumper for attacks will feel immediately comfortable to anyone who has played Elden Ring or any other Soulsbourne game. While each weapon handles differently and has different combos there is no way to add to these moves; In that regard the combat can feel somewhat repetitive but I assure you that it’s never any less fun seeing a execution animation for the 100th time. But because what would Ash be without the ability to use his ‘boomstick’; the team smartly has added in ranged combat as well. Using everything from a flintlock, a saw gun, and the usual pistols and shotguns.

Each weapon that’s found comes in a rarity, much like most battle royale games these range from grey ‘common’ items to the hard to find ‘legendary’ orange items. With an increase in rarity comes an increase in stats, so the better the rarity the more damage, speed and range the weapon will have. ‘Looting’ is an important part of the gameplay in Evil Dead: The Game, for both the survivor players and the demon ones. In addition to finding better weapons the survivors can locate boxes that will drop bottles of ‘Pink F’, which from what the show Ash vs Evil Dead has told us is pretty much some liquor ‘shit ton of Ketamine in it”; It also has a more colorful name in the show, it rhymes with duck. But whereas this legendary drink in the show would get you wasted with a few sips, here each bottle gives survivors a skill point. These skill points can be distributed into attributes to help the survivors defeat the evil, these consist of melee, range, stamina, shield, and health. These upgrades are only applicable to the current game and will have to be reacquired in subsequent games.

The Demon on the other hand will level up by absorbing red orbs that litter the map, known as infernal energy. With this the player controlling the demon can plant traps for survivors that will raise their fear levels; leaving them open for possession. As the demon levels up they will be able to unlock the ability to strategically place minion deadites to fight the survivors. These come in basic, elite and boss variety, knowing not only when but where to summon these enemies is important. In my opinion it’s a lot harder to find success as a demon player, which is really unheard of in these types of games as the ‘killers’ are usually the easiest roles. But in Evil Dead, the players controlling the antagonist has to juggle so much, it takes someone who can multitask and is comfortable with sometimes losing a battle to win a war. As much find as I have had utterly destroying deadites; I must admit that I have had so much more in trying to outthink a group of survivors. Setting ambushes, and traps all the while slowly trying to lure one of their group into breaking off from the others.

In order to gather the pages and collect the dagger players will have to activate an orb at a random location on the map that will change with each playthrough. Once there the voice of Dr. Knowby (who fans will know is the Professor who found the book and brought it to the cabin where Ash would later read from it) will explain that in doing so a psychic call was sent out, summoning all of the deadites to your location. Players will have to use any weapons they may have found from chainsaws (Only for Ash though, and if I have to explain why that is; I highly suggest you watch either the movies or the Ash vs Evil Dead tv show from 2016) pickaxes, crudely made spears, meat tenderizers and more!

This horde like battle is usually a lot of fun; and I say usually because it depends on if the A.I. is firing on all cylinders as intended. This is the start of what is my biggest issue with Evil Dead: The Game; the glitches and bugs. In the scenario above if the AI is working enemies will continue to pour into the area, while the player or AI controlled demon can spawn in portals. What seems to happen is the AI will get stuck and wont seen any enemies to the encounter; instead, players will only face the few enemies that the demon can place until their cooldown ends. Yeah, this is great for survivors since they can complete the task with relative ease; but is frustrating when players are playing as a demon. Being able to summon at most three monsters (base, elite and boss) is nothing when compared to a well-equipped team of survivors. But I have experienced all sorts of bugs during my time with Evil Dead. One match after avoiding a possession my character was unable to move but I could still use the melee buttons to attack. It was only after the demon possessed me and my team beat it outta me was I able to move my character again. Countless times I have lost items due to them being launched from a chest when I open it, only to have it disappear into the ground. Then there is the driving, while extremely useful in helping to get around the large wooded maps; the driving physics are so wonky that it makes going off-road almost like taking a “double-dare”. Cars have flipped, toppled, rolled, skipped and sunk and every time it was hilarious to my entire party. We all laughed and shook it off as someone either made a “Like a Glove..” joke from Ace Ventura or just shouted “Guess we’re walkin”.

And that is why this game is so darn special; even through the bugs and glitches the true labor of love that it really is shines through. The reverence that is shown here to the project that Sam Raimi, Bruce Campbell and others filmed back in the 80’s is incredible. Locations like the Knowby Cabin, or Ash’s classic car the Delta not to mention Ash himself! Having four versions of Ashley was a smart choice; each one falling into the Leader, Warrior, Hunter and Support classes; there is enough Ash for the whole family! Characters from throughout the franchise’s history make up the available roster, each with their on permanent skill trees, special ability and experience points to earn.

Someone is going to ask why I scored this game so high if it had so many bugs and my answer to that is simple; the same reason that Skyrim and Fallout’s have garnered 9’s and 10’s; yet be so full of glitches and bugs – gameplay and the fun it provides. The gameplay loop in Evil Dead: The Game is so satisfying it can scratch two different type of genre itches. On the one hand you have the survivor game play, which plays out like a mix between a battle royale and a horde mode. Then you have the demon gameplay, which is almost like a tower-defense style RTS with its use of needing a resource to place units and traps around the fields. And then because why not; let’s throw an RPG system in here so people can level up skills and tweak their gameplay styles to what works for them. Beyond just the systems though much like the source material, Evil Dead: The Game is just fun. Even when the game is invoking ‘jump scares’ (of which there are a ton) heck, even when losing I still had a ball and was excited to try and take down evil again. And with a promised new map based on Castle Kandar from ‘Army of Darkness and a noticeably absent Ruby from the Ash vs Evil Dead show; I think its safe to say that the team has Saber is going to keep us battling the Evil Dead for quite some time.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.