The Evil Dead series is one of the quintessential horror series ever made. Its horror combined with its campiness is a cool concept, never mind the fact that the main Macguffin is an evil book from Ancient Sumer. Anyhow, there hasn’t been a really good game out of this series yet, but Evil Dead: The Game seems to be the one that will break the mold. But first, let’s talk about Evil Dead in general.
What Is The Evil Dead?
Evil Dead is a horror film franchise made by Sam Raimi, who directed 3 of the four feature films. The franchise also has a TV series called Ash vs. The Evil Dead ran from 2015 to 2018 that lasted for three seasons.
The main films of the series revolve around the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, a text from Ancient Sumer that details how to control and summon the Kandarian Demon and the Deadites. This doesn’t end well for anyone, especially the people who get caught in the crossfire when the Evil Dead Series started.
In addition to the four main films and the TV Series, the Evil Dead franchise also diversified into other formats like games, comics, and musicals. Now, we’re going to talk about one of these formats, video games, as the Evil Dead: The Game is about to make its release this year.
What Is The Evil Dead: The Game?
Evil Dead: The Game is an upcoming survival horror asymmetrical multiplayer game created by Saber Interactive and released by Boss Team Games. It’s based on the Evil Dead franchise, as already stated.
The game is slated for release on May 13, 2022, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S. The Nintendo Switch release of the game is delayed to an undetermined date.
Evil Dead: The Game Preview
With just a couple of weeks until the release of the game, let us decide whether the game is going to be worth the wait with this preview. Here’s all we know about Evil Dead: The Game.
Story
Evil Dead: The Game’s story is pretty simple. You play as one of the many characters in the Evil dead series with a single goal: Seal the breach that allows Evil to go to Earth. Along the way, the players need to find better gear, get ammunition and supplies, and then search for several items that can help in sealing the breach.
However, the forces of evil wouldn’t be so keen on letting them seal the breach again. The Kandarian Demon, in addition to the Deadites, will try to stop the four heroes from doing their task. Their goal? Their deaths, and it’s going to be a tough time for our heroes to do their job.
Hopefully, they’ll be up to the task, but it’s Ash Williams and the company we’re talking about here; they probably are.
Gameplay
The game trailer for Evil Dead: The Game painted a clear picture of its gameplay. Its players play as humans against players playing as monsters with bits of action/horror survival. For those who grew up on horror movies like Friday the 13th, this is going to be real heaven.
Overall, the gameplay in the trailer is similar enough to a previous horror game: Friday the 13th: The Game. In the case of Evil Dead: The Game, though, the villains, or Deadites, in this case, will stalk the survivors and try to defeat them before they can accomplish their goal of ridding the world of evil. On the game’s multiplayer modes, there will always be five players per game. Four of the players would be the heroes. Their job is to find clues on why the whole shebang happened and to make sure that it’s stopped and will never happen again. Meanwhile, the 5th player is the Kandarian Demon, and we’ll talk a lot about his role in this game later.
In addition to all the gameplay, there are also a lot of cool references and nods to the Evil Dead movies. For example, there are mini Ashes on a particular part of the trailer that’s a great nod to Evil Dead 2, and that’s just one of the things that were shown. Of course, there are also various characters that the player can play with, but we digress. Overall, Evil Dead: The Game is slated to be a great love letter to the Evil Dead movie series, though it’s going to be a different experience given that it’s following a similar vein to Dead by Daylight with the addition of the survivors actively fighting back.
Single-Player Game Mode
As of right now, Evil Dead: The Game is looking to be a co-op, PvP multiplayer experience with two teams of players duking it out. However, there’s also been mention of special single-player missions where players relive classic Evil Dead scenes. Do note that the single-player missions still need an internet connection to be played.
Other than these tidbits, there hasn’t been any new information about the game’s single-player mode. There is footage in the game’s trailer of the single-player missions, but other than this, there’s still no concrete information. Hopefully, there are going to be more of them released in the future.
Controls and Combat
Evil Dead: The Game is slated to be a 3rd Person game, and this has its advantages in terms of controls and combat. Movement and observation-wise, players can be aware of many angles thanks to being in 3rd Person. Combat-wise, it’s easier to react to enemies that will be all over the player.
When it comes to the various characters, each has their unique skills and items to help in battling Evil. Ash Williams has his signature chainsaw hand for example. Meanwhile, Arthur rocks his sword while also being in heavy plate armor. The heroes also have several unique and over-the-top kill animations, though be careful as you don’t want to use them when the Kandarian Demon’s near.
All in all, each one of the characters has its unique kit, and that goes double with the Kandarian Demon.
The 5th Player (The Kandarian Demon)
One thing that will probably make Evil Dead: The Game an utter riot to play is the game’s 5th Player: The Kandarian Demon. You can already guess why he’s here. To ensure that the other four players — the heroes, so to speak — wouldn’t be able to thwart their plans to spread capital ‘E’ Evil to the world. To do this, the Demon has several nifty abilities in store.
The Kandarian Demon can possess objects to do some seriously scary and dangerous shenanigans to the players. They also can possess the various heroes for a time, confusing and dealing damage to them using their gear. Of course, the Demon will eventually be expelled from the hero they possessed. But during that period, the players would have wasted gear trying to get away from the possessed hero. The Kandarian Demon can also attack the heroes through weapons and skills, separating them, et cetera. All in all, it’s pretty much reminiscent of movies directed by Sam Raimi, and it’s pretty apropos.
The Demon’s abilities also come under the purview of supernatural traps. These can range from trees swiping at heroes, tables flinging themselves to unsuspecting players, and various other shenanigans. The Kandarian Demon has a lot of tools to make sure that the heroes will have a difficult time trying to stop Evil from spreading. And overall, it’s going to be a blast when people will have access to the game and try it out.
Level Design
Evil Dead: The Game is a straight-up homage to the entirety of the Evil Dead series, and it shows. The game’s levels and maps each draw inspiration from various parts of the Evil Dead series. Longtime fans and enthusiasts can battle the Deadites on the cabin where it all began or on other locales like the infamous gas station. The Single-Player missions take it a step further as they’re going to let players relive various Evil Dead scenes in the game.
Characters
If the player has seen the various trailers of Evil Dead: The Game, they’ll see that several characters from both movie and TV series are seen. From Ash Williams to Betsy Baker. They’ll all be playable in Evil Dead: The Game, with a special addition: four versions of Ash Williams, Deadite-slaying horror hero.
However, that’s not all: Bruce Campbell is going to voice all four versions of Ash Williams. Combine this with the fact that a lot of other actors from various parts of the Evil Dead franchise will make a return to voice their roles. Plus, you have a pretty star-studded ensemble throughout the game’s various characters.
However, don’t let us stop you — here’s a list of all the confirmed characters on Evil Dead: The Game:
- Ash Williams: The Anti-Hero protagonist of the Evil Dead Series, has a chainsaw replacing one of his hands. Pure awesome.
- Linda: Evil Dead’s quintessential damsel in distress, though it seems that in Evil Dead: The Game that’s no longer the case.
- Shelly: Scotty’s girlfriend in Evil Dead, is slated to make “Special Appearances” in the game.
- Scotty: Shelly’s boyfriend and the one that arranged the trip to the Knowby Cabin on Evil Dead, sealing his fate and the fate of most of his friends.
- Cheryl Williams: Ash William’s sister and the first person on the group to become a Deadite on the original Evil Dead.
- Arthur: Lord Arthur of Castle Candar, who made his appearance on Evil Dead II.
- Pablo Simon Bolivar: Ash’s coworker on ValueStop in the Evil Dead TV Series.
- Kelly Maxwell: Another of Ash’s coworkers who became possessed by Eligos. Incredibly skillful fighter. Makes his appearance on the Evil Dead TV Series.
- Henry the Red: Lord Arthur’s nemesis and reluctant ally against Evil.
Evil Dead: The Game vs Similar Games
Now that we’ve talked about Evil Dead: The Game, let’s talk about other games like it. We’ll start with Dead by Daylight, followed by Midnight Ghost Hunt, and finally, Friday the 13th: The Game.
Dead by Daylight
First off is Dead by Daylight, the best asymmetrical co-op multiplayer horror game in the market for good reason. The game puts players in a situation akin to Jigsaw’s rooms, where the players have to find a way to escape before the various monsters kill them all. Pretty straightforward. However, the monsters in the game won’t just let the survivors escape that easily, oh no.
Dead by Daylight’s gameplay is pretty great; the four survivors need to work together to activate various generators all while avoiding the monster. The monster is ever so slightly faster than the survivors and has unique special abilities. However, they’re slower in other areas. For example, monsters can’t vault over certain obstacles, and vaulting over others is slower compared to survivors. Thus, it’s usually faster for the monster to go around the obstacle to continue their pursuit.
The survivors, on the other hand, have to use their wits to evade the monsters by making use of the environment. Stealth is the name of the game here, and if the survivors manage to get at least one out, then it’s a good thing for them.
Overall, Dead by Daylight is a great asymmetrical co-op game with a lot of love from the developers. They have a lot of characters and monsters from other horror franchises appearing as guest characters, for example, Pyramid Head from Silent Hill or Freddy Kreuger from Nightmare on Elm Street.
Midnight Ghost Hunt
Next on the list is Midnight Ghost Hunt, an upcoming 4v4 horror game that seems to be heavily inspired by Ghostbusters. If you’ve played Prop Hunt, it’s this, but with a few twists. For one, the hunters are trying to destroy ghosts, and the ghosts can possess a lot of objects to hide from the hunters. The hunters, in turn, have until midnight to try to hunt down all of the ghosts. However, if they can’t do so when Midnight arrives, the tables will turn and it’s the ghost’s turn to hunt the hunters.
This reversal is pretty cool, as the ghosts turn red and immediately go wild trying to kill the hunter team. The hunters can fight back, of course, they can change their current gear to fight against the now berserk ghosts. However, once all the hunters are incapacitated, the ghosts win. Incapacitation isn’t the end for both Ghosts and Hunters though, as their teammates can revive them. However, they can be permanently taken out by the hunters using a vacuum to suck up the ghost fragments or by the ghosts killing the incapacitated hunter. Do note that if the Hunters haven’t defeated all of the ghosts when midnight comes around, the ghosts that were sucked up by the vacuum will also be revived to try and kill them.
All in all, a nice twist to the Prop Hunt game, and a very fun game mode overall. Midnight Ghost Hunt will be on Steam’s early access on March 31.
Friday the 13th: The Game
Last but not least is Friday the 13th: The Game, which is probably a really big reason why Evil Dead: The Game exists. After all, the gameplay is remarkably similar. The survivors recreate the same situation as the campers on Friday the 13th, and they have to deal with a murderous Jason Vorhees trying to cut them to ribbons using his machete. Before all this, we need to talk about a few things.
Friday the 13th: The Game is a good horror game with a lot of references to the Friday the 13th franchise. It’s incredibly faithful and a ton of fun when played properly. However, as of right now, the game is being hurt by modders and inconsiderate people on PC. Xbox is fine; it’s the PC version that’s getting the really bad stuff happening to it.
Still, the game does have a lot going for it, and it can be a great game to play with a group of friends on Discord chat. If you have a few friends that you don’t mind doing stuff with and like Friday the 13th? Try the game out.
Is Evil Dead: The Game Worth the Wait?
Evil Dead: The Game looks to be a cool game that combines its horror with a lot of the campiness that people love about the films. Hopefully, the game would excel and become big, since we haven’t seen Evil Dead in a while.
