Review: Evil Dead: The Game – Experience a Fantastic Scary Adventure with Ash William

Have you ever wondered how it would be if you were in Ash William’s shoes? If that’s the case, I advise you to get a hold of the freshest Evil Dead: The Game. Despite some issues with the gameplay and some gear-grinding details, it’s definitely worth trying. It’s about time to put my Nintendo Switch away and give a wide smile to my PS5.

Evil Dead: The Game is a TPP action game based, as the title itself suggests, on the Evil Dead movie series, which first came out in 1981. Over the years, there have been many Evil Dead games released, and this time, the studios responsible are BossTeamGames and Saber Interactive. The point of the game is to exterminate the creatures summoned with the spell from the book of Necronomicon Ex-Mortis.

Within the game, you can choose from multiple playable characters from the series. What’s interesting is that if you’re more of a badass type of player, you can also play as a villain on the dark side.

And the Bloodbath Begins…

Fighting the undead is the main point of the game (as far as you’re playing on the humans’ side). The gameplay uses a third-person perspective. We have the option to join a 4-player team. Personally, I used to play this mode a lot and noticed that most of the players use different platforms. So, I must say that cross-play works pretty well in this case.

Apart from killing the monsters, you have to search for the items located on the maps; those artifacts are necessary to send the Kandarian Demon back to the netherworld. Your in-game arsenal includes both cold weapons and firearms. While discovering woods, abandoned locations, and ruins, you come across all types of weapons. Each item has its own class, determined by the highlight (e.g., standard, epic, and legendary). The better its stats, the more efficient it is at exterminating the undead. Nevertheless, if it happens that you choose to play on the dark side, your task is to stop the team of four heroes from casting the demon off; within this gameplay mode, you have to rely on your demonic powers instead of weapons.

Earning Experience Points Online… Exclusively

If you wish to constantly score experience points, you have to play online. Single player mission mode neither improves your skills nor makes the experience bar progress. There are six missions to complete, and each of them requires a certain level of wit, swiftness, and a good deal of patience. However, both online and offline maps lack diversity. Most of the time, you fight in similar environments where only the items have been put in different spots. Nevertheless, the developers plan to release new content, which is expected to include more diverse maps and new weapons. Let us hope they’ll stick to their promises.

A match begins with character selection: you can choose to be a survivor or a mad’n’evil demon. Next, the four survivors choose from the four classes of characters: leaders, warriors, hunters, and support. The survivor group receives a certain to-do list necessary to fight off the demon. However, if you choose to be a demon, your only goal is to disturb the survivors. The demons also have their own classes: warlord, puppeteer, and necromancer.

The Controls

When it comes to controls, Evil Dead: The Game doesn’t live up to my expectations. I mean, the controls are not terrible; however, there’s a lot to improve, not to mention the sloppy mechanics. At first glance, it’s a typical shooter, so there shouldn’t be much to complain about. Shooting is decent and gives joy when you become good at it. When using the cold arsenal, players can unleash a single combo, gaining some time to think about the next move. It’s a life-saving feature because during combo animations, the character is practically immune to attacks. I must admit, some of the finishing moves look pretty awesome.

The weakest point of the gameplay is dodging, and it gets really bad, especially in a narrow room, where defeating a powerful rival is nearly impossible. Stamina runs out in a blink of an eye, which becomes the main reason for players’ frustration, as it’s required for running and dodging.

Fear is the Key

Strolling through the woods, you can become frightened by a random, moving tree. Going deeper into darkness has a similar effect. Sometimes, a face pops up on the screen, which is more frightening to the player than the game character. The greater your fear level, the more probable it is that your character will become possessed by the Kandarian Demon. You have to remember about the matches; it’s a crucial matter. Using matches, you can reduce or completely eliminate your fear level. The spots on the map, where you can set up a fire, are marked with red.

Summary

Is it worth playing, in my opinion? Well, it depends. At first glance, it doesn’t stand out in particular. However, it’s another addition to the Evil Dead series, so true fans cannot just walk away from it.  To me, the multiplayer mode is the strongest side of this game. Online players should definitely try it; this title could give them hours of engaging gameplay.