Evil Dead: The Game Review: Is it a multiplayer game? What is the gameplay?

Evil Dead: The Game Review

Evil Dead: The Game is an awesome asymmetric multiplayer game that, like its source material, is far better than it has any right to be given its frustrating lack of polish and being somewhat light on maps and modes. Playing as a survivor is a fantastic cooperative shooter experience despite frequent problems with janky level geometry that leads to unfair deaths and other questionable design choices, while playing as the evil mastermind is just downright magnificent thanks to the amusingly fiendish ways you can mess with the other team.

What Kind of Game is Evil Dead: The Game?

Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer survival horror game, which is always a bit of a word-soup genre but is joined by the likes of heavy-hitter Dead by Daylight and other lesser titles like Friday the 13th. Evil Dead’s main task in standing out among these games is rather simple – be as robust and fun as Dead by Daylight, while using its franchise roots to create a unique, layered experience that doesn’t appear to be a cash-grab.

The game features melee and ranged combat in equal measures with characters and roles best suited to either, as well as supplies and support abilities. The objective is simple – for Survivors, secure the Necronomicon and Kandarian Dagger, defeat the Dark Ones and banish the Demon player; for Demons, don’t let the Survivors complete their objective. Demons can achieve their goals either by killing all the players, or holding them off until the timer runs out. The Demon player can also possess Survivors if their fear meter is high enough, which goes up when they encounter traps or are in dark places, especially when separated from the group.

The Evil Dead franchise has plenty to enjoy if adapted to a video game, with lots of gory fun, one-liners, and the main character who is incredibly iconic and is essentially Duke Nukem and Doomguy but hunts Deadites instead of aliens or demons. He even loses his hand and grafts on a chainsaw while wielding a sawed-off shotgun in the other, making for a perfect video game action hero. It also helps that there’s a variety of memorable, quotable supporting characters on top of star Ash Williams. On paper, an Evil Dead game should be…groovy.

Evil Dead: The Game Gameplay

Survivor vs. Demon features nine starting survivors across four classes: the team-centric Leader and Support classes as well as the more offense-minded Hunter (the ranged specialist) and Warrior (a melee-focused option). All four classes feature an Ash Williams: Ash from Evil Dead is a Support, Ash from Army of Darkness is a Warrior, and so on. All Ashes are voiced by Bruce Campbell, who brings his usual inimitable charm back to the franchise across many different versions of the character (including Evil Ash and Tiny Ashes). And Bruce isn’t alone; the voice cast is filled with actors from the movies and show. It all goes a long way to immerse players in the Evil Dead universe.

As survivors, your goal is to traverse one of the two large maps the game has at launch, finding the scattered pieces of an in-game map while also looking for weapons and other useful loot. After you find the pieces of the map, you must then capture the Necronomicon Pages and the Kandarian Dagger through two separate king-of-the-hill sequences before protecting the completed Necronomicon from hordes of enemies.

It amounts to a lot of using your map to search for objectives and communicating as a team to make sure no one gets caught out by themselves. The game’s fear mechanic (which is similar to that in the excellent Phasmophobia), which makes players who are alone and/or in the dark more vulnerable to the Demon, further encourages sticking together. The map is large, and it takes time to find everything; there are cars on the map, but using them will alert the Demon to your location.

Evil Dead: The Game has already sold more than 500,000 copies

Developer and publisher Saber Interactive announced the impressive milestone during a recent investor presentation by parent company(opens in new tab), Embracer Group, which acquired the studio back in February 2020.

The asymmetric horror co-op game – which sees you play as one of several iconic characters from the Evil Dead franchise – was released, suitably enough, on Friday, May 13, and has reportedly managed to rack up “more than” 500,000 sales in just five days (thanks, PC Gamer(opens in new tab)).

Evil Dead: The Game lets you “step into the shoes of Ash Williams or his friends from the iconic Evil Dead franchise and work together in a game loaded with over-the-top co-op and PVP multiplayer action!” You can play as a team of four survivors, “exploring, looting, managing your fear, and finding key items to seal the breach between worlds” in a game inspired by all three original Evil Dead films as well as the Ash vs Evil Dead TV show, too.

“Evil Dead: The Game proves there’s plenty of undead life in this space,” we write in GamesRadar+’s 4 out of 5 star Evil Dead: The Game review. “

“There’s nothing terribly groundbreaking here, but instead a culmination of the genre’s best ideas that finally gives survivors some agency and opens a big, inviting door for timid horror fans to walk through. Grab some friends and crack open a Shemp’s Beer – or cola, in the game – as Evil Dead: The Game is a wicked, blood-soaked, supremely groovy good time.”

Some of changes in Evil Dead: The Game

One refreshing change Evil Dead does bring to the genre is survivors who can fend for themselves. In similar games, the survivors’ choices essentially boil down to running or dying, but those seeking the Necronomicon can equip weapons found as tiered loot, upgrade their abilities both during and between rounds, and, when working closely together, leave the demon player or AI with very little room for error.

The class-based heroes each have special abilities that promote organized teamwork, like a healing ability for Support characters and a calming effect that the game’s Leaders can apply so the rest of the group keeps their cool in the face of danger–without this, characters’ fear meter can rise, leaving them vulnerable to possession. Survivors can slash and bash heads off of monsters and apply amulets like body armor, standing toe to toe with hordes of Deadites at a time.

Like a lot of games of this nature, Evil Dead is best played with a group of friends, and the experience often degrades when played with strangers online. Worst of all, those who want to play the game totally alone will find Evil Dead to be hostile toward the preference. Playing in solo PvE lobbies awards you with no experience points, so you can’t unlock new character abilities, and the game’s short run of campaign missions doesn’t add much to the experience. Each is inspired by scenarios from the series, like Ash needing to bury his girlfriend Linda’s severed head while the demon inhabiting her oscillates between mocking him and pleading for his mercy.

Conclusion: Is Evil Dead: The Game Good?

Asymmetric multiplayer horror game fans have a scary choice to make on their next game night: do they play this new game or stick with their favorite? We’re sure that if you’re a fan of the genre, or a fan of the franchise, then you’ll get a good kick with Evil Dead: The Game regardless. However, it’s clear that the game isn’t perfect and still has a lot of balancing and content issues it’ll have to address. Its competitors are already miles ahead of it in terms of additional content for its player base to sink their teeth into, with Dead By Deadlight already having a countless amount of new characters, scenarios, and maps. Whether or not Evil Dead: The Game can draw inspiration from its deep lore pockets would determine if the game is here to stay, or if Evil Dead is dead on arrival.

Will the Evil Dead game have a campaign?

Evil Dead The Game doesn’t have a traditional campaign, but there is single-player missions that add to the series’ lore. Per the same interview with Slasher Radio, Saber Interactive has said that these side missions unlock some characters and skins. They also reward players with access to ‘Knowby Recordings.

Can you play Evil Dead: The Game solo?

If you’re asking whether you can play Evil Dead The Game alone, the short answer is yes. You can play Evil Dead The Game solo or single player.

Will Evil Dead: The Game have singleplayer?

Yes, Evil Dead: The Game does have a single-player mode of sorts, so there is stuff to do if you’re not a multiplayer fan. This isn’t exactly a full sprawling campaign, so don’t go expecting an epic story set in the Evil Dead world.

How many Evil Dead games are there?

There have so far been five Evil Dead video games: The Evil Dead (1984) for Commodore 64 and ZX Spectrum. Evil Dead: Hail to the King (December 18, 2000) for PlayStation, Dreamcast, and PC. Evil Dead: A Fistful of Boomstick (May 24, 2003) for PlayStation 2 and Xbox.