My humble beginnings with PC gaming started with 2005’s Evil Dead: Regeneration. Even though it’s been almost 15 years since I ever touched it, the enjoyable (generally) experience of it still resounds with me to this day. For most, it’s just a game that aged like milk but for a few like me, it is one of the most memorable hack-n-slash classics that barely gets a mention these days. Since then, the presence of the iconic Evil Dead franchise has sadly dwindled in the video game industry.
But thanks to some recent developments, Evil Dead has been finally been resurrected in the industry (albeit not in a way most of the series’ fans had hoped for). Unlike the early 2000’s iterations, this time Saber Interactive is filling in THQ’s abandoned shoes with the release of the multiplayer-focused title Evil Dead: The Game. Though this time it’s a multiplayer offering along the lines of Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game, with pricey Season-Pass add-on and cosmetic DLCs, there’s more to it than what meets the eye.
Evil Dead: The Game was released on 13th May 2022 for Microsoft Windows via Epic Store, PlayStation, and Xbox. A planned Nintendo Switch port will be released later this year.
Good, bad, I’m the guy with a gun…or a sword
Unlike other movie-based titles, Evil Dead: The Game lives up to its name. It’s purely a video game of sorts, there are no forced cutscenes or exposition that could get in the way of your play. From the get-go, you get to choose your favorite Evil Dead character and takes less than a minute to get you on the battlegrounds of the terror-inducing woods.
First up is playing as the Survivor. This is easily the best Evil Dead experience one could have asked for. You get to choose your preferred character based on popular character archetypes- Leader, Hunter, Warrior, and Support. As a Survivor, you can play as a Team, go Solo, or do offline missions (a mini-campaign of some sorts) at your convenience. As you do more of these, you will be leveling up your character and in time you would be able to take on PvE and PvP matches in no time.
Now as a Survivor, you gotta take note of a few things. Firstly, you gotta stay out of the dark and stick with your team to keep your fear levels at bay. You can also light bonfires, and lanterns and use your flashlight to keep your Team member’s fear levels in check. If your fear levels are at max, it would make you visible to all the nearby demons. This makes the campaign missions quite tough as you can only go in solo and there are no checkpoints. If you fail, you gotta start over from scratch.
As for the general multiplayer mode, your objective would be to gather three pieces of a map, gather the final piece, acquire the (in)famous Kandarian dagger, defeat the Dark Ones as well as close the breach. Once players have closed the breach, players need to survive for two minutes and prevent the demon player from destroying the accursed Necronomicon, and then a cutscene plays showcasing their victory; if the Demon wins by killing the players, a cutscene shows the demonic celebration.
As a beginner, the team mode survivor is the best place to start. Thanks to crossplay enabled across all platforms, the matchmaking times are usually under one to one and half minute mark. It’s a blast to play it with friends over voice chat. Reviving your teammates and trading your inventory is also swift as ever. In the event of death, your squadmates can also carry your soul and resurrect you at the nearby Altar.
I can smell your filthy soul
While playing as a The Demon, you are a killer, but also a strategist. To build up your power you need to gather Infernal Energy from around the map ( little red orbs) to perform possession-related actions with the overall goal of preventing the Survivors from finding the pages and closing the breach. Like Survivors, the Kandarian Demons have their own classes to choose from.
As a Warlord, you can cause direct damage to the players and can increase damage dealt and reduce damage received. As a Necromancer, you can summon skeletons to overpower and overwhelm the survivors. Lastly, as a Puppeteer (probably the most fun of them all), you can possess Evil units and reinforce their threat to the players.
As your powers grow, you can take control of key things in the environment, causing damage to the players, increasing their fear, slowing them down, and more. you can also briefly control and enhance the powers of the Deadites, summon special demons, and it can even possess Survivors.
Like a Demon, you can also inhibit a Survivor’s body if their fear levels are off the charts. As a possessed survivor, you can attack other survivors, waste their ammo, separate them from the group, and put a foil on their plans.
Once the Demon reaches Level 10, it can spend upgrade points to unlock its boss character, a powerful creature – either Henrietta, Eligos, or Evil Ash – that can turn the tide of battle. Players spawn as the boss and directly wreak havoc on the Survivors.
Overall the Demon side of things is unexpectedly as compelling as its survivor counterpart. There’s a ton of room for experimentation on the sides. Matchmaking takes less time here as well. However, I did run into a few issues while being respawned but aside from that there are no major complaints here.
Shop Smart. Shop S-Mart
While the things are good overall, there are quite a few rough edges, especially on the last-gen consoles. The game targets a dynamic 1080p resolution on the base PS4 while targeting an unlocked 60 frame rate. It does a decent job on the frame-rate side of things but takes a heavy toll on the game’s visuals. In certain areas, it looks spectacular but in the dark places, it gets blurry as hell. A fixed 40-45 fps mode to stabilize the resolution like Resident Evil Village would greatly help the game on the last-gen side of things.
I also ran into a few bugs while being resurrected by a team member and got stuck into a pond unable to move or do anything. There are also a few glitches in the lighting on the older gen consoles and as of now, there have been no major updates as of yet.
Aside from the much-needed updates, to maintain its Future Roadmap, the game also needs to improve upon its lack-luster single-player campaign missions which are a must for unlocking the characters. It is frustratingly annoying at times as the level design is quite not fitting for a single-player map. An addition of better maps and well-choreographed missions would certainly go a long way.
Real Talk
Evil Dead: The Game is a surprisingly good nostalgic romp thanks to its fluid matchmaking system and game modes. It is a blast to play as a Survivor and it’s downright gratifying on the Demon side of things. However, on the single-player side of things, the offline missions feel lackluster and forced to unlock the in-game characters. Considering its lack of polish and not-so-enticing visuals on last-gen consoles, your best bet would be to get the deluxe edition on sale when most of these issues have been fixed. Still, it is an easy recommendation if you have a fun squad to hang out with.