Evil Dead The Game Review: Blood, horror and laughter

Between art, terror and fun, the line is blurred

A quick glance at the game menus is enough to immediately understand what the spirit of this tie-in is. From the fantastic artwork of the loading screens, up to the Collection section and the videotapes that introduce us to the various Missions, passing through the models of the Survivors or the Demons that we can interpret: everything in The Evil Dead – The Game exudes quotations, blood and even a little comedy.

Before taking the field, however, you need to jump to the tutorial: Professor Raymond Knowby guides players in understanding the game mechanics and objectives of each game, that is, recover the Lost Pages of the Necronomicon and the Kandarian Dagger, defeat the Dark Ones and defend the book from the final waves of monsters. We then understand that there are weapons of various degrees (Common, Rare, Epic and Legendary) to use for light and heavy attacks, cans of Cola to heal, amulets with which to resist enemy attacks and vehicles to move more quickly and invest some demonic creature. in an attempt to save ammunition, which – as often happens in this kind of products – must be recovered in abandoned houses and other buildings scattered around the map. To enrich the action, special shots or extremely damaging and equally bloody Finisher cannot be missing, which flood our character with rivers of blood, perhaps coming from some monster that, here and there, emerges from nowhere to suddenly attack us. The specter of terror is dispelled on several occasions by the characters’ frequent jokes: a note of humor that fortunately is always pleasant and never too invasive.

Moving on to the other side of the fence, however, the tutorial from Kandarian Demon leading the Army of Darkness will show us how to be the architects of terror: as an invisible and incorporeal entity, the only way to manifest ourselves will be to install traps along the setting, possessing trees, cars, zombies, special elite class monsters and even the Survivors themselves, as long as they are scared to death. After all, the players must always remain close to each other in order not to accumulate fear and avoid the continuous attacks of the evil spirit. This neat and well packaged guide to the fundamentals of Evil Dead: The Game will welcome both fans of the franchise and survival horror fans.

Single-player for true fans

The love letter to the franchise manifests itself primarily in the single-player mode, i.e. in the Missions designed to unlock additional characters and cosmetic elements. Saber Interactive does a good job across the board: on the one hand, it leverages a artistic sector to say the least convincing and an excellent soundtrack and on the other hand recreates some iconic moments of Evil Dead in six stages.

Obviously we are not dealing with a particularly rich mode (since it runs out in about two hours), and by itself it is certainly not worth the price of the ticket in a game designed to be enjoyed mainly in multiplayer, yet the quality of the contents has been able to prove itself. , on the whole, quite satisfactory.

Going solo against the Deadites is the most authentic experience of Evil Dead: The Game, although it is not without flaws: the nostalgia effect and the effectiveness of the solid game mechanics are countered by excessive chaos, which permeates all these extra missions. There is also a lack of cinematics, of satisfying dialogues between the characters and of other elements that concretely enrich the narrative context. Furthermore, the degree of difficulty, precisely in light of the absence of human teammates, ends up rising further, and in some moments the balance tip hangs more on frustration than on fun.

The survivors

The asymmetrical nature of Evil Dead: The Game can be experienced in several forms: as a Survivor who – together with other users – battles against a hellish creature, or as a Kandarian Demon intent on slaughtering four human Survivors. In the early stages, running alone in the dark as Ash Williams, Annie Knowby, Kelly Maxwell, Henry the Red, Scotty and other characters is quite risky, and often leads us to wander around in an attempt to regroup with the other poor hapless in prey to a bit of bewilderment.

The map is in fact decidedly vast, and for now it is available only in two variants, with locations positioned differently: between poorly lit open spaces and disturbing weather effects, it won’t be long before you feel lost or close to death. To avoid the build-up of terror, the quartet should take refuge in seemingly safe places as they continue to complete their objectives.

Fortunately, the participants will be guided by special indicators that will direct them to villages, houses and other settings in search of the objects necessary for victory. First of all you have to put the map back together, then collect the Lost Pages of the Necronomicon and the Kandarian Dagger, reach the Dark Ones, annihilate them and make the damned book absorb the demonic energy restoring peace. Having completed a passage, the map shows us the next object, to be reached perhaps without too much difficulty with the help of vehicles. But be careful not to abuse it: the noise of the means of transport can alert the Kandarian Demon, significantly increasing the chances that it will track down the Survivors. As in any other self-respecting asymmetrical multiplayer, the collaboration between the survivors is one of the cornerstones of the gameplay, and each player is called to carry out their task based on the selected role. In Evil Dead The Game there are four classes, namely Leader, Warrior, Hunter, Support, each with important bonuses.

The Leader fills the Fear bar more slowly and can upgrade the skills of others; the Warrior gains more health and deals more damage in melee attacks, while the Hunter can carry more tools and has a richer stamina bar. Finally, the Support enters the game with a few bonus items and has the ability to heal teammates. In most situations, essentially breaking up is self-defeating and can quickly lead to defeat.

The Demon

Let’s focus now on the demon’s pursuit of darkness, divided into three Necromancer, Puppeteer and Warlord classes, each with their respective bosses, namely Evil Ash, Eligos and Henrietta. The match in the incorporeal forms of the monster becomes more frenetic, and the desire to terrify the Survivors grows out of all proportion, as does the fun. However, accumulating the energy needed to possess or activate traps and portals from which to bring out your creatures is not very easy in the early stages of the game.

On the other hand, abusing such expedients can quickly lead to the villain to run out of resources and give valuable time to survivors. Carefully dosing the traps to weaken them at the right point is the first stratagem that allows you to approach the advanced stages of the game with more awareness, unlocking the Elite monsters and the Boss, and then boosting their statistics and thus seizing the perfect moment to go. all-in.

Progression and upgrades

Both Survivors and the Demon can accumulate points during the game e raise your level thus unlocking key abilities such as opening portals for an Elite army, or increasing the damage of your own weapons.

This gimmick is not the only one that allows you to upgrade and develop the characters: as you complete the matches the level of our profile also increases, giving us the opportunity to get some skill points to use in the Collection tab of the initial menu, where they are located the individual pages dedicated to Survivors and demon classes. Each of them will present us one decidedly extended skill tree, a useful and complex permanent progression system which entices users to experiment and search for their own style of play.

It is just a pity that the pleasantness of the combat system and the desire to embody a winning strategy are partially undermined by the aforementioned chaos that rages on the screen when surrounded by enemies of all kinds. In such situations, confusion takes over and limits the enjoyment of an experience with a fairly solid foundation.

Horror graphics

A few words on the technical front: Evil Dead: The Game is visually fascinating, although the effects and animations are not always completely convincing. On the other hand, the setting is masterfully crafted, like the character models and the huge amount of gore that rages in the battles. On our configuration, the performances remained very valid even in 2K at maximum details; all those who do not have a high-end setup will still be able to rely on DLSS to reduce quality, obtaining important benefits on the performance side.

Matchmaking and balancing

Evil Dead: The Game debuted on PC (only via Epic Games), PS4 / PS5 and Xbox One, Series X / S with active cross play, which has undoubtedly increased the user base available at launch for multiplayer games. . The current state, matchmaking is sometimes the victim of some server stumbling and it’s not always easy to get into the game, especially in the Demon role. Fortunately, at the moment the community of players seems to be basically dedicated and positive but our advice is to organize with a group of friends to get all the advantages offered by close communication in a game that makes collaboration its winning weapon.

Even net of obvious weaknesses, the asymmetrical formula of Evil Dead: The Game is created with intelligence, albeit with some imbalance in favor of the villain, who is in a condition of slight advantage especially in the advanced stages. They are then planned free map updates and DLCs perhaps with extra areas: content that could positively affect longevity, which currently represents the greatest unknown about the future of production.