Hail To The King! Evil Dead: The Game is Groovy

Asymmetrical games, while there aren’t a ton, have quickly taken over a niche audience of gamers with titles like Friday The 13th: The Game, Hunt or Die, VHS, Among Us, and most popularly (within the genre) Dead By Daylight. If you negate the pandemic spike of Among Us players, I think it’s safe to say that out of all of these titles Dead By Daylight is the most popular asymmetric game. It was new and fresh at its release and was able to keep itself fairly popular with constant new big-name characters like Freddy, the Demogorgon, Pyramid Head, and so many more. Unfortunately for DBD, the actual product is a harshly unbalanced and buggy game, with lobbies and players that rival the toxicity of a Call of Duty lobby. Once Friday The 13th came out I think many people thought it would be able to dethrone DBD, but due to rights issues, lack of patches, and the halting of cosmetic releases, it quickly fell off. But, my friends, this is where our new Dead By Daylight comes into play with Evil Dead: The Game!

Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead was an, at the time, underappreciated horror gem that would go on to singlehandedly be a film that would define the Cabin In The Woods subgenre, as well as give us the most chiseled chin in Hollywood. The Evil Dead would go on to spawn two sequels, a reboot, a three-season TV series, as well as an upcoming reimagining; it would also go on to give us the game that can replace the void of Dead By Daylight, in my humble opinion. When it was announced that Saber Interactive was developing an asymmetrical Evil Dead game, many people, including myself, were incredibly excited, and knowing that they had the actual rights to the content, unlike the Friday The 13th game, it looked even more promising. So, let’s take a look at it.

Single Player

Unlike your typical asymmetrical game, there is a single-player story mode for Evil Dead: The Game. While this campaign-style mode isn’t that long, it really has two functions: 1) it lets you explore the map in a low-risk setting and 2) it helps you get comfortable with the controls in a way the tutorial really doesn’t. The single-player mode is fun and gives you the chance to unlock a few extra skins and characters, as well as unlock recordings from Dr. Knowby, which is a nice little Easter egg.

There is definitely a bit of a difficulty curve in the single-player mode, but it’s in no way unbeatable and is a fun way to spend about an hour and a half. The single-player mode is also sort of a conduit to be able to try out all of the weapons to see what kind of playstyle you’re more comfortable with. For instance, I’ve found I prefer to use a chainsaw and a shotgun, this allows you to get a heavy attack with a chainsaw and then pop a Deadite in the chest with buckshot to put some space between you. All in all the single player is fun for a bit, but I’m not too sure of the replay value for that mode unless they end up releasing extra cosmetics and canon material for re-completing the chapters.

Multiplayer (The Demon)

Nothing feels better than getting that dub in your first demon game. One of the most interesting aspects about playing the demon is how you can play. In DBD there really are only one or two strategies you can take in order to win, whereas for Evil Dead there are so many ways you can play. If you want you can go hard and heavy, inundating the survivors with wave after wave of Deadites, traps, and possessions, or you can play the long game by setting up traps on the path of the survivors, slowly raising their fear and toying with them. Personally, my gameplay as the demon is to trap the Kandarian Dagger and the Necronomicon locations and then work my way towards the survivors, even proficient players can easily be stricken to death easily with that style.

I’ve heard some friends say that there are balancing issues with this game, but, as with every video game, I’m sure there will be patches and nerfs for certain things. I don’t necessarily think the demon is crazy overpowered, and if you’re playing against decent survivors, they will definitely give you a run for your money.

As the demon you sprint around the map camera-on-a-broom style, you collect Infernal Energy orbs and spend them accordingly to send out Deadites, possess survivors/cars/trees, set traps, trap chests, and ruin the survivor’s day. It’s important to upgrade your skills accordingly based on your personal gameplay, and if possible, split up the survivors to make their fear meter get higher and higher. As someone who loved playing the killer in DBD, I think I will main the demon in this game, as it is just so much more entertaining than doing literally anything in DBD.

Multiplayer (The Survivors)

In the load menu, you will be faced with four different classes: The Leader, The Warrior (my main survivor), The Hunter, and The Support. It’s probably a good idea for there to be one of each class, but if you get thrown into a team where there are, say, two Warriors and two Support, it’s not going to be the end of the world. When playing as the survivor your goal is to collect three pieces of the map, uncover the pages of the Necronomicon, and then collect the Kandarian Dagger, you will have 30 minutes to complete this task. Once that is completed the timer will stop and the rest of the game is a fight for survival. After the Kandarian Dagger is in your possession you must defeat The Dark Ones and then your final goal is to protect the Necronomicon against endless hordes of Deadites.

As long as you have a solid team, and stick together, each goal can easily be completed. Cooperation and communication are key as a survivor, and your game can easily fall apart if everyone runs off in different directions. Just like the demon, upgrading your skills is key, both in-game and in the skill tree. In-game you will find bottles of Pink F, which can be used for your in-game upgrading, but unlike the skill tree, your in-game upgrades are final and the points cannot be redistributed. The only scare that happens to the survivors that feels a little cheap is the jumpscare the demon sends to you, but in my experience players rarely use that attack.

Issues and Bugs

Just like any new release, there are some bugs in this game, but for the most part, there is nothing that is game-ruining. There are occasions where you can get stuck on a rock and your character will freak out and t-pose until you get smacked by a Deadtite, at this point you will usually be knocked off of the rock you’re stuck on. It is also super easy to flip your car and get it stuck. While I’ve had friends complain that that’s a bug, I personally think it’s a feature that adds to the chaos of the game. I have had many instances where I cannot pick something up from the ground, now this has never once been an issue with weapons, but at least once or twice a game I happen upon a can of Shemp’s Cola or an Amulet that just cannot be picked up.

There was only one time I had a game crash and it was when I was playing a [presumably] very high-level demon. The only reason I make that assumption is because of the number of portals they were spawning, they had to have put tons of points on the skill tree for portal cooldowns. The game crashed as hundreds of Deadites swarmed us, so this could become a bigger issue once more players get higher in level, but that’s not an assumption I will make at this time.

The final issue I have is not something I am going to blame on the game, as it is definitely not the game’s fault, is the lack of communication. I stated earlier that communication is key, but out of the many games I’ve played so far, the majority of the players I come across do not use a microphone. This is frustrating because I love to talk during this game, and it’s a function specifically put into the game so I just wish more people would use it.

Final Thoughts

This is only the second horror game of 2022 I have played, and so far this is my favorite horror game of 2022. It’s refreshing and fun, it’s not toxic (looking at you DBD), and is a property of one of my all-time favorite horror franchises. The minor issues are completely outweighed by the sure horror and magic of the game. When I’m not playing Evil Dead: The Game all I can think about is when I will finally get the opportunity to play it again, and when I’m playing it, well, it’s all I’m thinking about. I sincerely hope this game blows up on Twitch so that for the times I’m not able to play, I can watch great content creators play it. With four DLCs on the horizon—groovy—and hopefully more, I think the staying power of Evil Dead is going to be strong. Hail To The King!