Evil Dead the Game Review: Low on Gas (PS5)

Evil Dead: The Game review

The Evil Dead is one of the most enduring horror franchises of all time. Three main films: The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness (a remake and a TV show), Ash vs Evil Dead and another film coming to HBO Max this year (Evil Dead Rise), and numerous comics and video games are proof that director Sam Raimi’s comedy horror franchise show no signs of slumber. When I saw that there was an asymmetric take on the franchise with Evil Dead The Game, I was, to say the least, excited. While it’s clear the developers at Saber Interactive have love and reverence for the franchise, there’s not a whole lot to do and some odd design choices make it less than it could be.

The Gang’s All Here

The good new is that for fans of the series there are a ton of things to geek out over. From the characters you can choose to play as, ranging from Ash to his sister Cheryl from The Evil Dead, to Annie from Evil Dead 2, to Henry the Red from Army of Darkness,  and even Kelly from Ash vs Evil Dead. Only fans of the remake alone will feel left out as none of those characters are present.

From the Kandarian Dagger, to the infamous cabin, to, of course, the Necronomicon, all Evil Dead iconography is present and accounted for. There’s even little east eggs like “Shemp’s Cola” (not Shemp’s beer, for some reason) make their useful appearance into the game. The enemies you fight will be familiar to anyone who loves this franchise and the game even features the voice work of Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, Betsy Baker and more. All of this is to say this is the most authentic Evil Game there has ever been and for that Evil Dead: The Game is worthy of praise.

Faceful of Boomstick

Unfortunately, presentation can only get you so far in a video game. It still has to be fun to play, and while it can have its moments, Evil Dead The Game is more frustrating than fun. The main attraction of the game is the Survivors vs. Demons mode that allows up to four people to play the survivors and should you choose, you can play against a demon AI. There’s also the option to play solo in this mode. Every match consists of following the clues laid out in the upper right corner of the screen to find three map pages from different locations on the map, before being able to collect the Kandarian Dagger and cleansing the Necronomicon of spirits. As you make your way around the map, you may find better weapons, matches to light fires to lower your fear meter, or even Shemp’s Cola which heals you.

The gameplay does offer wrinkles directly tied to the Evil Dead franchise, such as if your fear meter gets too high your vision is impaired and you are highly likely to be possessed. Being possessed turns you against your teammates, but they can wack you enough that you snap out of it. If you die, a teammate can take your soul to an alter and resurrect you. And while you’re trying to do all of this, random demons will spawn out of nowhere and attack you.

As Clunky as a 73 Oldsmobile

On paper it sounds fun, but the controls aren’t as tight as they should be. Aiming feels wonky, and ammo is so scarce that I wound up using melee 90% of the time. Speaking of scarce, healing items are hilariously and frustratingly scarce. Should the other teammates not choose a healer, you have to rely on these ultra rare items which seems baffling to me. Targeting with a melee weapon isn’t much better and the hit boxes are pretty small, so unless you’re directly facing an enemy, you’re going to whiff a bunch of swings.

There are solo missions in the game which change things up a bit, but there are no checkpoints, so if you die late into a mission you have to start the whole thing over again. There are games like that I love, like FromSoftware games. But here it’s nearly rage inducing because the game isn’t fun enough to warrant that kind of design. After a while I just stopped playing the mode altogether.

It’s ultimately more fun with friends, but only really if they’re also into Evil Dead as a franchise. And even then, references and nostalgia can only get you so far. Ultimately, Evil Dead the Game can be improved by patches and I’ll be happy to return to it when it is improved. As for now, I’ll stick with my film collection for my Evil Dead fix.

Score: 6/10

Pros

  • Tons of reverence for the Evil Dead franchise (except the remake)
  • A lot of the cast from the original film and Ash vs Evil Dead lend their voices
  • Fun with friends that are also fans

Cons

  • Every vs mission has the same goals
  • Aiming and targeting make combat a chore
  • Solo missions aren’t fun enough to warrant no checkpoints
  • Not enough content to keep you playing

Evil Dead: the Game review code was provided by the publisher. Version tested PS5. You can read MP1st’s review and scoring policy right here.

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