Evil Dead: The Game Review
Ali Hasan May 27, 2022
Blood, humor, gore, and glory. Saber Interactive’s newest contribution to the asymmetrical horror genre delivers on all these words in the truest sense. It stumbles along the way but what it manages to do is deliver an entertaining gameplay loop in a mostly satisfying package. Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical horror game in the same vein as games like Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th. Four players survive in order to win the match as the enemy player tries to render them unsuccessful.
Iterating on Tradition
Unlike other games, Evil Dead: The Game makes an effort to break away from the oftentimes tired mold of the genre by leveling the playing field. Players are now able to wield guns and melee weapons in order to defend themselves from the enemy player. Like in Battle Royale games, players have to scrounge for weapons, instead of spawning in with them. The game features several iconic weapons from the movie series including Ash’s signature chainsaw.
It iterates on the genre in more ways than one by having objectives that you have to complete in order to survive. To win, the survivors must find pieces of the map that can be scattered around any part of the two rather large maps, doing this eventually leads to the Kandarian dagger which allows you to vanquish the demon allowing you to win the game.
All of this happens as the demon (controlled by another player) tries to hunt you down by throwing ever-increasing difficult hordes of enemies, obstacles, and traps at you and your teammates. The evolution of the genre is certainly a welcome change. What used to be a game of hide-and-seek in similar titles feels more like an action-oriented game, and playing as the survivors feel more engaging and fun.
During the later stages of the match, like battle royale games a zone starts to appear, pushing the survivors into a smaller and smaller play area, while this ups the stakes quite a lot and adds a sense of urgency the implementation is quite lackluster.
The random nature of the zone means that you’ll be randomly caught up in the lethal gas without any prior indication. This can be frustrating, oftentimes causing you to lose health and sometimes even causing you to lose the game.
The thing that bothered me the most however was the lack of a jump button. The game has a rough and varied terrain including rocks, trees, broken down cars, and logs but there is absolutely no way to climb on top of them. As a result character movement feels very limited and rigid.
I oftentimes found myself stuck on geometry scattered around the map, getting stuck on a tiny rock while you have enemies running after you is not a pleasant experience and something that I feel could have been mitigated with a dedicated jump button and better map design.
Characters and Progression
There are 13 playable characters in the game. Each character belongs to a certain subclass that specializes in a particular area of combat. Some classes are more adept at ranged combat while others at better at melee. Additionally, each character has a special ability that can be used to quickly turn the tides as you battle your way through hoards of enemies.
Each character also has a skill tree that can be used to unlock buffs and abilities. With a total of 13 characters, there is a lot to grind towards and a lot to keep you busy.
Each character also brings with them cheesy and over-the-top one-liners that really reminded me of the movies themselves. Each character has a distinct personality that injects humor and light-heartedness into the gameplay loop. Something you wouldn’t expect when you’re being hunted down by waves and waves of enemies.
Maps
Currently, the game features two maps. They are unnamed and are simply known as map 1 and map 2. The maps while big, lack any sort of discerning features to really set them apart. You can tell the maps apart by the locations and points of interest but more often than not you would be hard-pressed to notice any substantial differences between the two.
During my time with the game, it certainly felt like both maps had similar assets. A new map is coming in the form of a new DLC soon but it would have been nice to see more variety at launch, mostly because games like these tend to live or die based on their content.
You vs the Evil Dead
The game also features five single-player missions. They are not critical to your enjoyment of the game since it is a multiplayer game first but they do add a little bit of lore as you complete them. The “cutscenes” come in the form of still images captioned by descriptions to add context. I wouldn’t expect a game of this nature to feature any single-player content at all, but what is present is mostly well-executed, despite some flaws.
Some of the best characters of the game are locked behind these single-player missions that more often than not feel very tedious. They take place on the same two maps as the multiplayer portion. You complete objectives and progress the story. Towards the end, the game get’s a bit too overwhelming, with no save system in place you can end up losing crucial progress and have to start all over. Often times it felt more like a chore as compared to the much more enjoyable multiplayer experience. Again, it’s a welcome addition to have single-player experiences in a game like this but the execution could have been much better.
Verdict
While Evil Dead: The Game iterates on the asymmetrical horror genre in more than one way to deliver something truly fun and enjoyable. The game lacks sufficient content to keep players engaged for long periods of time, however, the robust progression system should keep you hooked. The team needs to work out the several bugs that continue to plague the game while also addressing issues like the safe zone and lack of a jump button to deliver a truly complete experience.
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