Evil Dead: The Game – The Wicked Good Review

May 15, 2022 Marcoangelo

Evil Dead has to be my favorite horror movie/media franchise since I was first introduced to it after playing as Ash from Evil Dead, in Dead by Daylight. Ironically a game this title is trying to overthrow as the current king of multiplayer survival horror games. A friend of mine dubbed FlexKing, helped me watch the first three movies and the TV show, which conveniently was already on Netflix at this time.

I was unsure on how this game would turn out since the developer Saber Interactive had legal issues with its last title of Friday the 13th. However, it seems from the promo materials and the in game splash screen, that they have the blessing from everyone involved. Including the man, the myth, the legend, Bruce Campell himself.

A few of the original actors from the series return to voice their roles, such as Pablo’s Ray Santiago, Kelly’s Dana DeLorenzo, and of course Bruce Campell returns to voice all of the several versions of Ash available.

The Good

After my pre-order, I had to wait until midnight to even download the game from Epic. Apparently the Epic Launcher has no way of pre-loading games unlike Steam. When I finally launched the game, the splash screen sound effects were bumping, and it was candy to my ears. Overall, the sound design for the whole game has been incredible. I’m running this game on a 3070ti and I had no issues keeping a steady frame rate throughout my playthrough. The graphics from the Unreal Engine look and feel godlike. Which is as expected from such a highly reputable engine.

Playing through each session, you play as one of four survivors vs a player or AI as the forces of Evil. The survivors work to banish the Kandarian Demon from the world by collecting artifacts, and the demon army of the opposite faction grows stronger as they fight the survivors and collect resources, lay traps, possess things, enemies, and players all across the map.

Slaying the Forces of Evil Never Felt So Good
Me – 2022

The current map as of launch is huge, randomized, and constantly feels fresh as every start is completely random with loot, various weather effects, and positions of the artifacts. As the players collect the map to find the artifacts of the Kandarian Dagger, and the missing pages of that unholy book, they stand to banish the Dark Ones who brought about the Kandarian Demon and send them away using the complete Necronomicon.

As for fighting the demons and their common minions known as Deadites, fighting the forces of Evil feels so satisfying. All melee weapons have several variations of finishers, and there’s just enough of them to seem fresh and not get old even after several hours of gameplay.

If you’re worried about the longevity of the game, don’t worry! There’s plenty of options for single player as well as private matches for you and your friends who just want to play the game uninterrupted.

There are several single player missions that unlock more outfits, audio logs, and characters to play as. Each mission takes place within the Evil Dead timeline, and fills the gaps of offscreen lore. It can get pretty hard, they’re great to practice your skills and unlock some sweet stuff. I’m hoping there comes a speedrunning community for these missions as they seem formulated perfectly for it.

As for progression, you can level up your survivors and demons by playing as them, or by spending a spirit points earned by playing the game and leveling up your overall user level. The skill trees are deep, and the abilities of each character are pretty well thought out and unique for each character to have their own meta. Each survivor has their own class of 4 different roles, Hunter, Leader, Support, and Warriors. So it’s a good idea to diversify your party with one of each to help yourselves survive the fight against the Deadites.

The Bad

One of the things I find annoying with this game is the fact that ammo can be severely scarce during some runs. When I’m playing a hunter class that relies on ranged weapons, this is especially a problem. Nothing sucks more than running out of shots during the crucial endgame when it counts the most.

Another issue I have is that some demons are just way too powerful. The puppeteer does a ton of damage every time I face him. Even when I have my health leveled to max, a bolt of lightning will do half of my health in damage.

The game needs some balancing changes as well as maybe more loot spawning around areas. I hate going into a few buildings in a row and all I find is a box of matches and a pickaxe.

The Verdict

I’m so happy this game turned out how it did, and you can catch me playing Evil Dead live on Twitch or view my gameplay on YouTube. It may have it’s issues, but it’s nothing major. Some balance changes can fix most of my problems with the game.