Evil Dead: The Game

It’s been a few months since the release of the Saber Interactive-developed Evil Dead: The Game. The title, an online multiplayer game in the style of Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th: The Game, drops players into the world of the Evil Dead franchise and pays tribute to the series in some absolutely wonderful ways. It leans on the horror-comedy style the series became known for, with plenty of one-liners, blood, and gore.

Is Evil Dead: The Game legit scary, though?

The answer to that question can be a bit tricky as it isn’t necessarily a hard yes or no. It’s quite faithful to the entire series, which consists of three films starring Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, a visceral and bloody reboot, and a TV series that continued on with Campbell’s Ash. While the first Evil Dead was straight-up horror, it was followed up by the horror-comedy Evil Dead 2. That film then gave way to the hilariously slapstick Army of Darkness.

Evil Dead: The Game Ashley J. Williams

The Evil Dead reboot/remake/retelling/reimagining from 2013 brought things back to the concept of the original film. It was creepy as hell and straight scary at times — though just like the original, it had a little cheese in there, too.

Then Ash vs. Evil Dead, which spanned three seasons on the Starz network, kept the high level of comedy from Army of Darkness and mixed it with the high stakes horror of the original film. So where exactly does all that leave Evil Dead: The Game?

Despite the one-liners and return of characters from every installment in the series, Evil Dead: The Game doesn’t go too far into the comedy side of things and instead offers a darker presentation. The setting, the music, and themes are all much more macabre than you’d think, and it’s nice to see the game embrace the original horror direction that the first film offers.

There’s also incredible amounts of gore to be found in Evil Dead: The Game. You’ll take baseball bats, chainsaws, and shotguns — sorry, boomsticks — and blow legions of Deadites’ brains all over the place. It’s pretty great, and it’s awesome to see the obscene amounts of gore that the films and TV show are famous for translate so flawlessly here.

In that regard, Evil Dead has the look and feel of a proper horror game. It’s dark, grotesque, and eerie. And a lot of the time — specifically, when you have those moments of silence as you search for pages of the Necronomicon or head to your next destination — it can be pretty unsettling.

Evil Dead: The Game Army of Darkness

Like some of the best horror movies and games, though, the scares in Evil Dead lose a little bit of their luster when you see too much of them. Deadites, Henrietta, and Evil Ash are horrifying at first, but the more they appear and the more you deal with them, the less scary they become.

In addition, because Evil Dead: The Game gives you more of a fighting chance against the armies of the dead, it’s a different kind of horror experience. It’s more empowering action horror and less survival horror, and it makes you feel like a badass sometimes. That’s cool, because it’s nice to be able to fight back compared to, say, Dead by Daylight. At the same time, however, you won’t feel too scared after you’ve been playing for a while.

So yes, Evil Dead: The Game is pretty scary, especially when you first start playing. The more you partake in the banishing of Deadites, the more the horror aspect becomes a little bit diluted. Thankfully, even then, the game is still a blast, and it’s always great to battle evil as Ash, Kelly, Pablo, and the rest of the Ghost Beaters.

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