Evil Dead: The Game is an asymmetrical multiplayer survival-horror game set in the Evil Dead universe where the player can take on the role of a survivor trying to stop the invasion of the Deadites threatening to destroy the Earth or the Kandarian Demon who opposes them by sending out hordes of evil creatures. The gameplay can be described as a cross between Friday the 13th: The Game and Resident Evil: Resistance, where a team of four survivors tries to fulfill the objectives, like gathering pages of the Necronomicon or getting the Kandarian Dagger, while the Demon floats around the area and sets up traps or portals to summon minions, occasionally assuming control of a "hero" unit to personally confront the other team. There are also single-player missions available, where the player is able to go through a series of challenges on their own to earn in-game rewards. The choice of characters ranges from every installment across the franchise, featuring the main protagonist Ash Williams, other important characters and demonic creatures from every film (including the 2013 remake) and the Ash vs. Evil Dead series.
The game came out on May 13th, 2022 (coincidentally, it was a Friday), and is available for purchase on Epic Games Store, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S with the cross-play function, allowing players from different platform to play co-op with each other.
On September 19th 2023, Saber Interactive announced that they will no longer pursue development of new content for the game and that it not be receiving a Nintendo Switch release. Servers will be kept online for the forseeable future.
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Playable Characters:
Survivors:
- Leaders: Ash Williams (Ash vs. Evil Dead), Annie Knowby, Lord Arthur, Ruby* , Brock Williams*
- Warriors: Ash Williams (Army of Darkness), Scotty, Henry the Red, Mia Allen*
- Hunters: Ash Williams (Evil Dead 2), Ed Getley, Kelly Maxwell, Amanda Fisher
- Support: Ash Williams (The Evil Dead), Cheryl Williams, Pablo Simon Bolivar, David Allen* , The Blacksmith*
Demons:
- Warlord: Henrietta Knowby
- Puppeteer: Eligos
- Necromancer: Evil Ash
- Plaguebringer: The Witch*
- Schemer: Baal*
Evil Dead: The Game provides examples of the following tropes:
- Action Bomb: Eligos' units have a tendency to explode in an electric burst if they're not killed with a Finisher.
- Adaptation Deviation: It's unclear why the Kandarian Demon would want to destroy the Necronomicon, rather than simply recovering it from the Survivors like the forces of Evil have been trying to do throughout most of the series, especially given that they're working for the Dark Ones, who of all people should be (and have been) trying to get the tome back from Ash for several decades as of Ash vs. Evil Dead. It also serves as a bit of a Series Continuity Error as well, as the Necronomicon can only be harmed, much less destroyed, by cutting it with the Kandarian Daggernote , so a skeleton mook breaking it by whacking it a few times with a spear doesn't make sense.
- A.I. Breaker: Piling cars on top of the Necronomicon during the final objective seems to break the enemy AI in two, as they will be fruitlessly trying to navigate past the vehicles to reach the book while simultaneously being pushed backwards by the game's wonky collision boxes. This works even better if the vehicles were somehow tipped sideways, since this will also prevent the Demon player from simply possessing and driving them out of the way. This became so exploitable that an Obvious Rule Patch had to be rolled out with the Evil Dead 2013 bundle that causes vehicles piled on top of the book to gradually take damage and eventually despawn, specifically to prevent this trick from happening.
- Advancing Wall of Doom: After survivors gather both the pages of the Necronomicon and the Kandarian Dagger, a powerful storm starts gathering on the edges of the map and grows tighter, making them go towards the Dark Ones unless they get stranded in the storm and die.
- America Saves the Day: All of the Epic weapons have an American flag decal on them, making the Survivors look mighty patriotic while they're slaughtering Deadites.
- Asymmetric Multiplayer: Up to four survivors, who are trying to fulfill certain objectives, and the Kandarian Demon, who is able to set up traps and summon monsters to stop them.
- Bad Future: The single-player scenario "Homecoming King" features Arthur being brought forward to the present day. While the scenario doesn't call attention to it, it is possible to find the corpse of every other playable character during the mission, including Ash. The implication is that something's gone terribly wrong and Arthur's here to set it right.
- Batter Up!: One of the available melee weapon options for Survivors, and higher-rarity ones also come studded with nails or even large screws and metal plates, effectively turning them into maces.
- Bowdlerise:
- Chet Kaminsky's Pink Fuck has been given a rebranding to the much more family-friendly "Pink F". It also serves as more or less a very sugary beverage Rare Candy instead of the Ketamine-laced Gargle Blaster it was in Ash vs. Evil Dead, possibly to avoid implications of substance abusing.
- In the same vein, Shemp's Beer has been changed to Shemp's Cola.
- Brock William's self-introduction has also been censored in-game, due to the show's version being a blatantly sexual innuendo.
- Boss Rush: David Allen's mission Weekend at Knowby's is basically a string of boss fights from start to finish, with the "bosses" being possessed versions of many Survivors, including his own sister (twice), Pablo, Lord Arthur, and all four variants of Ash (fighting Pablo and Arthur is optional if you're not doing the side objectives). The mission will not advance until all of these bosses are defeated at their respective locations. While there are normal mooks spawning throughout the battles, they only serve as distractions and a means for the player to occasionally replenish ammo and healing supplies.
- Bottled Heroic Resolve: Comes in several forms.
- Cans of Shemp's Cola serves as the standard health potions and have no downsides unlike the typical examples of this trope, and can bring a Survivor from the brink of death to full health in a single swig.
- Army of Darkness Ash has access to the Wiseman's Potion, which provides him with a slew of buffs on top of healing him and reducing his Fear gauge. Additionally, Cheryl's passive skill Contact Courage also allows her to reduce the Fear meter of herself and every nearby ally by drinking a Shemp's next to them.
- Bottomless Fuel Tanks: As one of the Acceptable Breaks from Reality, cars in the game never run out of gas.
- Call-Back: Many of the characters' quotes reference certain events from their source materials.
- While in bleedout, Cheryl may fearfully beg others to "not let the trees take [her]".
- Leader Ash will occasionally mention his trick knee and bum shoulder when performing a takedown.
- A dead Pablo will reference his (temporary) death near the end of season 2 of Ash vs. Evil Dead.
- Lord Arthur seemed to have taken a page out of Ash's book and will sarcastically tell Deadites that their shoelaces are untied when delivering a killing blow. Warrior Ash will also refer to Deadite units as "primitive screwheads" and "primates" when killing them, referencing similar lines he said to the residents of Castle Kandar in the third film, as well as quoting his quip to a Deadite Sheila when performing a takedown.
- When picking up a vial of Pink F, Kelly may mention how the sugar contents of the drink make her teeth itch.
- Carry a Big Stick: The Castle Kandar update introduces morning stars as medium-sized melee weapons.
- Car Fu: Goes both ways. As a Survivor, you can commandeer the various cars parked around the map and run over Evil units with them for a quick kill, while the Kandarian Demon can also briefly possess them and run you over and do a bit of damage instead.
- Chainsaw Good: The iconic chainsaw is featured as one of the weapons Ash can use to fight demons, and only Ash, though Support Ash can't use them.
- Checkpoint Starvation: None of the singleplayer missions have any kind of checkpoint at all, necessitating that the player complete them in one sitting without dying or closing the game unexpectedly, since either will force a restart of the entire stage. To make things worse, they're all Marathon Levels, with lots of traveling and/or mini objectives along the way that have to be accounted for, as well as the lack of Menu Time Lockout that leaves one vulnerable to being attacked if they need to go to the bathroom or basically stand up from the game for a few moments.
- Chest Monster: Occasionally, unlocking a supply chest will reveal either a gaggle of Mini Ashes, or Ash's possessed hand, that will leap out of the container and attack the person who opened the crate for minor damage. The Kandarian Demon player can spend infernal energy to manually create such booby-trapped crates. While not terribly damaging, trapped chests are deceptively strong when used correctly, as their damage bypasses Amulet shielding, can Cherry Tap a low-health player, the spawned minions can steal valuable supplies and ammo from their victims, and also causes their Fear level to skyrocket, which makes them easier to possess.
- Color-Coded Item Tiers: Weapons that can be found in the world map come in four different color-coded rarities, Common (white), Uncommon (Blue), Epic (violet), and Legendary (orange).
- Critical Hit: Denoted by yellow, orange, and red numerical readouts when attacking an enemy. This is usually more commonly seen by Hunters due to them being a Critical Hit Class.
- Cycle of Hurting: Due to how attack animations are significantly shorter than recovery frames on both Survivors and Evil units, it's entirely possible to be stunlocked to death if your opponent has a lot of attack speed upgrades (Evil) or are using a fast melee weapon (Survivors). The Warlord's possessed Deadites are especially egregious in this regard, with them hitting like a runaway train at a much faster pace than you can even stop flinching and with a surprisingly generous hitbox to boot.
- Darkness Equals Death: Stepping into dark areas steadily increases your Fear meter, which will eventually reveal your location to the Kandarian Demon and at full bar, will allow it to possess you.
- Death Is a Slap on the Wrist: Applies to both teams.
- As a Survivor, you can die as many times as you can throughout the course of a match, as long as an ally can retrieve your soul and bring it to an altar you will be able to resurrect no worse for wear. You even get to keep all of your collected weapons and Pink F upgrades, with the only losses being the ammo and supplies you were carrying on you at the time of death, which will be dropped around your body and can be collected again if you wish, assuming your teammates haven't already appropriated them before you respawned.
- As a Kandarian Demon, while the units you can spawn and possess are Made of Plasticine, you yourself cannot be harmed and can freely Body Surf between them as they are killed off by the Survivors.
- Death of a Thousand Cuts: Can be performed on Evil units while using weak but fast-hitting melee weapons like the Hunting Knife or Syringe. Despite their lackluster hit and balance bar damage, these weapons compensate for those by boasting extremely high attack speeds that can let you basically stun-lock a non-boss unit until it dies, or becomes vulnerable to an execution. The upsides of these weapons aren't exactly obvious, but some of them have special properties, like the Hunting Knife's great dismemberment damage, or the Meat Hammer becoming a powerful tool in Kelly's hands. When used against boss units, who are Immune to Flinching, they become somewhat less powerful, but can still manage to chip away at their balance bar much more quickly than the stronger but slower weapons.
- Demonic Possession: An important game mechanic, as survivors with a high Fear level can be briefly possessed by the Kandarian Demon, turning against their allies, though the other teammates can beat some sense into them to snap them out of it, and Evil Dead 2 Ash has an active skill that instantly exorcises them. If said survivors also happen to be holding powerful weapons or supplies, they can sometimes prove more problematic to deal with than the actual Deadites themselves.
- Difficult, but Awesome: Mia can be considered the most high-risk, high-reward character out of everyone in the cast. She has a non-conventional kit focusing on increasing her damage the higher her fear is. Her active skill even steadily raises her fear while making her unpossesable, and lowering her fear based on the amount of enemies she killed when it ends. This makes Mia a prime target for possession if played carelessly, but it's necessary in order to make her out-perform the more conventional Warriors.
- Dual Wielding: The Syringe weapon introduced in the Evil Dead (2013) bundle is wielded in pairs at a time.
- Evil Hand: Ash's possessed dismembered hand is available as one of the Chest Monsters the Demon player can put into a supply chest to booby trap a potential Survivor with. There's even an achievement for unleashing it on a Survivor for the first time.
- Final Death Mode: Activated at the final objective of a match, where if a Survivor is depleted of health when defending the Necronomicon, they will immediately die without going into bleedout first, and since most of the altars will have been covered up by the Deadite fog at this stage, they effectively cannot be revived and thus won't drop a soul.
- Firing One-Handed: All Survivor variants of Ash will uniquely hold the Boomstick this way, while the others will wield it two-handed like they would any other long gun.
- Fish out of Temporal Water: Arthur and Henry the Red can end up in the modern day, reacting with bewilderment at the new weaponry and items they find...although they can inexplicably drive cars. Arthur still refers to them as 'metal chariots.'
- Good Old Fisticuffs: Most Survivors will begin a match with just their bare hands, which naturally aren't terribly efficient at killing Evil units when compared to even the most basic of melee weapons, though they have a decent attack rate and balance bar damage. The exceptions to this rule are Lord Arthur, who begins each match with a Sword, and Leader Ash, who gains a chainsaw at level 15. There is even an achievement for getting your first fist kill on an enemy unit.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While not directly fought, the Dark Ones serve as the true Final Boss of each match, with the Kandarian Demon and Deadite Linda merely being their field commander and lieutenant, respectively.
- Grenade Launcher: The Explosive Crossbow added in the Castle Kandar update technically fills this role, where shots fired from the weapon will detonate on impact and damage everything within a small radius.
- Groin Attack: Certain weapon-specific finisher moves allow the Survivors to do this to non-boss enemies that have been depleted of their balance bar, whereupon the target of the attack will keel over in pain before being messily executed. Deadite possession and even being a skeleton apparently does not provide protection to nut shots.
- Hand Cannon: The usable Blunderbuss, which fires a single but devastating shot that can quickly erase many kinds of non-boss enemies. Fittingly, it's classified as a Special weapon and uses the accordingly rare ammo to prevent it from being too overpowered. A lesser flavor of Hand Cannon is the Revolver, which also does respectable damage, but a lot harder to find than the standard Pistol.
- Hero's Classic Car: Ash's yellow 1973 Oldsmobile Delta makes an appearance in the game as a drivable vehicle that can be found on the map near specific landmarks. Certain Survivors will have a unique line of dialogue acknowledging it, and driving it as any variant of Ash will net you an achievement.
- Ink-Suit Actor: Played straight with Pablo, Kelly, Ruby, David, and the various versions of Ash, but pretty much averted with everyone else, who either received new voice actors (Amanda, Henry, Brock, Arthur, etc...), or only somewhat resemble their portrayers in character art only and not their in-game models (Cheryl, Scotty).
- Jack of All Trades: Ash Williams is technically this, with each variant of him representing one of the four Survivor classes. With the exception of Warrior Ash, who excels at his role, the other three variants are notably Boring, but Practical, being quite good at what they do but lacking some of the bells and whistles that their other classmates possess.
- Jump Scare: The evil trees will flail when they're close to one of the characters, attempting to startle the player, and also slightly increasing the character's fear.
- Me's a Crowd: There is a separate version of Ash corresponding to each of the playable Survivor classes, so there's nothing stopping you from simply forming a team out of all of them, which is actually a pretty effective composition to begin with, and there's even a corresponding achievement for beating a match like this. Averted otherwise, as players in the same group cannot all pick the same character.
- Mundane Utility: The Plaguebringer's cauldron is an important tool for buffing your units while keeping the survivors from healing effectively. However, it's potentially most dangerous utility is simply blocking doors or stairways to keep survivors from escaping. It can even be dropped in front of a speeding car to slow down or potentially total the vehicle.
- Mission Control: Prof. Knowby's recordings and Deadite Linda serve as one for the survivors and the Demon, respectively.
- Mythology Gag: A lot of them, given the attention to detail for the locations.
- When Deadite Linda gives an I Have Many Names moment at the start of a Demon match, she gives one of her names as Tinga, which was the native spirit from the Evil Dead prototype, Within the Woods.
- Notice This: Items that can be picked up will be highlighted in the environment when a Survivor is close enough to them. Equipment of various rarities will be highlighted in a beam of their corresponding grade color, while matchsticks and fire sources will show up in red.
- Rare Candy: Pink F (or, as it's known in Ash vs. Evil Dead, Pink Fuck) serves as a temporary upgrade material for the survivors and can be found in supply crates, giving them points to spend on their attributes, such as Health, Melee and so on. Keeping in mind the more abstract stats such as Fear and Shields and that Pink F contains ketamine, it can also be a case of Higher Understanding Through Drugs.
- Recognizable by Sound: Supply chests emit a faint humming sound that can be used to detect them. Additionally, the Necromancer's flautist has a very noticeable flute track that plays whenever he's summoned, so attentive players can know when to track him down and neutralize him before they're drowned in buffed Deadites.
- Sanity Slippage: Being in the dark and away from your teammates as a Survivor causes your Fear level to rise, and the Kandarian Demon can set traps or sic their minions on you to further escalate this. Standing in the light and near your teammates will steadily drain the meter, and lighting campfires is the best way to do this, and certain abilities can cause the bar to drain without additional input as well. A Survivor with a full Fear meter will scream and highlight themselves on the screen for the Demon to track and possess. Eligos is especially strong in this aspect, as almost everything that causes Fear to rise will hit for extra with his passives.
- Shoot the Medic First: Being the most consistent source of group healing and/or amulet shielding for the Survivors, Support players often find themselves being ganged up on by the Kandarian Demon and their minions first.
- Shotguns Are Just Better: Shotguns come in three varieties in-game, the veritable double-barreled Boomstick, a generic side-by-side, and a more conventional pump-action one. The Boomstick has the advantage of incredibly high stopping power up close, the generic double-barreled one is the middle ground, while the single-barreled one boasts a higher ammo capacity and faster firing speed and a slightly longer effective range. In the hands of a Hunter, especially Evil Dead 2 Ash, either shotgun can be quite devastating if the player is skilled, though it can also work against them if said Survivor become possessed and start shooting at their team instead.
- Shout-Out: One of Evil Dead 2 Ash's outfits is a direct reference to Bloody Muscle Body Builder in Hell, a Japanese film directly inspired by the first two Evil Dead movies.
- Shovel Strike: Survivors can use shovels as melee weapons, and they can be quite deadly when used correctly.
- Sinister Car: As the Kandarian Demon, one can spend infernal energy to possess the numerous cars parked around the map for some Car Fu. Possessing a vehicle being driven will forcefully eject all of the occupants inside it, and banging into Survivors (or anything else for that matter) will deduct a sizable chunk from your infernal energy meter.
- Status Buff:
- The Leader survivors through the use of their abilities can give others bonuses.
- Henrietta's special ability allows her to generate an aura that empowers Deadites around her.
- Evil Ash has a flautist skeleton as a special unit, who can buff other skeletons in its vicinity.
- The Witch's Cauldron allows her and any other unit to use their special attacks as a reduced rate as well as buffing their balance bar while limiting the survivors healing in the area.
- The Straight and Arrow Path: Crossbows fill this niche among the Special weapons category, and Ed Getley has an innate bonus to using them.
- This Is My Boomstick: Subverted. Despite the Trope Namer and the Boomstick in question both being present, and one of the playable stages is set in Castle Kandar during the Middle Ages, there are no primitive screwheads this time for Ash to show off his shotgun to, though both Henry the Red and Lord Arthur will display amazement at the destructive capabilities of modern weapons.
- Title: The Adaptation: This game has a not-so-creative title, as evident by the page name.
- Took a Level in Badass:
- A considerable portion of the Survivors group consist of characters who were known for being the Non-Action Guy or Red Shirt in the source material, such as Ed, Cheryl and Brock. Gameplay-wise, they can all kick as much ass as Ash does without any of their prior helplessness demonstrated.
- Henrietta and Eligos are able to command their own armies now and in general can be an absolute menace when encountered on a battlefield.
- Universal Ammunition: Ammunition in the game is categorized into three classes (Handgun, Long guns, Special), corresponding to the three types of ranged weapons that the Survivors can obtain. Every firearm of the same class will share the same reserve with each other regardless of their actual real calibers, and the Special category ramps up the ridiculousness due to the sheer fundamental difference in the "ammo" that they use (e.g. a Sawgun uses the same ammunition type as the Crossbow and Blunderbuss).
- Use Your Head: One of the finisher animations of the Mace has the player character headbutting the enemy as a coup de grace.
- Version-Exclusive Content: Achievements are only available for the Steam and console versions of the game. The Epic Games Launcher build still doesn't support achievements as of the game's sunsetting.
- Villain Override: The Demon is able to personally control any Basic or Elite unit for a short amount of time, which will also make that unit glow red as a warning for the Survivors to either get the hell away or gang up on them to quickly remove a significant threat.
