This past week Geoff Keighley, host and producer of the Summer Game Fest, confirmed that one of the games featured during this year's Kickoff Live event would be Evil Dead: The Game. Previously announced during The Game Awards 2020, little was known about Evil Dead: The Game other than it was a multiplayer horror experience based on the popular Evil Dead franchise. Now Evil Dead: The Game has been revealed in full as an asymmetric multiplayer horror action game.
In Evil Dead: The Game, players will be able to take on the role of either one of Evil Dead's heroes or as one of the horror franchise's evil Demons. As a hero, players will work to save the world. They'll do this by working together to defeat the evil dead in their way, exploring a map of iconic Evil Dead locations and collecting Necronomicon pages among other legendary artifacts. As the Demon, it's the player's task to possess the dead and defeat the heroes before they can create a spell that defeats them.
One thing made abundantly clear in the new Evil Dead: The Game trailer, as narrated by Bruce Campbell, is how dedicated the game is to an authentic representation of the Evil Dead franchise. Locations from the films will be used as map locations. The heroes will all be protagonists from the films -- Henry the Red from Army of Darkness was also revealed, today. Lastly, all of the demons will be straight from the movies, too. Evil Ash, with his burnt face and broadsword, was also confirmed at the end of the trailer.
The asymmetric combat is less surprising, however, than the gameplay itself. Compared to games like Friday the 13th and Dead by Daylight, Evil Dead: The Game is much more action-oriented. Players will shoot and melee attack their way through undead aplenty, nevermind the Demon-empowered dead each with their own unique powers and strengths. One prominently featured aspect of the game was finishing attacks, in which the hero characters aggressively destroyed undead with their respective unique weapons.
It's clear that Evil Dead: The Game is taking direct influence from both Dead by Daylight and Friday the 13th. But Evil Dead: The Game clearly wasn't content to be another asymmetrical multiplayer horror game where survivors constantly ran away from a killer. Instead, elements of Left 4 Dead and Evolve have clearly been added. Players will actively fight the dead, with a powerful Demon behind them. The mix of two distinct styles of multiplier horror games will be interesting to experience in motion.
As a final parting gift, the new Evil Dead: The Game trailer confirmed a release window of 2021. That could mean that a beta could be announced before too long, giving horror game fans a chance to experience Evil Dead: The Game for themselves. Evil Dead fans can expect more information in the months to come.
Evil Dead: The Game releases in 2021 on PC, PS4, PS5, Switch, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.