The trend with multiplayer games continues based on horror franchises. After Dead by Daylight, which now unites many icons, and Friday the 13th is now the cultural classic Evil Dead (known in Germany as a dance of the devil). Kai has scored through the Deadites and found out whether the next asymmetrical multiplayer is a hit or runs in the foggy forest.

• four survivors against a demon
• Necronomicon ex Mortis
• fear in the dark
• evil is always and everywhere
• alone is also possible
• hellish good fan service
• Mixed feelings

four survivors against a demon

Asymmetrical is not only the game mode but also the main character Ash Williams, which was embodied in Bruce Campbell’s film templates and had to saw off his demonic obsessed hand in the second part. The chainsaw instead instead is anything but symmetrical to the left half of the body, but at least useful when combating “deadites”, as the zombie-owned obsessed in the Evil Dead universe are called.

And there is a lot in the game. Here, too, one could say that the relationship between the group of four who try to survive the night is not necessarily symmetrical to the hordes of the spirit of the spirit that want to go to the guella. But of course with asymmetrical multiplayer game is ultimately meant the relationship between the player parties: the four-person group fights against a single, evil player.

But moment, how do the alleged hordes of opponents go together with the one player who mimics the evil? “Okay, you dull tin heads, now listen to you,” Ash would probably stop you, but we are a little nicer and say: Read the following lines of the Necronomicon Ex demon, and you will be enlightened. It is not bound in human skin and written with blood (you read the test on your smartphone or PC screen), but you should speak the three magical words from the army of darkness beforehand to avoid an unpleasant invasion from the realm of the dead : Klaatu, verata,… nectarine? Nickel? Noodle? Hm, what the heck, we just continue in the text.

Necronomicon ex Mortis

Four against 1. One against four. Let’s start on the side of the survivors. This team of four players is made up of some of the human characters of the Evil Dead films. You can choose from Ash, a second Ash, a third ASH… and even a fourth Ash supporter like Scotty, who has a cruel end in the first film of the series, or Annie Knowby, who is at the side of Ash in the second film. Even the knights Arthur and Henry The Red from the army of darkness mix.

The figures are divided into classes : leader, hunter, warrior and supporter. Each has its peculiarities and skills, ideally a group consists of one character of each class. With every match you get experience points that you can spend separately on a skill stree per figure. This applies to both the good and the evil side.

This is how a round runs: The group is exposed to the only card contained to the only release of the game and must first find the scattered three parts of a card that leads to one side of the Necronomicon. If you have the three card parts that are hidden in a different place in every round, you first have to bring the Kandarian dagger and the page of the book into your possession. To do this, it is important to resort to each of the two objects until a timer has expired – which of course is connected to properly fighting enemies. Once both objects have been conquered, the Necronomicon itself is on the list that is protected by the “dark”, a group of ancient demons that you can only violate with light rays from the Kandarian dagger. Destroating the book of the dead and thus preventing an invasion by the Kandarian demon and his army of the undead is the general goal of every game.

fear in the dark

On the side of the survivors, their law plays conventionally in the third-person view. You can tackle the opponent with a light and strong attack or by a firearm. You have to find weapons first – everything you have at the beginning of a round are your fists. The arsenal of melee weapons ranges from ax to pick -up hoe and machete to the baseball bat with nails, on firearms you will also find saw blade throwers or a crossbow in addition to shotguns. You can only wear a copy of each genus with you, but at least the blades and shooting beats are indestructible. For the latter, however, you have to look for ammunition.

Fear as a central game mechanics : Your figure has a fear bar that fills up and rises around a whole chill in shock moments. If the fear bar is filled to eye marking, you can see evil and attack you in a targeted manner. If the fear increases, it can happen that the Kandarian demon takes possession of you and lets you fight your friends.

As we all know from our own childhood, there is a tried and tested remedy for fear: light! If you put yourself under a light source, take the bar slowly. To completely shake them off in one fell swoop, you can also light campfires or lanterns at certain points. However, you must have collected matches on the way. Important: If you are traveling with your comrades in the group, fear increases slower. We also know that from childhood: together with friends you are braver. So lone fighter is heavier in Evil Dead.

evil is always and everywhere

If you play the Candarian demon, you have to prevent the survivors from destroying the book at all costs. However, the game on the side of evil runs a little differently. You will rather manage your page as you actively participate in the slaughter. The Kandarian demon is, so to speak, the steady cam, which in Sam Raimi’s film templates as an invisible power over the forest floor.

As in the film, as well as in the game: You hover over the ground in the egopher perspective and can lay out traps for the survivors or take possession of undead in specially marked places to control your subjects in the fight. Falls are a good means of increasing the fear of the survivors, because this gives the demon in force. You can even drive into certain trees and hide the past opponents with a knuckle. While people have to find rare “Pink-F” bottles in every round to increase their status values for the duration of the game, evil gains points due to the increasing fear that can distribute its own status values.

In contrast to the more ordinary values of the survivors such as health, melee, long -distance combat and such things, you as a Kandarian demon, for example, improve your ability to create demon portals. You put them directly in front of your opponents to let the undead out. Of course, this is not unlimited. In order to put traps, take possession of subjects and opponents or create portals, you have to collect currency. This hell energy is distributed everywhere in the form of collectable crystals.

alone is also possible

Evil Dead is primarily a multiplayer game, but also has a single player mode in the form of small, non-coherent episodes that you can use to get rewards such as new skins or characters. In principle, these episodes run like the main game, but you are alone on the go. Instead of destroying the necronomicon, there are other main goals, which you only reach when you have completed side tasks.

As an example, the first episode : Here you are looking for a girlfriend Linda’s necklace as an Ash after you have beheaded and buried them beforehand. Then it goes in search of a shovel and Linda’s grave to dig up her head and finally redeem in the tool shed. The tasks guide you across the map and do not treat you to any storage points. If you are killed, you can start again every time.

This can be relatively frustration relatively quickly. Another way of dealing as a single player is the multiplayer mode with AI budgets and opponents. This is quite suitable for practicing the game, but the AI Mitstrider are sometimes so stupid that they would like to dismember them with the ax. So the single player part is nothing, which is why you should buy the game.

hellish good fan service

The game takes every effort to offer you the finest at every corner of fan service. All important and iconic elements of the films were installed in an exemplary manner. As a demon, you can prepare supply boxes for the survivors by placing Ash’s sawn -off hand out of dance of the devil 2, which jumps in the face of the opening and shows the middle finger.

Or you decide on the mini-ash from the army of darkness that jump out. Of course, the Oldsmobile should not be missing, which appears as an insider gag in every film by director Sam Raimi. Even as special skills, things were installed from the films: Warrior class -shes, for example, gets the vial from “Army of Darkness” as a level-up-unlike in the film, it does not let him sleep hundreds of years, but regenerates health and reset the fear bar. And of course you do not fight through any forests, but through those that are modeled on the first film. We certainly do not need to mention that the newly announced Bruce Campbell’s on Bruce Campbell also does not have a pleasure. After all, you know what to expect from Mr. Campbell.

Mixed feelings

Technically, the game is extremely successful with its atmospherically dense graphics style and beautiful lighting effects. In addition, the frame rate on PS5 and Xbox Series x is butter -soft, without ugly stipper. But technology does not only mean graphics: the sound is also neat and lets you locate (provided a corresponding system or headphones) from behind enemies well. Something that of course does not work through the stereo speakers of the television and can lead to irritation from time to time when an opponent grunts, but you cannot immediately see where from.

The control is as simple as possible and, for example, does not confuse you with different attack combos. Here is simply stumped on it and finally triggered a finisher as the highest of the feelings with a further push of a button. Nevertheless, the combat system is a reason for criticism. If you threw on an opponent, none of your fellow campaigners can harm him. After all, this also applies to the opposite side. The somewhat too close camera can also cause confusion if you have several opponents around you. Not to mention tight rooms in dark forest huts.

Of course, Evil Dead works best if you go with friends and get on. If you start a game on good luck with randomly selected teammates, the probability is great that you have a few sheet metal heads in the group who want to go through their own thing and, for example, do not take care of the limiting group members. The Kandarian demon with all its possibilities also seems to us to be a little overpowered. But corresponding adaptation patches will surely follow here.

If you are a multiplayer-compatible fan of the template and can live with it that the matches on the currently only map always run according to the same scheme (grass places according to card parts, then move to the final battle), you will certainly be fun with Evil Dead: The Game to have. However, if you expect a lot of variety or an appealing single player part, you should better think of the purchase twice.