Step into the shoes of Ash Williams or his friends from the iconic Evil Dead franchise and work together in a game with co-op and PVP multiplayer action. Play as a team of four survivors, exploring, looting, managing your fear, and finding key items to seal the breach between worlds in a game inspired by all three original Evil Dead films as well as the Starz original Ash vs Evil Dead television series. Fight for the forces of good or take control of the Kandarian Demon to hunt Ash and others while possessing Deadites, the environmental objects and more as you seek to swallow their souls...

If you're a fan of the franchise then there's much to get excited about

Evil Dead: The Game looks and plays wonderfully. If you're a fan of the franchise then there's much to get excited about here. However, it does feel a little like half a game... or at the very least a bare bones affair that could have done with a few other game modes thrown into the mix.

There's a tutorial which helps get to grips with the main elements of the game. You can play as either humans in a group of four, who are tasked with defeating the forces of evil. As the humans you must work together as a team to stop the demons from winning. And when playing on the side of the demons you must set traps and take control of deadites in order to thwart the humans.

The meat of the game is the online multiplayer gameplay, but you can also play against AI team mates and demons, if you fancy honing your skills before joining a team online.

When playing for the humans you can choose from a selection of iconic familiar faces from throughout the Evil Dead universe, including Ash, Scotty, Lord Arthur, Kelly Maxwell, and more, with new dialogue performed by Bruce Campbell and others.

Take control of deadites in order to thwart the humans

The downside... and this is quite a biggie... is that once you're familiar with the gameplay each round feels like you're just going through the motions. Even playing as the forces of evil gets a little tired a little too quickly. While it's fun to booby trap the supply crates and possess trees that will jump out and attack any passing humans... it gets old real fast.

And when playing on the side of good, it can be a little difficult to take out the enemy if other players are also engaged in beating the life out of them, as the graphics just seem to merge into one mass of characters making it hard to spot the enemy. There's also a fear metre that needs to be kept under control. Get separated from your team and this quickly shoots up. The thing is if you're playing with three other randoms online it becomes a bit of a frenzy when one decides to dash off, with everyone else blindly following.

To have a good (and successful) game it relies on teamwork

To have a good (and successful) game it relies on teamwork, but unfortunately on the games we played few bother to use their mics which means the whole game more often than not descends into chaos. You're then also reliant on not having a troll in the group who thinks it's hilarious to just drive around in a car for no good reason, or constantly run off without even attempting any of the aims of the game.

If only there was a little more diversity in the gameplay this would have been a must own game. As it is... it's a well polished but rather shallow offering. The story campaign mode has a little more depth, but not enough to make it an essential purchase.

6

Darren Rea