The Evil Dead

Groovy

 All the way back in 1981, then amateur director Sam Raimi would drive into the woods with a few friends a handful of actors and some recording equipment and they came back with footage that would make them immortal. For such a humble beginning, the Evil Dead franchise really has gone to shape the horror genre substantially in its time, helping to totally evolve the melodious, often slow, pace of those terrible hauntings into something punchier and more commanding. It changed how gore was looked at in movies like this, and in doing so was influential in changing views on movie gore in general for at that point it was still all very taboo. I think it's safe to say, then, that the current climate of Horror movies that we endure in today's world (largely repetitive trite) is likely, at least to some degree, due to their influential trendsetting. As such it's probably The Evil Dead's due to pay horror fans a little reparation work, no? The TV show was fun, but how about us Horror gamers who were affected by proxy due to how Hollywood horror influenced Video game horror? Hmm? We're getting a game Evil Dead too? That'll do for starters...

Horror is one of the most oversaturated markets of games out there right now, because everybody and their mother thinks that making a horror game is the easiest in to the video game world. And to be honest they're all absolutely right, because making a Horror experience can be a great way to develop skills of setting atmosphere and influencing the audience, without having to worry about developed and satisfying gameplay loops. But the consequence of this horror deluge is that the genre does sort of lose it's lustre on the modern stage and one can even come to question whether gaming horror is a thriving genre at all, or merely one that flounders the most as it drowns in a sea of it's own waste. The Evil Dead game which rocked up in full force at the Summer Games Fest certainly holds it's horror associations loosely, but the name alone ties them back into this market; thus I wonder how well it might do, especially in a market which (unfortunately) largely doesn't seem to remember it's name at all. I suppose that potential success will come mostly down to raw quality at this point.

When we first saw this title teased, it sort of looked like a horde-mode survival game made on the cheap that was looking to place itself as a small fun party game like 'Friday the 13th: The Game' did. Just a little fun adventure full of violent murdering with a tad of asymmetric multiplayer thrown in there for prosperities sake if you're really lucky. Now given it's full gameplay reveal, in a trailer narrated by the legendary Bruce Campbell himself, that is pretty much what we're looking at except I'm surprised to note that whatever studio is working on this project really managed to get their development dollars to work for them. I mean the animations look clean, the models are great and, though this is just my impression from having observed the thing, it looks like a supremely robust experience; maybe even a fun one. Then again I suppose this wasn't a Kickstarter affair, so some party really did have the money and confidence to make this thing real.

So who are they? The mysterious developers who jumped aboard a movie licence project in the modern age with investors? You may think that sounds like a boring query, but I'm actually super curious considering how vehemently such projects have been rejected by the industry over the years making them almost always cursed ventures for both developers and Hollywood to embark on. If someone is looking to single-handily bring back movie licence gaming I want to see their face. Well on publishing you have 'Boss Team games', who I mistakenly first mistook for 'Boss key games' and nearly had a heart attack. (I thought you were dead!) No, Boss Team are responsible for a Cobra Kai mobile game too, so they're new to this world of licencing. No, it's Saber Interactive who are the brawn behind this decent looking game.

Saber have been alive since 2001 and have the lucky privilege  to be have gotten involved with and helped develop some of the most impressive titles it's possible to have on a resume. They helped 343 Industries create the remastered version of 'Halo: Combat Evolved', handled the remaster of the ever popular Ghosterbusters video game, worked on the remaster for Crysis (You know, the one that came out just a year before the upcoming remake was announced) and are working both on a Switch port for Kingdom's Come Deliverance and the Next gen version of the Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. So these are no fresh faced fellows, completely new to this field; the know what they're doing. Oh and to slide into that 'licenced game' niche; they were also the team behind the impressive looking World War Z video game which I always felt like never got the long-term due it was deserved. (I guess Left 4 Dead style gameplay only works for the masses in first person or something...)

So now everything the trailers have shown off makes a little more sense, this is a game made by folk with the experience and resources to make it as good as they're saying it looks. (could this be one of those mythical 'honest trailers' that the prophecy spoke of?) And it would have to be considering that what The Evil Dead is going for is perhaps the perfect trifecta of multiplayer titles like this so they're not going to be short of competition. 4 Players, wave survival, Asymmetric elements. (It's not exactly the most unique ingredients in the kitchen) As such I think this is a game that's going to have to rely on the strength of the Evil Dead franchise it has behind it and the heart of the movies that such imbues. Or rather, the heart of the movies after the mid-point of Evil Dead 2, as before that the franchise was trying to be scary and from then on it evolved to a sort of self-aware creepy action silliness which makes this series stand out like no other. Now conceptually that does create a bit of a catch 22 when that franchise needs a great game to stand up on, but the team seem confident the formula will work itself out and I defer to their, hopefully more researched, opinion.

From the trailers we've seen that the game will take from the 'Ash vs The Evil Dead' TV show, both for characters and in the rendering of the main Ash himself. That of course means the return of the iconic Chainsaw hand, shotgun combo with the blue shirt and brown pants that at this point I'm starting to believe Ash has never taken off. But we're also seeing some of the supporting cast from that show and I think, although we only get to see some of these characters from the back so it's hard to say for certain, a few of the original cabin members from the 1981 movie. Including elements from that does go a way to making this a celebration of the franchise that is just going to drawn in fans like a mothlamp, that and the fact the original cabin is going to be a battlegrounds on which to fight off the demon spawn. Bruce teased multiple locations, but apparently that's something the team want to keep dubious for the moment. (I'm hoping for an appearance from the S-Mart store from the show)

The big reveal for this gameplay, in my mind, was the aforementioned asymmetry, which could be the extra spice to really give this game a little much-needed staying power as long as they don't do a Dying Light and lock that feature behind a preorder DLC. (people love killing their friends, don't charge them extra to do so.) It looks as though there will certainly be AI enemies to keep players busy so it's not going to be a case of split lobbies where you can never find a full team because everyone wants to play the monsters. (One of the things that killed 'Evolve') From what we've seen, the variety available to 'demon players' has the promise to be actually impressive, with your everyday Deadites being playable alongside that creepy teleporting Eligos Demon from the show whom I always thought had a fantastic, almost Doom-esque, design to him. Keep pulling from the sources like that and Saber Interactive may not have a ceaseless font of content or anything, but they'll be enough to build a solid foundation that may just pay for itself.

Four player multiplayer chaos seems like the obvious choice for The Evil Dead, even if it's not exactly what I would have done with the storied franchise. It's been over 10 years since anyone tried an original story for the Evil Dead games we've seen over the decades, and maybe that'll have a stronger effect on the masses. Removing my love for the franchise and approaching it from the viewpoint of someone who knows nothing about it, I can understand people looking at this and thinking it's cool but not seeing anything exactly special, and that feels like a huge loss when there could be a truly brilliant darkly comedic horror single player title hiding in the DNA here somewhere, Maybe Saber Interactive aren't the ones to bring that out, and given their history of games that wouldn't exactly be their wheelhouse anyway, but maybe a little renewed franchise interest after this would open up the way for someone a little more creatively ambitious. But I'm courting hypotheticals again, for the present we have a solid looking survival game with a badass leadman on the front cover and that's all I'm asking for.