While I don't know if this is available on other platforms - I have to presume that it is - I am playing it on a PS4. I was actually putting this one off for a while because I am such a big fan of the original films and to a lessor degree the newer ones. When I fired it up it wasn't what I was expecting and perhaps this is a big part of the reason why I was less than impressed with it. While I wasn't expecting (nor would I want) a re-hash of the well-trodden grounds of remaking the original cabin and what not, I don't really even know what to consider this game to be.
I think that they were aware that there are likely enough Ash-fans out there in the world that they were going to sell enough of these to make it worth their while. They have incorporated various characters from the films, mostly from Evil Dead 3 or as it is better known Army of Darkness.
According to the wiki, this games is an "asymmetrical multiplayer" or "survival horror" game. I think it is more of the first and not really so much of the second. It functions kind of like an RPG in that you can level up and in many ways it is like any Diablo type game as well because you are constantly finding more loot that you can choose to equip if you want to.
After doing the tutorial, which isn't really very informative at all, you enter the real game which does not function like an RPG at all. I don't do online multiplayer for the most part, so I selected to have AI partners or teammates. They do their jobs well enough but I was really kind of perplexed as to what the hell we were supposed to be doing. I would kill everything that we encountered but I had a very difficult time figuring out where the hell we were meant to be heading towards. They could have done a much better job with that than they did do.
Basically you are just running around in a farm-like wasteland and enemies appear, you kill them, and then you move on and do it again. The ultimate objective is to carry on to new places, but again, I couldn't really tell where this was or what we were meant to do once we got there.
One big gripe I had with the tutorial and how I don't think it prepares you for the game very well is that they never tell you how to heal yourself.. They also don't go into a great deal of detail about what "fear level" can do to you. I just all of a sudden started seeing that "Your fear level is high!" appear on the screen but I had no idea what I could do to take care of that.
Apparently, if you don't get back to near where your friends are, get indoors, or get back to a light source, your fear level will continue to rise until you end up being temporarily possessed by a demon. It would have been nice if they had covered this in the tutorial seeing as how it becomes a very big part of the game - one of the most major parts of the game actually.
I think the type of person or audience that is going to enjoy this game is unfortunately very limited. If you enjoy team-based games with varying objectives and a leveling up system and are ALSO a big fan of Evil Dead this might be something that you really enjoy. Unfortunately I think that for most other people, that this is going to seem rather inferior to other similar games that utilize the same game mechanics. I only played the game for an hour and a half and I was ready to not be playing it anymore, which kind of made me sad because I really wanted to like it.
I don't particularly enjoy finding new weapons when for the most part they are exactly the same as the one I already had, they just function slightly different. I would much rather that loot finds be much less frequent and a lot more meaningful.
I do also need to say this: I am very suspicious when a game becomes "free" so quickly after its launch. This kind of says to me that there are probably some microtransactions that are built into the game (although I never encountered any) and I truly hate any game that tries to build that in.
I can't really recommend this game but because of my love for the Evil Dead franchise as a whole I am going to say that people out there should definitely give it a try if you are a PS-Plus Extra or higher-tiered member. Maybe it's just me that is doing it wrong and I just don't get it. The "mixed to average reviews" that it has on Metacritic would indicate that I am not alone in thinking that this game is just OK.
It's just OK. I would give it a try if you don't have to pay for it
Games I have already tried in my journey to play at least 1-hour of every PS-Plus Extra game
- Gravity Rush 2 (action adventure game with fast movement in every direction. It has RPG elements and a pretty decent story. Make it past the first hour and the game really opens up. Recommended)
- Oddworld: Soulstorm (2D+ platformer with great graphics, sound, and voice-acting. Unfortunately it is plagued with a lot of repetition. Recommended for a few hours)
- Bee Simulator (sort of like a flying FPS game but with no combat. It's graphically impressive and filled with tidbits of knowledge about bees... unfortunately it is repetitive as hell and gets boring fast. Not recommended)
- Prison Architect (a prison management simulator game similar to SimCity. It's a great game but just like most simulation games, it just isn't very playable using a controller. Not recommended on PS4)
- Hotline Miami 2 (a top-down shooter with gruesome violence and terrible AI. Would be great for speedrunners and hardcore gamers. Casuals like me are going to quickly tire with it)
- Battle Chasers: Nightwar (turn based RPG of medium-length that does a good job of teaching you how to play in the first hour. It's pretty old-school and I happen to like that... recommended)
- Chorus (3rd person open-world space fighting game. It's graphically impressive but combat is too repetitive to really hold your interest for the entire story. Still recommended though.)
- Portal Knights (a very well made survival action builder game similar to Minecraft. I really enjoyed this and look forward to playing it more. Recommended)
- Saints Row: The Third (clever and funny FPS game that intentionally puts you in impossible and absurd situations. It's innovative and humorous but ultimately quite dated and got repetitive and boring pretty quick. Not recommended)
- Balan Wonderworld (A rather beautiful 3D(ish) platformer that is extremely easy but still engaging enough to hold your attention for a few hours. Recommended for casual gamers)
- The Artful Escape (an adventure game of sorts with awesome visuals and music, but repetitive areas and controls combined with IMO far too much dialogue makes this game get boring, fast... Worth a look but not recommended to play)
- Until Dawn (interactive horror game that you don't really control a great deal of. It's reasonably entertaining, you can't lose, and the graphics and sound a pretty great. It's not really a game but I enjoyed it and played it to its finish. Recommended)
- 11-11: Memories Retold (a WW1 story that doesn't actually involve much input on the player's part. The game is very boring despite having a wonderful graphical style: Not recommended)
- Desperados 3 (a real time tactics / stealth game that I personally do not feel belongs on consoles at all. If you have never played these sorts of games on PC your opinion might be different. This one gets a "maybe.")
- Maneater (Action RPG where you play the role of a deadly shark. The idea is decent but ultimately the extremely repetitive gameplay makes this one easy to miss. Not recommended)
- TorqueL (physics puzzle platformer that is simplistic at first but quickly becomes maddeningly difficult. Gets boring pretty quickly on consoles and would be better suited as a time-waster on mobile devices. Not recommended on PS4)
- Final Fantasy Fables: Chocobo's Dungeon: Turn-based cutesy RPG that is extremely story-driven just like anything Square is involved in. If you are huge fan of Final Fantasy you might like it, for me it was one hour then done forever.
- XCOM 2 : (Turn-based Sci-Fi game set in a dystopian future where you are part of the rebellion. Despite a very slow start IMO the game really gets involved later on... recommended)
- Darksiders Genesis (Top-down hack and slash that reminds me a lot of Diablo 3 but with a more restricted environment. It's very fast paced and as easy or difficult as you want it to be. It's a lot of fun and therefore comes highly recommended.)
- Guardians of the Galaxy (a copy/paste of so many other RPG's out there with too many cutscenes as is so typical of Square-Enix. Recommended for superfans of the movies, but not for really anyone else.)
- Injustice 2 (a DC comics oriented fighting game with tons of characters and IMO extremely complicated gameplay. It could be great for someone who is willing to devote enough time to memorizing all of this, but I am not that guy.)
- Life is Strange: Before the Storm episode 1 (A graphic adventure that isn't really a game so much as it is a movie that you have some control over. Recommended for people looking for something extremely casual but with a very well-written story)
- Evil Dead: The Game (a team based multiplayer game that has the humor and gore that you would expect from anything done by Evil Dead. Unfortunately, it doesn't really stand out from the pack well enough for me to give it high props. Recommended for a short while - see if you disagree with me)
All other games I have already reviewed (there are a lot of them)