This month, Evil Dead: The Game has arrived on PlayStation Plus, bringing in a whole new host of players ready to do battle with Deadites. Developed by Saber Interactive and released back in May of last year, the asymmetrical horror game tasks four players with going up against another player (or AI) as a demon. While similar to other asymetrical titles like Dead By Daylight and Friday the 13th, Evil Dead has a few intricacies that can make the game daunting to pick up right off the (nail)bat.
In playing as a survivor, players join a team of four tasked with gathering maps hidden across the area. Once found, players have to reach and defend two locations, one with the pages of the Necronomicon and one with the Kandarian dagger. After that, players must head to a final showdown with the demons and then defend the cursed book to win the match. Playing with friends this month, I learned a few strategies through trial and error that helped secure victory. Here they some of the most important ones so that the Kandarian Demon is the only part of this game you have to fear. Sound groovy?
Balance That Team And Stick Together
Evil Dead offers four classes of characters from the films The Evil Dead, Evil Dead 2, Army of Darkness, Evil Dead (2013) and the television show Ash Vs. Evil Dead. It’s tempting to just pick someone and go off on your own, but the game will likely punish you for that. You’ll want to make sure your team is balanced, although not in the way the game seems to suggest.
The four classes consist of Leader, Warrior, Hunter, and Support. It would seem smart to pick one of each, but not all classes are created equal (nor are the individual characters within them). Leaders can rally team-members with boosts, Warriors dish out damage, Hunters explore stealthily, and Support characters can heal. Since the matches primarily involve battling Deadites and demons, especially late in the game, Hunters aren’t really necessary. Definitely have a support unit on the team (Cheryl is arguably the best with her direct healing powers) and then pick a mix of leaders and warriors.
Once you have your team, make sure to buddy up. It’s fine to go off on your own in the first stages of the match to gather supplies and find maps. However, once you get to the base defense sections against waves of Deadites, you’ll definitely want to have a partner. This will both help keep your fear low but also allow you to reap the benefits of another player’s ability, whether that’s a heal or a damage boost.
Know Your Power, Use Your Power
Each character has two abilities that they start with, a passive ability and an ability that one can activate between cooldowns. It can be hard to figure out what an ability does in the middle of a match, so make sure to brush up beforehand. Other asymmetrical games encourage players to hold onto their abilities, but Evil Dead has a fairly short cooldown period, so use abilities early and often.
While characters start with two abilities, each character unlocks two more abilities as they level up. At level 10, characters get their third ability, and then their fourth at level 25. If you plan on playing as one character for a while, or if you have trouble deciding between a couple, it’s worth looking into what those higher-level abilities have in store. And of course, you’ll need to level up to get them.
Leveling Up? That’s the Spirit!
Though it’s likely no surprise that Evil Dead has a leveling system for each character, the game weirdly doesn’t mention it in the tutorial or after matches. Players have to manually go to the main menu and select “Collection” to go to the list of characters. Even upon selecting a character, it may seem like you don’t have many points to work with for the skill tree. By selecting “Spend Spirit Points,” players can get extra experience for a given character. Again, the game doesn’t tell you this, which may explain all the level 1 players you’ll see in matches.
In terms of picking skills, it depends on the given character, but generally ones that increase the aura and its effects prove valuable, since that will boost those abilities you’ll hopefully be spamming. But any that increase health or damage are practical too. The main goal is getting to level 10, and eventually 25, to unlock those bigger abilities. As such, it’s not a bad idea to level up one character for a while along with a backup character in case a team needs balancing.
Hail to the King, Baby
While each character, class, and objective has their own gameplay mechanics to learn, these general tips should put you in a great spot. While free on PlayStation Plus for this month, players can also play Evil Dead on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC. And with crossplay (make sure to select “Crossplay Enabled”), teaming up with friends on other platform is quite simple.
In fact, playing with friends would be my last tip, since it really makes coordinating abilities, classes, and objectives much easier… and groovier.
