Horror fans just got a major treat from The Game Awards 2020, after a world premiere trailer showcased Evil Dead: The Game is coming sometime next year. Ash Williams from Evil Dead has made appearances in games like Dead by Daylight as DLC before, but now the iconic horror figure is getting his first new game in a long time.
Evil Dead: The Game looks to be a massive Evil Dead crossover game, with characters from different Evil Dead films appearing alongside Bruce Campbell’s Ash Williams. The game is a multiplayer third-person shooter title that focuses on PvP elements, according to the trailer released on the official PlayStation YouTube channel.
Though the trailer is only a minute long, it gives players a solid look of what they can expect from the game. The trailer opens up with narration from American actor Bruce Campbell, as Ash Williams, who sets the stage for the story of Evil Dead: The Game. Williams recounts the plot of the original Evil Dead film, in which Ash and his girlfriend Linda drive to a remote mountain cabin where the two discover the Necronomicon Ex Mortis, which unleashes horrors upon the couple. However, Williams is then joined by a knight clad in medieval armor, as well as Kelly Maxwell from Ash vs. Evil Dead and Arthur from Army of Darkness, which furthers the crossover nature of the game.
This crossover nature seems to fit well with the game's multiplayer focus. Thankfully, the team behind Evil Dead: The Game have plenty of experience making AAA multiplayer titles. One of the prominent studios behind the game, Saber Interactive, recently made the World War Z multiplayer title for last-generation consoles and PC. World War Z was fairly positively received by players, and it is still getting support today. Provided Saber Interactive can carry over that same success with World War Z to Evil Dead: The Game in 2021, this new title could please a lot of players.
The Evil Dead series has had a handful of video game titles before 2021’s Evil Dead: The Game, though many of those titles have been hit or miss, to say the least. Still, Evil Dead has long been believed to be one of the horror movie franchises that could be excellent as a video game if the title were adapted properly. Though the reveal trailer was brief, Evil Dead: The Game certainly looks to show much more promise than the previous Evil Dead games that came before it.
Regardless of whether players like multiplayer-focused titles or not, it's still nice to see Ash Williams get his own major game release after more than a decade. Ash has featured as a DLC character in many games, even being a long-rumored Mortal Kombat 11 DLC character, but his last major video game was Evil Dead: Regeneration in 2005. The game received middling reviews from critics, and it was a shame to see the Evil Dead video game series end in that fashion. With any luck, Evil Dead: The Game will be just the title that the Evil Dead series needs to show players that the iconic horror franchise can succeed outside of the film industry.
Evil Dead: The Game releases on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and PC in 2021.