Evil Dead: The Game does a great job of bringing the source material to life and creating fun gameplay for both Survivor and Demon players. As enjoyable as the game is, though, nothing is perfect - there's always room for improvement. Maybe the UI could be better, or something just feels off.
A few changes here and there are sometimes all it takes to turn a good game into a great one, and Evil Dead is no exception. From gameplay tweaks to quality-of-life changes, here are the things we'd like to see in future updates.
7 Consolidate The Logo Parade
Every time a player launches Evil Dead: The Game, they're treated to the standard sequence of corporate logos. Everyone who's ever touched the Evil Dead IP is represented, and each logo gets a few seconds of exclusive screen time. It gets comical halfway through, and downright eye-rolling by the eighth and final logo (yes, we counted).
No doubt these logos are required by the rights-holders, but it's annoying to have to sit through each time someone wants to play. If the sequence was either skippable, shortened, or consolidated it would make the game better before the player even presses start.
6 More Satisfying Headshots
The combat in Evil Dead feels pretty good overall, and the melee finishers are gruesome delights one and all. There's no similar satisfaction for ranged combat, however.
Gamers have loved headshots as long as shooters have been a thing, so it's a little disappointing that landing one only deals a little extra damage and displays red numbers instead of white. A little more flair - even an occasional exclusive voice line - would go a long way toward showing Hunter mains some love.
5 More Intuitive Combat Controls For The Demon
The Kandarian Demon has several abilities available in combat, whether they're possessing their minions or materializing to battle the Survivors in person. Each ability is assigned to a different button, denoted by symbols on the HUD. Until the player has memorized what each symbol means, though, that doesn't do them much good.
Having a text-based HUD option could help players learn their Demon's move set more quickly, reducing mistakes and making the Demon more dangerous overall. Alternately, a training mode to practice without the pressure of a multiplayer match could help players develop muscle memory.
4 A Tutorial For Survivor Multiplayer Functions
The Survivor tutorial covers all the basics of combat, exploration, and the steps necessary to complete the ritual and win the match. What it doesn't mention are several essential bits of knowledge that players really need to have.
A player who jumps into multiplayer after completing the tutorial doesn't know that you can mark the map (which is accessed by pressing R2/RT in the menu), communicate via emotes (hold L1/LB), or trade consumables between Survivors (you have to drop them via the Inventory screen and let somebody else pick them up).
While many of these functions have buttons listed on the menu or in the control options, it's not immediately intuitive that you can even do them in the first place.
3 Explain How Dismemberment Works
Each weapon in Evil Dead: The Game has a Dismemberment stat. Perfectly appropriate given the source material, the stat seems to measure how likely the weapon is to remove an enemy's limb. The mechanical effects of this trait with don't seem to be explained anywhere in the game, however.
Does successful dismemberment reduce an enemy's combat capabilities? The Deadites canonically don't seem to care how injured they become, so unless you remove their weapon arm it seems unlikely. Is Dismemberment a fancy way of showing the weapon's critical hit rate? The benefits (if any) of a high-Dismemberment weapon should be readily apparent to players, and so far they're not.
2 Randomized Map Layouts
To seal the breach and banish the Demon, the Survivors need to travel the length and breadth of the map in search of the necessary components. The map may be big, but eventually players have a pretty good idea of where everything is in relation to one another.
Pickups and loot chests are randomly seeded throughout the map, but what if the locations of key areas were also randomized? Placing search locations like the Knowby Cabin or the Flight 66 crash site in different places throughout the forest each match would keep Survivors guessing and add to the tension in the game.
1 More Linda
Listening to voice lines over and over again can get repetitive, especially in a multiplayer game that requires hours upon hours to reach the top level. The narrator for the Demon player, Ash's possessed girlfriend Linda from the original movie, doesn't seem to get old. Betsy Baker, who originally played Linda in the film, does a fantastic job of portraying the demonic overlord's impulsive whims and demands for bloodshed.
Linda's utter disdain for humanity and increasing frustration with the Survivors as the match wears on are a delight to listen to, and a great reason for Survivor players to step into the role of the Kandarian Demon every now and again. Here's hoping we'll see more of her over the course of the game's life cycle.