New information regarding the latest game for the beloved franchise, Evil Dead, has been given by Bruce Campbell. Since 2018, Campbell (known as Evil Dead’s protagonist, Ash Williams) has been very vocal about an Evil Dead game being in development. There have been a plethora of Evil Dead games dating back to the mid 80’s on the Commodore 64. The most known games in the series started with Evil Dead: Hail to the King (2000), and actually featured Campbell, who voiced his character, Ash. The game was followed up by Evil Dead: Fistful of Boomstick (2003) and Evil Dead: Regeneration (2005), but has since then taken a hiatus. Ash did make an appearance in Telltale Games’ Poker Night 2 (2013), but ultimately was voiced by Danny Webber and not Campbell. Campbell’s most recent portrayal of the character was in dlc for Behaviour Interactive’s Dead by Daylight.
The news revolving around the newest game came from an interview Campbell had done with Bloody Disgusting, following his retirement from playing Ash in 2018. When asked if voice work would still be on the table for his return to Ash, Campbell said that he does have prior commitments to his character. He’s quoted as saying, “They are doing a video game. A whole immersive kind of dealio. I’ll be Ash for that, because I wouldn’t want someone else’s voice hamming it up” (August 16th, 2018). This is amazing news as Campbell playing Ash is why fans come back for more. It seems he’s possibly seen how his character was played in Poker Night 2 and wasn’t a fan? The cool take away from this interview was that he said the game would be immersive. Immersive could mean a lot of things, especially with PSVR being a big factor for immersive gameplay. People ran with that tid-bit, and rumors of VR began popping up online.
Since then it had been radio silence for a bit, until this time last year. Campbell put out an announcement on Twitter regarding progress of the game as well as some clarification on things he had said, “Hey, groovy gamers, this is a swell time to clarify some incorrect info that might be out there (including from me!): the upcoming Evil Dead video game is being developed for consoles and PC, not VR. Sorry for any confusion. Game on!” (July 1st, 2019). He makes it clear that the game will not be a VR title. The good thing about this, is that the game will be a full title. Most, but not all VR games do tend to be lighter or shorter games. This leads to the question, will it have RPG elements then? Bringing new mechanics to an Evil Dead would be a welcomed choice. Given all of the great quotes delivered by Campbell in the movies and games. The more lines from Ash the better, in my opinion.
The latest info given by Mr. Campbell came from his interview this month with Diabolique. He was asked about the fact that San Diego Comic-Con had been canceled due to Covid-19, and if he had planned to talk about the game at the event. He responded, “That’s what I was going to do. That’s what I was going to those conventions for.” and followed up with “I have been looking at and approving a bunch of new stuff. They are full-fledged, full bore into it. I think they are talking 2021 for an actual release. It’s rolling along, looking great. It got delayed because of the nightmare of video games. Platforms change and evolve. You look at somebody else’s games and go, “Sh*t! We have to change everything now.” We have to stay current. I have to finish doing the voice work.” (June 24th, 2020). What’s really cool is that going by Campbell’s statement, this game has had a lot of work put into making it unique to other horror based games, as well as making sure it’s top notch in terms of the next-gen consoles’ power.
There are so many questions that come to my mind when thinking about this game. Will this game be solely for next-gen consoles? Will it be a Smart Delivery title if it does come out for all current and next-gen consoles? Will it be available on the Switch? What titles are they comparing their game to in terms of what they had to do differently to stay unique? Will it be a third person experience, or a first person style? Is that what Campbell meant when he said “immersive”, that it’d be first person? Who’s the game developer? Will this tie into the story prior to the Starz series? Is it going to have multiplayer?
Whatever the case is, I am very excited to hear some news about this game. I love the Evil Dead series of movies, including the reboot (which has a sequel in the works), as well as the Starz show. Who knows, Campbell and co., whoever that may be, could’ve had a teaser planned for SD Comic-Con. Maybe with all of these game announcements happening over livestreams and such, we could get something this summer from one of them. If one thing’s for sure, I’ll be waiting with my ear to the ground for when something new is announced.
Do you remember the old Evil Dead games? Are you excited to see a new installment to the franchise, voiced by the man himself, Bruce Campbell? Hit me up online and let’s talk about it!
