Level Up: Evil Dead & Army of Darkness Defense

So it’s Halloween again. Alright, so I guess I should review another Evil Dead game… The only console one I have left though is Hail to the King, and I haven’t played much of that one yet. Should I review it anyways, or should I wait… oh right, there are the mobile games which I have played through! Sweet, get to procrastinate another year. Let’s start off with the appropriately named Evil Dead.

Unlike the other games, Evil Dead is actually a retelling of the first movie, at least to start. It’s pretty much now become a classic story, the “cabin in the woods.” A bunch of University students go up to a cabin for their spring break to party. However, after the students play a recorded reading from the Necronomicon, strange things start happening; demonic possession mostly. And while the game tells that story fully, it then goes beyond with a second “chapter” about the cult that made me the book. It’s not really something I really wanted to know about the Necronomicon, but it does make sense on how to continue the story using only the first movie.

The game is a pretty basic action game. You play as a big headed version of Ash, typically armed with an ax, but you sometimes get a gun. You’ll have to save yourself and your friends from attacking plants and Deadites. But while I know this might be a bit too obvious to say about a mobile game, the best way to describe this experience is “cheap”. There obviously wasn’t a whole lot of effort made into making this feel like a fun, smooth experience; hit detection can feel off and getting into fights fells cheap no matter whom is winning. Adventuring is also shallow, as the levels aren’t very big and don’t have a whole lot of variety. There are some paths you can take that are optional, which might lead to a hidden health pack or gun, so it doesn’t completely miss its mark. It just feels small and restrained.

Moving from a mobile game based on the first movie, we now have a mobile game based on the 3^rd movie. Here’s Army of Darkness Defense.

Yeah, the name probably gives it away: this is a defense game, where you will have to gather resources to be able to prevent a certain amount of enemies from getting to what you are defending (in this case, the Necronomicon). However, you’re not just some random army leader that doesn’t get his hands dirty: you actually play as Ash in this game too. Beyond being able to summon peasants to fight for you, Ash can rush in and use his boom stick or chainsaw to kick some Deadite butt, or use 1 of 2 powers you can select before going in. This comes at the cost of a second loose condition though: not only do you have to keep the Deadite army from reaching the book, but you also need to keep Ash alive. Luckily Ash heals over time.

Again, this is a defense game, so you’ll be given resources to build an army. As time goes on, the blacksmith automatically produces metal for you to recruit army members, and you can pick some from defeated enemies. You can also collect coins from fallen Deadites that are to be used to upgrade your army members and abilities between rounds. All simple enough stuff, with the only really negative thing about it being that there’s only one direction enemies can come from, making the game pretty simple with no strategy really required.

The two mobile Evil Dead games are not the best representations of the series, nor the most enveloping games based on it. However, it is nice to see the other 2 movies in the series get their video games, as most of the time all the focus falls on the on the second movie. Both of these games are pretty short, simple and make great use of movie clips. However, while Evil Dead is a game that’s kind of expansive, it makes itself feel small, while Army of Darkness Defense, which has the smaller map, feels like a bigger experience. Plus Army of Darkness Defense is free, while Evil Dead costs a dollar, though it does have a free demo. I say maybe play the demo for Evil Dead first, but you probably won’t get it unless you’re an Evil Dead fan. Army of Darkness Defense though, is a pretty all around good mobile game. I give Evil Dead 5 and Army of Darkness Defense 6.5 levels out of 10.