The Evil Dead: The Game is another online multiplayer horror game that’s based on a classic horror film franchise. And while Saber Interactive didn’t show the game at The Game Awards, actor Bruce Campbell did speak to The Game Awards’ Geoff Keighley about the title after the fact, touching on why Campbell has been so involved and how each Ash differs from the rest.
Campbell has narrated both the game’s reveal trailer and its first gameplay trailer, which prompted Keighley to ask Campbell why he was so involved with the game. And the Evil Dead actor gave a pretty candid answer.
“Because it’s about the only form I can come back in,” he said. “I hung up my jersey as Ash, hung up the chainsaw because I can’t physically do that crap anymore. I am like an old stunt guy. My voice is fine though. My voice is what gives me away these days. I am at a restaurant. ‘Blah, blah blah,’ and some guy will go, ‘Hey, I heard your voice.’ They don’t recognize me, but they recognize my voice. So I figured let’s stay involved in this game. I love the Evil Dead movies. It got me into the film business so game on.”
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Campbell himself may be aging in real life, but Evil Dead: The Game represents him in his many forms over the years. There are four Ash characters in the game and each is a different class — leader, warrior, hunter, and support — which even includes Possessed Ash from Evil Dead 2. And Campbell voices all of them here. Keighley asked which one he would main in the game and Campbell picked the one closest to his actual self.
“I would be the old guy. He’s got all the experience. The young guy doesn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground. But that’s the cool thing about the game. You can play other characters.”
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Campbell said that the games have gotten better now when compared to the handful of older Evil Dead games, the last of which (aside from the mobile Army of Darkness game from 2011) released in 2005. It’s a long time to wait for a new game, which has been a longer wait than usual, given its recent delay in February 2022. Campbell thinks it will be not only worth the wait, but also “worth it to play it, period,” even to the fans that are, as he says, “never satisfied.”
“We went back to some of the original Evil Dead cast members to get their voice in on it,” said Campbell. “Because the hardcore, true blue folks, if they hear that it’s the real Scotty and the real Cheryl, it just gives the game that much more street cred instead of some guy who kind of sounds like somebody else, it always sounds bogus. That’s how much we love our fans. You go that extra mile for them so that they’ll shut up.”
