Evil Dead: The Game connects to the films and TV show with the Knowby Recordings

We’re just a week away from the May 13th release of Evil Dead: The Game, which will allow players to battle the forces of evil as characters like franchise hero Ash Williams, Ash vs. Evil Dead‘s Pablo and Kelly, Lord Arthur from Army of Darkness, Cheryl and Scott from the original The Evil Dead, Evil Dead II‘s Annie Knowby and Ed Getley, and Ash vs. Evil Dead‘s Amanda Fisher, among others. Or you can play as a Kandarian Demon and battle those people. During an interview on the podcast Slasher Radio, game developers Tim Willits and Craig Sherman from Saber Interactive revealed that the events of the game are tied to the Evil Dead films and Ash vs. Evil Dead TV series through audio files called the Knowby Recordings.

They explained (with thanks to our friends at Bloody Disgusting for the transcription),

You can play the game by yourself in two different ways. The first is the main core game loop, which is four survivors versus the demon. You can play that by yourself. You can jump in as a survivor, the computer takes care of your buddies, and then play against the computer as the demon. If you want to just experience more of the world, we have these side missions. We only have a handful. It’s not a single-player campaign, it’s not like that. But it is single-player missions that allow you to dive deeper into the lore. When you complete those, you unlock some characters and some skins. And you get access to… something that we call the Knowby Recordings.

Professor Knowby is a very important character in the franchise because he… found the Necronomicon and he brought it back to the cabin to translate. So as in the movies, he records himself doing these things. So we thought, what a great way to continue the story. You will be rewarded when you do these missions with a Knowby Recording… and there are lots of them. If you listen to it… in some cases it’s Professor Knowby talking on his own. One of them is with Annie, his daughter. She’s explaining sort of what’s going on. We were able to fit these recordings, I think as a fan, in a really cool way so that you’ll recognize some dialogue in them from the films. And it keeps going… and a little bit more of the scene [you hear] was NOT in the movie… but this is kind of like we’re saying, ‘This is what happened after the scene. Or right before.’

These Knowby Recordings, we’ve used them as a way to bring the game into the Evil Dead Universe. The story goes that Professor Knowby accidentally summons the demon… Henrietta, his wife, is possessed. And he’s recording this. And what he does is he looks at the Necronomicon and he sees Ash… he sees the Hero from the Sky. So he tries all these incantations to try and summon Ash, and he ends up getting all these other characters who are friends of Ash. Who have fought alongside Ash in all these different stories. And they’re showing up in the cabin. And they go off and help to fight the demons. So this is how we explain why we have characters from three movies and a TV show [in the game].”

As described by Boss Team Games, Evil Dead: The Game is

the blood soaked co-op and PVP experience you’ve been waiting for. Step into the shoes of iconic horror hero Ash Williams (voiced once again by Bruce Campbell himself!) or join up to three of your friends in an over-the-top melee-shooter featuring wild weapons and crazy characters that only Evil Dead could cook up. You can also play as the vile Kandarian Demon and haunt the world in spirit form to terrorize survivors, spawning Deadites and controlling items throughout the environment! You can even possess players and control their characters while they fight to save their souls!

Evil Dead: The Game‘s voice cast includes Bruce Campbell as Ash Williams, Ray Santiago and Dana DeLorenzo from Ash vs. Evil Dead as their characters Pablo and Kelly, Marcus Gilbert as Lord Arthur from Army of Darkness, and Ellen Sandweiss and Richard DeManincor (a.k.a. Hal Delrich) as their characters Cheryl and Scott from the original The Evil Dead, with “special appearances” by The Evil Dead‘s Betsy Baker and Theresa Tilly (a.k.a. Sarah York).

The game will be available to play on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, PS4, Xbox One, Switch, and PC. The game is the result of a collaboration between Saber Interactive, Boss Team Games, Renaissance Pictures, STUDIOCANAL, MGM, and Lionsgate.

Are you excited to play Evil Dead: The Game? Let us know by leaving a comment below.