Bruce Campbell introduces Evil Dead: The Game, Ash Williams’ first console slasher in forever

Though Evil Dead has gotten a handful of mobile and tower defense games over the past decade, you have to go back farther than that to find Ash Williams and crew hacking it out against those pesky possessed Deadites. The last proper console entry in the slapstick slasher series, in fact, was 2005’s Evil Dead: Regeneration for the PS2 and original Xbox, and — like most of its predecessors — fan reactions were mixed.

But developer Saber Interactive has just brandished a gnarly chainsaw of a new trailer for Evil Dead: The Game, which carved up today’s Summer Game Fest with its first gameplay footage. None other than Bruce Campbell (Ash himself) walks fans through the new multiplayer title’s sinister tall grass, where hidden horrors have a deadly date with your melee weapon of choice.

Watch as Campbell cheekily invites trigger-happy Dead-heads to “tear evil a new one” in a clip that doesn’t skimp on the movies’ gory, over-the-top finishing moves:

Though Evil Dead: The Game was announced last year, the new trailer is the first close look that fans have gotten of its actual gameplay — and thankfully, it looks like the franchise may be headed for a fresh start as it makes the long-awaited move onto current-gen consoles.

Play as Ash or one of the other familiar good guys from the Sam Raimi-created franchise, with Dana DeLorenzo and Ray Santiago also on the scene to reprise their roles, respectively, as Kelly Maxwell and Pablo Simon Bolivar. Or, walk the dark path and take on demon form to literally scare Ash and his crew of do-gooders to death…"if," that is, "you’re a d***," as Campbell puts it.

Evil Dead: The Game will feature both co-op multiplayer (your team versus the Deadites) and PvP gameplay modes, and is heading to PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and PC. Saber and publisher Boss Team Games didn’t reveal a firm release date, but expect to go on a backwoods stakeout, Bruce Campbell style, when the game arrives sometime later this year.