Evil Diary is a restricted vary side-scroller with a quite simple premise—shoot all the things that strikes and hope you don’t die. Simply one other day on the workplace, proper? Current occasions have left our hero on their own within the large metropolis, with an never-ending military of undead, alien issues all bent on killing you. You might have your wits and a pistol, which doesn’t sound like a lot. And it isn’t.
Let’s see what we do have right here. The visuals are going for the retro 8 Bit factor, and so they do it fairly effectively. The graphics are pixelated and principally darkish (given the theme of the story, it’s acceptable). However there are splashes of shade, and it’s simple sufficient to tell apart what issues are presupposed to be. Since a lot of the baddies are aliens, it doesn’t matter a lot what they seem like; this can be a recreation which follows the outdated mantra: “If it strikes, shoot it.”
Talking of transferring round, the controls are fairly simple; you should utilize both the route buttons or the left stick. All it’s important to fear about is up, down, left, proper. There isn’t any operating, no leaping, no ducking, no hiding—simply hold transferring to keep away from being hit, and hold capturing. There are typically obstacles in your path, so the vary of motion may be restricted. Watch out or you may get your self caught in a bottleneck that may lead you to taking additional hits. As you in all probability anticipated, you solely get a restricted variety of hit factors, so it’s important to be a bit cautious. The primary few rounds are fairly simple, so there isn’t a lot fear there. After issues get a bit extra hectic, the sport will drop first help kits. These will restore you to full hit factors, however they don’t dangle round endlessly. Be even handed about selecting them up (simply contact them to make use of them).
Now, let’s discuss concerning the music, as a result of we now have to have music as we slay the hordes of aliens and undead. The builders mentioned this recreation has a heavy metallic soundtrack, and they’re technically appropriate. The music is effectively executed, it’s excessive vitality, and it doesn’t take your consideration off the sport play, which might get you useless. Relying in your preferences in music, the soundtrack isn’t so metallic as to be off-putting to most players, however metallic sufficient to attraction to these of us who like our tunes a bit heavy. It’s most akin to epic metallic, however nowhere close to thrash. Those that know the metallic household tree would possibly begin nodding…and possibly throwing horns ( |,,| ).
Now we get all the way down to the guts of the factor: gameplay. Evil Diary has only a few components; it truly is simply transfer up, down, left, proper, and shoot stuff whereas avoiding taking injury. It is vitally fundamental however satisfying in its purity. It additionally isn’t very troublesome, however you do have to concentrate. There are not any weapon enhancements or different upgrades you see in lots of video games of this sort. The sport does provide a number of power-ups (just like the lightning bolt which, in case you get to it in time, will make you invulnerable for a number of seconds), however there don’t appear to be any everlasting enhancements to your scenario upon which you’ll construct. There are some between-level shootouts the place you simply must hit the hearth button as quick as doable to kill the alien earlier than it will get to you. At one level, as you attempt to escape town, you get to trip a motorbike and shoot issues.
You solely get to go in a single route, so you’re restricted in motion. You should purchase a brand new pores and skin and go from blonde to red-head to chainsaw duck (I assume it’s a factor), however beauty upgrades lack any actual draw for me.
All issues thought-about, Evil Diary is a little bit of enjoyable. At press time, Evil Diary is on sale within the Nintendo eShop for $3.99. It’s value it at that worth level, however remember that Evil Diary is a bit shallow as gaming experiences go.