Evil Diary
Here we have another quick bite to digest courtesy of Ratalaika Games, this time in the form of Evil Diary for the Nintendo Switch. Video games are a fun medium to cover because, unlike movies and television, games are left to the player's devices in terms of attention than the creators. When you watch a show, you're invested from anywhere between thirty minutes to an hour. Even longer if it's a movie. With games, it's not so routine as some may have tens of hours of content to hold players for months if not years.
Then there are games like Evil Diary that are meant to hold a player's attention for a short period and are meant to be played in a single sitting. In this case, I'd say this game pushes that envelope further as a single playthrough can be finished in a single commute ride. How would I know this? I tested this theory from a New York City Metro train ride as I was finalizing my thoughts while coming up with this review. However, a game's length isn't enough to decide if it's worth playing, and for the five-dollar price tag, there is more to Evil Diary than what meets the eye.
The story is simple enough to follow. You are a survivor of a zombie outbreak in New York City and you must escape the city to look for other possible survivors, all the while surviving a horde of aliens. I wasn't sure if it was a zombie outbreak or an alien takeover. Probably both! All I know is that it happens in New York City, which I guess playing the game on the Metro added to the immersion, but still, it's always New York.
Evil Diary's controls are very simple. You hold down the Y button to shoot and tap the X button to use your melee attack. I'd imagine on PlayStation and Xbox it'd be Square/X and Triangle/Y respectively. I never found myself using the melee button, especially when the handgun provided to the player has infinite ammo. It has a magazine clip that automatically reloads when it's emptied, but in lore, it's described as "alien technology" that gives it "infinite ammo." The story is told through diary entries in-between levels and as the player goes through the city through the forests, the objective largely remains the same.
The player will need to kill a certain number of enemies to move on to the next level. Ocassionally there are hazards like a laser that automatically tracks the player's position. Some levels require the player to survive as they hold out for the elevator to arrive. There is one level that takes place within a level and the final few levels are auto-scroller, but after the first three levels, the player has seen most of what to expect. Players will have to run and gun while getting out of acidic puddles and avoiding flying enemies. These are the toughest to kill because their hitboxes are deceptive and sometimes they can hit the player even if they are out of range.
There is a death counter but there are no repercussions for restarting a level. The only time this became an issue was one of the early elevator-level stages. Up until this point, the game has told me I needed to kill X enemies to move to the next level. This was the first time the game introduced an elevator and after spending two minutes killing an endless spawn of enemies, I realized there wasn't a counter. Now, I admit this was my fault because for this level I accidentally skipped the cutscene that mentioned an elevator. There was also an indicator that pointed to the elevator button, but an arrow directing me to the direction of the general path would have been clearer.
Evil Diary's pixel art and music are very 1990s in terms of their aggression, not unlike Doom-style games. The particle effects are pretty well done in the dimly lit areas and the gun sounds are also punchy. However, while I appreciate the effort put into the game and I did enjoy my time with it, I will say that there was almost no replay value once the game was finished. I felt the game ended abruptly at first as I had finished level with what appeared to be a boss encounter.
You don't defeat the boss, but rather you're on a two-minute timer and the goal is to survive while on a bike. This is the game's auto-scroller and sole boss encounter. Unfortunately, the boss only has one attack and it can easily be baited, turning it into a two-minute slog that rewards the player with a "Thank You For Playing!" screen. At first, I thought that there was a continuation of the game, like, maybe an episodic release. But, nope! The game can be finished in less than an hour and it was just getting fun too. Did I enjoy it? For what it was, I did.
This goes back to my original paragraph as for the price point, not every game has to be a certified several-hour-long blockbuster. For the platform I played it on, it's perfect on the Nintendo Switch when someone just wants to shoot at aliens for a few minutes. The unlockables are also cool additions although players will likely unlock the new skins in a single playthrough.
The duck skin was pretty broken as while the range of the invisible bullets is deceptive, there's no reload animation at all. This turned the game into a "hold the shoot button until the enemies disappear from the screen" kind of shooter. By the time the player unlocks this skin, they've already effectively done everything possible in the game anyway.
Evil Diary was a game that had great ideas on paper and for the short time with the game, it was quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the sounds and the intensity of shooting waves of enemies in gritty environments. If the game was maybe triple, even double the length, with more weapons and additions to shake things up, I would rate this higher. Hopefully, the developer will continue with this idea because I feel there's something good going with this formula.
Evil Diary releases on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, and Steam on November 24th, 2023. This review was possible by Ratalaika Games on the Nintendo Switch version.