Evil Diary is a fast-paced 2D side-scrolling shooter developed by Glass Revolver. You play as Eve, an average young woman struggling to survive in a pixelated, monster-filled wasteland. The premise is simple – battle through hordes of mutants, zombies, and demons across 32 quick levels to find safety at the end of the world.
This indie game clearly operates on a modest budget, yet makes up for it with thrashy energy. The visuals have a retro pixel-art vibe combined with a dark, horror theme. Gameplay consists of run ‘n gun action as you mow down enemies by the dozens. It’s simple but satisfying, offering apocalyptic action that doesn’t overstay its welcome.
I blasted through the campaign in just under an hour. The experience is quite bare-bones, lacking complexity or variety. But the nonstop combat is mindless fun, and the metal soundtrack kicks ass. For only $4, Evil Diary delivers solid value – a short but sweet fix of arcade violence. I’d recommend it for shooter fans hankering for some grim, gory firefights. Just don’t expect anything too deep. Turn off your brain, turn up the volume, and dive into the pixelated pandemonium.
A Pixelated Nightmare
Evil Diary utilizes a retro pixel-art style to depict the game’s horrific apocalyptic setting. The visuals are simple yet effective, crafted with care to emulate a classic side-scrolling experience.
The color palette leans dark, with muted grays and greens dominating environments and menus. Pops of red stand out vividly – whether it’s the crimson blood spray from a chainsaw kill or warning signs and lights amidst industrial urban areas. The heavy shadows and destitute emptiness of the world amplify the feeling of being alone against an onslaught of monsters.
Most levels feature monotonous city or underground tunnel backdrops. A few change up the scenery with thunderstorms, toxic sewers, or freight elevators rising upwards through shafts. But for the most part, environments boil down to long corridors for enemies to scramble through.
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The creature designs offer more variety. Skeletal demons, swollen radioactive beasts, and classic zombies shuffle towards you. Smaller nuisances like bouncing eyeballs and swarms of bugs pepper the action. Boss creatures include a multi-armed cyborg, giant maggot queen, and gargantuan sewer alligator. Animations are smooth and consistent enough not to distract.
The presentation remains locked in its retro stylization throughout. Main menus, diary text screens, and pause menus all match the in-game visuals. Pixelated gore sprays freely as you shred enemies, though the splattered remains disappear quickly. Overall, the graphics won’t blow anyone away but capably deliver the intended grindhouse vibe.
A couple areas for improvement: some additional environment diversity could bolster replay value, and the ability to permanently paint levels red with blood would up the butchery factor even more. But small faults aside, Evil Diary’s dedication to crafting a gritty pixel nightmare shines through.
Simple Slaughter
When it comes to gameplay, Evil Diary keeps it straightforward. The core loop focuses on mowing down enemies as they shuffle towards you from both sides of the screen. Most levels require eliminating around 30-60 foes to finish. It only takes a minute or two thanks to the constant influx of monsters.
You start each stage with nothing but a simple handgun with limited ammo capacity. No upgrades or new weapons come along for the ride either. What you begin with is all you get. Movement also stays basic, using either the keyboard or gamepad for smooth and intuitive controls.
The gameplay prioritizes pick-up and play accessibility over complexity. Besides walking and shooting, your only other actions are a melee attack that slashes nearby enemies and a jump evade maneuver. You automatically reload whenever your clip empties, which removes some real-time tension.
The difficulty curve remains mild throughout. While the hordes grow dense, enemy behavior sticks to predictable patterns. Strafing back and forth to gun them down yields consistent success. Health only gets reduced from 5 to 7 bars halfway through, so survival rarely feels threatened.
A few variations mix things up slightly. Hazards like laser barriers require more evasion. Elevator defense sequences lock you in place until time runs out. Motorbike levels flip movement controls backwards. But none of these deviations force radical strategy changes.
Finishing the 5 chapter campaign opens up two new playable characters. These offer fresh options like rapid-firing rainbow beam weapons or slicing foes with a deadly chainsaw. However, their availability only after you complete the game makes replay value suffer.
Overall, Evil Diary’s simple run ‘n gun mechanics reveal an experience geared more towards mindless action than strategic depth. But some may find enjoyment in its minimalist, no-frills approach to 2D shooting. It’s the type of game well-suited for picking up and burning 30 mins during your commute.
If you desire innovative gameplay or varied moment-to-moment decision making, Evil Diary won’t satisfy. Its strength lies more in delivering straightforward, explosive catharsis through unadorned arcade violence. Sometimes quickly chainsawing mutated faces before dinner can hit the spot.
Diary of the Apocalypse
Evil Diary features a threadbare but serviceable backdrop to propel its monster massacres. You control Eve, a plucky survivor navigating the remains of New York City after an unclear catastrophic event. With civilization collapsed and the streets overrun by mutants, her ultimate goal becomes finding sanctuary amidst the chaos.
Exposition arrives via Eve’s actual diary entries between levels. These journal pages reveal a resourceful young woman maintaining hope and humor despite the nightmarish scenario unfolding around her. The informal prose and LOLspeak give hints to her personality and background. However, beyond imparting mission objectives, the storytelling doesn’t dig much deeper.
Backstory about the larger crisis that plunged NYC into bloody turmoil stays vague. We know “they” arrived and began infecting humans. But who “they” are or why they came is never addressed. Likewise, relationships between characters fail to materialize outside of Eve herself. It’s a lonely solo quest for survival at the end of the world.
The events that transpire in each level follow typical genre beats. Sewers, laboratories, subway tunnels, and slum streets provide backdrops for Eve to battle through. Side quests or branching narrative paths don’t factor in. However, the overall atmosphere and setting still do enough to motivate the player’s journey.
Despite underdeveloped details, Evil Diary generates an engaging backdrop – one highlighting the visceral thrill ride instead of elaborate worldbuilding. Short diary extracts give just enough context about Eve’s tragic plight without bogging things down. It frames the satisfying, stress-relieving combat at the heart of the experience.
Could deeper lore and complex character arcs have elevated things further? Perhaps. But with playtimes clocking under 60 minutes, narrative takes a backseat to fast-paced action. Ultimately this apocalyptic premise gives players an easily digestible reason to start shredding hordes of infected. And for an indie game at this price point, that modest ambition should suffice.
Thrashin’ Tunes, Screamin’ Baddies
Evil Diary’s scrappy visuals find a fitting match in its bold audio design. The soundtrack goes all-in on face-melting heavy metal to accompany your journey through the monster-filled wasteland. It proves a smart tonal choice, aligning with the game’s unabashed grindhouse aspirations.
The main menu screen sets an ominous mood with eerie ambience and sporadic piano notes. Yet once you enter the game proper, the metal riffs kick in at maximum overdrive. Shredding guitars and piledriving drums fill each level with energy, perfectly complementing the frantic run ‘n gun gameplay. The relentless thrash pace mirrors having to constantly strafe and blast mutants rushing in from both sides.
Tracks alternate between classic death metal and industrial remixes punctuated by electro beats. The style stays consistent across menu screens and levels without growing tiresome. Somber piano melodies during diary entry texts provide brief moments to catch your breath too.
The bone-crunching sound effects match the gory visual splatters as well. Shotguns and chainsaws deliver nice crunchy feedback. Enemy death gurgles could use more variety, but certainly sell the visceral damage dealt. Environments themselves remain quiet aside from your weapon noises, keeping focal emphasis on the combat audio.
In terms of volume balancing, the metal music noticeably overpowers the effects during busier encounters. Since you face endless swarms of foes at once, the action layers screeches and roars atop the ever-present shredding guitars. Lowering the background tracks slightly would let the satisfying melee and projectile sounds shine more.
Nonetheless, the reckless heavy metal audio proves a great tonal fit for Evil Diary’s premise. Rip-roaring tunes inject the necessary high octane attitude to slaughter hordes of baddies efficiently. It may lack nuance, but nails the intended vibe: defeat swathes of nasties across a bleak, unforgiving wasteland while energizing speed metal pushes you forward. For an ultra-budget indie game, that narrow but potent musical focus works just fine.
Short and Sweet
A single complete playthrough of Evil Diary’s five chapters clocks in around 45 minutes to an hour. With only a dozen or so minutes per level required to mow down the designated enemy quota, most players should breeze through the brief campaign in a single sitting.
Considering the game’s budget $4 price tag, that runtime lands squarely in impulse purchase territory. It slips neatly into a spare hour for quick arcade action. The focused nature harkens back to an era of simpler, compressed experiences compared to today’s bloated triple-A titles.
Yet that conciseness comes at the cost of meaningful replayability as well. Once you unlock the two additional playable fighters, no further character progression exists. The game only tallies your end score for each level, not cumulative statistics. And while leaderboards in theory encourage score chasing, the gameplay lacks enough depth to warrant repeat runs.
Some incentive for reruns could have come from more varied level layouts or randomized enemy patterns. However, the corridor-like stages play out too similarly each time. Besides new grim diary flavor text, you’ll battle familiar monsters the same ways across unchanged geography.
Likewise, no multiplayer or co-op options exist to boost longevity. This is a solely solo adventure. Without significant post-game unlocks or scoring elements, replaying the brief campaign more than once or twice seems unlikely.
Still, even with minimal replay value, Evil Diary delivers adequate entertainment for its bargain price level. Not every game needs to offer a 100+ hour epic quest. As a quick hit of apocalyptic action flashing retro charm, Evil Diary’s sub-hour playtime shines as a strength given its niche indie status.
Sometimes blasting through mutant-filled corridors while metal riffs wail makes for the perfect tight experience to scratch a grim gaming itch. For four bucks and a spare evening, Evil Diary certainly fits that bill.
Grindhouse Greatness
For a modest $4 indie title, Evil Diary punches above its weight class by delivering precisely what it promises. This game stays true to its grindhouse inspirations, prioritizing visceral bloody combat and a retro punk aesthetic over sophisticated gameplay.
The pixel art visuals effuse gory style. Environments exude a grim, unforgiving atmosphere while monsters shamble towards you eagerly awaiting chainsaw dismemberment. The pounding thrash metal soundtrack likewise sets an energetic tempo for the action. And while basic on a mechanical level, the run ‘n gun shooting keeps intensity levels high.
Where Evil Diary falters stems mostly from its budget restraints. Visuals and audio aim for lots of variety but can only include so much. The story plays things bare bones to motivate the monster violence. And with just a solo campaign lasting under an hour, replay value unsurprisingly falls short.
Yet in the context of its indie status and microscopic price, these flaws fade. The developers clearly worked within their scope and resources to deliver the core experience promised. You blast through creepy corridors slaying creatures while metal wails loudly. For that narrow goal, it hits the mark.
None of this aims to rival AAA titans like Call of Duty or survival horror greats like Resident Evil. Instead, Evil Diary carves its own niche like a short pulp horror B-movie translated into games. Some jank around the edges comes with the territory. But damn if it doesn’t nail the intended vibe.
So for players thirsty for some simple, messy pixel massacres, Evil Diary should slake that bloodlust. Just don’t expect the world. Turn your brain off and let the grindhouse mayhem commence!
Grind On or Pass On the Gore?
Evil Diary earns a solid recommendation for fans seeking a short burst of grindhouse-style zombie slaughter. Players in the mood for simple run ‘n gun shooting will find satisfaction blasting through its grim pixelated corridors. However, those desiring deeper gameplay or replayability should probably pass.
At just $4, there’s little risk for the 45 minutes of entertainment provided. It’s ideally priced for a impulse purchase and tight on-the-go experience. Players partial towards retro arcade thrills will appreciate the blend of pixel art and over-the-top metal soundtrack as well.
If possible, additional playable characters or randomized level layouts could boost incentive for repeated runs. Improving volume balancing and diversifying enemy sound effects may also enhance immersion. But the core simplicity and bite-sized scope stay intentional.
For players craving bloody, lighthearted monster violence set to face-melting guitar riffs, Evil Diary hits a niche sweet spot. Just know it prioritizes style and accessibility over elaborate mechanics. And for what it lacks in complexity, its sheer punk spirit more than carries the torch.
The Review
Evil Diary
Evil Diary excels at delivering precisely what it sets out to achieve: an ultra-budget retro shooter focused on grim aesthetics and simple frantic action rather than sophisticated design. Its dedication to an over-the-top grindhouse vibe overflowing with zombies and thrash metal creates a blast for fans of this unabashedly punk niche. Just don't expect much complexity beneath the wicked pixelated style.
PROS
- Captures retro grindhouse vibe well with pixel art and metal soundtrack
- Satisfying run 'n gun shooting gameplay loop
- Tons of monsters to mow down with gory results
- Very affordable price point around $4
- Concise campaign great for quick action fix
- Clear vision and executes within its indie scope
CONS
- Environments are repetitive and lack variety
- Basic gameplay mechanics lack depth or progression
- Weapon upgrades and customization are non-existent
- Replay value is limited after initial playthrough
- Storytelling and lore are sparse
