From Turtle Rock Studios (creators of the Left 4 Dead series) and 2K Games comes Evolve, their badass new take on team-based shooter games. In Evolve, two teams face off against each other in various multi-leveled alien landscapes and what sets Evolve apart from other games is that, rather than having the team be the traditional four vs. four, the two teams consist of 4 class-based hunters versus one player taking on the role of a big nasty monster.
While playing Evolve, there are four classes made available to you as a monster hunter: assault, medic, support and trapper. We were also introduced to two different monsters during the game play- the Goliath and the Kraken- so it remains to be seen what other monsters will be revealed closer to Evolve’s release date.
Co-op strategy seems to be the only way that you’ll have a fighting chance against the way more powerful monsters in Evolve too and you can either be killed or incapacitated, depending on the severity of the attack on your hunter. If you are incapacitated, the medic team member can still revive you so that you can continue to soldier on. However, if you are straight up torn apart by the Goliath, then your team must wait for two minutes until a drop ship arrives to re-spawn you. This creates a big disadvantage for the hunters, as each member has a specialty that when used together, can defeat the monster. So when even just one team member is down, that pretty much leaves everyone else wide open for the monster to come in wipe everyone out.
When playing as a hunter in Evolve, a good deal of the game’s focus is primarily on using strategy through your attacks. As mentioned earlier, there are four different classes and for the assault class, you play as a burly warrior type (think Jesse Ventura in Predator) who has the ability to take in and deal out a great amount of damage. The trapper hunter is supplied with deadly mines that can either be used as a direct weapon or utilized more strategically by either blocking or dictating the path of the monster. Something else that was kind of cool was that the trapper on the E3 demo also had a dog-like dinosaur as a hunting companion that would run out ahead to sniff out the monsters location. The support team member, in the case of the E3 demo, was played by a snarky robot with a British accent, which added bits of humor to the situation. And typically both the support and medic team members are used best when they are played from a distance, moving around the battlefield with the abilities to shield, rescue or attack from a longer range than their counterparts.
Of course, what every fan really wants to know about is the experience while playing as the huge, two-legged Goliath and it was beyond fun. Just running around the map as the monster, breathing fire at anything you see is a total blast and being able to very quickly traverse the alien jungle by running, using your extreme high jumping skills and then having the ability to scale different levels all felt very intuitive to the game play. The Goliath, although weaponless, can often get an advantage by taking the high ground and pouncing down on an unsuspecting enemy with a fury of hammer punches, which is exactly the kind of fun you want out of a monster hunting game.
The environment itself plays a large part in Evolve, as it’s highly destructive and parts such as boulders and trees can become weapons whenever it’s being wielded by one of the hulking monsters hunting. The alien planet is also home to different types of wildlife, creatures and carnivorous plants with the various types of native animals on the planet serving as a potential enemy to the hunters, while providing necessary health regeneration for the monster. As the Goliath, you can’t regenerate health but you can regenerate armor, which happens when you devouring any wildlife you may come across. And if you thought giant monsters weren’t enough to contend with, unsuspecting hunters are also forced to contend with yet another obstacle to look out for in the form of man-eating six foot Venus flytrap-esque plants. These won’t kill you, but you’ll be held vulnerable until you are rescued by a fellow teammate.
In Evolve, the hunters play with a first-person perspective, giving players exactly what they’re looking for out of a FPS experience. That changes though when you are playing as a monster, as then the perspective switches over to a third-person view, which allows the player to witness the brutality and destruction as it unfurls. Being able to see yourself as the monster is also an important gameplay mechanic because you aren’t given any assistance by way of a traditional health meter. The Goliath will show visual signs of degrading health, such a bleeding and open wounds, so you’ll need to keep an eye on your monster. Another fun touch to playing as the monster is that the body of the Goliath will glow red if an enemy is approaching, acting as a sort of tracking system which also helps you to take down the hunters.
From what I’ve seen so far, the creators behind Evolve have built a horrifying world of super fast-paced action, with huge environments and visceral kills. Fans of team-based combat games should be really looking forward to getting their hands on Evolve when itarrives on PS4, Xbox One and PC on October 21, 2014.
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