Evolve

In the distant future, humanity has travelled to the void of space exploring distant planets to colonize and terraform them.  One of these planets is called Shear, found in the "Far Arm" of the galaxy.  When humans attempted to colonize the planet, hostile Monsters emerged from the wilderness, causing the desperate colonists to hire an elite team of Hunters to save their settlements, and their lives.


When you set a benchmark with a series like Left4Dead, Turtle Rock Studios newest project was going to have a lot to live up to.  So take a seat whilst we talk EVOLVE and the thrill of the hunt.

At its core Evolve is a 4 vs 1 online multiplayer monster hunt, four hunters vs one monster.  The game has single player and multiplayer elements.  The offline single player mode, Evacuation, has you playing with four bots over five missions with drop in drop out play of all the classes.  Depending on the outcome of a match benefits are awarded to the victory, automated turrets for the hunters or the addition of environmental hazards in favour of the monster.  This single player element is a smart inclusion in a game that relies on multiplayer and can be an intuitive ‘tutorial tool’ or alternatively continued gameplay should the servers be down.  The main multiplayer mode is ‘hunt’ together within 'objective focused' Defend, Nest and Rescue which make a pleasant mix up to the 'hunt' game play.
 
The 'hunt' takes place on the planet of Shear, a beautifully imagined world full of unusual flora and fauna.  The game is played across twelve huge maps diverse in their scope, be it the various biomes or the man made elements found across these zones to the indigenous .  The current maps offer plenty of locations to traverse while hunting or evolving and will take some getting used to.  So we have the maps to use, but who are we playing with on them? Enter the hunters and monsters; for the angry loner who wants to smashkillsmashkill you have the monster and for the team players you have the hunters.


There are three unique monsters available to be the hunted…or the hunter; the Goliath, Kraken and Wraith. Each being able to ‘evolve’ up to an epic level three variety.  Monster abilities are balanced out by each starting with three points to invest in their four available abilities, with three more points given with each evolution. This 'leveling' allows a player to balance out the monster to match their play style.
 
To kill a monster you need hunters and the ones available in Evolve are class based - Assault, Medic, Trapper and Support.  Each of the four classes having three character to choose from and come armed with a primary/secondary weapon and two abilities, one class specific and one unique special.  In addition to the hunter/monster weapons and abilities; there are also perks available to all within the game, a starting perk (chosen prior to the match) which is retained for the duration. Also there are temporary perks obtainable by slaying ‘elite’ fauna found across the game zone.

The ‘hunt’ gameplay evolves…. with the monster starting off relatively weak as a level one form with a fifteen second head start on the hunters.  Whilst evading the hunters the monster is tasked with killing and eating Shear’s wildlife so it can ‘evolve’ to a level three form and then destroy a power generator somewhere on the map.  It is the job of the hunters to track down the monster using visual and audio cues, like tracks on the ground or startled birds, and using their varied weaponry save the day by killing said beastie.


This is Evolve (and a review) in its simplest form, however there are a multitude of gameplay mechanics and tactics to be employed that can make for intense and satisfying matches.  Now the thing is…. this will need hunters who know their class, monsters who understand their strengths/limitations and all players having a good understanding of the map being played.  Unfortunately this is where Evolve can suffer, the gameplay is only as good as the players you have.  A poorly played monster is tracked down and put to the bullet within five minutes, a hunting team with no communication runs around aimlessly to then be confronted and decimated by a level three killing machine. However this a weakness titles of the same ilk have suffered, Payday and Left4Dead included, and that hasn't stopped them being fun enjoyable games?

I’m not going to discuss the DLC that has evoked so much feeling on the web.  Viewing metacritic, positive reviews are favourable for the game itself, whilst player based reviews are carbon copy complaints of gamers feeling ripped off that an otherwise great title should be brought to its knees by a sloppy pre-order/DLC model…  
 
I played the alpha and beta of Evolve and enjoyed it enough to pre-order a copy of the game, it is safe to say I personally haven’t enjoyed a game like this for a long time. My overall verdict? with five of TheGamesDen folk playing this would be endless fun, on your own you’re going to be confronted with a hot/cold performance within the groups you end up matched with.  The single player element whilst having a good amount of gameplay available, won’t last forever. Pay top dollar for this now?, you would likely have the game already if that were the case.  Wait for a price drop? probably, but what game does hold its price anymore?  I know the past fun had on Left4Dead game nights and this is more of the same.  Don't do yourself an injustice, maybe today maybe tomorrow 'maybe when its cheaper' I thoroughly believe this game is worth piking up for the right reasons.

   
In addition to Evole there is a mobile ‘match 3’ game called Evolve: Hunters Quest.  The mobile game links directly into the main game. Through simple match three gems gameplay ‘Mastery Points’ can be earned and can be accumulated.  These can be used to acquire Mastery Boosts for your Hunters in the Evolve game and increase the exp gain on your weapons to unlock higher levels sooner.  The in game benefits are nothing extravagant and can be achieved in a few matches of Evolve.  As with all mobile game tie ins there is a hidden layer of payment.  Where for instance, you fail a round prior to finishing a level and mastery points are lost… ‘want to save them?’ then pay with some gems donuts in game currency.  This is not required and you can just restart the level.  The game does have is an encyclopedia of covering Shear’s wildlife and map data, together with a replay match option where you can view previous matches and see how you did.  Not a necessary addition to the game but also not a bad one.

A good honest review mate.

Good to have you back!

My backlog is too immense to buy this myself but I might be tempted by a price drop.

Very good review.
I have played this a lot over the last few days and enjoyed it.
The single player is excellent,with intelligent bots.
As Tree said in the review communication is essential in multiplayer.
I have played as a medic quite a bit and its quite annoying when you try to heal people with little health and they keep running away trying to kill monsters.
On the other hand i got invited to join a party of randoms and had a great few games...everybody worked together,and when this works it is awesome.

Awesome review mate. I have too many games at the minute but may consider this at a later date.

Wow, awesome read fella! Really informative and makes me want to play it

Class review that mate. Well played.

Yeah great review mate. Sounds like a game i'd enjoy, but its going to have to wait until i can catch up with some of my backlog.

You should all fuck off the backlog you have and get this so we can have a games den evolvathon!

You should all fuck off the backlog you have and get this so we can have a games den evolvathon! wrote:

Now that would be awesome.

We have four of us (granted I am yet to play it) that have it already, are we all down to play next week?

Me and onlyhalfmonkey are playing on the Wednesday:

https://thegamesden.forumotion.com/t16437-evolve-wednesday-18-2?highlight=Evolve

Informative review bud!

Good review Trunky
I still think this game will die off quickly with no one playing it by the end of March. I hope I am wrong

Well with that attitude it will I hope you are wrong too

maybe mark or maybe that's when it'll pick up. I know I had fun with friends on the Beta but it's not worth the pre-order asking price so I'll be getting it when it has a price drop as I'm sure a lot of gamers will be.

I may well jump in if you get it Gabs

great review mate i am tempted by this game but maybe one to buy later in the year for me and finish some of my christmas purchases first eh