Evolve Review
Developer Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher 2K
Platform Gen 4 & PC
Release Date Out Now.
Reviewed by Cian Crowdy on Xbox One.
Evolve is a 4 V 1 team based shooter that pits four human players against one human controlled monster. This multiplayer only title comes from Turtle Rock Studios who have had previous experience in this arena with the Left 4 Dead franchise which should give you a good indication of what to expect in terms of gameplay.
The four man team of Hunters consists of an Assault, a Medic, a Support and a Trapper. Each member of the team has their own strengths and weakness ensuring the whole team needs to work together in order to defeat the monster.
As each class is very different let’s look at each one individually.
The Assault Class has one goal and that is to deal the most damage to the monster. When you start playing with this class you start with the character Marko. His weapons are a solid Assault Rifle and a more powerful Lighting gun, which not only wields the lots of damage against the monster it can also arc too nearby wildlife to deal bonus damage to clusters of animals. The last part of your arsenal are the land mines which as you expect can be used to lay traps in the hopes the Monster will run over them.
The Support Class starts you off as Hank whose primary weapon is a Laser Cutter that works much like the lighting gun in the Assault Class. Hank also has access to a shield protector that allows you to protect yourself and teammates mid-battle. Hank’s last couple of abilities include an orbital barrage (very useful if you can trap the monster in one spot) and the last ability is a cloaking field that turns you and any members near you invisible.
The Medic Class: When you normally think of a medic class in any other games you would rightly think their role is primary healing other members. However with Evolve it is handled a bit differently as this class is the tactical class (although healing is still a major backup role).
When you start the game as Val your primary weapon is a hefty armour piercing rifle. Her abilities are best used at range to track, tranquilize and mark the monster to make life easier for the others. Tagging it will mean the monster is traceable, tranquilizing it will obviously slow it down making it easier to catch and the marker ability will actually place a weak spot on the monster that the others can attack to deal twice the normal damage.
The final Trapper class is almost the most important class in Evolve; its main goal is to stop the monster from escaping. You start as Maggie whose main role is to contain the monster. This can be done using her harpoon gun to slow him down (although they are easy to break they are effective to break up combos). Or by building an inescapable force field around you, even though you are kitted out with a nice sub machine gun this is risky as anything can get into the force field they just can’t escape!
Everyone regardless of their role within the team needs to work together to first track down the monster but to then eliminate it. If just one team mate is off sync with the rest of the team it can be the difference between a win and a loss.
On the other side you have the monster either controlled by the AI or another player. Here you play a game of cat and mouse running and hiding from the hunters until you have had the time to munch your way through the local wildlife and evolve into the monster you always dreamed of being. Each time you eat something you level up, eat enough and you can get to the next stage, unlock powers and get far stronger.
When you start a round you have a choice of three monsters The Goliath, The Kraken, or The Wraith. The Goliath is the first monster and probably the most balanced, a good all-rounder beginners monster. To unlock the Kraken and a Wraith you would need to gain stars in the Monster’s abilities in game, they are more powerful but at the same time have their ups and down sides.
To unlock the higher monsters you either needed to have pre-ordered the game or purchase them from the DLC options.
This brings us to the elephant in the room the DLC. There is a lot of content available right from the launch of the game mainly weapon and character skins. The Season Pass offers four new hunters, new maps and modes but still not everything that is for sale.
Getting DLC right is a though one, if you build a multiplayer game that has an extended life cycle and requires expensive on-going support then you do need to have income beyond the initial point of sale. In general people don’t hate DLC, research shows that lots of players like it, buy it, and enjoy it.
The issue for a lot of players seems to be the timing. DLC should add something to the game and extend its life. So if you are advertising it before the game is even in the store you are effectively saying your game is lacking on day one. This is more of a PR/marketing issue and less to do with the developers.
Back to the game, Evolve has a character unlocking system which as you would expect is limited at first to the initial characters, but as you play you get the chance to unlock the second tier of characters and monsters.
Within each tier you can level up abilities through the level progression system, this takes all the experience you earned from Monster and Hunters combined and rewards you with perks. Perks can be used in game for short boosts like jumping higher or for the monster to allow you to eat faster.
Despite being Multiplayer only, there is a story of sorts. The “story” revolves around rescuing a colony of people currently stranded on the planet and is told through cut scenes and a five map rotating system that offers different scenarios to play your multiplayer round in. Much like Titanfall this is interesting for about a day then you have seen them all and the novelty wears off.
Overall: Evolve is best played with friends, there is an AI option but it is a bit sketchy at the best of times often ignoring downed team mates to rush attack the monster.
The initial hunting of the monster does stretch out the length of the rounds and offers a change of tone mid game but sometimes this can be a tedious portion as you just want to get to the epic end battle.
DLC controversy aside, evolve offers a good game but one with limited appeal. There is a lot to be said for a single player story to allow players build a connection to the franchise that multiplayer only games struggle to mimic.
SCORE 3/5
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