By: Robert Murphy
Never have I played a game where I felt like a supreme
badass hunter character, trudging across an unknown planet and environment
filled with creatures, plants and animals that I’ve never seen, only to then be
running around scared as hell at the 100 foot monster that is trying to murder
me. This summed up my first round of Evolve,
I was a lowly human tracking a huge beast that I assume is causing problems for
a human colony or some nonsense, only to realize, I’m a human with a gun trying
to take on this thing?! Running seemed like the good option to me but working
with your teammates and taking down the beast, coupled with that adrenaline
rush is all part of the fun. You just have to make sure the beast isn’t a super
skilled player and that you and your team use your abilities right because you
will have a big challenge to face. The game feels like a great way to destroy
friendships as you can potential have your three friends playing hunters and
another friend be the big boss monster creature and while that is potentially
damaging to your future friendship, it is something that I loved, but does the
game have to potential to keep that appeal going? Let’s dig in.
What Evolve boils
down to is a four vs one multiplayer game where you and three friends or other
online are playing hunters and have another friend or player being the big
prize beast that you’re gunning to kill. There are of course other modes to
choose from but the big market for the game had always seemed to be about the
hunt so I’ll start there. Either side of this scenario, whether you’re the
hunter or hunting has its fun and enjoyable aspects. You start off with one
monster which is the Goliath and after using your abilities, earning points and
killing hunters, you will eventually unlock the rest of the monster characters.
The same goes for when you’re playing as a hunter. Every creature though
doesn’t start out big, no, monsters get a brief head start before the hunters
drop into the planet, giving you time to get some distant and start to feed.
Every other creature you come across is up for grabs to basically beat down and
devour to further your own strength and leading you to evolve to a second and
third stage. Special and bigger beasts can be found across the worlds, special
beasts giving you certain buffs like speed boosts and faster feeding time and
bigger beasts just provide more energy for you.
Getting to the next stage is really the key to victory for
the monster as it increases your strength and let’s you add points to your
abilities, for the Goliath these are things like fire breathe and a boulder
throw. Using each ability is important because it gets you to the other
monsters, the Kraken is a giant floating monster that resembles Cthulhu and the
Wraith which is serpent creature that can teleport and turns invisible…screw
that noise. Putting in the time to unlock these beasts though may be something
players will have to decide to do for themselves, doing specific things like
using the rock throw and leap smash equally rather than just having fun
smashing and killing your enemies. Who wants to plan all that out in the heat
of the moment? Not me, I’m going to kill the way I want so it will be a few
matches before I reach the final monster. Winning for the monster in Hunt mode
involves either killing the whole team before they manage to respawn or
destroying a power relay so your foes cannot escape.
When it comes to the human side of things, players can
choose from four classes that give each player something important and vital to
the team. Assault is the big lumbering kahuna who is responsible for drawing
in the monsters attention by causing big damage and using his shield ability to
make himself invincible for a brief period. He also comes with a secondary weapon
and a unique weapon like mines or a flamethrower with his later characters. The
grinding and specific weapon use continues here. The Trapper class is self
explanatory as the list of character for this class allows you to contain the
creature and also stun it, basically keep it from getting away and causing more
damage to your team in a fight. The Medic characters mostly heal your team but
can also be a little handy. Finally, Support is probably my favorite as they
can buff your shields and also drop airstrikes on monsters along with some
other enjoyable skills that come from later handy characters. Obviously, you
will not want to be a lone wolf in Evolve
though as a fully evolved creature and even a regular stealthy one can be
deadly. I specifically bought a headset so I could talk to people on my team as
good communication is the key to survival like any multiplayer game, just don’t
have that one guy in your group be the hero or it’ll be game over for sure.
The bringing everyone together aspect though can prove to
be the games biggest issue, in Hunt mode especially. Evolve is very much a game that requires all your team members to
be working in the right way, if you get the lone wolf player or someone who
doesn’t know how to play their role then you get a raw deal and will probably
end up losing the match to a level 3 Goliath, now munching on your collective
bones. Even with a mic, the game can prove to be frustrating for any player and
really needs to be played with a group of friends for the best results. Also,
when playing whatever creature you end up choosing and you decide to strike
your enemies or they eventually catch up to you, everything just ends up in
button mashing chaos. You spent all that time picking skills and planning out
the attack when it really just comes down to a Hulk style smash routine and
spamming your skills. Same goes for the humans as you really just try anything
to get the job done, there’s no real tactics when it comes to the final
showdown honestly and it bums me out.
Outside of the Hunt mode this problem is much less daunting
as you can choose from a Defend, Rescue and Nest game types. Defense is a mode
where you either attack/defend human colonist, Rescue is a mode where you
defend/attack a power relay and then Nest you’re either protecting/destroying a
group of monster eggs from being destroyed. The game modes are nothing too
original but they do serve as some break up to the monotony of the cat and mouse
game or the let down of a big close courters battle. It is a shame that more
fun can be had in these modes too considering the Hunt was one of
the games bigger selling points when you look into what Evolve planned to offer.
Overall, Evolve definitely
has its charm. When you have a great team to work with who know how to use
their skills or shoots the tranquilizer dart at the right moment or puts the
airstrike right down on the monsters head, it feels great. Same goes for the
monsters of the game, each with their own deadly charm and strengths, when you
get that one out of the blue attack from a player monster it will get you
going. However, this doesn’t always happen and while giving the power of a
video game boss to a player sounded great it can sometimes not work out, ditto
for the often lack luster partners you will sometimes get stuck with. With a
wider range of game modes and more diverse maps, Evolve could have been much stronger but God do those monsters
inspire and you can still have some solid fun with what you’ve got here.
Good:
- Getting that perfect team and great monster to fight is
simply wonderful
- Different character and monster skills and abilities add to
the fun
- Solid shooting and environments to move through
Bad:
- A bit more map and game diversity is needed
- Finding that perfect team doesn’t always happen and
everything falls apart
- Victory can often be achieved by button mashing nonsense and
who wants that?
Scully Rating: 7.8
out of 10
