Evolve

 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