Evolve takes players to a remote planet named Shear, where humanity has colonized but is currently under attack from an alien invasion. A former planet tamer named William Cabot is hired to evacuate the planet using a ragtag team of mercenaries and other fighters crazy enough to take on the suicide mission. The narrative of Evolve is mostly overlooked, but as in other Turtle Rock Studios franchises, the playable characters have a lot of great lines and interesting backgrounds for players to learn more about while progressing through the game.
Evolve offers four different game modes all with different objectives that forces players to utilize changing strategies to increase their chance of winning a match. Hunt forces the hunter to track down the monster and prevent it from destroying a power relay station. Nest is more unique and has the hunters searching for monster eggs to destroy, while the monster attempts to protect the eggs or hatches the eggs to fight alongside the solo player. Rescue tasks the hunter team with evacuating colonists. Defend is time based and has the hunter team attempting to outlast a fully evolved monster while waiting for an evacuation ship to fuel up. Each mode offers a different way to play that is fair and fun, though Hunt is likely to be the most played of the game variants.
There are four primary classes of hunters to choose from in Evolve. Each class has a class specific ability--temporary invulnerability for Assault, a deployable arena for Trappers, healing for Medics and a cloaking device for Supports. Along with the class specific abilities are character specific abilities that correspond with each of the three different characters within each class. Some of the more noteworthy character specific abilities includes Maggie's animal companion Daisy and Lazarus' ability to resurrect fallen allies after their death. There are some really neat abilities and skills to unlock on the hunter side of Evolve, though the game restricts players access to only a few of these variants when playing the game for the first time.
A lot of content is locked when playing Evolve for the first time. The title has a good progression system that throws unlocks at players for spending an adequate amount of time with the game, but first time players may feel frustrated by their early matches in the game against players with more unlocks than is available to newcomers. Spending a few days playing the game will be enough time for most players to unlock a plethora of content that will satisfy most players, but it is definitely frustrating to play without having the same characters and abilities available to all players before the match begins.
Evolve is a fantastic looking game with great theme songs and sound effects that completely immerse the player in the cat and mouse chase each time the game is booted up. The game features several large maps that offer diverse locations with different forms of wildlife and non-playable monsters to interact with. Knowing the different maps in the game can be just as important as a player familiarizing themselves with the currently selected class and character. It's also important to listen out for audio and visual clues to get a better idea of where an enemy may be located or heading next in order to come out on top in any given match. Evolve features a strong presentation that gives players the tools to succeed when playing as both monster and hunter, but it's up to the player to utilize these tools effectively.
A lot of controversy surrounded the launch of Evolve and the developer's plans to offer dozens of add-ons from day one. As it turned out, most of the content left out of the game is nothing more than monster skins, alternate hunter costumes, gun variants and other aesthetic differences though, and the additional purchases do not break the balance of the game in any way. Most players will be disappointed to see so much launch DLC available for a game that just cost $60 to purchase, but gamers would be unlikely to have used more than a few of the available skins for a significant amount of time in the game anyhow, so it's hard to boycott a game that is so entertaining over something so insignificant.
Evolve is designed with online matches of four players versus one player, but the game can be played with any number of players with AI taking control of the remaining monster and/or hunters. This feature combines with an intricate unlock and progression system to give players plenty of hours of gameplay just to unlock everything in online or in single player matches. Evolve is balanced and fair, and the game rewards players for mastering certain classes, synergistic team strategies and learning the ins and outs of each map in the game. Not having many options to choose from when booting up the game for the first time is a bummer and can make matches at launch a bit bland, but once the unlocks start coming, there is really no reason why a shooter fan wouldn't want to jump into another game of Evolve.
Game Features:
- Online Multiplayer 1-5
- Multiple Hunter and Monster Classes
- Online Leaderboards
- DLC Support
- Trophy/Achievement Support
Game Information:
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Publisher: 2K Games
Platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One (reviewed) & PC
Release Date: February 10, 2015
