Hunting Down Evolution in Evolve - Preview
by VGChartz Staff , posted on 02 November 2014 / 6,272 Views
Given the amount of awards Evolve has already won, you could be forgiven for thinking the game had already released. In actuality, of course, it won't out until February 2015, but when it does launch Evolve will aim to shake up the cooperative multiplayer scene. Evolve's Alpha commenced this weekend, and I managed to try the game out on both the PC and Xbox One.
Evolve is a 4v1 multiplayer shooter, meaning four people will team up - each member with specific roles - to take down one monster, controlled by the fifth player. It’s the monster's objective to either kill and consume enough animals on the planet to reach level 3 of its evolution, which allows it to take down a specific part of the map, or to kill every enemy team member. When playing as one of the four team members, your only objective is to take down the monster, ensuring you win the round.
The Alpha comes with two maps, eight player characters (four have to be unlocked), and two monsters (one has to be unlocked); enough content to allow you to get to grips with the game's core mechanics ahead of its launch. When you first start the game up, Evolve asks you which member of the team you'd most like to play as and will then try to ensure you get one of the roles you prefer when matchmaking, from highest to lowest priority. It was thanks to this priority system that I easily managed to play as every class in the Alpha in fairly short order.
The assault class does what it says on the tin, and is an extremely strong all-rounder. In the Alpha, he is equipped with a lightning gun, which can only be activated when stood within proximity of an enemy, but deals massive damage; a proximity mine; a normal assault rifle; and a shield. These all combine to make him a formidable opponent, but one that is purely about dealing heavy damage and being something of a meat-shield. As the assault character, I would often fly towards the monster with the lightning gun whilst also having my shield equipped, enabling me to take the brunt of its damage output for the team.
The hunter class is all about supporting your team whilst trying to trap the monster. The hunter - Maggie in the Alpha - also has her pet (Daisy) out at all times. Daisy roams around the stage like a normal player but is completely AI driven, searching for the monster by following its prints wherever it goes, and reviving players that are downed. It’s a great addition to the game, and actually helped my team win some rounds due to its ability to revive us.
Apart from the pet, the hunter has a harpoon gun, which will prevent the monster from moving a certain distance; a machine pistol for dealing damage; and finally one of the most useful abilities in the game, a mobile arena. The mobile arena is a forcefield which traps the monster within the area you deploy it, enabling your whole team to take it on at once without it being able to get away.
The medic class also plays a supportive role, not just as the name implies by healing teammates, but also by helping your team to keep track of the monster. It comes with a tranquilliser dart, which will slow the monster down and cause it to show up through walls; a sniper rifle, which doesn’t deal much damage but which reveals weak spots for other players to fire at; a healing blast, which will heal all players near you; and of course a healing gun, which will heal players at a distance. Playing as the healer is both a strange and unique experience - unlike all of the other classes you don't really concentrate on the monster for the most part, but instead on your teammates.
Finally, there's the support class, which is surprisingly similar to the assault class in terms of damage output. The support player deals a lot of damage to the monster but does from a distance. The first support character you have access to has a cloaking field, which will make teammates invisible and is perfect for when things get hairy; a shield protector, which is similar to the medic's ability to heal at a distance, only this time with a shield; a Laser cutter, which is basically a very powerful machine gun; and finally a tactical strike, which will bomb a certain area for a while.
Playing as the monster is both intense and extremely gratifying. You must first run around, avoiding the player-characters and trying to eat as much wildlife as possible in order to level up. Levelling up allows you to both take more damage and, should the game go on long enough, finish the end objective. However, as the monster, each and every action you take has the potential to draw the attention of the hunters so you have to act with careful calculation.
Once you finally do engage with the players all hell will break loose, with abilities being used everywhere. Although the monster doesn’t take much damage from individual hunters, you definitely need to keep an eye on your health, otherwise you'll find yourself dying very quickly against more organised teams and will need to try and retreat.
As the monster, at the start of the match you're able to invest three skills points into four different abilities (all of which are initially greyed out). Each ability can be upgraded three times and each time you level up you acquire an additional three points to invest in these abilities, so you can for example be a varied monster with access to multiple skills, or a more one-dimensional one which has access to stronger abilities. I personally tended to go for the latter option, finding the upgrades gave me a major edge.
It’s the team element of Evolve that will make or break the game. Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2 are still played to this day because of the way players can team up on opposing sides to duke it out, barking orders at one another and having a genuinely fun time doing so. I found that playing by myself with a bunch of strangers would almost always guarantee failure, as players struggle to work together as a team and rarely help downed teammates. Given how strong the monster is, one dead player is a very damaging break in the chain. Play with friends, however, and Evolve becomes a fantastic co-op experience.
To ensure replayability, the game has a levelling system for each character you play as. The more you play as the assault class, for example, the more weapons and characters you’ll unlock for that class. Each character comes with his or her own unique weapon sets as well, allowing for teams and individual players to pick out their ideal combinations. It’s a system which should keep many hooked to the game, but one that could also push some players to only ever use one class alone and not experiment, which would be a shame.
The Alpha generally ran well on both my PC and Xbox One, although the latter suffered from notable framerate issues when I using the support's rocket barrage ability; hopefully this is something that will be fixed ahead of the game's release in February. My only other concern is that we may have a repeat of Titanfall on our hands, where the lack of single player campaign leaves the package as a whole feeling a little bare-bones.
Evolve is, rather fittingly given the developers behind it, looking to become the next Left 4 Dead and take the cooperative multiplayer scene by storm, and based on my early Alpha experiences that could well prove to be the case.
