Luke HendersonFebruary 15, 20152K, Evolve, Maxi Geek Review, PC, PS4, Turtle Rock, Xbox OneComment

Evolve - Review

Luke HendersonFebruary 15, 20152K, Evolve, Maxi Geek Review, PC, PS4, Turtle Rock, Xbox OneComment

Evolve is a game where four players battle against one player to achieve specific objectives, which can vary depending on a variety of factors. Thankfully there is a meaty solo experience where players can learn the ins and outs of each of the hunters and the monsters before taking their game online. Taking part in the solo campaign of extraction will give you some more details about the characters and how they function, but most importantly it will help you level up as all your solo progress carries over to online.

Playing as the Hunters is where the game offers up the most variety, with 4 classes and 3 characters per class, finding the right class and then sub class will take some time. Markov is great as a beginner assault, but when you have the option to unlock Hyde and then others, you may find yourself electing to leave Markov behind. All members of the Assault spec deal vast amounts of damage, but it is the personalities where they differ and that is going to be the big part of your decision. When you first start playing as a hunter in Solo, your squad consists of Markov, Maggie, Val and Hank with all four of them being very unique in their own way.

But once you play a few dozen matches, you are going to hear the same things being said over and over again, you may find yourself yearning for a new face in the crowd. It is of course likely that by that stage you may have also played as the monster and if you have not, you are missing out. The monsters are really fun to play as, with the starter monster, the Goliath being my favourite. Each of the monsters has unique abilities, but the core of them comes down to eat and evolve, thus the name. If you are coming into this game with no knowledge, then I suggest starting as a hunter, because you can learn the games mechanics really well and then move onto the monster.

Taking control of the monster will result in a few things happening, first is the game feels much slower than it does as a human that is mostly in part to the size of them. While small at first, as you evolve them, they get larger and larger and while they move faster, they still feel slower compared to hunters. But while they do feel slow, they are by no means slow when it comes to hunting, in fact when your monster lands a bevy of attacks on another creature or even a hunter, you get a real sense of just how powerful these creatures are. But I am only talking the default power of them, for once you level up any of the creatures they have some truly devastating power.

When playing as monster, you really have two objectives, whatever is the game is asking of you and hunt, for if you don’t hunt and consume other creatures you can’t evolve and that will put you at a disadvantage. A stage 1 Goliath can deal some damage, but when all four hunters converge and trap him in a dome, the tide can turn really fast and with only a small amount of armour to help protect him, the match can end quickly there. But whereas a stage 1 will fall quickly in that scenario, a stage 3 will still be able to take the fight to the hunters. In order for you to get to stage 3, you need to hunt, so you have a choice to make at the start of the round, do you hunt to get stronger, ignoring your objective for now or do you do it while attempting to complete it, the choice can prove to be the difference between victory or defeat.

As a hunter in the game mode of Hunt, your objective is simple, take down the monster, sometimes you may not get it before it gets to stage 3 and in that case another objective kicks in, take it down before it does damage to something. But as a monster in the same game mode, you can elect to hunt and fight the hunters as you go, or do all you can to avoid them and level up first. Depending on the level of the other players, or bots if solo, that can be a hard choice to make, but it is a choice you will need to make many times. In fact as you learn the maps and learn the best place for you to hide or stalk prey from, the choice can become a little easier to make, simply based upon your desire to win.

I mean, let’s face it, winning is key here, there is no other reason to play then to win and here winning is crucial, more than you may think. If you play a single mission, the winning side gets the power to gloat, but if you are playing extraction, then winning becomes the most crucial part of the game. The game will provide options for what mission type is selected next and the outcome of that match will impact the next, should you, as the hunters fail to rescue the med pods in one map, the next mission will see the results of the failed rocket launch, which means that the med pods will explode and cause plants to mutate, giving the hunters a lot more man eating plants to watch out for. Though if you are successful and you do get them away safely, then you will be granted stations throughout the map where you can recover some health. So winning does not just give you the right to gloat, it also gives you perks for the next match.

It does not matter if you are playing solo or online, Extraction will test you until the end. Five rounds, with changing objectives and maps will keep you on your toes until you are done and therein lies the games biggest problem. The game asks almost the same of the monster each round, and the hunters have almost the same objectives as well, though they change as often as the maps, even in a single Extraction session, you can expect to see the same map twice at least once. When you take that online and realise that you are only one of five players, the repetitive nature will kick in. Which is a shame and sure, while you can change character class, or switch sides, that will only keep the tedium away for so long. Thankfully, you can also help keep it at bay, by customising your character with a variety of perks and abilities and in doing so you can change how you play the map. So while you may like a certain combination on a character, changing it up may provide just enough of a change to keep the game feeling fresh.

Keeping things fresh is something the game struggles to do when it comes to visuals, they can bounce from really gorgeous to muddy and bland. The art style that is used is not bad, in fact I ended up purchasing skin packs for my characters because of how nice that is, but the game struggles to load up all the custom options within a decent amount of time. So you get lots of pop in at the start of maps and then randomly you will see textures downgrade to lower standard and while you wont notice it while you are in the midst of a fight against the enemy, when you are on the hunt from either side, your attention to your surroundings is heightened and the issues are easy to spot.

The sound is the area of the presentation where it shines, each of the guns, from Markov’s lightning gun to the med gun, sound just right, offering up a nice level of realism in this fantasy world. The characters themselves are well acted, but as I said before, they can repeat the same phrases pretty quickly, but the point that must be noted is the creature design is spot on. These monsters are not mutants of things we know, they are new creatures, with new ways of moving and sounding and hear the roar of a Goliath or the whoosh of the Wraith as it moves around is truly epic. Music is presented on a needs basis, it does not come to the front outside of the menus but that is good, it helps heighten the atmosphere but never demands your attention.

Evolve is one pretty amazing game, it offers up a new take of online competition and has enough character options that players will be hard pressed to choose. However the lack of gameplay options, means you will repeat yourself often and the limited 5 player online feels outdated and alongside weird graphical issues, may present issues some may not be able to look past. But for those looking for something fresh, Evolve has what you are looking for.