Evolve Review

Player(s): 1 (solo), 1-4 (co-op), 1-5 (multiplayer)
Extra Features: Co-op, Multiplayer, Leaderboards

I have to start this review by telling you that I am not a multiplayer fan at all. I constantly seek out single player games that might have some co-op play in them, but when it comes to multiplayer, I very often avoid games that have it as the main focus. With Evolve, I was sort of intrigued with the premise of having a monster versus four hunters as its main mode so I gave the game a try and I must say that I'm pretty blown away by what all this game has to offer. Evolve is a mixture of a squad-based first person shooter (hunter perspective) and a third person multiplayer versus game (monster perspective).

The story in Evolve is pretty simple so I'll get that out of the way first. The game is set on a distant planet called "Shear" where established colonies are being attacked by monsters. A planet tamer by the name of William Cabot helps to evacuate the colonists and he assembles a team of Hunters to eliminate the threat. That is your setting and conflict and that's about the only story you get. It isn't all bad though since Evolve's characters make up for its shallow story with their unique personalities. Each of them feel very different and have their own distinguished attitude. They all talk to each other during gameplay and other periods, which adds a lot of immersion to hunts.

Evolve has a much more unique feel to it when compared to other multiplayer games. The main mode in Evolve is the "Hunt" mode where four players choose hunters and another player chooses a monster and the two opposing sides fight it out on one of the maps. First of all, let's discuss the hunters. The hunters are split up into four groups - Assault, Medic, Trapper, and Supporter. Each class has three different characters that can be chosen once the previous character's skills have been fully leveled up to the second level. The hunters are all varied quite nicely and each of them has four abilities or guns that are mapped to certain shoulder or face buttons.

The Assault class is your main damage dealer of the team. All Assault characters have two different weapons for short range or long range combat and they all have a shield that they can activate to protect them for a few seconds while engaging in close-range combat. The Medic class is the healer of the team that can heal with burst healing or use a gun or glove to slowly heal or revive teammates. The Trapper is the class used to contain a monster in a mobile energy dome arena or set out traps that will slow the creature's progression. The Supporter has a fine line between attacking and defending - this class seems the most different depending on which character you choose, but they all have an ability that will cloak the entire team for when situations get out of hand during a fight.

Now, let's talk about the monster. There are three unique classes for the monster - Goliath, Kraken, and Wraith. Each monster class has four unique abilities and each class also has a much different style of movement. Goliath is your land-based wendigo-type creature that can breathe fire and uses mostly melee attacks. The Kraken is a creature that mostly excels in flying and has many projectile attacks that can be used while hovering in the air. The Wraith is a fast and sneaky type of monster that can use clones of itself to fool players or try to single out hunters from a crowd in order to attack the hunter without dealing with the whole squad. The monsters are all ranked in health from Goliath having the most health then the Kraken being the middle monster and finally the Wraith having the least amount of health.

In the Hunt mode, the monster is given a head start to run through the entire map and feast on the wildlife in order to gain armor and fill up its evolve gauge. Once the monster completely fills a circular gauge, it can evolve so that it has a greater health bar and armor and also enhance its attacks - while evolving, you can upgrade your attacks up to three levels in damage. The Hunter group is dropped from a dropship a few seconds after the monster is allowed to start. The Hunters must find the monster by following the monster's tracks - the tracks will glow on the ground. The monster can cover up its tracks by sneaking, jumping, climbing or going through water to confuse the hunters. The hunters must search for the monster and try to contain it (with the Trapper's arena) and kill it off before it has a chance to evolve. It's much easier to kill a monster while it's at level 1 since its health bar is very low and it can't get much armor through feeding.

While the monster tries to evolve, the hunters can stop it by shooting it, so the monster player has to constantly stay on the watch for the group of hunters. The monster player can use a sniff skill in order to highlight all surrounding wildlife and this will also reveal the hunters if they are close. Depending on the character, the trapper can use either a small creature (Daisy), a tracking dart or some spikes that pick up sound in areas where it is placed in order to track the monster. The monster can't get its health back so once it's dead, the hunters have won, but the monster can gain more health by evolving. The hunters are incapacitated once their health is fully gone but they can be revived by another hunter. When a hunter is revived, a portion of the hunter's health can't be recovered from then on, so there is penalty for being knocked out. Once the first hunter falls (actually dies), a timer will start a countdown for when the next dropship comes in for that hunter and anymore dead hunters to respawn. If all hunters are eliminated on the map at once, the monster will win for the Hunt mode. Once the monster evolves to level 3, it can end the round by destroying the newly revealed power relay - the hunters must try to defend it so the creature doesn't destroy it.

The Hunt mode is a total blast to play since the gameplay is deep and allows for several strategies to be used per play-through depending on each person's playstyle. It's never the same game twice. The maps in Evolve are full of life, which makes for an immersive experience for both the hunters and monsters. Each map has tons of wildlife that can be both friendly and aggressive. Hunters have to watch out for all kinds of extra wildlife such as the Megamouth enemy that appears to be a boulder in the ground but is actually a creature with a huge mouth that can chomp the player. The game has several other creatures that the hunters must watch out for and there are even a few hazards such as man-eating plants and acid lakes. The monster can use all sources of wildlife to kill for food, but even the monster will get attacked by some animals. Each map has several hills, mountains, valleys, rivers, lakes, metal buildings and all kinds of other areas to traverse. The maps are extremely well made and match Evolve's multiplayer style perfectly.

Other than the Hunt mode, the game also has a Rescue mode, Nest mode and Defend mode. All of these modes can be played in "Quick Play" or a player can start an "Evacuation" campaign where the team of hunters and the monster will play through each of the modes in a set of five rounds. Rescue mode has stranded survivors that must be revived by the hunters. The monster once again can evolve in this mode and kill off the survivors. The first team to either rescue five survivors (hunters) or kill five survivors (monster) will win the run. Nest mode has several eggs scattered in a map that must be destroyed by the hunters. The hunters must either destroy the egg, the minion hatched from the egg or the main monster in order to win. The monster has to defend the eggs and the monster can hatch an egg for an extra monster that will attack the hunters. The Defend mode takes place at a starship refueling station where the hunters must defend a total of three generators from the monster. Two monster minions spawn every few seconds to attack the generator. The monster starts out at level 3 during this match.

All of Evolve's modes can be played in multiplayer (all players choose either a hunter or monster), co-op play (four players choose hunters and fight against an AI monster) or solo (one player chooses either the hunter side or monster sides and all the rest are controlled by bots). The solo mode of play is actually pretty good since the AI can be very challenging. During solo play, while playing as the hunter's side, a player can switch between all hunters through the use of the directional pad. While playing as a monster, the AI hunters can offer a huge challenge - they have a godly sense of tracking at times, but even they can be tricked by a stealthy or sneaky monster player. Evolve also has a training mode that teaches you the basics of the game and there are two videos per character or monster that details their basics and advanced basics - the videos are quite helpful and detailed.

I really feel that Evolve could have had more meat to its overall story. Since it has a solo mode, why couldn't that have an actual story that branches between monster fights? The matches, as they are, all feel like separate stories that only loosely fit together. To be fair, multiplayer games aren't well known for their story, but just a bit more plot could have helped this game out for its solo mode. As already mentioned, the characters are quite likeable judging from their personalities and overall appearance and a more-involved story could have made them stand out even more. Another complaint that I have is that the Wraith monster feels too overpowered. The monster has some extremely annoying attacks such as the Supernova attack where it can basically spam the entire area in front of it with slashes. The Wraith's movement speed is unreal as well - it can be very hard to trap without surrounding it. Abe's stasis grenade seems too overpowered while fighting a Kraken monster as well - the Kraken is nearly confined to the ground because of it and Abe can keep hurling out the grenade.

No matter how I played Evolve, I had a bunch of fun no matter which mode I tried. The Hunt mode feels just like a Borderlands raid boss fight, only with a much bigger arena. The entire game isn't filled with constant dying and respawning like most other multiplayer games. The solo mode is good for leveling up your character and unlocking other characters and the multiplayer mode is great for playing with randoms or friends. I played all of my matches with randoms and enjoyed the game quite a bit - with a coordinated team of friends that actually work together, I bet the game is even better since cooperation with the hunter group is really the key to winning with them. The game feels quite balanced for the most part, no matter which side you choose. Evolve has a leveling system where you are constantly gaining experience and rising in levels. Your hunter or monster's abilities are also upgraded after being used so many times (only up to level 3) which adds a certain percentage more damage, radius, etc to the ability. The full game is loaded with reasons to replay it if you enjoy the multiplayer aspect of the game. The game currently has 12 maps, 12 hunters and 3 monsters and there will be some DLC hunters, monsters and maps in the future. If you're into multiplayer or co-op games, be sure to give Evolve a try and it might even be appealing if you're not!

The Good:
+ Addicting overall gameplay
+ Maps are well designed and have a realistic feel to them
+ Overall game feels balanced (for the most part) whether you play as the Hunter or Monster

The Bad:
- Overall story is very basic
- A few abilities feel overpowered (not broken, but some seem unfair)

Final Rating: 87%. Evolve is the most fun and unique multiplayer game that I have played.