Evolve Hands-on: Let the Hunt Begin

Are you guys impatiently waiting for an awesome new game to play with your small crew, kind of like Left 4 Dead?

Well, Turtle Rock Studios’ next game, Evolve, may be just that. From my experience with this game during PAX East, Evolve delivered beyond what I had expected. If you love aliens and a more tactical combat system, then this is just the game for you. Evolve pits a group of four players called ‘Hunters’ against a single-player controlled boss, ‘Goliath’. Sounds simple, yes? Well, not quite. Hunters must track down and destroy Goliath before it evolves into its final stage—where it’ll grow to become 30 feet tall, and deal a heck of a lot more damage. For those who wish to dish out damage, feast on flesh, and spit fire on anything that stands in their way, then the role as Goliath is for you. Goliath’s main objective is to evolve, and essentially slaughter every living thing; it will win the match if it kills all four of the hunters at the same time.

In order for you to achieve this, and become the ultimate boss, you must feed off of the wildlife—causing you to become larger and much more aggressive. Goliath is able to charge, smash, and throw boulders at its opponents.

Those who wish to be a part of the Hunters have four different classes to choose from: Assault, Medic, Support, and Trapper—all of which have their own specialized role within the group. Hunters must track down Goliath across the map from the luminous blue footprints it leaves behind. Hunters must stay cautious, though, because Goliath isn’t the only large beast on the map—the wildlife can often become as large as your opponent as well. Fortunately enough, I was able to play as Griffin, the Trapper. When playing as a Trapper, your primary role is to help contain Goliath. In order to do so you’re equipped with a submachine gun, harpoon gun, sound spike (to detect nearby movement), as well as a mobile arena. The mobile arena proves to be quite handy especially when Hunters are fighting up close with the monster. Once the Trapper initiates the mobile arena it acts as a small dome to contain the monster.

While Hunters are free to move in and out of the space, the Goliath is forced to stay inside until the shield’s time has run out. Although firepower is huge in order to take down the monster, your role as the Trapper is crucial in order for your team to deliver—a caged monster is much ‘easier’ to take down than a free one. The level I was able to experience took place on the world of ‘Shear’. While me and my fellow Hunters were running through the forests of Shear, I couldn’t help but notice that the wildlife that’s supposed to make our job harder really didn’t. Too often I found that when I approached these creatures dwelling in the woods, they just ran away.

Now, I’m not saying that taking down the Goliath isn’t enough of a challenge for me (because it definitely is), but I still wish the wildlife was more responsive.

Aesthetically, the game looked good, but it wasn’t anything incredible (which I wasn’t expecting anyways). What set me on edge as a Hunter were the distant cries of the Goliath, and knowing my imminent death may be approaching. Overall, I thought Evolve was incredibly fun, and it’s exactly that type of game I would showcase at a party. The controls were extremely user-friendly, and it feels definitely a pick-up-and-play kind of game.

Although I wasn’t able to play as Goliath, it was a ton of fun jetpacking through an alien planet and working as a team to take down a badass boss played by a fellow games. This is definitely a game where you don’t need to win to have fun. (Yes, my team lost, and no, I don’t want to talk about it).