Evolve (2015)

Evolve is set for a February 10th release date, and is shaping up to be one of the most anticipated multiplayer games of the coming year for the visionary devloper Tutle Rock.

Cinema Blend reports,”While many have been very excited for every little detail about this upcoming shooter/bite simulator, however, some have stifled their hype due to the game’s assumed online-only nature. According to a recent report from Destructoid, however, it looks like that will not be the case. \

To be fair, we’re talking about a 4v1 game that, until this point, has only ever been shown off in multiplayer sessions. It makes perfect sense that Evolve would be an online-only game but, as it turns out, you can still dive into the fray solo if you so choose.

Turtle Rock Studios revealed this fact with the hilarious tutorial embedded above, demonstrating the proper way to play Evolve all by your lonesome. In short, you just boot up a single player mode. From there, you can go on a hunting rampage joined by AI compatriots, dishing out orders and easily changing between your crew on the fly with the press of a direction on the D-Pad. I assume that the team is putting extra special attention into making competent AI partners for a game that requires so much coordination but, if not, you will be able to set up all the strategies and combo maneuvers you want on the fly simply by switching back and forth between the hunters.”

Kotaku reports, “Evolve is finally starting to feel like a full-sized game, with a new multi-stage campaign called Evacuation, three new modes, a third monster and another four hunters.

Evacuation is Evolve’s literal game changer. Until now things seemed light, with the only gameplay option ‘hunting’ or ‘being’ the monster, and not a lot else. This new campaign mode brings with it three extra match types – Nest, Rescue and Defend – and ties them all together with a rolling, randomised sequence of levels.

The three new modes can be played separately but the real meat of the game comes from playing them all in the Evacuation campaign. This sees you playing through a series of player voted maps and randomised victory effects that carry over to the next stage. These can be various buff or debuffs decided by who wins at each stage.

A hunter victory, for example, might see a masking agent sprayed over the next map to cancel out the monster’s X-ray vision-like smell sense. Whereas a monster victory could see it gain an armour buff from ‘feasting on the casualties.’ Other effects include things like turrets, or healing stations, to help the hunters, or teleport rifts and toxic gas clouds to help the monster. 2K is promising some potential 800,000 variations between the different game types, buffs and 16 maps (12 general maps and four specifically designed for the Defend mode).

Hunt is obviously the mode we’ve seen so far, with the core 4v1 deathmatch setup. The other option, however, mixes things up with a few different mechanics. Take Nest: this sees a series of eggs randomly placed around the map – the hunters need to destroy them to win, while the monster has to protect its spawn. The creature can also hatch one egg at a time for some back-up from a level one Goliath, adding a risk/reward spin on those mothering instincts. You can only have one Goliath active at a time, and it’s weaker than an egg, but it’s also added attack power and if all the hunters are dead, the monster wins.”

Officially called Evacuation, this particular mode will feel somewhat similar to the campaigns found in the Left 4 Dead series. It takes place across five days (five maps), and while the story of the mode isn’t shoved in the faces of players, there is a still a story to tell – The planet of Shear is being overrun by Monsters, causing the colonists to evacuate. It’s up to the Hunters to rescue as many people as they can, take down as many Monsters as possible and, more importantly, make sure the evac ship takes off in one piece.

The game modes within Evacuation break down like this:

• Hunt – It’s a race for the Monster to eat enough within the environment to evolve to stage 3, and find the power relay on the map to destroy the objective. All along, the Hunters and Monster play cat-and-mouse, hoping to kill for a quick victory.
• Nest – The Monster is out to protect its brood, randomly scattered all over the map, while the Hunters are out to scramble some alien eggs. If the Monster is able to get to the eggs, it has the option to hatch one of them into a minion – a stage 1 Goliath that runs around, aggro-ing Hunters. Hunters win by destroying all the eggs and the minion, or killing the Monster.
• Rescue – Injured colonists trying to escape the Monsters are placed randomly on the map. Hunters need to locate, revive and protect them as they make their escape. Monsters need to munch on as many of these colonists as possible and keep them from getting away. Whoever saves – or kills – the majority of the colonists, wins.
• Defend – The Hunters are desperately trying to defend the Evacuation point while the ship is fueling up to escape. The Monster, meanwhile, is leading hordes of Goliath minions, attacking the Evacuation point in waves.”

“Evolve” will feature a 4vs 1 formula, where 4 human soldiers controlled by 4 players try to fight one monster controlled by one player. Its essentially a never ending multiplayer boss fight, with one player playing as the boss.

The beta starts January 15, 2015 exclusively on Xbox One, Microsoft confirmed today at Gamescom. Microsoft reaffirmed downloadable content will be released first on Xbox One. No beta registration process has been announced. Some good news is that all of Evolve’s DLC maps will be free of charge because Turtle Rock doesn’t want to segment the community.