From the onset of its first trailer reveal, the asymmetric nature of the game garnered an abundance of the pre “Big Alpha” buzz. Five characters (one or all of which can be embodied by Xbox LIVE Gold members) comprise the participants for the grandiose game of hide-and-go-seek to the death. Four human Hunters of basic classes with different equipment and inherent roles go to battle against a Monster that is bigger, stronger, and faster than any one person on the team. The Hunter’s strength is in numbers, so careful calculations and contemplative teamwork is essential to even the odds, so to speak, against big ugly. To Evolve‘s credit, the faction that is able to strike the best balance between attack and restraint will put themselves in the best position to win (most of the time). If either the Hunters or Monster are/is foolishly quixotic with no solid strat in place, the show of temerity will probably be met with a big, fat, loss. Congruently, being too cautions can allow the other side time to either farm up on resources (in the case of the creature) or cut off the map and corner the opponent before they’re ready to fight (as the Hunters). In the abstract, this concept is hard to elucidate. Without knowledge of what the five participants can do alone or together, the uneven numbers would seem to make the action disjointed and amorphous. In practice, assuming the players involved are at least serviceable, most of the offensive exchanges and battles for positioning are rather even. This is largely due to the deft design decisions put in place by Turtle Rock for the warring factions.
In the voice of Bruce Buffer: FIGHTING out of the blue corner, we have the Hunters. The lethal quartet have basic class allotments, but aren’t as “restrictive” as other games that employ a role structure for players. What I mean by that is, it is entirely possible for one Hunter to “act” like another if the occasion calls for such, but isn’t recommended. Each have offensive capabilities, each can revive a downed teammate, each can aid in the search for the Monster. However, winning strategies suggest the four should “stay in their lane,” so to speak. To help decipher what the participants should be focused on during the match, the devs decided to use (generally) well known archetypes: Assault, Trapper, Support, Medic.
The first Assault character available is Markov. His main objective is to get all up in the beast’s grill and take the fight right to their doorstep! Each Hunter has four “tools” to work with, and most of them fall in line with their particular role. So, Markov has two main weapon selections instead of the usual one. The Rifle plays like a standard fully auto, mid-range firearm in which all regular FPSers will be familiar. Zooming in gives a rather useful red dot-ish sight that can hit an evading Monster pretty reliably. The second offensive option is the Lightening Gun. Hold down right trigger to unleash a robust beam of devastating voltage. The handicap here is the charge only lasts a handful of seconds, then has a decent cool down period. Alternating between it and the Rifle should keep Markov hurling damage in most instances. The other two components of his kit are the Arc Mines and Personal Shield. Plant Mines around likely footpaths to take a chuck from the opposition’s health. The Shield gives a short stint of invulnerability to attacks, which is incredibly useful when needing to retrieve a fallen ‘mate, or dealing the finishing blow to a Monster on the ropes. Out of the four, Assault is the “easiest” to play. Meaning, their intent is pretty straightforward: deal as much damage as possible. And because the first person mechanics work really well, Markov translates the best. Although, it can get boring if the team struggles with tracking during Hunt engagements.
A Hunter class that is semi-unique to Evolve is the Trapper. Due to the Monster being quicker in space than the humans, Maggie is focused on locating it with efficiency. The item geared most for this job is the pseudo fifth member of the squad, Daisy. A domesticated Trap Jaw, the pint sized compadre is able to “sniff out” track laid on the ground. If the Monster doesn’t use its climbing/flying abilities ad nauseam, and relies on ground travel to get from point to point, Daisy becomes a crucial component to locating it in the early going of a bout. Once big ugly is found, the Trapper’s most valuable piece of kit becomes pertinent. Tapping the right bumper selects the Mobile Arena. When tossed out, it sets up a spherical force field that can be entered, but not escaped. This is the leading way for the Hunters to take up the offensive mantle in the 4v1 tug-o-war. The square footage of the Arena isn’t radically claustrophobic, but it does take away the straight line movement speed advantage of the Monster, which is arguably the most lopsided characteristic between the two sides. The main counters to its effectiveness is it only stays up a few precious minutes, and the recharge time for a new one takes a while, so the Trapper needs to make sure they can complete the capture before launching. Once the map is cut off, Maggie has a couple of other tricks to make her useful in the ensuing brawl. First is the Machine Pistol, a SMG-esque weapon that spits out a zillion rounds a second, but the range is really short, so getting in close is key. The last of her loadout are Harpoon Traps. These proximity devices sink in a energy generated tension line that can stop a Monster dead in its tracks. A quick melee swipe breaks the connection, but it’s still something else that has to be dealt with before fighting or fleeing. I do think the range of the “trip” for the Harpoons is short, considering how easily the tether can be broken. But good placement of the three at-a-time allotment can go a long way in keeping the beast grounded.
Next up is Support, first fulfilled by Hank. A good Support participant is one that patiently waits for their opportunities, but then executes the proper strat at the best possible time. His Laser Cutter acts as the main “personal” offensive threat, and is surprisingly effective at range. When another Hunter is getting attacked and needs to get away, the Shield Projector can buy them some time. Much like Markov’s Personal, it grants invincibility from oncoming attacks when the beam is focused. It may sound tough to keep the Shield focused on the intended teammate, but there’s a forgiving “tractor beam” quality that makes the process manageable. The other offensive threat for Hank is the one serious haymaker afforded the Hunters. The Orbital Barrage is a bombing run style aerial assault that is called in with a “target painter.” After a few seconds, a huge payload gets dumped around the intended area and has the capability of completely turning the tide of a battle or crippling the Monster to “GG” inducing low health levels. The difficulty is the placement. There is no “homing” edge to the Barrage, it will only be dropped where instructed. So, if the Monster hasn’t been stymied in some form or fashion, the percentages of a direct hit are slim to none. Again, it is a must for the Support to identify their opportunities to strike, then not hesitate when the time comes. If a battle doesn’t go as planned, the Cloaking Field lays invisibility over the Hunters still alive, making them pretty hard to see from the 3rd person perspective of Mr. Big n’ Bad.
The last Hunter on the list is, without argument, the most important. Consistently going blow for blow with a life form twice as big as the humans put together would be impossible without the ability to heal. Val, the first Medic, should be guarded as best as possible during battles. The Medgun works much like Hank’s Shield Projector. An healing energy beam is emitted to one Hunter at a time, refilling their health at a decent clip. Val’s Armor-Piercing Sniper Rifle puts weak spots on the Monster. When these are hit by the guns of others, it registers critical hits. After taking damage herself, a Healing Burst creates a nebulous area of regen for her and those in the immediate vicinity. The Tranquilizer Gun is the most interesting bit of Val’s kit. Featuring about a 2.0x zoom and loaded with a three round clip, a successfully landed dart slows down the beast and highlights it in green. This makes locating the Monster a synch for the other Hunters, and slows it down enough for a successful Orbital Barrage drop. Val can be a great “point” option to help lead the pack in tracking, but make sure she is escorted. With no lethally effective offensive equipment, even the smallest physical threats can spell doom for the MVP of the Hunter team.
The other side to this combative equation is, of course, the Monster. Shifted to a third person perspective, the outlook and play tempo for it is quite different than the humans. At the start of a match, it is at level 1, meaning the offered set of abilities are initially limited and health and shields are far from ideal. So from the onset, big ugly’s goal should be immediate evasion. Distance from the Hunter squad is crucial for building up resources. This is usually an easy task because its speed and stride are well above any one human. When the coast is clear, feeding is next up on the priority list. Each map has a series of wildlife, or fauna, that interacts with both sides in different ways. The Hunters will find most of the “animals” a minor annoyance that may need to be dealt with in a tight space. For the Monster, it is the lifeblood that it relies on to rank up. A fauna type like the Mammoth Bird can be taken out quite easily, and is a relatively hearty meal. A quick melee swipe will incap a couple for consumption. After munching, shields get increased and the evolve meter sees a bump. Rinsing and repeating the “eat n’ run” tactic will eventually afford the opportunity to level up. This offers more health, a bigger shield bar, but most importantly, upped damage for attacks. Getting to lvl. 3 is the main goal for anyone playing Monster. At that point, the tide of the game shifts tremendously in favor of the 1 in the 4v1 scheme.
If Evolve has a poster child, it’s definitely Goliath. As first in line, he’s hulking, melee-centric, and frontal attack tuned. While not the quickest “in a straight line,” he can scale up a majority of natural landmarks, keeping him well out of “easy” attack range. Like the Hunters, Monsters get four abilities to select from, while also being afforded a basic swipe attack. At distance, the Rock Throw and Leap Smash give some mid range options. Rip stone from the ground and hurl it at a gathered group of Hunters with the former and drop from the top of a high perch with devastating impact with the latter. Using Fire Breath in close burns up fauna and humans alike, and will crowd the vision of Hunters, forcing them to retreat from their positions. Lastly, Goliath can Charge forward, bowling over any and all in the way. This can also be utilized defensively as a great option for scurrying away when the chips are down. Next up is Kraken. Turtle Rock’s interpretation of this classic terror has a range-y, scaly build with the ability to fly, which is an incredible advantage over his peers. Going to the ground to feed can be a bit awkward, but when it comes time to get out of Dodge in lieu of encroaching Hunters, the distance that can be covered in a short span of time is maddening to the opposition. When it does come time to throw down, Kraken is in no short supply of viable offense. Lobbing Banshee Mines down in the path of the humans forces them to change trajectories, or get hit with a substantial hit. Vortex and Aftershock both share qualities of “area of effect” design. Aftershock does the most damage to a larger area, but stifles movement, while Vortex does less, but doesn’t hinder flight and has a shorter cool down period. The aerial beast’s power move is Lightning Strike. Requiring a brief charge, it unleashes targeted bolts of electricity that can demolish all in its path when maxed out during evolve stints. Slithering in as the last of the on-disc Monsters is Wraith. Definitely the quickest on the ground, her best attribute is being able to stay pretty fast in “Sneak” movement, which allows the Monster to catch fauna off guard for easy feeding. Of the three, she has the least amount of HP/shields, and always leaves tracks for Daisy to identify. However, Wraith’s bag of tricks has some ways to turn these handicaps into advantages. Decoy is the leading ability. When activated, an exact replica juts out in the direction being traveled. The “fake” can then attack objects in its path and the “real” version goes invis, affording a perfect get away opportunity. If a Hunter becomes isolated without backup, they stand as a prime candidate for Abduction, which thrusts Wraith forward, snatches up the target, and retreats to the launch position while dealing damage and disorienting the victim’s camera. Up close and personal assaults are handled by Warp Blast and Supernova. Warp Blasting hurls Wraith towards an area and emits a short range explosion. The ‘Nova turns her into an angry fury of blade slicing madness for several seconds, and can be one of the most powerful attacks in the game at lvl. 3.
So, how does the action between these two skirmishing sides actually play out in practice. Well, surprisingly, it depends on the game mode of a particular match. The most popular and front running type is Hunt. This is the as advertised main event for Evolve. The objective is pretty simple: kill or be killed. The Monster spawns with about a minute head start to kick off the ensuing game of cat and mouse. But those roles aren’t as you may expect. In reality, the Monster will be the one doing most of the running. Without any knowledge of the mechanics of the game, it would sound crazy that the humans are actually the aggressors. Indeed, they are. And for very good reason. Because of the evolving system, Hunt breaks down into three parts. In the first act, the Hunters have an advantage with the Monster being at stage 1. Available shields and health are low, and the attacks don’t deal an overly destructive amount of damage. If (and that’s a big if), the quartet can locate and isolate big ugly in an Arena, they have the upper hand when it comes to available resources and options, as their loadouts will outshine Goliath/Kraken/Wraith’s abilities. Assuming the Monster does a decent job with feeding and fleeing, it should get to stage 2 with little fuss. At this point, the odds are even. A group of Hunters and a Monster at comparable skill levels will put on a good show at this junction. They’re in sync with strats, doing damage and staying spaced out enough to frustrate the lone warrior, but the beast can now hang in their longer and perhaps get after the Medic or Assault first to turn the tide in their favor. This is Hunt’s sweet spot and showcases Evolve at its best. But if the Hunters aren’t diligent and cohesive enough to locate and force action in a reasonable amount of time, they’ll have a stage 3 fight on their hands. To this point of the game’s release, this is when gameplay is the most imbalanced. At top evolution, a Power Relay becomes active on the map, in which the Hunter’s must safeguard as the Monster will be tasked to destroy the object. In actuality, this is just a way for the game to force the two sides together and give the match an approaching end point “on the clock.” Very, very rarely is the game won or loss on the Relay’s health; it’s about which side dies first. And as of now, that’s usually the Hunters. It takes an insane amount of hits to cripple a stage 3 Goliath or Kraken with full shields. Not to mention the DMG increases that the abilities get at each evolutionary stage. And despite Wraith’s health tanks being smaller than the others, her attacks are crazy lethal at alpha version. Goliath and Wraith fights are easier just because they have to remain on the ground, which opens the door for maybe making it into a decent match. But with Kraken’s flight ability, it would take an incredible effort from Val to keep tranqs going at all times, but she’ll probably be too busy picking up downed teammates from lvl. 3 attacks. I’m not sure if anything can or should be done to help Hunters in this scenario, but it makes Hunt the most unfair mode in Evolve.
For more of a balance, check out the other match types. If Hunt is the “Team Deathmatch” of this game, then the other selections are undoubtedly the objective choices. Rescue tasks the Hunters with finding, reviving, and rounding up downed survivors and escorting them safely to evac transports. Yes, you read correctly, escort, one of the most maligned buzzwords in all of gaming. Include me on the list of people that usually despise said goal. But here, it’s not bad. For one, there are more survivors on the map than are required to save for a Hunter win, so losing a couple during the course of the match doesn’t result in a loss. Also, the transport ships are on relatively short loops, meaning the Hunters don’t have to wait very long after reviving before they can get a group to safety. The Monster has smaller Minion forces to help quell the human efforts, but make no mistake, this is a Hunters driven mode. Nest nudges the pendulum back the other way just a bit. There are six eggs scattered across the map. The Hunters must destroy the sites while the Monster has to protect them. The biggest bit of strategy afforded the Monster is the ability to hatch one of the eggs for a sidekick Minion that also must be killed for a round win. This plays out like a territories game. The first one or two eggs closest to the Hunter’s drop zone are pretty much marked for death. Per usual, the Monster will choose to hatch a Minion because, well, two are better than one. But when it gets down to those last two or three eggs, man does the intensity ramp up! The main beast has had time to farm resources and get stronger, and the Hunters are only a lucky break (no pun, intended) here and there from getting the match down to a lone nesting site. This can be an extremely even and action packed type, but I do give a slight advantage to the Monster in lieu of the Minion assist possibility. The last mode currently available is Defend. There is a ship awaiting lift off, but first must fill the fuel tanks. Safeguarding it during this process are two areas shut off by force field walls. The Monster spawns at stage 3 and comes with a pack of Minions to help destroy the power sources for the walls and then rip apart the machinery fueling the ship. On the surface, this sounds like a terrible situation for the Hunters, but there are clusters of turrets around each point of interest that really pack a punch when the fighting commences. Naturally, the Hunters must kill the Monster and Minions before they reach the end point. As with other modes, big ugly can’t regain health, so the counterweight is its allotment of Minions respawn after being eliminated. The Hunter’s focus should be to weaken their foe as much as possible before getting to the ship. The two walls are not very sturdy, and keeping them up might be more trouble than its worth. The health of the fueling station is much higher. The Monster’s health and shield level going into the “third round” will determine who’ll probably have the advantage. All things considered, this might be the most even match type in Evolve. The one slight caveat is with Goliath. Because of how tank-y he is at the top stage, his high health and shield bar does lend him better to Defend fights over the other two. This isn’t a deal breaker for the Hunters in terms of balance, but the person playing Hank has to be sure not to miss Orbital Barrage opportunities when the objectives are under attack.
For those that want at least some semblance of a campaign, you’ll have to make do with Evacuation. This repeatable mini story mode outlines the basic premise of why each side exists. Basically, there is a distant, but inhabitable planet called Shear. Things got squirrel-y, and now the research, researchers, and colonies are under threat of Shear’s more terrifying native species (read: Monsters). The Hunter’s mission it to save as many people as possible across a five day period before the planet is abandoned for good. These five days play out as five rounds of matches. Depending on what “side” wins determines a bonus heading into the next. Say the Hunters win the opening round of Defend, they’ll be treated with turrets located around the map going into the second match. The game claims to boasts “over 800,000 combinations” of maps, matches, and bonuses to try and keep replayability as high as possible. The last bit worth mentioning is the presentation. In terms of visuals, the character models for the Monsters are stellar. Highly detailed with impeccable movement fluidity, even the most high velocity moments of combat don’t degrade the look of the beasts. The humans and wildlife are solid, too, but they don’t show off the gradual damage of fighting like the Monsters, and for that don’t quite get to their level. The environments are also good, but don’t have the “liveliness” one might expect from a next-gen game set outdoors. The sound might be as impressive as the Monster’s visual quality. A pair of Dolby Digital headphones like my a40s absolutely come to life with the ambiance of surrounding wildlife, team chatter amongst the Hunters, the fear inducing growl of Goliath, the high frequency screech of Kraken, and the greatly designed sound effects of the equipment and abilities. All in all, this is one of the best sounding games I’ve experienced in quite a while, and perhaps the best among next-gen IP I’ve reviewed for the Xbox One.
