Evolve – Hands On Preview

Evolve is an upcoming sci-fi themed, co-operative and competitive first-person shooter game developed by Turtle Rock Studios (makers of the Left 4 Dead series) being published by 2K Games. Built on CryEngine 3, Evolve will pit 4 players as the Hunters (1^st Person Perspective) vs. 1 player as the Monster (3rd Person Perspective).

Evolve will release for the PC, Playstation 4 and Xbox One during Fall of this year.

When you first take a look at the game you can just tell it was created on the CryEngine, by how beautifully its worldly environments come to life, especially the jungle aspect. Evolve as a whole was very impressive and despite being in the very early stages of development, I only ever noticed one graphical glitch in the preview build which wasn’t game breaking and will most likely be fixed before its release. The minor glitch occurred when I was respawning as a Hunter with some trees appeared through the dropship.

During this preview I will be covering many aspects of the game, including the characters that will feature in the main game. So let’s kick this preview off by meeting The Monster aka Goliath (More types to be announced at a later date) abilities are: Rock Throw, Leap Attack, Charge Attack and Fire Breath.

The Monster can eat creatures on the planet to evolve into a maximum level 3 monster which allows you to become stronger and add to your maximum health. When you first start the game at level 1 you get to choose 2 abilities. You will unlock 1 new ability every level of your choosing.

Goliath Controls:

• LB Rock Throw
• RB Leap Attack
• LT Feed/Climb
• RT Melee
• Y Charge Attack
• A Jump
• B Fire Breath
• R3 Smell

Meet the Hunters

Each Hunter has two weapons, one equipment, one Special Ability and a Jetpack. At the start of their mission the four Hunters jump out of a dropship, they must work together to take down the monster and stop it from destroying the generator.

Controls

• LB Equipment
• RB Special Ability
• RT Shoot
• Y Switch weapons
• X Reload
• A Jump/double tap for jetpack
• R3 Mark Target

Griffin The Trapper

Class: Trapper

Weapons:

• Submachine Gun, damage the monster with this weapon as the trapper.
• Harpoon, restricts the monsters movement by making it difficult for him to run away.

Equipment:

• Sound Spikes, plant around the map to give you the location of the Monster if it goes near them.

Special Ability

• Mobile Arena, activate when near the Monster to keep it in an enclosed area.

Markov The Assault

Class: Assault – Use your fire power to take the most shield/health as possible off the monster.

Weapons:

• Assault Rifle, best used at long distances.
• Lightning Gun, best used at close range.

Equipment:

• Arc Mines, can be placed around the map.

Special Ability:

• Personal Shield, protect yourself against the Monster.

Val The Medic

Class: Medic – Keep your teammates alive.

Weapons:

• Medgun, directly heals one team mate.
• Anti-Material Rifle pierces the Monster’s armoured skin, which can be exploited by her teammates to deal extra damage on the weak spot.

Equipment:

• Tranquilizer Rifle, shows the outlined location of the monster for the rest of the team and slows and slightly weakens the monster.

Special Ability:

• Healing Burst, heals the group within a small radius.

Hank

Class: Support – Provide a tactical advantage.

Weapons:

• Laser Cutter, deals the support classes’ damage.
• Shield Gun, protects allies with a shield.

Equipment:

• Cloaking Device, makes you and your teammates invisible.

Special Ability:

• Orbital Barrage, an air strike that deals massive amounts of damage, but is hard to aim on the fast moving Monster.

The Wildlife of Evolve:

The Monster/Hunters aren’t the only things you have to be aware of, think of these as mobs in a MOBA type of game as they are AI controlled.

Bird like creatures can give away your location if startled, so avoid as a Monster especially at the start of the match. Crocodile like monsters can eat Hunters if they go into lakes, where you are pretty much instantly killed. These can be killed by the Monster to gain health.

Plants that can trap Hunters like huge Venus Flytraps and drain your health until another Hunter shoots the plant to save you. I had made the stupid mistake of not viewing where I’m landing while using the jetpack, keep your eyes peeled for the deadly Venus Flytrap creatures.

Small creatures which are an easy kill for the Monster that he can eat to help level up. But they are pretty useless for Hunters to kill as they offer no benefit.

Finally big creatures can sometimes be mistaken for the Monster at a distance for beginners. Which will attack Hunters and the Monster on sight, also the Hunters can gain a damage boost for all 4 players by killing them and then by pressing the X button near its corpse. The Monster can gain health from these too.

Maps

We only got to check out one map in the preview build which was Forest Ruins, as you can guess it’s a forest area with high cliffs, lakes and a futuristic looking base in the center which could actually be part of the ruins in the name of the map. Have humans landed on this planet to research the ruins and is the Monster fighting back to defend its territory?

How to Win

If you are playing as the Monster there are two ways of winning, by killing all the Hunters or taking out the generator when at Evolve level 3, and by killing all the humans inside the base. To win as the Hunters you must work together to take down the Monster and stop it from destroying the generator.

Hands On

The preview build I played was on PC with either mouse or keyboard or via the Xbox 360 controller. First I got to play as the Monster (only Goliath type in the preview build, more information will be available in the final release) on the Forest Ruins map, which was the only map that was available at this time. The first 2 abilities that I choose as the Monster was Rock Throw and Charge, as I felt a projectile and a close range attack would help greatly at first.

As the match started I noticed a intro cutscene story board which was not yet implemented in the preview build. I’m sure we will learn more about the actual back story of Evolve at a later date. Before the Hunters get to land in their drop ship the Monster has a few seconds to get to a location of the map, before the Hunters spring into action.

From the get go the Monster felt easy to control, I got the same sort of vibe playing as the special infected from Left 4 Dead, but I was alone and I had to take out the other team without any help. I couldn’t alert them to my position right away, so I had to avoid any bird like creatures, but I needed to feed off the creatures to Evolve. The only chance that I had of taking out the Hunters was if I Evolved. I kept clicking on the right stick (R3) to smell, so that I knew what location the Hunters were coming from. Once I had eaten enough herbivore creatures, I needed to get as far away as possible from the Hunters to go into my cocoon so that I could level up. I decided to do this on a rock high up hoping they would not see me if they were close.  By doing this, it also gave me a high vantage point on my enemy.

But I was mistaken, as they were closer than I had thought! While I was in my cocoon state they had managed to surround me! The trapper let off his mobile arena so I knew once I had come out of my cocoon, I had a big fight on my hands, but luck wasn’t on my side as once you come out of your cocoon you have no shield. The ability I picked at level 2 was Leap Attack. I burst out of the cocoon state and I tried my best to concentrate my fire on the Medic, the green healing beam from their Medgun helps you easily identify the Medic. They managed to get my health down to ¾ when I noticed the mobile arena went down. I knew at this point that I had to get out of there before they managed to reduce my health further more and I needed my armour to recharge before I could confront them again.

I tried to make my way to the center of the map to the base/ruins slowly as I was in a panic and wasn’t aiming my aim high to jump long distance, to make matters worse The Trapper kept harpooning me so I had to keep pressing the right trigger to shake it off with the melee attack. This is when I knew I had become the Hunted.

I chose to make my way to the center base as I had hoped I could use close quarters combat against the Hunters as my advantage. Thankfully my plan had worked as the Rock Throws and Leap Attacks are really powerful attacks even at level 2 from long distances. I had a bit of trouble with using the Charge Attack as it doesn’t have very much range. I managed to have a good aim with these attacks as a circle on the ground shows the landing point. I took out the Medic first as I planned earlier, so the rest of the team were trying to revive her every chance they got, but that just allowed me to attack them in a small area with them having little mobility to defend themselves. I managed to quickly take out 2 more players of the team, the Trapper and Assault.

The Support knew he was in trouble so he had to get the hell out of there,  so that he could revive his teammates, but I wasn’t having any of that. So I chased after him and he was in my sights! I saw him using his jet pack in the distance to get up on a cliff. I knew I had to use my projectile attacks if it meant killing him before his teammates respawned. So I threw a rock and luckily (or skilfully) it hit him in the back taking most of his health, leaving him decapitated with no teammates left to revive him and as a result, victory was mine! I was very proud of myself for winning my first ever match of Evolve as the Monster and then after I found out that the Support I was chasing down at the end of the match was a member of the Development team!

If you prefer being a lone wolf like me as you don’t feel you can always rely on your teammates, being the Monster is the most fun to be had. The first Hunter class that I got to play as was Assault, it was my job to deal as much damage as I could to the Monster. If you are used to playing your games of the first person variety and like teaming up for some co-op, then being a Hunter may be for you.

First Person View as Markov The Assault Class With Lightning Gun

If you have no clue where the Monster is at first it’s best to plant some Arc Mines just in case you are lucky enough for the Monster to stumble across them. If you or your teammates spot the Monster, make sure you click in the right stick to  mark its location, as the Assault can use the Assault Rifle to shoot the Monster at a distance. I felt the Medic was useful at using the Tranquilizer Rifle, so you can keep better track of the Monster and slow him down for the first engagement. The Trapper then needs to get as close as the Monster as possible to lay down his Mobile Arena. You can then use all your firepower of the Lightning Gun as the Assault, just make sure to also activate your Personal Shield.

Double tapping the jump button (A) with the direction of left or right will help you evade any oncoming attacks. If your health is getting low either hope your Medic will soon heal you or make way to higher or lower ground where it’s a little safer from the Monster. Support needs to use the Orbital Strike when the Monster has less movement in an enclosed area and the Shield Gun if any teammate’s health is running low. Once the Mobile Arena goes down it’s mostly up to the trapper to use the Harpoon and the job of the Medic to Tranquilize the Monster to stop it from getting away to regain his shield.

We managed to get the Monster’s health down to ¼, but sadly it got away, he was too quick for us and managed to Evolve to level 3 and regain its health by feeding off a huge creature which we didn’t expect before bringing the fight back to us near the Generator. This is where I and my team decided to prepare and wait for him. We lost, but we had one hell of a good time working as a team and it was ever so close.

Check out the newly released CGI trailer below.

 

I hope you have enjoyed reading my preview. I really can’t wait to finally get my hands on the release build so that I can play this game to its maximum potential. Be on the lookout for more upcoming news on Evolve. Thanks to 2K Games and Turtle Rock Studios for inviting us to their preview event.