RiZ3R! Posted October 11, 2019 Posted October 11, 2019 INFORMATION Evolve is a first-person shooter video game developed by Turtle Rock Studios, published by 2K Games and distributed by Take-Two Interactive. Announced in January 2014 and originally set to be released in late 2014, the game was delayed and released worldwide for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One in February 2015. GAMEPLAY Like many children, I was afraid of the mythical monster under the bed, but in time, this nightmare fodder gained a face and a name. It was the Sasquatch, a creature I came to fear when watching a cheap television film late at night which demonized the fictitious (or is it?!) beast. I refused to go into the woods by myself for years afterwards, for fear a giant hairy fiend might grab me and abscond with my limp body, for Lord knows what reasons. By avoiding the woods, I could avoid the monster lurking there. Evolve doesn’t let you hide. This unusual and entertaining team-focused shooter forces you to face a grotesque monster in each and every match, and should you find it, you cannot always flee. Here’s the setup: a four-person team of hunters, each touting very specific talents, is on the prowl. The quarry is a single creature with an appetite for flesh. Not just the flesh of the hunters, but indeed, for the flesh of anything that moves. By attacking the wildlife and chomping down on its meat, the monster evolves through three stages of being, each more powerful than the last. Clearly, the hunters would rather tear the monster down with the least resistance possible, and thus finding the creature quickly, and efficiently destroying it, is a good team’s opening goal. Would that it were so easy. Should you join a team of hunters, you rely on a particular squadmate to lead you to the beast. That would be the trapper, and while you eventually unlock two other trappers to chose from, Evolve smartly taps Maggie as the initial leader. Maggie makes for a good guide through the ins and outs of pursuit, for she is not a lone ranger. Instead, she relies on her best friend Daisy, an animal called a trapjaw that you might think of as an ugly beagle, or perhaps the result of a hyena and a shark’s unholy coupling. In any case, Daisy is truly woman’s best friend: she follows the monster’s tracks, and leads you to its current location, should all the proper pieces fit in place. The hunters chat it up from time to time, trying to keep you invested in the chase, but the dialogue repeats quickly and often. Hunting with my grandfather was as much about telling stories as it was about bagging an eight-point buck (we thankfully never encountered the Sasquatch); if only Evolve had taken the opportunity to regale you with tall tales. Nevertheless, Evolve goes out of its way to mitigate any potential tedium, forcing the monster to attack a power generator, and the hunters to defend it, once the monster achieves the final stage of its evolution. In any case, hunts don’t usually hit the boredom breaking point. There is wildlife to contend with, for starters, though you’ll ignore most of the critters when possible. Yet you can’t always bypass them, either because killing one rewards you with a temporary (but still long-lasting) buff, or because a not-actually-a-rock comes to life and starts chomping on your tasty bits. The world of Shear isn’t hospitable, though humans have certainly tried to tame it, going so far as to build a verdant bird sanctuary on its most chilling map. There’s no story to speak of, but the poisonous creeks and carcasses left by the monster’s predations speak volumes. The visual design deserves some credit for the oppressive atmosphere, bringing to life a planet that clearly isn’t Earth, but is just enough like it to unsettle you--a biological uncanny valley, if you will. Audio wields the true power in Evolve, however, freaking you out with the chitter-chatter of Lord-knows-what, and the squishes and crunches of what-the-hell-made-that-noise... And then the moment arrives, and the foreshadowed attack occurs. Battles remain fresh and exciting due to an in-game conspiracy devised by Evolve’s many variables: rising plateaus that provide vantage points and break up the line of sight; the trapper’s vast dome, which traps the monster within its confines and creates corners and cul de sacs; nearby creatures that might enter the fray; and the hunters’ own weapons and skills, of course, which damage and limit the monster in various ways. Assault expert Hyde uses toxic grenades that poison the monster and help drive it to different areas; support-class robot Bucket drops floating turrets that pelt the monster with bullets; and tracker Abe slows down the target with stasis grenades. Monstering it up is just as fulfilling as engaging in the hunt, though the pace is different. You spend the early minutes sniffing out the wildlife and satiating your hunger, which not only reinforces your armor, but also brings you that much closer to evolving. You might be a hulking beast, but you’re more vulnerable than you think, particularly at stages one and two. Smart play can yield victory even so, though you’re best bet is to avoid confrontation until you are the brawniest bully you always knew you could be. Just as good hunters are constantly in motion, so too is a good monster, and in this way, the tables turn: the hunted becomes the hunter, and it is the four-person squad that has most to fear. The tempo changes considerably when you abandon Hunt mode and experiment with other possibilities. There is Nest mode, for instance, in which the hunters must gun down a half-dozen monster eggs ready to be hatched before the monster annihilates the team. The monster, in turn, can hatch an egg to spawn a minion, which tears through the jungle en route to the pack of hunters. Even at stage one, following a minion into a warzone is incredibly tempting: not only does a duo do more damage, but the addition of another combatant can confuse the team. Rescue mode requires the hunters to revive fallen colonists and protect them while waiting for a dropship to appear and whisk the survivors away to safety, but it has something important in common with Nest mode: it uses specific objectives to keep both the hunters and the monster in motion, and brings them together early and often as a result. GAMEPLAY TRAILER
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