Evolve now Dead

[Stoney Mason]

Few independent studios sport the multiplayer pedigree of Turtle Rock Studios. After years of working on Valve's Counter-Strike series, the California-based developer created Left 4 Dead, a post-apocalyptic shooter that redefined cooperative gaming and landed the number-one spot on Game Informer's Top 30 Co-op Games of All Time list. Now the studio is combining its competitive and cooperative design expertise for a new, next-gen only IP: Evolve. Backed by publisher 2K Games, which paid a whopping $10.8 million for the IP in last year's THQ auction, Turtle Rock is taking full advantage of gamers' powerful new systems.

The sci-fi multiplayer-focused shooter pits a four-player crew of alien hunters against a separate player-controlled monster that grows larger and more powerful over the course of matches. Each hunter features its own unique items and abilities, and while the monster may be outnumbered, its size and an assortment of devastating attacks make it a more than formidable foe. Like Turtle Rock's previous titles, Evolve is being built with variety and replayabilty in mind; the result is a novel mix of cooperative and competitive multiplayer elements that's unlike anything we've played before. Our exclusive hands-on time with the game's four-versus-one hunt mode left us with plenty to be excited about, and you can get all the details in this month's issue.

Our 12-page look at Evolve reveals the first hunters, monster, and unique equipment players will get their hands on when the game releases on PC, Xbox One, and PlayStation 4 this fall. We also have a wealth of exclusive screens and hands-on impressions you won't want to miss. Check out the cover image below for your first hint at what's to come. 

http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2014/01/07/february-2014-evolve-768796.aspx?utm_content=buffer75a7c&utm_source=buffer&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=Buffer

[benjipwns]

- 4 classes. Medic, Assault, Support, Trapper.

- Each class has multiple characters to choose from.

- Multiple monsters to choose from as well, each with their own unique abilities, but they only talk about Goliath.

- 3rd person when playing as the monster.

- Goliath's abilities: Breathing Fire, Leap Attack, Charge Attack, Rock Throw. Also some stealth abilities if you want to stalk the hunters. You start out with two abilities of your choosing, and as you evolve you unlock more.

- Levels feature 'wildlife simulation', including carnivorous plants. Goliath evolves by hunting the wildlife. Hunters get special temporary bonuses for killing 'elite wildlife', faster health regen, extra damage, etc.

- You don't need a full squad to play. AI fills in the empty spots. This goes for the monster too.

- Players can revive each other like in Left 4 Dead. Three-Strikes rule applies here as well.

- All the Hunters have jetpacks.

- Team Monster can win multiple ways. Either kill all 4 Hunters at the same time or complete an objective. The objective example they give is take down a shield generator at a mining facility. Sounds like it's guarded by AI. Each level has it's own unique objective.

[Positive Touch]

left 4 dead was the perfect combo of arcade action and coop gameplay. everything was fine-tuned in such a way that it clearly communicated its own mechanics to make it a perfect pick-up-and-play game, while still having enough variety to make every session interesting. prolly the most fun ive ever had with a multiplayer fps. very VERY excited to see how this turns out.

[Phoenix Dark]

This sounds very fun. Any word on how big maps are? I'd hope there are some large ones, just to foster the mindset of being hunted by something that could come out of anywhere.

[Yulwei]

Oh man this sounds so good. I have high hopes for this one.

[chronovore]

I'm hauling Godzilla-lumber for this. Wow.

[Dickie Dee]

noiiiccce

[Phoenix Dark]

Gears of War 4

[Damian79]

I lost interest when i saw the pics.  Guess my love of Evo on the SNES is doing it.

[benjipwns]

Oh great, now we're going to have people complaining about "that CryEngine look" aren't we?

[Stoney Mason]

[duckman2000]

Worst shit trailer for most amazing game. I feel like I'm being manipulated but in a good way.

[Stoney Mason]

I think these game is actually really cool. I just don't think its for me.

[Stoney Mason]

http://www.vg247.com/2014/08/05/evolve-has-been-delayed-into-2015-by-take-two/

Delayed to 2015

[Eel O'Brian]

[Stoney Mason]

Played it. It's a fun game that almost certainly will bomb imo.

Requires a lot of teamwork to do well. If you are playing with a shit team, you will have a bad time. This will be less of a problem when the hardcore crowd that wants to own it buys the game but still something to be noted.

I just don't think it has broad appeal. It's really neat at what it does but I have a feeling what it does is made for a niche crowd.

Maybe would have been better off as a free to play game introducing monsters and skins, and guns and lowering the barrier of entry so it can more easily build a community without the $60 pay wall. 

I have an extra xbox one alpha code if anybody wants it.

[sarslip]

yes please.   

[Stoney Mason]

yes please.   

pm sent

[Mupepe]

I got a code and downloaded it yesterday but I won't get to play until tonight.  Send me an invite if you see me on Stoney

[Stoney Mason]

I got a code and downloaded it yesterday but I won't get to play until tonight.  Send me an invite if you see me on Stoney

Sure. What's your gamertag mup?


I was reading over the impressions on GAF and those people are savaging it. I disagree. I just think its a game not for everybody. It has a unique appeal and rhythm to it. It's actually fun to watch other people play it when you understand it. But its just not something with broad appeal like COD or battlefield.

[demi]

I'll give it a try this weekend but I dont see myself caring about this one

[Bebpo]

So the impressions sounds pretty yikes.  Sounds like a neat indie $20 PSN/XBL/Steam game that THQ were nuts and gave a 30 million dollar budget to.  Basically, the dev team had a neat idea for a something-different creative multiplayer game and after making the idea into a game, some of it works, some of it doesn't and that'd play fine as a lower budget indie game that could be polished up and refined in a bigger budget sequel if successful, but coming out of the gates with a multiplayer only game that 3/4ths of the players were be bored of within a week at full price?  Yikes.  This thing is going to bomb hard.

I dunno, Left for Dead was a good game, but it could be a one hit wonder.  Need a few more great games from these guys to see how their game design skills are.

[toku]

So the impressions sounds pretty yikes.  Sounds like a neat indie $20 PSN/XBL/Steam game that THQ were nuts and gave a 30 million dollar budget to.  Basically, the dev team had a neat idea for a something-different creative multiplayer game and after making the idea into a game, some of it works, some of it doesn't and that'd play fine as a lower budget indie game that could be polished up and refined in a bigger budget sequel if successful, but coming out of the gates with a multiplayer only game that 3/4ths of the players were be bored of within a week at full price?  Yikes.  This thing is going to bomb hard.

I dunno, Left for Dead was a good game, but it could be a one hit wonder.  Need a few more great games from these guys to see how their game design skills are.

Well the thing with L4D is your experience didn't have to be difficult. It really isn't a hard game unless you're playing on realistic expert. I think this game looks great visually but asymmetrical multiplayer just isn't appealing to me.

[kingkitty]

ps4 alpha delayed due to 2.0 update

sigh

[doctavius bonbon]

trapper class is pretty dope

on demand thunderdomes and kaiju harpoons is of legit interest to me.

[Stoney Mason]

Yeah having a good trapper is so key. Along with a medic.

I think the assault and support class by comparison need less skill.

[Great Rumbler]

Somehow I own Evolve on Steam, but I don't know how I got it.

[benjipwns]

Me too. Looked into it, it's alpha/beta whatever access due to owning XCOM.

[thisismyusername]

Somehow I own Evolve on Steam, but I don't know how I got it.

If you own X-com you got into the beta.

[CajoleJuice]

Somehow I own Evolve on Steam, but I don't know how I got it.

If you own X-com you got into the beta.

Wow I would not have noticed this.

[Rufus]

Played for two hours, mostly as the monster, and it's a lot of fun so far. I imagine competent hunters will turn this into a very tense experience, but so far the monster seems to be very strong even at stage one. I've only lost one or two games as the monster. On stage two you can roll the entire team in the right environment. Singled out hunters can't get away at all between the leap, charge and fire breath. You're always doing damage or separating them further.

I'm also loving the little post-game map-overlay that shows everyone's paths. Quite interesting how close the hunters are even when you feel safe and sneak around all the time.

[Stoney Mason]

Beta is out.

It has a new mode called evacuation that is much better than the regular skirmish or hunt mode or whatever its called.

The normal hunt mode always has the same dynamic of the monster running and the hunters chasing.

Evacuation adds other modes where the dynamic is different. Like Nest has the hunter going after eggs to destroy them and if the monster gets them, they hatch new monsters and the hunters have to destroy them. So the dynamic is completely different. All the other modes are like that. So Evacuation is like a 5 stage thing with these different modes mixed in.


 

[Stoney Mason]

Can I get the beta without preordering? Would like to try it out.

I think everyone can download it. I think it runs until the 19th.

[duckman2000]

It says that Evacuation mode is available, but I can't get past the intro movie and splash. Meh.

[thisismyusername]

It says that Evacuation mode is available, but I can't get past the intro movie and splash. Meh.

Not until launch/Feb. 10th. It has that in the description.

[duckman2000]

It said that it would be available January 17th at 12PM PST last I looked 

[Stoney Mason]

Evacuation has been working since the 17th at least on Xbox one.

[thisismyusername]

Evacuation has been working since the 17th at least on Xbox one.

Must be X-box only like the Tier 3 stuff on consoles.

On PC:

[Stoney Mason]

Yeah that's pretty dumb then. I think the game needs all the help it can get on the sales front so limiting what people can see that could possibly give them a wider view of a game is always a pretty bad idea.

[Stoney Mason]

The pre-order Wraith monster was stupidly over-powered. They better nerf that shit.

[Stoney Mason]

So I ended up getting this for free since the person I share my xbox 1 with bought it digitally. I'll post some impressions when I put some time in it. I do like that it has solo play where you can play against bots to learn the basics. How nice would most shooters (especially battlefield) be if that was an option instead of the shitty campaigns they try to pack in nowadays.

[chronovore]

So I ended up getting this for free since the person I share my xbox 1 with bought it digitally. I'll post some impressions when I put some time in it. I do like that it has solo play where you can play against bots to learn the basics. How nice would most shooters (especially battlefield) be if that was an option instead of the shitty campaigns they try to pack in nowadays.

Yeah, weird. You'd think that an idea originating with Quake 3 (AFAIK) would have had more clout and have been tried more frequently.

[demi]

So I ended up getting this for free since the person I share my xbox 1 with bought it digitally. I'll post some impressions when I put some time in it. I do like that it has solo play where you can play against bots to learn the basics. How nice would most shooters (especially battlefield) be if that was an option instead of the shitty campaigns they try to pack in nowadays.

Shitty, actually. Campaigns do the same thing.

This game fucking sucks, by the way. No "offline" is gonna save it anyway

[Eel O'Brian]

I used to enjoy playing the bots in BF1942. The AI sucked, but it helped me learn the maps and try out all the different vehicles without having to worry about other people.

[Eel O'Brian]

But yeah, I'll wait until it evolves into a PS+ game

[Stoney Mason]

So I ended up getting this for free since the person I share my xbox 1 with bought it digitally. I'll post some impressions when I put some time in it. I do like that it has solo play where you can play against bots to learn the basics. How nice would most shooters (especially battlefield) be if that was an option instead of the shitty campaigns they try to pack in nowadays.

Shitty, actually. Campaigns do the same thing.

This game fucking sucks, by the way. No "offline" is gonna save it anyway

They don't at all imo. Playing the campaign in battlefield teaches you nothing about how multiplayer works or how modes work specifically other than pointing and shooting a gun.

The rest is your opinion and valid but since you play destiny, opinions and all that.

 

[demi]

Yea, I stick to my opinion you wish washy bitch made nicca

[Stoney Mason]

Exactly. Better to keep your mouth shut. But that's you.

Fuck off.

[Positive Touch]

why so buttsore today demi

[Am_I_Anonymous]

omg stop fighting.

[Stoney Mason]

I'm probably gonna repeat myself from what I said in the alpha and beta threads but I'm too lazy to go look and read what I posted so fuck it.

This is probably the most bi-polar experience you can have playing a shooter in years. You can play for 2 hours with group after group of incompetents (and it only takes one bad team-mate to let your entire team down unlike just about every other shooter) and just hate the game. It will feel unbalanced. Certain modes you will just hate. And you will just feel utterly frustrated and disillusioned that your team could ever take down the monster.

Then you get into a lobby with friends or just randomly happen to get the ever-rare good team-mates and the game is a blast. You get to play your role. And bounce between your different responsibilities and the game feels like nothing else out there on the shooter market. It's not really about your gun skill like nearly every shooter. It's about your decision making and how you use the tools your class has when you get into the heat of battle and how the rest of your team, does the same.

It's almost impossible to recommend at full price because the bar for enjoyment is so high. If you enjoy playing the monster at least in that case, you are self-sufficient. But if you prefer to play as the hunters, it means you are bound for a lot of frustration unless you find 3 good people to always play with.

It's a niche shooter, for shooter nerds who may be bored already with the other shooters on the market. That's by definition not a large group of people but I dig the game.

Game also should have shipped with a visible ranking system to base the matchmaking on.

[Huff]

They should hurry up and make Left for Dead 3

[Your Stalker]

you know valve can't count to three, man

[Positive Touch]

so would you say the skill level required higher than it was for left 4 dead? I felt like it was hard to get a good team together that could carry you to the end, but I'd still have fun even when we lost. wondering if evolve is similar bc l4d was one of my favorite online shooters ever.

[Stoney Mason]

so would you say the skill level required higher than it was for left 4 dead? I felt like it was hard to get a good team together that could carry you to the end, but I'd still have fun even when we lost. wondering if evolve is similar bc l4d was one of my favorite online shooters ever.

Unfortunately I never tried the competitive side of Left 4 Dead. I only did the co-op side of the game. So I can't speak intelligently to how it stacks up to that even though obviously Turtle Rock was involved in both.

I will say the tactical level required to do well is pretty much beyond what is out there in competing shooters at the moment (at least on consoles). Evolve fucks you if one of your teammates isn't playing right and one guy can't superman it for the team and carry you. Most shooters even the supposed team based ones aren't really designed this way in this day and age where COD style design that caters to everybody especially casuals is the dominant design philosophy.

[Am_I_Anonymous]

Left for Dead was pretty fun for like 2 days then it's the same thing every time.

I expect this game will be the same.

[Positive Touch]

:|

l4d was great to me because not only did it break away from the typical deathmatch that's been done to death in fps, it also changed the tempo and style of the gameplay to match something like an old arcade game like gauntlet or smash tv. then they added in an easy-to-understand but extremely effective team mechanic to keep things focused. I loved the shit out of that game and wish there were more experimental fps out there. I know there's the survival game craze that's going on now but that's way different than what I want to play.

[AdmiralViscen]

I feel like I fit into the type of player that this game is meant for, especially the way Stoney puts it, but every video just looks boring to me.

[Stoney Mason]

I feel like I fit into the type of player that this game is meant for, especially the way Stoney puts it, but every video just looks boring to me.

These things are always variable. One man's boring is another man's tense and exciting. Playing the alpha or beta sadly would have been the best option as its very difficult to recommend this game to people as its not like COD or BF or Halo, or Titanfall or something easily quantifiable. All those games while different all share the same DNA. Evolve doesn't really fit into that family of shooters. If somebody told me they hated this game for X and Y, and Z reasons, I could see it, even though I personally like it.

And honestly, I wasn't going to buy it myself at full price so its not like I was sold myself. I got it for free essentially so obviously that impacts my experience and perceptions.

I think the "hunt" mode is actually the weakest mode. And if I solely played that, I could see it getting boring. But the other modes in the mix with evacuation make the game actually feel very dynamic imo. Boring isn't the word I would use to describe evolve. Punishing is the word I would choose instead. And that can be a good or bad thing depending on how an individual views those elements. 

I think what I'm trying to say is that even if Evolve isn't the perfect fps, I respect it. It's not trying to do same thing as the other shooters on the market and we need more of that.

[AdmiralViscen]

All the videos I see are the monster staring at the ground eating sheep while the other dudes walk in circles until they run into each other and then it's a Destiny meat shield boss fight. Is that Hunt mode?