Review: Evolve

Evolve is a five player game that splits you into a team of four against a lone enemy. The team of Hunters are broken up into different classes and each must play a specific role in working towards taking down the opposing monster. You can play as the Assault: the main tank of the team that focuses on dealing heavy damage. The Trapper class focuses on finding the enemy and limiting its movement. Support buffs up your team and aids everyone. Finally, the Medic class heals and revives your teammates as you fight. The fifth player, on the opposite team, plays as a monster that is trying to avoid the Hunters. It stalks environmental creatures while eating and gaining experience in order to evolve. This is the game’s main concept since evolving significantly strengthens this character. The balance between the teams work out nicely but the game will also auto-balance the teams if one is winning more often than not. The four vs. one setup works out to a good mix.

One of the more minor inclusions but a nice touch is the way in which the backstory of these characters are presented. There is no main story arc to follow but each of your units has a history and personality that is mentioned during short dialogue scenes during the match’s beginning. There are multiple characters per class and depending on which combination of units your team chooses will determine what is discussed. These moments are very short and only happen at the one spot but they were always interesting and enjoyable to hear play out.

Much like Left 4 Dead, Evolve’s team component is the best and worst part. Playing on a team who are all working together nicely and conversing about their goal is where this game shines. Each character relies on one another to do a very specific job and too many loose screws really hampers your objective. When playing the game with random, non-responsive players it can be a lot less fun (think Mario Party by youself). This is then heightened when playing in the single player modes; where the rest of your team is computer controlled units. The game does help aid this by implementing a lot of character voice over to point out key aspects in the match. For example, characters will shout when they see the monster or when they have been downed in battle. You can also click in on the analog stick to set a color coded marker out in the environment for everyone on your team to see and follow. It isn’t a terrible experience when playing silently but Evolve is easily best with an engaged team to work with.

The amount of game modes are a little lacking. The four modes include Hunt, where you simply defeat the other team. Nest, in which you must track down and destroy the monsters’ eggs while it defends or uses them against you. Rescue is similar to Nest but works in the opposite direction. Last is Defend which has the Hunters protecting a landmark while the monsters tries to destroy them or the object. The four modes are all pretty similar. Nest is the main mission and each is a slight variation on that which is a little depressing. It feels like the game design was made for one very specific type of play and only allowed for small variation and little growth.

One nice bonus is the Evacuation game structure. This is opposed to the quick play option and is a series of matches (of one of the four modes mentioned above) played back to back. In here, the winner of each round gets a bonus perk in the next game. These additions can be more computer controlled players to help fight, deadlier creatures to damage the hunters, or even lasers and satellite attacks to damage one side or the other. This, again, adds a small narrative component to what you are doing and makes the fighting seem more cohesive and grand. This was easily my go to choice before picking a game mode.

The game does manage to put in a good amount of variety when it comes to the characters’ abilities. Each class has three different units to pick from with different weapons and skills (including the monster). They will generally provide the same abilities since the class designations are important but it allows you to choose which weapon load out you prefer when picking a character. Using each skill/weapon enough will bank you points that can unlock further aesthetic options and even more characters to play as. This is a great way to force you to learn characters, weapons, and skills you might not normally play as. Despite a limiting factor with the game modes, the characters make up for it.

Evolve’s cooperative play is best when you are with your friends, strategizing on how to succeed. A lot of this fun is lost when playing with computers or strangers but the game does try to relay the important information around. Though the game modes are too similar, the differences in characters helps alleviate much of the monotony. There’s a good amount to unlock and the characters’ backstory is fun to uncover. If you can get a team together and work as a cohesive unit then you are in for a great time here.