opps...did I say Beta, I actually meant Alpha
so even earlier
unfortunately I have used all seven.
Anyway.... now I am more awake and on a PC not a phone I will give a comprehensive review of it.
Evolve was one of the main games that took my interest at EGX in london. It was a two hour queue just to get into the gameplay tent and at points it got up to three and four hours, on the Friday they had to shut the queue off at around 16:00-16:30 as they didn't have time.
Unfortunately no video devices were allowed inside the area so I was unable to capture any game play directly. but here is some lovely shots of me waiting in line with my buddy.
So, after waiting and waiting.....and making some new friends who also belonged to the Glorious PC Master Race we got to go in.
The set up they hard was running on high end PC's but using Xbox one controllers so I was more than happy with this. I was doubly excited as it is one of the first games to be developed to run on the new CryEngine 4 so naturally I was curious as to how it would work out.
they let groups of five in at the time so me and my bud got paired with a group of three people. two of which seems less than interested and one who was excited for the game. As I knew on Evolve the hunters would require teamwork when they asked for one person to volunteer to be the monster... so I jumped at the chance.
I had the choice of two monsters, Goliath, A big hulking brute with massive arms, strong, powerful and takes a lot of damage and Kraken, a fast, flying monster who uses ranged attacks.
I chose Kraken.
He has several skills. you get three points to begin with and choose to allocate your skills at the begining.
He has a ranged attack, (I forget the name) but its a big ball of energy which decimates all
Banshee mines, which are just that, glowing orbs/mines (very fun when retreating)
A close range area attack (which does area damage to those around you)
A knockback attach which pushes the enemy back while doing damage
So I begun and immediately ran, at level/tier 1. I just ran and ran to eat AI controlled wildlife. Apparently the hunters had trouble tracking me as I was able to eat enough to begin to evolve. They trapped me before I could do this in a big dome like net. I choose to run and evade/fly/climb and sprint rather than weaken myself by fighting.
This turned out to work well as once the shield went down I got out of there, into a gully, a canyon. and climbed a cliff, found a lovely bush, hid and evolved.
When you evolve you turn into a cocoon, so it needs to be safe, you get three more skill points which I used to max out Ranged attack and Knockback so I was now Level 2,
Level 2 you can hold your own but really. you want to get to level 3. As they hadn't found me I found a massive herd of animals and ate them all. :yum yum: this wasn't enough so found a giant massive AI wildlife, still not enough.
As a monster you have a smell ability. this shows all wildlife and players within the area. using this I noticed the players on the map advancing to me. However they made a rookie mistake. three (my buddy and two random) as a group but one of theres was separate.
Using the Kraken I snuck up (using the sneak ability) and a sneak attack. Lets just say hunters are yummy and gave me enough to evolve.
Tip when playing Evolve: Never go it alone, Krakens eat hunters :yum:
so once again, they trapped me and I fought back this time, waiting for the shield to go down and then Evolve to the final stage. this happened, I escaped through, found a large herd of animals which kept the hunters busy for some time and dropped banshee mines to get them if they got passed.
So anyway... I found a cave and... BOOM.... Final evolution. Now the tides turned... the hunters became the hunted.
I stalked my new prey for some time. waiting for them and eventually I striked, I The trapper got a harpoon line into me which I had to fight off. I concentrated my damage attacks on the assault as he dealt the most damage, once he went down the medic went to revive him which was my main target. Take the medic out, no more revives. This world perfectly and I even got to eat her.
However the assault had managed to get revived and erected a shield. Once this failed a melee attack killed him in one, by stomping him. Nothing was left. I couldn't even eat him.
I took out the Trapper and the Support quite easily, I thought I had won but the hunters bloodhound/dog/monster tracker thing was still alive, I almost killed it but lost him as he fled.
I figured I'd go for the secondary objective. Destroy a settlement power core and win. they were dead so it was easy. I ate and got my armour back to full and went for the power core.
Next thing I knew a blast of minigun fire hit me in the back, apparently after the first death a timer starts, 2:00 minutes later the team respawned as the dog was still alive.
I turned to face the hunters, they were full health, I was less than half. Uhoh.... I took care of the pesky dog with one swoop so he couldn't escape again, Medic next and Assault after.
With those gone, even though my armour was low and my health was not in a good place It was easy to take care of the support and trapper. the trapper used his dome to keep me there, not sure why as I wanted the fight and soon the support was the only hunter left. I forced him back with a whirlwind and charged him with a melee attack.
The monster was victorious.
Speaking to my bud afterwards he said the Assault is great, but the lack of support from the medic let them down.
Lack of team work and communication makes it so easy for the monster and as they only have to rely on themselves with a disordered team it was relatively easy.
In contrast some friends we met, a group of four worked as a team of hunters. they found it quite easy even against a fully evolved Goliath by working as a team with their only death being their support at the end.
The game looks like it'd get boring fast but I actually think with all the maps, modes, hunters and monsters with different skills it will give a great longevity in the play time.
So yeah, #Monsters ftw.
How did it Play, very smoothly actually, the controls felt intuitive, it wasn't a button mash game as the monster.
I did feel a little let down as the Kraken is classed as being able to fly, but you are unable to go really high, he can also apparently climb "almost any surface" but again, high cliffs or rocks are a no no, minor points.
the graphics are not the best in the world but they still blow you away enough. We were on a dark night map so was unable to see a lot but the ambiance and lighting was very good. Textures are smooth, no AA issues and stuttering/frame issues were non existent, it's actually very polished for the stage it was in being billed as "Pre Alpha" it felt a lot more polished than a lot of Beta's out there, let alone Alphas.
Evolve was definitely the best of Show and Turtle Rock blew away any of the competition. Screw the Triple A's like EA, Ubi or Activation who I felt bought nothing to the show. EGX was dominated by the smaller boys and boy did they make it.
...anxious myself. it's one of the FEW im looking forward to. My buddy and I have been talking about it quite a bit, waiting for release. I watched a vid of the developers speaking about it , and I liked the ideas they have. the varying role types seemed original, the way they went about them i mean, i.e. this character heals better, but slower, etc , adds an interesting dynamic , IMO.
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