5 Reasons Why Evolve is the Game You NEED in 2015

If you missed out on Evolve’s “Big Alpha” test a few months ago, you might be scouring the web looking for previews and gameplay of Turtle Rock’s new co-op game and wondering: “do I want this game?”

No, you don’t. You NEED this game. Here are five reasons why.

5. A breath of fresh air

You might be thinking “looks just like every other FPS” but it is the central concept of Evolve – its 4v1 gameplay – that sets it apart from other shooters. Co-Op these days is often played out over hours of story (a la Destiny or Borderlands) or frantic death matches (Call of Duty or Battlefield). Evolve mashes the teamwork of the former into a very different style of death match from the latter.

Much like the developers’ previous hit Left 4 Dead, the game thrives on cooperation. If you stray from your team-mates, you’ll almost certainly die. As the monster the feeling of trying to outwit four other players is nothing you’ve experienced before. Imagine being the alien from Predator, except 20-feet tall. That comes close. Evolve thinks outside the box in an industry that needs shaking up.

4. Choices, choices, choices

Though the four classes in Evolve might seem familiar at first, there is a deceptive amount of depth to them. Each class will have a number of different characters to choose from. For example, the Medic (a fairly standard class you might think) can be split between the support and healing-based Val and the buff and damage-dealing Lazarus. Being able to mix and match within the class itself creates a wide variety of play styles for the team of hunters.

Even as the monster you’re given a wide variety of tactical choices to make. Will you configure your Goliath to be a wrecking ball of rage and flame, or perhaps to take a stealthier approach, picking hunters off one by one with thrown boulders and lethal pounces? Will your Kraken hide in the shadows, slowly evolving to level three? Or will you put all your points in its long-range lightning attacks and fry the hunters in an ambush?

3. Horror without the horror game

There were times while playing Evolve that I felt truly hunted. Though many of its matches end rather quickly when an inexperienced monster is quickly overwhelmed, once you come up against a confident player things can quickly change. The environments you’re dumped into in Evolve are (forgive the pun) monstrous, leading to you subconsciously sticking close to your team for protection.This makes it all the more jarring when one of your teammates are snatched away and dispatched, too quick for you to even know where the monster had gone. It’s not just the monster, too. The planet’s animals and even plant-life are all out to get you and there are many creatures besides the one you hunt that can easily kill you if you’re alone.

The tables can turn very quickly. In one game I played during the alpha we were set upon by a level 1 Kraken as soon as we landed. The monster had set up mines and waited for us – unleashing attacks and splitting us up before we had a chance to orientate ourselves. Even when losing so thoroughly (and quickly) I was thrilled – the game had engineered something completely unexpected.

2. 100 ways to die

When the Big Alpha finished many were questioning the game modes and monsters. Was “hunt” mode enough to justify a $60 or £40 purchase? Though I emphatically said “yes”, many did not. Now four new modes have joined the roster of gameplay. Nest and Rescue are objective-based, for those who prefer more structure to their monster hunting, while Defend demonstrates a more MOBA-style of play. Evacuation takes a leaf from Left 4 Dead’s book and asks hunters to escape an area before the monster devours them.

Monsters, too, will come in a variety of flavours. We already know about the aggressive Goliath and the sneaky Kraken from the Alpha, now the hulking yet-to-be-named fourth monster and the leaked Wraith have joined the team. It means that, as the hunters, identifying the monster and creating a strategy is paramount. As the monster, it creates a world of deadly customisation.

1. True teamwork

What games do you think of when I say the word “teamwork”? Battlefield? Counter-Strike? Team Fortress 2? Most of those games have their heart in the right place but devolve into one-man kill-to-death quests more often than not. The emphasis in most FPS games these days is on the guns, yet Evolve, though equipping all the characters with them, doesn’t rely on them. They’re not boomsticks to pepper your enemies with; they’re skills to aid your teammates.

Together a team of hunters can really mess up a monster’s day. Divided they’re little more than appetisers. Few times have I played a game where mic silence reigned – little jokes and updates here and there but mainly the heavy silence of four gamers concentrating with all their worth. That concentration and focus can give a real adrenaline rush when together you manage to trap a monster and bring it down. I haven’t felt that same emotion since playing as a team of special infected in Left 4 Dead, some five years ago. It’s about time a game like Evolve brought it back.

You can check out our Evolve preview here.