Evolve - What is it?

Left 4 Dead took the idea of asymmetrical multiplayer and had a good go at it, showing not only is it possible to have unbalanced sides fight against each other, but also you can make it fun and engaging. Now a little over four years after the release of Left 4 Dead 2 we see its creators showing off their new beast, literally.

Evolve is aiming to take the co-op experience we all love from L4D and combine it with a competitive element, creating a 4v1 scenario where a team of player-controlled Hunters take on a single Monster. At first such an unbalanced playing field may seem unfair but once a little more is learned about the game, and the reason for its title is understood, things start to seem very interesting indeed.

The Monster is the most intriguing part of this whole concept: starting the game in a third person perspective, underpowered, purposefully so, and being tasked with filling its energy bar enough to evolve to stage two is all that’s important in the early stages. Make no mistake, taking on the four Hunters early in the round will be tough, and the Monster will be at a huge disadvantage. This is done to perpetuate the primal stage feeling that, although a mighty goliath you may be, a game of Hide-and-seek is a better option until evolved.

Avoid the players out to hunt you long enough, not to mention devour enough wildlife as well as flora, and you’ll be rewarded. Power is your reward. Evolving into a beast more fitting your appearance, and what an appearance it is. Evolve is looking to be one of the best looking games of this year. The level we’ve seen so far, of which there are promised to be many more, is a lush jungle with an industrial plant area. The flora is large, the wildlife is dangerous and the shadows play with your mind. Especially as the Hunters.

The team of four Hunters have an FPS point of view and start rounds 25 seconds after the Monster and are dropped into the level and charged with taking down the beast that roams the area, by any means necessary. The Hunters consist of four classes:

Assault - Your basic damage dealer and not many abilities outside of that.
Trapper - Traps the beast with different abilities, including an ‘arena’ which creates a shield arena to corral the monster and other abilities to slow it, making it easier to kill.
Medic - Heals the team over time and disables the monster.
Support - A more tactical class with both offensive and defensive capabilities.

This defining of classes is something that really sets the game apart from the L4D formula. Giving each player a role means losing one member of your squad can severely hamper your efforts when it comes to taking the monster down. Lose your Medic, for instance, and a head on confrontation with the monster, at any stage, is a very unappealing prospect. There is also promise that we will get different characters within the classes themselves which will change the way a certain class plays. Some may be better damage dealers or better armoured and this will change the way all games play out.

The one game-type we’ve been privy to may cause confusion at first as there is no real set goal to reach. The only real objective is to either defeat the monster or kill the Hunters; these serve as enough of an objective on their own to keep the pace of the game up, without leading to boredom, due to battles being so intense that the downtime between them is truly needed.

One aspect the game manages to portray extremely well is movement. Both the Monster and Hunters have the ability to freely move around the open-world levels with little effort. Jetpacks are given to each class as standard and the creature has the ability to climb over pretty much anything. This causes the most intense game of Hide-and-seek ever. Add to that the aggressive AI-controlled wildlife and plants the four players must contend with and you’ve got yourself something unique indeed.

So far all that’s been seen is one level, a single set of Hunters, one type of Monster and with the promise of more, and plenty of it, this seems to be a game to watch. If you’ve ever been interested in being a giant monster crushing humans into little bits or a member of a highly skilled team of hunters out to kill dangerous creatures, you’re in the right place.

Stay tuned to GameGrin for all your Evolve news and updates, as and when they come.