Versus: Is the Evolve DLC good or bad?

I can definitely see where you're coming from saying that it isn’t “fully fledged”. In some ways, it feels like an add-on to a game, but then again, I don’t tend to play an add-on for the amount of hours I’ve already put into Evolve. I can understand your concerns thinking that this will be an expensive project for you as well, but I think you’re missing quite a key element of how this DLC will work.

Let’s take a step back for a second and look at the likes of say Call of Duty. The way that the franchise has dealt with DLC is by giving you the entire experience from the get-go, then selling you new maps to play (along with cosmetic items). The big drawback with this method is that, when I get a group of friends together to play some Zombie Mode, we can only play two maps because one of our party doesn’t have the right DLC.

How Evolve is dealing with DLC is that they will be unlocking new maps for free overtime, and then selling new characters to play, akin to Borderlands (even if they do sell extra level content as well). This means that if I’m in a party of four, and one of us doesn’t have the new Hunters DLC, we can still play together. Playing Evolve can be as expensive as you desire it to be. You do not have to buy the DLC content to get what you want out of the game.

You say that there isn’t enough content for an entire release in Evolve and, I can see that. Here’s the thing though. When I’m playing, I already have players saying “What does this do?” “How does this work?”. Imagine if you had to know what ten different Monsters did, and ten different Hunters in four classes. It would be information overload.

I play SMITE a lot and it took me the best part of two months before I knew what all the different gods did on a very basic level. There’s no real training in Evolve, besides the original introduction that you get when you play that Monster/Hunter for the first time, so there would be a huge skill gap between players. Not only this, but try balancing that many different variations, and make them original.

Sure, you could say “but if they bring it out in DLC later, that will be a problem anyway” which I would agree to. I can’t see them bringing out more than say, three new Monsters and three new Hunters for each class. They will also be locked behind progression walls even when you pay to unlock them with DLC. You will have to progress through the different classes, learning them and becoming knowledgeable about the game, before you get to play them.

At the moment, it looks like each new Hunter/Monster will be in the region of £5-7 (judging by the Hunting Season Pass being £19.99). To me, that is quite expensive, and hopefully they bring it down a bit, but you also have to take into account how much more game time each of those new characters will add. I would happily pay an extra £5 to get a month’s worth of playtime out of a game I already own. Hey, people do it on a regular basis with MMORPG’s. They drop £40 on the base game, then pay a subscription fee on top, for the privilege to continue playing the game they’ve already paid for. Would you say Crusader Kings gives you half a dozen extra hours of gameplay with each DLC? Why do you continue to buy it?

I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with how much you play the new Hunters. I think nearly all players will have a preference to who they like to play. Personally, I like playing Medic. I have ~12-16 hours on Evolve at present. I’d say at least 90% of that is playing just Medic. For arguments sake, let’s say I’ve played 14 hours of Medic. About 8 of that is just on Val. I would more than happily pay another £5 for another Medic to play.

Here comes the great thing about it though. I don’t have to pay £5 each week for a new Hunter or a new Monster because I have no intention of playing it. Being the hoarder I am, I have no doubt that I’ll buy everything that comes out for the game, but for those who are a little more careful with their money, they can pay £5 and then add hours upon hours of ‘new content’ to the game. Along with this, I think you’re forgetting the free updates that will be being released with new maps (and maybe other content?).

As for the size of the game, I can see your point about wanting more. It does, on paper, look like it’s lacking a lot. Problem is, when I get into playing with a group of friends, hours pass in the blink of an eye. Can you really put a price on escapism of that magnitude?

I feel like you’re looking at this the wrong way. The DLC for Evolve is the small updates. It’s the tiny bits of new content that will keep fans of the game playing. This doesn’t mean there won’t be an expansion.

I don’t think there will be an Evolve II anytime soon. I think, instead, we’ll see Evolve: Journey to X where it adds a half-dozen new maps, a new Hunter for each class, and a new Monster. I think the best comparison in this situation is World of Warcraft. That game has been going for ten plus years now. They still have millions of players, and instead of DLC, they have a monthly subscription. Every few months, a new update drops that slightly changes the end-game content. Maybe it unlocks a new dungeon or something. Either way, players are getting updates.

Then a Monster expansion drops such as Warlords of Draenor, and three million players return to the game to play the expansion and enjoy the base game once again. What’s to say this can’t happen with Evolve?

I think we both, at this point, would like a huge expansion at one point or another. At least that we can agree on. As for the weapon skins, I have zero problem with these. Whilst the game is in its final stages of development, the art team would have nothing to do. Might as well create content for the game! They are also completely optional, like every other part of Evolve!

Either way, I think we need to wait and see what comes from Turtle Rock Studios in terms of their future DLC and/or expansions. But again, we both definitely want to see that big expansion!