1. Gameplay
Evolve is a one-trick pony. Four players team up together to fight one human monster. It’s an epic boss battle every single match. On paper, it’s an incredible idea. Who wouldn’t want to go up against an intelligent, unpredictable opponent that grows progressively stronger as the match continues? In practice, it’s a much messier and predictable experience that leaves a lot to be desired.  "You need help!" (...from your teammates). It’s not an awful experience by any means. When things align correctly in a match it can get pretty intense. Fighting a fully armored level two or three monster requires incredible amounts of teamwork. But there’s two inherent flaws in this game. The first is that, no matter what game mode you play, the core mechanics are always the same. Four humans fight one monster in every single mode. There’s no “humans vs waves of monsters” like in a horde mode or “monster kills as many humans as possible” or even “multiple smaller monsters fight humans”. So once you get bored of the 4v1, there’s nothing left to do. This isn’t the first notable game to have this problem. Titanfall was essentially just team deathmatch with slightly different objectives every time. The map size and the overall feel was exactly the same match after match. But what Titanfall lacked in diversity it made up for in balance. Matches were always fast-paced and intense because of how evenly both teams were balanced. Weapon selection might be a factor, but in the end it came down to player skill to determine the outcome of a match.  Hit the weak spots for massive damage! Evolve doesn’t have this advantage. It’s designed to be unbalanced. How do you even up a fight that will always be 4 people versus 1 person? You make the 1 person strong, but if you make them too strong it isn’t competitive. How do you balance matches where one team uses exclusively short ranged combat and the other uses exclusively long ranged combat? The short answer is with great difficulty. The long answer is that it comes down to each player fully understanding their given role. If any one of the humans doesn’t understand their role, the entire team suffers. If the medic doesn’t know how to heal, there isn’t a backup medic to make up for this deficiency. This is even more critical for the monster, since there is zero support for that role.  The game does its best to tell you what to do. As a result, matches are wildly inconsistent. I played through three matches in less fifteen minutes (including time in lobby and loading screens), each time the monster was unfamiliar with how to stay alive very long, each time the monster was caught, and each time the monster was quickly dispatched. Beating up on new players like this is not entertaining, it’s really boring. Being the new player in this situation isn’t entertaining, it’s boring and frustrating (my first match put me, level 2, as the monster against four level 40 opponents). There will be people who love this game and love the style. As I said earlier, it’s awesome on paper. But it should have been part of a larger game. Imagine a Left4Dead style campaign where the end finishes with a 4v1 boss battle. This game needed some draw outside of this single mode. Unfortunately, it doesn’t have it, and as a result does not captivate me.
The length on multiplayer-heavy games usually varies wildly depending on how much the player enjoys the combat. Series like Call of Duty and Battlefield include enough variety in their game modes and maps that there’s a ton of replayability with a different experience every time. Evolve isn’t really like that though. No matter what game mode you play, the primary objective will always be “kill the monster/hunters”. The secondary objective can vary, but the hunters can always win by killing the monster, and vice versa. This makes for a very repetitive experience and the similarities in the artistic style of the maps doesn’t really help. The experience wears down quickly. If you really enjoy the experience and find a partner or two to play with then it can have some good fun, but I don’t expect most players to last more than a month in the game. That’s better than other games currently on the market, but much worse than its current competitors.
The game itself is straightforward and relatively easy to understand (with some exceptions), it’s the other players that can be by far the most frustrating element. The mechanics are set up so that each player as a specific role that cannot be performed by the other players. Medic is the only class that can heal, trapper is the only class that can trap the monster, etc. There might be certain elements that cross over (medic can also slow the creature, which is similar to the trapper’s harpoon traps), but the fact is that if one member of the team is unable or unwilling to perform his duties, the entire team is crippled.  Medics heal the team. Remember that. This makes the game far more frustrating than fun. In something like Left4Dead, an excellent player can sometimes make up for and support one or two new players, but the classes in Evolve prevent that from happening. Even the best assault or support can’t carry a team single-handedly. This drained the fun out of the entire experience. I was constantly left feeling like the experience was either far too easy (usually if the monster didn’t know what to do) or far too difficult (usually if a team member failed to play their role in a way that benefited the needs of the team). The progression system never helped this process either. Some players were unshackled from the progression system because of preorders, but other players (like me) were stuck with the most basic units, constantly wondering what hidden powers we would be pitted against in the next match. To those of us who were just starting out, Lazarus and the Wraith seemed god-like in a bad way. 2. Parental Notices
Violence in this game is mild considering the earth-shattering attacks some of the monsters can cause to the hunters and the random creatures in the environment. Close-range hits by monsters or hunters can result in a small splash of blood that is difficult to notice.  This is the most blood I could see in normal combat. However, there are plenty of times when there isn’t any blood at all. For example, the lightning gun can cause devastating amounts of damage but no visible blood at all.  A pretty awesome weapon but no blood. The most blood the player can see in the game is when a monster is killed. Frequently the death animations can include more blood than the normal combat, but it’s not disproportionately large compared to the scale of the monster. And the only way to see it is for the hunters to kill the monster.  Being stuck in the wall looks painful too. The monster can eat random creatures in the environment in order to gain shield and grow larger. The carcasses left on the ground are often just bits of meat and exposed ribcages. However, they aren’t really that noticeable in most of the gameplay because of how dark the environment usually is.  Ribs up close, minor gore in the distance.
Sexuality is not a factor in this game.
Some characters smoke cigars. This is only noticeable during certain specific cutscenes and very briefly at the start of missions.  Santa's day job is not what I expected.
Gambling is not a factor in this game. 3. Other Factors
There are no modding tools available for this game.
Religion is not a factor in this game.
Anti-law is not a factor in this game.
The online community in this game is baffling to me. The players, for the most part, were all friendly and willing to accept each other, shortcomings and all. They work together (or against each other) and have a lot of patience even when things seem to be falling apart. A player falling once or getting trapped by a random creature isn’t necessarily something that just new players will experience, it happens to everyone once in a while, and that made other players seem far more accepting. But the problems arise from the players that choose (knowingly or unknowingly) to not play their particular role. There were a number of times when one of the hunters would just wander off and leave the group. This would normally be detrimental to the wanderer, but in Evolve this is even more detrimental to the rest of the team. While the other player is off exploring the environment or looking for hidden treasure that doesn’t exist, the rest of the team is trying to find the monster without one of those key elements.
The human characters all have jetpacks that they can use to climb tall rock formations and other structures. These same jetpacks prevent the players from taking any fall damage as well. These are the only real examples of extreme sports in the game.  The aerial insertion is pretty awesome too!
All of the abilities that the monsters have and the abilities for the player characters are either based in technology or biology. Therefore, magic is not a factor in this game.
There are no additional factors in this game.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Like what we do? Want to see more? Donate to the site using the button below!
Not sure what a term means? Read the definitions!
Not sure what a review section is about? Find out more information!
|
RSS Feed