When THQ went belly up a year ago, one of the most sought-after prizes was Evolve, a then-unannounced cooperative shooter from Turtle Rock. Ultimately, 2K Games paid more than $10 million to acquire the publishing rights to the project. As the publisher behind the popular Borderlands series, 2K knows a thing or two about cooperative shooters, and they saw something special in the new game from the team behind Left 4 Dead. That something special was “The Monster,” a player-controlled behemoth that the four-player co-op team has to hunt down. I recently had a chance to play Evolve at PAX East 2014, and it’s beginning to look like 2K’s $10 million was money well spent.
Platforms: PC (Version Played), PS4, Xbox One
Publisher: 2K Games
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Genre: Teddy Roosevelt’s Alien Safari: The Game
Release Date: Fall 2014
ESRB Rating: Rating Pending
Evolve takes place on Shear, an alien planet that is teeming with deadly plantlife and deadlier wildlife. The most fearsome inhabitants of the planet are the Monsters, massive alien beasts that endanger the colonist population. Enter the Hunters, a group of humans who skydive in to push back the Monsters. The Hunters work together as a team to battle the Monster, and each character has been given their own personality, which influences their role in the team and the weapons they carry. Turtle Rock plans to include multiple renditions of each character class (with different loadouts, personalities, and attire) in Evolve, but for the PAX East demo, the team brought the four Hunters we were introduced to in the game’s most recent trailer.
The Trapper is the group’s tracker and he carries a Harpoon Gun and a portable force field generator to ensnare the Monster, as well as Sound Sticks to track its movements. The Assault class enters the fray to deal the most damage to the Monster with his Lightning Gun and mines. The Assault character is assisted by the Support class, which specializes in offensive and defensive maneuvers. Finally, the Medic provides healing and is also a crack shot with a Sniper Rifle.
The Monster itself is the final “character” in Turtle Rock’s 4v1 game. Controlled by a fifth player, Evolve will include multiple Monsters, each with their own strengths and weaknesses, though only one will appear on each map at a time. Again drawing from the debut trailer, the Monster in the PAX East demo is “Goliath,” a towering brute with fangs and spikes that rampages through the jungle on a pair of powerful legs. It’s like a T-Rex crossed with the Terminator. Goliath can eat wildlife to level up, breath fire, throw boulders, and perform melee attacks with his muscular, not-at-all-like-a-T-Rex arms.
Oh, about that wildlife… Evolve’s 4v1 matches are set up as a series of boss battles, but the other animals that inhabit Shear aren’t all kittens and rainbows. They also have big teeth and powerful jaws and they will eat you if they get the chance.
During my time with the demo, I took on the role of the Trapper. Players on the Hunter side have to work together to ferret out the Monster and kill it. Aside from resisting the urge to mutter “clever girl” every five seconds, my job was to track the monster and contain it so the Assault and Support characters could pepper it with bullets and bombs. However, I wasn’t completely helpless as I also had an Assault Rifle I could use if the Monster got close or I stumbled across some of that unfriendly fauna.
The gamemap was extra large, and tracking the Monster through the dense jungle and within a malfunctioning nuclear power plant was exciting. Each character was equipped with a jetpack, and Turtle Rock included multiple vertical areas in the map to complicate the Monster hunt. Using all of my tools to locate and contain the Monster felt natural. I especially liked using the force field generator, though it has the unfortunate side effect of trapping the Hunters in with the Monster. It is definitely not the other way around.
Goliath is fast and vicious. He can leap across the screen in an instant and be on top of you before you realize it. If the Monster drains all of your energy, you’re “knocked out” until you’re revived by a teammate. Working together quickly goes from a suggestion to a requirement, and players who choose to go solo won’t find much to like about Evolve. But for those who want to work within the group, using each character’s unique abilities in a coordinated attack on the Monster is extremely satisfying.
Battling the Monster was a dizzying experience as Goliath was so fast and strong. Other Monsters will surely have different abilities, and some will no doubt be slower but, this time, the Monster was victorious in the end. Perhaps we were a bad batch of Hunters challenging a player who was one with his inner Monster, but I felt like we never had a chance. Hopefully, Turtle Rock and 2K understand that ensuring that a delicate balance exists between the abilities of the Monster and the equipment of the Hunters is the key to Evolve. The game’s logo was purposely designed to emphasize this balance, so I’m confident the two companies recognize how important it is.
If you’re hunting for a new co-op shooter, the PAX East demo of Evolve makes a strong case that it should be near the top of your list. The game is currently in development at Turtle Rock with a Fall 2014 release planned for the PC, PS4, and Xbox One. It is definitely one to watch.
