14 DAY TRIAL // Evolve is definitely one of the more surprising new games presented in recent years, but, despite its unproven nature, it managed to gather accolades and prizes from many media outlets at quite a lot of different trade shows this year.
After being named the E3 2014 best of show game, Evolve appeared at Gamescom 2014, courtesy of developer Turtle Rock and publisher 2K Games.
At the German convention, the two companies organized not just presentations about the general game but also a thorough hands on session with its already known hunters as well as with a new monster on a new map.
Evolve, in case you aren't up to speed, is a cooperative and, at the same time, competitive first-person shooter. Given the pedigree of developer Turtle Rock, which worked on the original Left 4 Dead, you can compare it to the Versus mode of that zombie title, in which human players controlled the survivors while other humans were playing as the special infected.
In Evolve, four humans control four hunters while another human gets to play as the monster. This 4v1 encounter may seem heavily tipped in the favor of the hunters but the different monsters in Evolve are quite powerful and can augment their abilities in different ways by eating the wildlife in a level and taking down the human hunters.
At Gamescom 2014, a new monster called Kraken was available for play, offering a breath of fresh air over Goliath, the previously revealed monster. While Goliath was catered towards players who want brute force over finesse, Kraken is more of a long range opponent that can also fly around the battlefield.
This makes him a pain to deal with for hunters but, like always, with careful teamwork even he can be knocked down. Bear in mind that, however, this won't be easy. Players need to think about their abilities and how they work together, as special powers like a mobile arena, which restricts the monster to a specific area, and trap spikes, which keep him close to the ground, are essential.
Overall, if Evolve needs to be described in a word, it's intense. It's also quite varied and should certain cater to all sorts of players. Those that prefer to rely only on themselves can easily go and control the monster while those that like the feeling of teamwork can become a hunter and aid in the effort of taking down the hulking beast.
Considering Turtle Rock recently delayed Evolve's release until next year, you can be sure that the studio is going to continue improving the experience and, hopefully, add more hunters and monsters to the roster.