Evolve Monster Hunter, but not as we know it
PEOPLE LIKE CO-OP multiplayer, people like competitive multiplayer and people like boss battles. You know what? Let’s combine all three into a single game and give people the chance to experience that three-pronged assault in unison. When defining the core principles of Evolve, that’s probably something close to how developer Turtle Rock Studios’ initial discussions played out.
Forget about regurgitation and repetition – this is not your average shooter. But, given that this is the latest game from the team that brought us Left 4 Dead, that should hardly come as a surprise. Turtle Rock has not made a habit of bandwagon hopping. “We’ve all played boss battles in games,” says Turtle Rock studio head Phil Robb. “They’re fun and exciting, but they tend to be heavily scripted affairs. We wanted the excitement of those moments, but more dynamic and re-playable. In the end we came up with this weird four versus one, cooperative and competitive shooter.”
That competitive element comes from playing as the one monster, a giant of a beast known as Goliath. Pure muscle and testosterone, Goliath’s strength resides in his sheer brutality and ferociously direct approach to attack. More monsters, with a wider range of strategic options, are to be included in the final game, but for the purposes of this first taste of action only Goliath is playable.
Your goal as the monster is to destroy the fourperson Hunter team, simple as that. While you’re vastly bigger and stronger than any individual Hunter, the opening moments of a match as the monster are actually spent avoiding conflict and concentrating on how best to level up and further improve your skills. Dotted around each of Evolve’s maps are wildlife of various sizes and forms – some are explicitly aggressive and represent a genuine threat to your well-being, others are passive and mostly harmless. Killing and eating these animals as Goliath allows him to ‘evolve’, up to a maximum of evolution stage three. Each level makes him larger, allows him to take more damage and significantly raises his attack strength. On the negative side, he becomes a bigger target for the Hunters and loses a lot of his early speed.
Turtle Rock explained that once you become better at the game it’s entirely possible to win matches by sticking to Goliath’s weaker, but more nimble, level one form and that some members of the dev team play exclusively in that manner. Given that this was our first time controlling the beast, coupled with the knowledge that four Hunters were likely trailing the footprints Goliath’s heavy frame leaves in the dirt, getting to evolution stage three became and remained a priority.
Once fully evolved, and looking very much like something from Pacific Rim, Goliath’s full range of abilities facilitate destructive delight. At short range he can swipe and crush with his clawed fists as well as breathe fire and create a shockwave by slamming into the ground, while at long range he can throw rocks that he’s torn from the ground and launch into a headlong charge. Undoubtedly, he’s in his element when up-close-and-personal, so it’s best to use the ranged attacks as a means to simply give the Hunters something to worry about as you close the distance.
If that all sounds very isolated and narrowly focussed then that’s because it is. The monster is very much aimed at players that don’t like to chatter and coordinate with other players, an outlook that Turtle Rock is keen to support and encourage in Evolve. “We’ve certainly got a broad appeal,” explains Robb. “I think people that like Left 4 Dead and teambased games in general will feel very comfortable playing as the Hunters. That co-op aspect is something we wanted to take beyond what we did with Left 4 Dead.
“But we still wanted to include that competitive element, the kind of thing we had learned when we were working on Counter-Strike: Condition Zero. People that like deathmatch-style games and don’t want to be on a team will, I think, gravitate towards the monster more.”
In both focus and feel, playing as a Hunter is completely different. As the monster you’re playing from a third-person perspective, creating an exaggerated sense of scale and allowing you to cast an eye over the battlefield. As a Hunter – entirely in first-person – you feel claustrophobic and vulnerable from having to turn and look to constantly make sure you’re not being followed. It’s amazing just how much that switch from third- to first-person changes the feel of the game.
Not that you’ve got much time to ponder such notions, of course. When playing as a Hunter, if you’re not thinking in terms of Silicon Valley-type buzzwords like ‘synergy’ and ‘collaboration’ then you’re going to die. Probably die quickly, too. Each of the four classes are so specifically balanced that any slip-up, from any team member, can be disastrous. United we stand, divided we fall.
As Trapper, it’s your job to track the monster’s movement and, when found, limit those movements in a bid to restrict his offensive options. Once trapped, it’s time for the Assault player to dive straight into the fire and deal as much damage as possible and take advantage of an ample health bar to divert the monster’s attentions from the other Hunters. To aid in that process, the Support player has access to a special gun that is aimed at allies and cloaks them in a protective shield. The Medic, most obviously perhaps, is best kept on the outskirts of battle, using her abilities to keep everyone alive.
While there are grey areas (the Support and Trapper classes can also deal damage, for example), by and large each Hunter has a highly focussed goal. Performing actions outside of those limits their effectiveness – everyone throwing themselves guns raised into Goliath’s face, for example – is going to result in a bloodbath.
For the Hunters, the X-factor in all of this (buzzword, sorry) is the wildlife. While Goliath is threatened by only a small percentage of it, the Hunters are much more susceptible. “The environment itself plays a key role,” explains producer Matt O’Driscoll. “As the Hunters you have to watch out for carnivorous plants, for example. If you get caught in one you have to call out to your teammates to have them rescue you.”
But, it’s not all bad: “Other wildlife can help you track the monster,” continues O’Driscoll. “If the monster rushes through some low-level shrubs it might set off some ‘indicator birds’ that fly up into the sky and it shows up on your screen that the monster has been in the area recently.”
Engaging with the process of watching for clues as to the monster’s whereabouts and then deciding how to act upon that information creates a cat-and-mouse dynamic that is turned on its head thanks to said cat’s six-foot fangs and ability to breath fire. Both sides, in a sense, are both predator and prey – they’re both out to kill each other, but in the knowledge that the opposition poses significant danger.
That’s the most interesting thing about Evolve – the fact that playing as one side or the other doesn’t feel like a process of simply going through the motions. The two sides are so different that there always exists the likelihood that your best-laid plans are going to be rendered quickly redundant. This is surely going to be become even more of a feature following the game’s release, after players have practiced and honed their skills with a specific monster and/or Hunter.
Many PS4 shooters are moving away from the generic drudgery that became the calling-card of the genre’s final year or two on PS3, but none seem to be stepping outside of the box quite like Evolve. Fitting, really, given the title, that Evolve is trying to make that next leap. Oh… we see what they did there!
John Robertson
