Evolve Reviews
Evolve is fun when it works but has a habit of being hurt by its own ambition. Play with friends to get the best out of this game.
Despite repetitiveness in modes and characters, Evolve offers replayability thanks, in part, to its addictive competitive nature.
Fun, if overly frantic, Evolve is a genuinely unique online offering. Its intriguing ideas don't always pay off, and content-wise the game is a little bare bones, but hey, monsters!
Evolve broke my heart.
Evolve is a novel take on the cooperative and competitive multiplayer genre. The game is packed with interesting ideas but some work better than others. The fact that characters are locked at the beginning weighs it down by a wide margin and the erratic matchmaking also puts a damper on the whole thing.
Evolve may not be as fleshed out as other multiplayer shooters, but it's still one of those rare games that chases after something different and actually succeeds. It's built for incredible, player-driven stories; when you just barely triumph over a level three monster, or when you wipe out a group of hunters within a few minutes. Our biggest fear going into Evolve is that it would only be fun in short bursts, but every time we play the session lasts for hours. Even now, there are still so many things we want to get better at and experiment with. Needless to say, we're going to be hunting on Shear for the foreseeable future.
While the game is most fun when played with friends or a team with communication in the strength column, it's just as enjoyable to get into a solo match and hunt, be it a monster, or hunters.
Fortunately, the hunts in Evolve stand out as the game's greatest strength. There's no denying that some players will find the formula repetitive after a short while, and the lack of other great game modes contributes to that repetition.
Evolve's premise is never capitalized on, although it's strong core is notably well done. However, appeal is low in long term appeal and high in gratuitous DLC.
Evolve is really good fun. With its four-player co-op matches sharing so much base DNA with Left 4 Dead, it's great that it feels like something completely different. It still shares that pace - extended moments of quiet followed by massive bursts of excitement - but provides it in a very different manner. There's not a huge amount of content in Evolve compared to many unlock-led games, but by keeping things tight the game always stays focussed on what's important: the thrill of the hunt. The almost absence of variety in the map design may well hack down Evolve's lasting appeal, but what's here in the main game is perfect for many great hours.
The class-based rewards, compendium of achievements, and the adrenaline of capturing and killing a trophy monster makes for a compelling game.
At its simplest, Evolve is one of the best new ideas to be turned into a game of recent times, invoking so many monster and alien films along the way. Its attention grabbing hook can only take it so far, though, and Evolve needs you to persevere through the first few hours as you get to grips with the hunt and learn how to play the game. Admittedly, it can be hit and miss when paired up with AI players through matchmaking, but as with so many games, it can be pure gold when played with friends.
Evolve convolutes its simple idea with too many mechanics, dulling what should have been a great experience.
That is of course, if the community remains active. Reviewing games that focus themselves so centrally on a mutliplayer environment is difficult.
The 4v1 formula is original but inherently limited; how long Evolve holds your attention will depend on how much you enjoy the hunt.
A great idea in theory, but in practise the novelty wears out extremely quickly, with a serious lack of variety in game modes, maps, and tactics.
Tactically deep, and bursting with character, Evolve offers a level of nuance rarely found in multiplayer shooters.
There's an ambitious and wonderfully tense multiplayer game hidden somewhere deep inside of Evolve, and on the rare occasions you can coax it out with perfectly balanced teams and a little luck, you'll understand exactly what Turtle Rock was aiming for. More often than not, however, you'll find yourself stuck in another dull and lengthy traipse through the jungle with an unsatisfying and lopsided payoff, made all the worse by a lack of substance or long-term appeal.
We're still in the early days of Evolve. There are still free characters, weapons and abilities to unlock for most of us. While the lack of a real story mode may upset some, most people who purchase this game are doing so for the multiplayer, plain and simple. On that front, Evolve impresses when things go as planned. Get a group together, work as a cohesive unit, and have fun blasting those ugly aliens to hell and back. Or play as a Monster, alone but oh so badass. Evolve has a hint of greatness, but a lack of content at launch and a jarring amount of premium launch and planned DLC hold it back. What we have here is an evolution of the Left 4 Dead formula, not a revolution.
As an overall game, it offers a basic shooter with a nice gimmick, and I do think you can gather some friends together to get an afternoon's worth of laughs out of it. I don't believe there's enough mileage to have those laughs regularly, though, and certainly not enough to where I'd recommend rushing out and getting it so soon after launch.