Becoming the Goliath

I should point out that the first two games I played were on the side of the hunters as the Assault class. We won both of them, and then it became our turn to play the monster. Pansy and I were both a bit hesitant about trying him out because we didn’t want to get destroyed. I ended up playing him first, hoping I could rely on my previous Left 4 Dead experience. However, after playing on the hunters’ side and having teammates to back me up, I was really scared to be going up against four other people all alone.

As the Goliath, you have to choose where you want to allocate skill points. You have four abilities:  

• Rock Throw – The Goliath pulls a boulder from the ground and throws it at a target. If hit, the target takes big damage and is temporarily stunned. Very effective when used against hunters who are playing too defensively
• Leap Attack – The Goliath leaps through the air towards its target and slams into the ground, hitting everyone in the area. Can also be an effective way of escaping or avoiding enemy fire
• Flame Breath – The Goliath emits an area-of-effect blast of flame that not only damages targets but also sets them on fire, dealing additional damage over time. While it isn’t the Goliath’s most powerful attack, it’s good at causing panic among the hunters and punishing them for grouping up too closely
• Charge Attack – A basic but powerful move that allows the Goliath to catch up with fleeing enemies and does huge damage on impact, causing those struck to fly through the air. Can also be used as an escape tool

You’re only given three points, so you can choose between taking three abilities, maxing one ability or taking two abilities with one point in one and two in the other. As expected, by allocating more than one point to an ability, you make it stronger.

After you choose your abilities, you get a 30 second head start over the hunters. You would think that being this big badass monster means you wouldn’t feel vulnerable or afraid of anything. However, you immediately experience that feeling of “I need to run as fast as I can and get out of here”. The game follows a formula where, at stage one, the hunters are stronger. At stage two, the Goliath and hunters are more or less evenly matched. Finally, at stage three the Goliath is at the top of the food chain, and definitely a force to be reckoned with for the hunter team. As such, early on you have to run and hide if you want to last until stage two.

On the hunt

From the hunters’ side, the Goliath looked so agile and fast, but once you get control of him, you’re actually a bit clunky and slow until you figure out how to move properly. You can sneak so you don’t make noise or scare any animals around you as well as sniff and sense where the hunters are. In my opinion, the best thing you start with as the monster is the jump. You’re given three charges of it that recharge over time, but if utilized properly you can cover the entire map very quickly.

During these 30 seconds of free time at the start of the game, you have so many decisions to make. You have to decide where to go, which animals to kill and consume so you can evolve and what strategy you want to use to win the game. However, being an avid player of Left 4 Dead and decent at the Tank, I had a good idea of what I wanted to do.

Once the game started, I took three abilities: Rock Throw, Leap Attack and Charge Attack. I wanted to run a very high mobility build to be able to get in and out of fights very fast – the map caters to guerrilla-warfare-style attacks so you can catch the hunters off guard. I started off by pushing out immediately for some animals to consume so I could evolve to the next rank. Funnily enough, as it was my first time it was actually hard to catch up to them without Flame Breath.

Eventually I got to stage two and was chased down by the hunters. A fight broke out as trapped me in the Trapper’s mobile arena. Noticing they were grouped close together, I decided to use a Leap Attack to jump straight onto them and spread them out. The damage this ability does is insane, but it’s also hard to aim at the same time. Once I got some distance and used the smell ability, I was able to see where the hunters were. Using these two abilities together, I was able to use Rock Throw to my advantage, and after I had incapped one or two of them and the mobile arena had fallen, I decided to run away to hit stage three.

By the time I was finally able to get away from the hunters, which was no easy feat, my adrenaline was pumping. The fight’s so intense because you’re this giant monster who feels like a raid boss in World of Warcraft – you soak up so much damage and the hunters are afraid of you. It helps that I was in a room with the players and could see them freaking out as I switched from target to target. Every single ability you land feels rewarding as you see the hunters getting knocked around like ragdolls in a tornado. For being in only alpha, the game felt ridiculously smooth and well-polished.

All grown up

So, back to running away and going for stage three: I ended up finding a couple of animals in the jungle that had a special icon above them. By killing and consuming these, you get special passives. For instance, in this game I ended up getting increased smelling ability and cooldown reduction, among other things, these cool little buffs helping you to situationally adapt your strategy as you go along.

After getting the biomass I needed to hit stage three, I ended up getting caught out by the hunters again. Then came my biggest mistake of the match: I hit the wrong button and started to evolve in the middle of the hunters. This is where the largest chunk of damage was done to me – while you’re evolving, you can’t do anything for about ten to fifteen seconds. When you get out of your cocoon, you’re given the ability to allocate three more skill points that you can use to rank up abilities or unlock others. I ended up putting the points into my rock throw, leap slam and charge attack.

While all this was going on, Pansy decided to use her Support special ability Orbital Barrage. This allows her to place a marker that calls down a rain of missiles onto one location, and in this instance, the location was me. I only took about 8% damage from this ability because luckily I had a lot of armor that hadn’t been shredded yet. I was freaking out because I was being focus-fired by the four hunters, but once I got out of the cocoon I could just feel the extra power that I had gained.

I rained havoc all over the entire field, constantly leaping on top of them, throwing rocks and, if they were out of range, charging into them to close the gap or gain some distance. The damage I was taking – well, they couldn’t do much because I had spread them out and forced their Assault away from the group. By constantly switching targets, they couldn’t really synergize their kits, and could not gain full control of me. I ended up downing them one by one and winning my first game as the Goliath.

Chewing the fat

Sadly, I truly cannot do the game any justice in written format because it was an amazing experience. It was everything I had hoped it would be and more – finally I have a game that I can look forward to and be excited about. This is all without even touching on the potential competitive aspect of it.

I want to save the possibilities for a competitive side of Evolve for another article as there is already a huge wall of text to be written about this, but I can see a lot of potential. Knowing that Turtle Rock wants to see this game go competitive and is really listening to the ideas of the community in improving it for that purpose, I have high hopes.

• To read about Lauren “Pansy” Scott’s experience playing Evolve, click here
• To check out editor in chief Johannes Schiefer’s opinions on playtesting the game, go here

 
If you’ve not heard about Evolve, the latest title being worked on by 2K and Turtle Rock Studios, what rock have you been hiding under?

I heard whispers from a few eSports aficionados that Evolve might be something to keep an eye on but, being forever the pessimist, I reserved my judgement. While I watched the trailers, checked out the gameplay videos, and generally read around it, for me to put my official stamp of approval on something, I have to try it first-hand. Luckily for me, I got the chance to do just that.

Early morning expectations

Early (well, at 10am) one sunny May morning, I set out on a five-hour car journey to Munich with my partners in crime Jason Kaplan and Sean Charles to visit the 2K Germany studios. After a car ride filled with Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber and countless renditions of Let It Go (much to Jason’s annoyance), we arrived, my mind racing in anticipation of what I was about to walk into…

In total honesty, I was a little nervous – we all know the feeling of a video game slowly raising our hopes only for them to be destroyed in one swift, disappointing moment. It’s also a touch different when you‘re standing around the people who put countless hours into the game in question. However, walking in and meeting the guys over at 2K Germany settled my nerves, and after the sit-down chat and deciding that some pre-gaming pizza should be devoured it was then time to play.

Meet Hank

Evolve sees four class-based hunters facing off against a fearsome monster, with them having to trap, kill and deny the monster of a chance at its final objective. It all sounds great on paper, but I had my doubts as to how it would be executed (and how well).

After having been a relatively competent Medic in Enemy Territory, I decided to look towards playing either the Medic or Support position for my first game. One of the 2K team was a strong medic player, so I swallowed my ego and took Support – let me break down the role of Hank for you.

Hank

• Badass beard – Self explanatory
• Shield Gun – Provides teammates who are about to be smooshed with a temporary invulnerability to damage. Make sure to use this carefully as its recharge time can be pretty punishing
• Laser Cutter – Powerful weapon but rather easy for the monster to spot so sometimes it’s more advisable to not let yourself look like a lighthouse
• Orbital Barrage – A rain of awesome explosions and something that I’m pretty sure Michael Bay has dreams of
• Cloaking Device – When I fell off a ledge, this is the button I’d mash repeatedly in hopes that I’d turn invisible and would be able to run away from the gigantic creature chasing me

While these aren’t the official descriptions, they should give you a solid idea of how I, Lauren “Pansy” Scott, super awesome video gamer, failed during some of the games we played.

Getting into the game

Onto the first game, where me and Jason had been tasked with hunting down the delightful Sean Charles with the help of two of the guys from 2K.

To put things into perspective, Sean had played this game before but – without hurting his feelings – is a massive noob, so I had my hopes high of doing well here. There was, however, an additional element – he had a coach. The monster has around a 30 second head start, to run, feed and set up traps, but more on why this is so important later.

Next it’s spawning time for the hunters, and the dropship lives up to its name, chucking us out in what looks like the deepest jungle in the world – think Predator meets Jurassic Park (both films that terrified me as a child). You get hit with this beautiful but terrifying environment straight away, the lighting perfectly emulating the darkness you’d expect to result from sunlight struggling to come through the thick tree canopy above you, while creatures genuinely startle as you begin to look around for signs that the Goliath – the monster – has left behind.

The initial dose of wonder aside, thankfully our Trapper was a experienced player, and was on the lookout instantly. He immediately dropped a sound spike and found the monster’s tracks – the hunt was on. The movement controls were the next thing that really hit me – smooth and well-rounded, although they also took a little time to get used to before I could use them to navigate around the map perfectly.

We scaled a small cliff face and headed deeper into the thick jungle that hid the huge monster we were hunting down. It was rather overwhelming how large and interactive the map feels when you first experience. Everywhere I looked, the environment reacted perfectly – a rustle of a bush, the sounds of the larger creatures howling in the distance – it all added to this ominous feeling of being watched. The jungle was vast and riddled with overhanging rock faces that added to our paranoia, shadows made us turn and huddle together – everything makes you feel so far from the top of the food chain.

Thankfully, before I could have a heart attack, the Trapper called out that one of the sound spikes had picked up movement, and with a quick glance at the map we had an idea of where the monster could be. The one player who is so vital to the team’s survival, or at least direction, is the Trapper – he is the tip of the spear when charging in and sets the pace for the rest of us to follow.

At this point, we had noticed a number of animals left in tatters on the way to investigate the movement alert, the corpses looking like they’d been eaten and tossed to the side. We knew that the monster had to feed to level up and grow in order to become a real threat, and according to the game he had already reached stage two. It made my stomach flip reading it – I had no idea what we were walking into or what the monster would be able to do.

Hunters hunted

You could hear the monster prowling in the brush. I’ve never felt so vulnerable, and my heart was beating out of my chest. I didn’t want to let down my teammates – I knew I had to keep them alive if we were in trouble.

The first thought was to get to high ground. I, as the support, shouldn’t be on the front line if the monster was going to go for us here – I, like the Medic, had to stay alive to be able to do the same for the Assault (Jason) and the Trapper. We were near the crocodile pit with a beast lurking under the water and high rocks either side – not the worst place to go for a battle, so there, with glimpses of the monster escaping in front of us, started the chase.

We were getting close – very close, for that matter, as a well-timed tranquiliser dart from the Medic affirmed, but Jason decided to embrace his inner Crocodile Dundee and go for a swim, holding us up. Once we had bailed Jason out, the monster was pretty far in front ahead of us, and we had lost the trail.

However, the clock was on our side. Time was starting to run out, so the monster had limited options. He had just hit stage three, the cap of his evolution, and could either take us on head first or start working towards the generator. The generator is the backup plan – the final objective for the monster to go for to win the game.

Our Trapper was well aware of this, so we headed off to the main complex to set up the best trap we could. Mines were littered all over the floor covering the entrance, while the Medic and I decided to head towards the upper catwalks so we could support the Assault and Trapper on the ground. There were several entrances that the monster could take, and I knew there were only a couple of minutes left for him to make his move, so I decided to put down a Orbital Barrage to deny him at least one entrance to the Generator. While all this going on, Jason caught a glimpse of the monster moving into the main complex.

Closing in for the kill

This was go-time. You could hear the howling getting closer… and also Jason calling to us that he needed help. The Trapper was already there, laying down covering fire, but we had to get Jason some cover in the form of shielding or healing or else he’d be in trouble. My first proper view of the monster was incredible: it looks utterly awesome up close and personal, and you really do feel like you’re at the very bottom of the food chain. Jason seemed to be the main target of the monster’s rage, slam after slam coming in and throwing Jason around the map, but a combination of well-timed healing and shielding kept the fight going.

We decided to take it inside, hoping that the mines would cause some real pain and help us bring down the beast. The monster’s health is more than vast – it’s slightly unnerving when you try and do what you can damage-wise and hardly see the HP bar move.

The mines did large chunks of damage while the beast still tangled with the Jason, sweeping and throwing what he could at the surviving party members as he did. As its HP got lower and lower, the monster was struggling to really cause damage, the setup we ran with higher ground helping us provide healing and shielding making it difficult for him to single us out.

The fight bled outside towards the waterfall, where suddenly I felt rather vulnerable with no high ground to hide on. I was finally on the monster’s level, with him towering above me as I tried to evade his attacks (but ended up just smashing my keyboard in desperation to try and find my invisibility skill). Thankfully the Medic topped me up, and I managed to flee back to a safer distance.

The fight finally came to a close – we had ripped the beast to shreds and overcome the monster at last. You have no idea how much relief washed over me when I knew it was over. The feeling of being so small in the grand scheme of things was almost overwhelming – if the cohesion of players hadn’t work well, we would have been monster food in about 20 seconds flat.

Getting involved with Evolve

It had been a long, long time since I’d had anything close to that experience in a game – the feeling that, without your team beside you, you would be unable to succeed. Normally in video games you are gifted the feeling of being above and beyond nearly everything around you, the top of the food chain, but in Evolve you start somewhere around the middle, where even the environment feels like a threat.

The learning curve is fairly steep, but that isn’t actually a bad thing – I miss having games that I want to learn. Most FPS games these days allow people with a fairly competent skill level to walk in and be well above average, but Evolve takes so much more, it depending upon the mechanics that made me adore some of the team play-based video games from many, many years ago.

If you crave a title that will actually emotionally involve you and genuinely challenge you to play as a team rather than an individual, Evolve is something to keep an eye on. I’m not telling you that upon release this will be the world’s next big eSport – I’m telling you that, even at this early stage, this game has all the elements that made me want to improve and compete in gaming in the first place.

I will certainly be keeping a close watch on this title and seeing where it goes. I feel that Evolve has got something fresh and new that most games don’t seem to embrace. Don’t write it off because it’s not your normal 5on5 S&D: play the game, immerse yourself in what it offers and see how you feel. If you share the same journey I did, I think you will also see this game’s potential to really go far.

I look forward to what Evolve can bring to gaming as a whole and as well as the competitive scene.

I would also like to thank the guys and girls at 2K for being so welcoming to Jason, Sean and myself – I really am looking forward to trying the game out again soon!

For another perspective on playtesting Evolve, check out this article written by ESLGaming.com’s editor in chief Johannes Schiefer, and be sure to come back next week, when you’ll be able to read about Jason Kaplan’s experiences playing the monster. Stay tuned for more information about the game and its potential as a future eSports title.

The heavy hitter

The Assault is the undeniable number one in all matters DPS. When it comes down to it, he is exactly who you want to have on the frontlines. He can tank a lot of harass and is equipped with high damage weapons. But amongst the two Assault characters, Hyde and Markov, there are some significant differences in the loadouts which are influence their respective playstyles.

Loadouts

                       HYDE                                          MARKOV

Based on Hyde’s loadout, he plays much like the ungodly bastard child of the TF2 Heavy and Pyro. Equipped with a Flamethrower for close range combat, he can deal massive amounts of damage in short time if left unchecked, while also wielding a not so mini minigun for longer range destruction. This makes him instrumental in not only taking down the monster, but also for eliminating the more aggressive wildlife which roams the map. Yet the high damage output doesn’t come without its drawbacks, as roasting your target requires you to get up close and personal – which can be a short-lived exercise if you don’t have your medic and support class to heal & shield you at pretty much all times. Best suited for fighting in close spaces, Hyde’s short range can be a serious drawback against monsters with high maneuverability especially on maps with lots of open space, as he is prone to being kited.

On the other side of the assault spectrum sits Markov, who may not spit fire, but can also deliver massive damage with his trusty Lightning Gun. Although it deals less damage than the Flamethrower, it is arguably more reliable. It’s range is further than Hyde’s counterpart and its beam is easier to keep focused on the target as long you keep it in the crosshairs. That way you can deal significant damage from a safer distance. This is especially useful when facing the Kraken who himself relies on a lot of range damage while hovering above the pack of hunters. Furthermore it’s very effective against groups of AI monsters, as the lightning from the gun bounces to nearby targets thanks to a chain lightning mechanic. All in all, it’s a lower risk, high reward weapon

In Hyde’s second loadout slot sits the other option for consistent damage you have at your disposal: the Minigun. This does pretty much what you would expect it to do. Lots of bullets at short to mid range. It does give you the option to do some damage at a distance for when you are too low on health or the monster has the high ground advantage. Opposed to the flamethrower, the Minigun can also make use of weak points on the monster, created by other members of the team, in order to deal some additional damage. This is Hyde’s go-to weapon for chasing and most of the time for dealing with the Kraken when he hovers and flies across the landscape.

Markov’s equivalent on this slot is the Assault Rifle. As with the Lightning Gun, his rifle has more reliable range than Hyde’s Minigun while still providing the option to capitalize on weakpoints for bonus damage. The bullet spread is also more focused, allowing for more precise shooting if need be. This ties in with Markov’s effectiveness against the Kraken. But it should not be underestimated against the Goliath, notably when it’s trying to flee and you want to keep laying damage into it.

As with their respective weapons, both assault classes also have different priorities for their utility slots. While Hyde is a master of zoning and area control – Markov excells at securing defensive positions and setting traps.

Hyde’s Toxic Grenade covers an area in, you guessed it, toxins. This AOE effect lasts a good while, damaging any monsters in the area. Depending on what the team needs, the damage of the skill might actually not be the biggest priority for the team, depending on the situation. Any monster affected by the Toxic Grenade will try to get out of the AOE if it knows what’s good for it, which gives Hyde a valuable zoning tool to push the monster out of preferred areas or lead it into traps. Speaking of traps, the grenade also works wonders with a good Trapper on your team. If the monsters gets locked down by either Harpoon Traps or Griffins Harpoon Gun, a well placed Toxic Grenade is the DPS icing on the cake.

Markov on the other hand has access to his pack of Arc Mines which he can distribute on the map. These do massive damage to the monster if it gets close to them and can be used both defensive and offensive purposes. In the earler phases of the map, minefields can serve as excellent escape spots from the monster, as well as traps into which to lure it.  During the later phases of the game, mines are essential for protecting objectives and ensuring that any monster trying to enter a contested area is bound to take damage.

Last but not least: the Personal Shield. Also known as the Assault Class ‘get out of jail free card’. When used, the shield absorbs any incoming damage, allowing Hyde and Markov to go about their business unharmed. If you constantly dish out the damage, you are bound to be focus of the monsters wrath every once in a while. And if you do manage to get on the monsters bad side, there is nothing better than a few seconds of invulnerability. An all out defensive ability which either forces the monster to switch his target away from you again or waste its abilities and time on you instead.

Be it Hyde or Markov, the offensive arsenal on the Assault class is overwhelming. If you love playing tanky frontlines that not only dish out the damage, but can also take a beating, then this is the class for you. And should you have access to the Big Alpha then you will be able to play Hyde right away, while being able to unlock Markov after some progression.

And make sure to keep checking back on our Evolve Guide HUB to keep up to date with our Evolve content and class previews.

Our previous Evolve playtesting experiences:

• Evolve: playtesting a new breed of co-op shooter
• Clinging to the bottom of the foodchain: Pansy plays Evolve
• From cocoon to killer: Jason Kaplan plays Evolve
• Rampaging onto the eSports scene: Evolve at gamescom 2014

Arriving at the 2K, offices we were escorted to what would be our home for the next few hours, a bunker-like room illuminated by the glow of five high performance gaming rigs cleverly positioned so that the monster player’s screen was hidden from the remaining players. With a kitchen stocked with Red Bull and Pizza next door, we settled into our seats and proceeded to have the gameplay, roles and general strategy explained to us. To help understand the experience, be sure to check out the excellent gameplay video below, which allows you to seamlessly switch between the perspectives of all five players:

Game overview

Evolve is a 4 vs. 1 experience with one player taking the role of the monster while the other four players are hunters, each with a unique skillset. The hunters’ objective is to track down and kill the monster, while the monster can win by either eliminating the hunters or fulfilling a key objective (such as destroying a generator) before a timer runs out.  In order to do this, it first has to feed on wildlife (killing and then consuming it) and evolve from a stage one monster to a stage three monster.

As it evolves, the monster gains health, shield, armor and damage, ultimately giving it the ability to full-out engage and take out the unit of hunters. As such, it’s the mission of the hunters to quickly track, locate, confine and kill the monster before it has the chance to feed and grow in power. Yet even at stage one, the extreme discrepancy in health and damage output between the monster and the hunters means that the hunter team has to work as a close-knit unit if they want to have a chance to win the round.

The classes

Trapper: Although all classes are capable of tracking the monster’s footprints, the trapper class is the one most specialized in cornering the monster and forcing it to engage. By strategically placing soundspikes throughout the map he can track the monster’s movements, while his harpoon gun restricts the monster’s mobility and forces it to shift focus. His most powerful ability is a containment dome which captures the monster in a single area, forcing it to engage the hunters.

Assault: The damage dealer of the group. With the biggest health pool, a personal shield that grants short-term invincibility and a short range lightning gun that deals the most damage of any weapon in the game, the assault class is the front-line unit that gets up in the monster’s face. The main job of the assault player is to draw the monster’s attention and to chip down its health bar with guns and mines.

Medic: A unit that feels much like a classical scout, the anti-material sniper rifle-toting medic plays a key support and damage role. During the chase and in combat, the medic’s tranquilizer gun is an important tool as it slows the monster’s movement and highlights its location to all players for the duration of the slow. With the sniper rifle, the medic is able to cause weak spots on the monster, which other players can hit for additional damage. True to the class’s name, the medic also has a healing gun which enables healing of injured comrades, even at range. A good medic will therefore stay at a safe distance slowing and weakening the monster while making sure that the assault stays alive by keeping a heal ray focused on him.

Support: Similar to the medic, the support is crucial for both helping teammates stay alive and dishing out damage to the monster with abilities such as an orbital barrage, which rains down high-damage bombs across a wide area. The support’s signature weapon is the shield gun, which grants temporary invulnerability to a team member. Also equipped with a personal cloaking device to stay out of sight of the monster, the support plays a crucial role in keeping the assault and other team members alive.

Monster: Although the game will have multiple varied monster classes available on release in the early alpha version that we played, there was only one playable monster class: a massive fire-breathing behemoth called Goliath. The monster had various abilities to choose from, with two being selectable from the start and more being unlocked as you leveled up. These included a ranged skill shot rock throw, a quick charge forward, a leap attack and fire breathing. You also have various inherent skills such as being able to sonar scan your surroundings for killable wildlife. Wildlife is extremely important as consuming it boosts your health and armor as well as allowing you to evolve up after a certain quantity has been eaten.

The gameplay

Matches start off with the monster having a several second head start before hunters arrive in their dropship and begin the chase. Although the monster can theoretically engage at stage one and kill one or more of the hunters, most of our monster players opted for the safe strategy of fleeing into the vast and beautiful surroundings to look for prey. If they managed to reach the second evolution stage before being tracked down by the jetpack-toting hunters, it greatly increased their survival chances in the early game and thus likelihood of winning the round. 

However, sometimes when a monster decided to feed too close to the spawning ground or the hunters quickly picked up the trail, the battle would start straight away, and some of the best fights were those where a still-weak monster was permanently tranquilized and harpooned as it desperately tried to escape through the bustling jungle.

One of the great things about the jungle and its wildlife is the interactivity – with everything from panicked birds giving clues to the whereabouts of the monster to larger, more dangerous creatures such as massive crocodiles posing a threat to monster and hunters alike. A smart monster could therefore dissuade pursuers by fleeing through the habitat of fellow predators.

If the monster managed to elude the hunters long enough to feast its way to stage three, the game usually turned around, with the previously hunted now assuming its rightful place as hunter and the monster targeting the now-attackable objective. On the map we were playing, this was a power generator powering the shields for a cage containing several civilians. While it was already instrumental in earlier fights that the hunter team coordinated to heal/shield the assault while keeping the backlines safe, it was even more important in these late-game matches, where a good monster would always try to target the elusive support who could otherwise indefinitely save their companions from dying. As such, splitting up, covering each other’s backs and maintaining the high ground while the assault dished out damage was crucial for being able to compete with the fire-breathing monstrosity that was the Goliath player.

Our thoughts

As our first encounter with Evolve turned into a 12+ hour marathon session, during which everyone played countless times as every single hunter class as well  as the monster – there was a broad consensus that Turtle Rock Studios had created something that was a genuine blast to play.  The matches were high intensity, the gameplay unique and interesting, team play was not only important but essential and every class felt like it was contributing something substantial. On the flip side, the experience as a monster was extremely fun as even at the very start you have the power to quickly take down small groups of hunters who get overconfident in their chase. Especially as more monster classes with unique abilities and maps are introduced, the strategic options will get highly interesting. As Turtle Rock Studios has already implemented pre-game loadout selection options, which could easily be expanded upon, there is definitely room for pre-game strategy and drafting in potential competitive modes.

For the moment, leave us your thoughts in the comments below as well as what you think of the interactive trailer. In our next piece on Evolve, we will take a closer look at potential eSports formats and how the game could evolve into a truly massive title.

ESL: Before you got a chance to the play the game, what were your first impressions of it?
Leigh “Deman” Smith: The first time I really saw Evolve outside the opening trailer was during their stream at E3, and you could tell it was going to be fun to play. They were running guest teams against each other and even in its very early stage with players that had never seen the game before, you could tell they were loving the teamwork aspect and the solo play of the monster.

ESL: Tell us about your experiences playing the game.
Deman: When I first played the game I was the trapper Griffin, so I quickly learned that it was my job to not only track the monster down but capture it in the mobile arena, which is a big dome-like force field. Instantly I felt pressure on me from my team to not screw up and misplace the arena else the monster would escape and possibly get clear to eat and evolve. Then when you finally land the arena and shout “I got him!” you realize: oh damn, he’s huge – run!

ESL: Did you play Left 4 Dead before getting into Evolve? If yes, do you think it informed the way you played Evolve?
Deman: I played Left 4 Dead mainly in LAN environments back in England when I attended Mulitplay’s StratLANs (Small events of around 100 people). There would always be a ‘game of LAN’ and I remember that being one many times – I still remember those shouts of “BOOMER!” It had a similar kind of tension for the team fighting off masses of zombies, and just like in L4D you need to be a tight group and stick together to have any chance at taking down the monster. The trapper can roam a little but the group has to be nearby!

ESL: Monster or hunter – which do you prefer? Which specific monster or class have you claimed as your own?
Deman: I really enjoyed the four player aspect during the Alpha – a group of friends on comms working as a team to take down the monster. If the monster player was good, it really became a challenge if you didn’t get any damage on them early. I tried out all classes and really enjoyed the support and trapper. It’s funny seeing people not want to pick support due to the word’s connotations before they realise the class kicks ass and does so much damage!

The thing is, though, I also really enjoyed playing as the monster because it’s so tense – you always feel like the hunters are close by even though your detection skill is not showing them on the minimap. Once you get clear and manage to hit that third evolution, it’s just so satisfying to sneak up on a straggler and pick them off so fast then destroy them all as they realize what just happened!

ESL: What’s your opinion of the game’s balance as of right now? Do you think one side currently have the balance tipped in their favor?
Deman: From what I played in the Alpha, it certainly seemed to be fairly well balanced already. Don’t get me wrong – if you watched my stream when I played as our hunter team, we were close to a 100% win rate, but that’s because we were often facing level one or two players as the monster who had no clue what to do.

If we came up against a level 10+ who’d got experience then killing the monster became a whole lot harder and often ended in a fully evolved level three battle to the death defending the final objective. And that’s the thing: these were by far the best games we played in Evolve – the close battles.

Then when there wasn’t enough for a full four-man team and we had to pub stomp it, things became a lot harder as hunters without real communication. It was the same when playing as a monster – I never lost because I’d played so many hunter games by then that I figured out when to run, when to attack and when to stay the hell away!

ESL: Looking at the currently revealed characters, can you single out anyone as an instant pick?
Deman: I really like the way the game is going currently, seeing all the new revealed hunters and monsters. It’s great to see such different playstyles required in the monsters for the Goliath and the Kraken – I can’t wait to see what’s next.

I think my current favourite hunter is Hank, the first support champion: he does great damage, has this awesome missile barrage AOE that can be used from long range and a shield you can put onto your teammates to prevent focused damage. So he’s really versatile and offers a lot to the team.

ESL: Do you have a favorite monster from popular culture you’d like to see in the game?
Deman: Let’s face it, who wouldn’t want to play Godzilla?!

ESL: How long do you think you’d last if you were a hunter in the Evolve universe?
Deman: Hah! Probably not very long if you were to believe my teammates! I did tend to wander off alone a few too many times as the trapper then either be too far from the action to get the arena down or too far away on my own and end up being eaten by some wildlife!

ESL: What are your thoughts on Evolve’s competitive esports potential?
Deman: Honestly it’s very hard to predict any game’s esports potential. However, Evolve has the storyline aspects there to be successful. The tension is already visibly there, and you have the good guy versus bad guy vibe already from the hunters versus monster. Finally, if the community grows large enough, you will always have competitive players who want more.

ESL: Can you see yourself commentating Evolve games in the future?
Deman: Yes it’s certainly possible. Fun games to play are always great games to cast – without enjoying the game in the first place, what’s the point?!

ESL: What excites you most about the game’s upcoming release?
Deman: Seeing how it develops from here. Evolve is a pretty unique game which is fantastic for me as an old gamer in a world where the next game title just has another number slapped on the end. Evolve is something new and refreshing which gives the developers a lot of freedom when it comes to creating new updates for the game.

Want to find out more about the game? Check out some of our previous Evolve coverage below:

• Lauren “Pansy” Scott’s first encounter with Evolve
• Jason Kaplan’s experiences playtesting Evolve
• “Evolve is an experience very unique to itself”: an interview with Lauren “Pansy” Scott

Stefan Paul Weber, vice director of community management at ESL, said of the announcement:

“Evolve is a fantastic game and we’ve been eager to have it involved in as many esports opportunities as possible – from gamescom, to studio events and more. We’re all very excited to get started on the new Go4Evolve series and are looking forward to watching the Evolve esports scene develop.”

Cups will commence on March the 8th and run every Sunday for a total of three months on both the PC and Xbox One, with a total of €150 in prize money available each week. Monthly finals will see this amount more than double, with €350 up for grabs for those who qualify.

For more information on Go4Evolve, please visit the ESL Play Go4Evolve portal.

Evolve at PAX East

Evolve will also have a best of eight single elimination tournament in the ESL Arena at PAX East on March the 6th in order to further showcase the full esports potential of the monster versus hunters title.

If you can’t wait to find out more of what competitive Evolve is all about, tune in to the livestream from 10:00 EST (16:00 CET) and watch CS:GO stars like summit1g, moses and many more try their hand at hunting – or being – monsters. A seasoned commentary team in the form of Sacriel and DB Sinclair will be on hand to bring you the tournament live from the convention in Boston, so make sure you don’t miss out!

Good hunting!
 

ESL recognizes Evolve’s competitive feel and is dedicated to making it the next big esport. Together with 2K Games, the publisher of such well-known and loved franchises as Borderlands, XCOM and Civilization, ESL will be providing Evolve players with a chance to prove their mettle in the form of the Evolve Kickoff Cup.

ESL: Before you got a chance to the play the game, what were your first impressions of it?
Lauren “Pansy” Scott: I had a lucky sneak preview when I visited the 2K Germany offices so I already knew this game was going to be awesome. However, I didn’t expect to have the same immersive experience outside of the 2K offices.

To clarify, when you are in a LAN environment with your teammates next to you, it’s pretty intense, but I still had that same feeling even while playing from home with my online friends. That, to me, was what my follow-up impressions consisted of.

ESL: Did you play Left 4 Dead before getting into Evolve? If yes, do you think it informed the way you played Evolve?
Pansy: I did play L4D and L4D2 before getting my hands on Evolve, but I felt more of a correlation with previous, more ‘team-based’ games that depended on cohesion and teamwork. I say this due to the fact that in L4D, as much as it was a team-based game, didn’t need one player to do one specific job, which meant it was a little less dependant on individuals – people could help each other out in a more standard way.

However, in Evolve you need your medic to be focused on keeping everyone up, you need your assault to have faith in his team to keep him standing and doing the damage, and only when your trapper has done their bit to catch the monster. Evolve is an experience very unique to itself, but I find there are some relations to old school games like Enemy Territory or maybe Team Fortress 2, to an extent.

ESL: Any insider tips for people playing the game for the first time?
Pansy: Think about your composition, what your main job is and how can you help your team. Don’t walk into a game thinking you can win by yourself – it’s a team game, and you need your teammates as much as they need you.

ESL: Monster or hunter – which do you prefer? Which specific monster or class have you claimed as your own?
Pansy: I have been a medic since Enemy Territory days for over seven years now – my heart will always be within that specific job. I love being able to make sure people are able to do their job, support from the background and do the dirty work. I love the hunters overall, but as I said – medic all the way.

ESL: What’s your opinion of the game’s balance as of right now? Do you think one side currently has the balance tipped in their favor?
Pansy: The funny thing was, depending on who you were watching during the alpha/beta test, people assumed it was biased. I made a point to play hunters as much as possible and kept a 100% win rate.

So inevitably the cry from Twitch chat was that the game is biased, so being the idiot I am, I switched to monster and did the same with a 100% win ratio. The point being – it’s the player, not the character. The limited amount of hunters and monsters available during the playtest are still very balanced.

You could watch a CS:GO professional player AWPing versus ten newcomers and people would scream for change, but you put him 1v1 with someone of equal skill and you have a great match.
Point being: how can people cry for change before the game has been played and a meta has been set? Simply put, they cannot.

ESL: Looking at the currently revealed characters, can you single out anyone as an instant pick?
Pansy: I love being a medic, so the character I loved playing was Val. Her medic setup is fantastic. Nothing too strong but you still feel you have a good impact on the game and in a diverse way. Not only can I heal passively to counteract the damage the monster can cause, but I can affect the direct battle by landing two or three tranquilizer darts in succession to allow the trapper to put the dome down again.

I wouldn’t recommend Val to someone who doesn’t love the way a medic changes the battlefield, but if you love being the oil to the engine, it’s worth a good play.

ESL: Do you have a favorite monster from popular culture you’d like to see in the game?
Pansy: Bring me Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

ESL: How long do you think you’d last if you were a hunter in the Evolve universe?
Pansy: I would be dying in a plant within seconds. However, I won’t die to the crocodile like Jason Kaplan does, at least.

ESL: What are your thoughts on Evolve’s competitive esports potential?
Pansy: I still stand by the fact that very few games can ever start out as a esports title. You need a community, and a strong one at that. Competition comes from your pub servers, your matchmaking and eventually joining in on tournaments. It has to be natural, and I think that Evolve is still too early to call an esports title. However, it has everything that could take it there (aside from a spectator client).

ESL: Can you see yourself commentating Evolve games in the future?
Pansy: If they let me.

ESL: What excites you most about the game’s upcoming release?
Pansy: Trying to not die to plants.

ESL: Thanks for the interview, Lauren!

You can check out Lauren’s playtesting experience in full here if you want to get a closer look at Evolve, and you can also head over here for Jason Kaplan’s.

Evolve: the basics

The key concept of Evolve is pretty simple: there are four hunters tracking down one monster, all of whom are controlled by players. Each hunter is a specific class: assault, support, trapper or medic. Only through teamwork – and it is through this alone – will they be able to bring down the monster.

The monster can be one of several types. Currently there are two: the Goliath and the Kraken. Goliath is your classic Godzilla-esque brawler with the ability to charge, leap and breathe fire. The Kraken is more strategic in nature. Looking like a Cthulhuian horror, it is more comfortable in the skies than it is on the ground, with its thunderstorm motif featuring in abilities such as long range lightning strikes and the homing ‘banshee mines’.

At the start of a match, the monster is weaker than the hunters combined, but by tracking down and eating other creatures on the map, the monster can ‘evolve’. This leaves the monster vulnerable for a couple of seconds, but just long enough for you to select which of your four abilities you want to level up and with an extra little moment to change your mind if you really want to. At level two, the monster’s strength is equal to that of the hunters, but at level three, it is stronger than all the hunters’ combined strength.

The objective for the hunters is pretty self-explanatory. However, for the monster, the objective can vary. In my experience playing as the monster, the first objective was to destroy the power station where the hunters had landed onto the map. However, once the hunters had been significantly damaged, the objective changed to “finish them off”.

A matter of perspective

Myself and a colleague played two matches, with me playing the monster both times. From the hunter’s point of view, the world is dark and foreboding. Their torchlight battles against the darkness which threatens to engulf them and the creatures that inhabit the world are as much a threat to them as the monster that lurks in the shadows.

Playing as the monster, the world feels considerably less threatening. You are by far the largest object on the map, and the only thing that frightens you is the pack of hunters – regardless of the game’s design, it is still four human players against just one of you. After we had finished playing, my colleague talked about the huge velociraptor creatures he was chased by. I described them as small chickens I gobbled up to evolve. 

An evolution in competitive gaming

So how could Evolve be played – and watched – as a competitive eSport? I discussed this topic with the staff at 2K who are committed to developing Evolve as an eSport, many of whom have a background in competitive gaming. They have apparently written over seven pages of suggestions on how to play Evolve competitively.

The problem is, of course, that you have four players versus one, which doesn’t fit with the usual model of team games in eSports. Possible suggestions ranged from time trials to maybe having a monster on both teams! Comments were also made about wanting to see a monster vs. monster fight, although this would just be for the fun of it.

However, the most likely suggestion seems to be two teams of four players: one team plays as the hunters while the other team sends out their monster player. After the match, the teams switch sides, and continue alternating until everyone on both teams has played as the monster once. This may take a long time, though, so perhaps we would see ideas like a time limit for the hunters still being implemented.

This is only speculation and not to be taken as the definitive answer, however. The best way to play Evolve in a tournament setting has yet to be discovered, but it seems that this is the structure staff there preferred, and, in our casual discussion, seemed to make the most sense.

Depth of strategy    

“But surely the monster always wins, right?” is, I’ll admit, the first question I put to them, and it is the same question people have asked me time and again. However, this is not the case, and not only that, but the developers at Turtle Rock have some ingenious ideas on how to keep gameplay diverse and rich with strategy.

For one thing, not all hunter classes are identical. At gamescom, a second set of hunters with notable differences were showcased. For example, the medic, Lazarus, does not have the ability to heal other hunters. Instead, he can resurrect fallen comrades. This means that with Lazarus on your team, the hunters are always still in the game, but they lack active healing abilities, which may be less likely to take risks.

Another example is Bucket, the support robot. Not only can he deploy small turrets, but he can also detach his head and fly it around the map, leaving his body behind. This, in combination with Maggie, the new Trapper, and her pet Daisy, who can sniff out the monster, gives a team of hunters more than one way to find their prey, something which is vital to their success on the large maps the games has.

The other mechanic that creates a variety of strategies is the perk system. As the monster, at the start of the game I got to choose from one of four perks. These included faster eating and things like bonus armor or damage. In addition to this, though, there are also perks that can be obtained on the map, although these are contained within other creatures.

These creatures are usually larger, taking a lot longer to kill than the smaller ones, and could be classified as mini-bosses. However, it’s not just the monster who can collect these perks – the hunters can as well. Either team can fight these larger creatures to grant themselves significant rewards, but it will leave them vulnerable while they do so. One strategy is to lie in wait while your opponent takes down the target and steal the perk for yourself at the last moment, not unlike an Aegis grab in Dota 2.

The final aspect of this rich gameplay is the monster’s health. Simply put, it doesn’t regenerate, and currently no monster has the ability to heal itself. Damage to the monster is permanent, but it does have a certain amount of armor. This recovers over time, but very slowly.

This isn’t like the shields in Halo, though, which recover after a couple of seconds: it’s more like a Zerg Drone’s natural rate of healing in StarCraft II – it is slow. The amount of armor a monster has, however, can be increased with perks and by eating other creatures.

What this means in terms of strategy is that the monster has a window of time in which to get in, do some damage and leave again before he permanently loses health. This means that the ‘cat and mouse’ gameplay is not lost when monster becomes powerful enough to begin taking on the hunters directly. The monster needs to strike suddenly and quickly before fleeing back to safety, while for the hunters any permanent damage dealt brings them that bit closer to victory. When we played, I was victim of my own over-eagerness, and found myself tethered to the ground by one of Maggie’s traps, unable to escape and taking much more damage than I wanted to before finally breaking free.

Evolve for spectators

In an interview at PAX East earlier this year, senior producer Mike Boccieri described how the crowds responded to watching Evolve being played:

“People are getting really pumped and excited… you can tell they’re cheering because they’re starting to understand what’s going on, on screen, even the guys who haven’t even picked it up and played it yet. That’s critical for this being successful as an eSport.”

This is definitely true – the nature of the game is apparent to anyone who sees it: hunt the monster while the monster tries to survive. Even while the abilities of both the hunters and the monsters are varied – and may be become even more so in the future – their roles are distinct enough for people to understand their purpose.

Aspects of the game, such as the monster farming animals to evolve and fighting mini-bosses for perks, are immediately reminiscent of MOBA games, while the teamwork of the hunters, along with the palpable aura of tension which presides over the game, reminds me of CS:GO matches. This means that Evolve has a unique and interesting narrative as an eSport as it combines these two dynamic qualities, usually found in very different eSports, in one game.

Why Evolve is going to make it as an eSport

At the beginning of this article, I said that Evolve stood out not only as a game, but as a potential eSport – more so than many of its contemporaries. Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing trend of horror/survival games, such as Amnesia, Day Z and the soon to be released Alien: Isolation. Evolve takes this rising genre and not only redefines how it can be played, but also how to play an FPS game.

Team Fortress 2 doesn’t even come close to this kind of class-based shooter. Teamwork is absolutely crucial to the success or failure of the hunters, and the combining of their various abilities at the right time is the only way to win. Again, this is reminiscent of MOBA games, despite Evolve primarily being a shooter.

However, its inventive gameplay, depth of strategy and ease with which it engages and captivates audiences are not the only reasons why Evolve is going to have a bright future as an eSport – it’s also because the developers want it to.

We can’t deny that a game has to be popular with both players and viewers in order to be an eSport. However, without support from the developers directly, both the game and its community will have their work cut out for them. A comparison would be Dota 2 and Starcraft II to games like Street Fighter and Super Smash Bros. If a game’s developers are interested in creating a game that has a dynamic and vigorous competitive scene, and who want to provide that community with as much support as they can offer it, then it is comparatively easier for a game to find success as an eSport. Many fighting game by comparison, have sadly not had as much support.

That is why Evolve is going to rampage its way onto the eSports scene, and I cannot wait to see it happen.

You can check out more of our Evolve content, including Jason Kaplan and Lauren “Pansy” Scott’s experiences playing it for the very first time, here.

For more on Eliot’s experiences at gamescom, you can check out his blog at TryingToBeGosu.com.