RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
I killed it (and them.)
Tons of fun. Still much butthurt about Kraken, but I actually killed a few during this beta so either me and the average hunter got better, or they did nerf it a bit.
The main worry is that it may get old fast if there isn't a lot of diversity to the content. Only Xbox got to test Evacuation mode while the rest of us got the same Hunt only mode. At launch it looks like there will be 12 hunters and 3 monsters. and at least 4 different game modes: Hunt, Defend, Rescue, and Nest; and at least 4 maps. There is an already announced 4th monster DLC and what appears to be 4 more hunters DLC coming. That would seem like a fair amount of playable characters to me. More game modes and a couple more maps would be nice. Story is also setup so that sequels or at least big expansion level content could be added.
Hunt: Basic 4v1, hunt the monster before it hunts you or destroys the power relay.
Defend: Hunters must defend structures for a set amount of time. If first set of structures are destroyed, time is increased and so one too a point. Have some base turrets to help. Hunters have quicker respawn and are revived at full health instead of lower health.
Rescue: 3 waves of survivors. Hunters must escort to evac point and defend. First side to 5 survivors killed or rescued wins.
Nest: Hunters must destroy all eggs or the alpha monster before time runs outs. Alpha monster (player controlled) must level up as normal and defend or hatch eggs for support. Can only have one hatchling minion at a time. Monster wins if all the Hunters are killed or time runs out.
Evacuation: 5 round match where the rounds change depending on who and how the previous round was won. Can contain all of the above.
As it stands now it's still very fun game. I just would feel uneasy about paying $60 for it (I already preordered it though.) If there is a bit more then what we've seen included at launch, then I think it will have a great base game to it.
Support: I gravitated towards support as it seemed like a class I could not be right in the monster's face but still help by keeping my team mates alive. Turns out I was right but those who played the monster (cough Rah cough) are quite aware of this also and since Hank (the only support I was able to try) makes people invulnerable, I was targeted as soon as I was starting to feel like I was helping. A tactic I could see working would be cloaking once targeted to get out of danger (Good game balance, back and forth).
Assault: I can see doing tons of damage with Markov when the teamwork is all there.
Monster: I blame not knowing the map layout for one of my Goliath failures (0-2) and the other on learning curve. I was able to stealth away at the beginning and even lose the hunters once they found me but struggled with killing and eating creatures / evolving. There definitely has to be a dynamic picking order of hunters depending on if you are in the thunder dome or not.
Others I only got 1 or 2 runs in and couldn't get a feel for the play style needed to use them effectively.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
edited January 2015
I've only ever played monster with you all and I emulated what the successful monsters in my pug groups did:
Stay mobile.
Jump/airdash or stealth as much as possible to leave minimal tracks (this is where Daisy can shine.)
Sniff constantly.
Grab quick snacks.
Get to stage 2 asap.
If I got caught, pay it back in kind (I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me!)
Avoid the assault while trying to manhandle the support or medic.
Focus trapper if I want the dome to go down.
If I corner a Hunter, end them.
Close- spaces are MY territory, open spaces with high points are not.
Evolving takes away my armor so I need to snack as much as possible before engaging.
As for hunters, I can't speak much on other classes but Support is my jam.
Hank: Well rounded support. Has great defense and offense. Find high ground near a fight and swap between laser cutter and shield generator depending on need. Both have really long range and are extremely accurate (100% assuming you have line of sight.) Only activate the shield when someone is about to take damage. That way it charges back up while it's not actually need. Think hard about when and where you drop the orbital strike.
Bucket: Takes time to get setup in a fight, but if done right deals great consistent damage with turrets and guided missiles. The UAV is great for finding and tracking the monster asap. Great defensive potential.
Cabot: Mostly offensive support. Has dust tagging ability that coats an area in radioactive dust, revealing and tracking all living things in the area for a time. Has a damage amp ray that increases all damage done to the monster when active and locked on. Lastly he has a very strong, single shot, guass rifle that can pierce obstacles. Cabot can drop dust in a far area of the map and should the monster be revealed, even behind cliffs, trees, and stuff, Cabot can shoot it directly, but again, at reduced damage.
Hunter general tips:
When tracking the monster spread out to increase vision but not too far.
Find what tracks you can and press tab to form a quick plan on here to look.
Don't just follow the tracks like a trail. Monster is faster, you'll be running in circles. Try to guess where ti is heading and meet it.
Maybe send 2 ahead and 2 "following" tracks.
Try not to shoot the native wildlife unless it's a man-eating plant or an albino. Otherwise it's a waste of your time and potentially a free snack for the monster. Also can give away your position.
When in combat, and you're not assault, try to stay higher then the monster and save your jetpack for dodges.
Typically, assault will be the front line, trapper the front-to-mid line, and ther medic and support in back.
Being focused by the monster? Where you run/dodge has some factors. Is a teammate downed? Trying making a loop away from your team and then back to them to give them time to regroup. Everyone alive? Dodge straight back to your teammates (especially to an assault) or risk getting separated and picked off.
If your downed and a support (or Lazarus) has cloaked and is trying to revive you, DO NOT SHOOT. Won't reveal the cloaked teammate, but will reveal you and may bring the monster back to you. Preventing them from reviving you.
Avoid shooting a fleeing monster as that can cause their stamina to regen faster, so they'll get away faster. If their armor is down. This isn't so bad as you'll deal permanent damage to their health. Trade offs to consider.
If trapper and you know you are near the monster, swap to the "THUNDER DOME" well before you plan to throw it as it has an arming time. Also consider if you want to dome it at the present area. Is this a good spot for us to fight? Can my team utilize all of their abilities here? How weak or strong is the monster? If the area dangerous to dome at, consider just following the monster and doming at a better spot.
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colapart legend, part devil... all manBalls deepIcrontian
it's 9 p.m. on the east coast, and this game is still available to play, HNNNNNG
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
I hope DLC doesn't ruin this game. Their strategy is aggressive as hell (as it was when at THQ, but there it made sense cuz bankrupt), and I'm worried it'll burn out the community.
I'm excited for the launch, but I get the feeling the game's gonna need more free content to keep legs for more than a couple months. Might end up Titanfall part 2 if there's not enough to keep players engaged.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
If they did things similar to Payday 2s model I think it would end up okay. If it all ends up being paid DLC then it will be quite the pain, and may even feel pay-to-win ish.
Some game should release a "secret" character that you can only play if you random, ever.
Also I think it would be really interesting if they came out with a parasitic monster that takes control of wildlife and has to level itself up by taking over bigger and bigger monsters eating them from the inside. Spore means Evolve.
I'm more for a monster that is smaller and is able to mess with their heads. Take over their bodies telepathically and whisper to creep them out. Maybe the farther they are from one another they are more susceptible to the monsters abilities. Make them turn on each other and all that adrenaline pumping stuff!
0
RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
Also they listed that at launch there will be 1 campaign, 4 game modes, 16 maps, 3 monsters, 12 hunters, and 40 match modifiers. There are 2 more monsters, and ~4 hunters scheduled for release after launch. I haven't found anything on any more maps, game modes or campaigns though.
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colapart legend, part devil... all manBalls deepIcrontian
Just checked out the reviews on Steam for this game.... wow, it has a pretty high number of negative reviews from users. Per Bobby's comment above, seems to be primarily linked to the "Day 1 DLC" issue.
Seriously though, almost a Benjamin for the full package?
Waaay too heavy for day one. They really should have spaced this shit out. Makes things look bad.
For a game that I've been dying for for a couple of years now, this really makes me uneasy.
RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
edited March 2015
Hunt for Gold event. Log on this weekend and play some matches and you'll be awarded the development team's Golden monster skins sometime next week.
"NOTE: You need to link your my2K account to Evolve in order to get the Gold Skin."
They also say they will be having much more events like this in the future with the next one being "St. Patrick’s Day Trapper Challenge"
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
edited March 2015
This weekend (9:00 PM PT on Thursday, March 19 and 9:00 PM PT on Sunday, March 22) if there are 35,000 games won by the hunters with Griffin among the team, everyone who plays during that time will get the above skin set for free. @cola
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
The next four hunters have been announced along with the release date for them and the next monster: March 31st.
There is one more monster confirmed to be planned for eventual release. I haven't seen anything for more hunters yet.
This is also when the first free maps will be added. Though that's kinda a farce to say since Xbox get's them first for a month then Playstation and PC.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
I've been watching and reading a bunch of discussion on the game, and combining it with my own playthrough have come up with some interesting notes on the game.
1: This is an asymmetric multiplayer game that while acknowledged by a majority of the playerbase, the full concept of which is not grasped by everyone. A well done very asymmetric game makes two almost separate games into one. In this case, the hunters and the monster. They all abide by a few shared rules but each play differently. The different playstyles can be called separate games entirely depending on the players personality. For example, some players will play anything in Evolve. Others only want to play as Hunters, and then only as a set few of the Hunters. Still there are some players that only want to play Monster. These preferences are so strong for some that they will leave the lobby if they get assigned a role they don't want to play. Then some hunter get upset because either they wanted to be monster and now that the role is actually open but they can't swap to it, or now they won't have a challenge hunting a bot monster. Also there seems to be a "You must play as the monster timer/count." in the matchmaking. You can play with a pug and everyone has the role they want, but eventually you all will get shaken up into other roles. Grouping with 4 friends or less is suppose to always make a pug the monster. This isn't always the case either.
2: The game should have been advertised differently. MANY people thought it had Day One DLC (finished gameplay content sold separately at release.) The only extra content out right now are skins for the monsters and weapons (the pics above.)
3: It's worth it's price now if you enjoy it as it is now. I knew from my time in the alphas and betas that I greatly enjoyed this game as a whole, and preordered it then. If you are unsure, I would highly suggest you keep a look out for it going on sale as you may get more bang fore your buck and get more content you feel it may need.
4: Points 2 and 3 above lead to a potentially really big problem. The game's community is relatively small (I've actually run into some people multiple times in matchmaking.) and doesn't look like it will change anytime soon. People will inevitably drop off as time goes by. Only the die hard veterans will remain. Enter the Steam Summer Sale for example. Sudden wave of new players who will likely get grouped with the veterans. This has 3 main outcomes: The veteran community shows no mercy and no manners, turning away the new players and potentially wasting their purchase. The veteran players are welcoming and understanding and show the new players the ropes. The new players will still likely get their asses handed to them but it wont' be an outright miserable experience entirely. Or neither happens in mass and people come to their own conclusions on their own or with outside help.
It will most likely be a majority of the third option with the rest being the other two options with one of those two options dominating the other. Hopefully it's just the latter two so the game grows, making it more fun for everyone.
Personally I'll try to be the second option and be as welcoming and friendly as I can be. I normally try to be anyways.
5: The price for the 4th monster is $15 USD. With my new understanding of the game and it's development, I still find it hard to justify $15 for it. $10 I feel would be a worthy estimate personally. $15 I can understand for all 4 of the next hunters. An option to buy them individually for a reduced price each but more total would be nice though. Keep in mind though that their pricing has not been announced. Nice thing about this dlc is that you don't need to buy the content in order to play with or against them. So everyone's game is enhanced to a degree by the few who do purchase these.
6: The other game modes add some nice diversity. There are many different strategies both sides can use on each mode. Hunt could use some of that though. It does have it's own nuanced strategies both sides can use, but some other mini-objectives in hunt could add some diversity to the main mode. For example it's been suggested that should a hunter(s) be killed by the monster but other(s) remain, that they have another option to work at should continuing the fight be unfavorable, which it regularly is should that point be reached. Currently, the hunters just run and hide as the game is flipped to the hunters being hunted. If certain characters were chosen, the hunters can choose to make a great trap now that the monster may be coming for them, if they have those characters on the team and they are alive. The monster can choose to find the remaining hunters and kill them, or continue hunting wildlife and level up, potentially nullifying that great trap factor.
This is only really a concern when pugging through the skirmish option. As Evacuation adds other objectives/bonuses based on gameplay and custom matches can have these bonuses manually chosen.
Result of all this analysis: Optimal way to have the most fun in the game is to play with 5 friends in Evacuation or Custom Games since everyone gets to play what they want to play, and many factors are added to the gameplay. Pugs have the typical pug problems, but the main issue for pugs comes from the asymmetry and matchmaking itself. Is the content worth it? Depends on your own personality and preferences. Be a savvy shopper and find out.
Anyway, should you get this game, I'll gladly play with you should you purchase this now or in the future. Hit me up on here or in steam and we'll have some fun hunting.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00HKCIT0O
Amazon Gold Box Amazon has the for Evolve Video Game (PS4, Xbox One, PC) for a low $39.99 Free Shipping Tax in many states. This is normally $59.99.
PC download activates on steam.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
This mode gets right to the action. The Monster and Hunters are dropped into 1 of 3 dome arenas on a map. The Monster is Stage 2 and has 50% armor from the get go. When a Hunter dies, there is no dropship bringing them back until the next round. When one side falls completely, the next round begins at another dome in the level. Best of 3.
Also in this update, fixed many exploits and tweaked some areas of certain maps as well as general bug fixes and balance changes.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
Since I last posted, Evolve has:
Added 2 hunters, with two more and another monster coming soon. At this rate I would expect before the end of the year.
Made tons of balance, technical, and gameplay improvements.
Matchmaking changes. Changed matchmaking to now account for skill as well as level. Allow you to exclusively queue as Monster or Hunter. No longer will drop you into an in-progress match.
A couple new maps.
Other stuff.
The state of the game has plummeted and is relatively a ghost town. I still firmly believe it was mostly due to 2K not changing anything in the games path after acquiring it from THQ's fall. They should have kept it in development and got the new maps, hunters, and monsters ready and release it later this year instead of earlier. I believe this would have delivered a more, popularly viewed (again, I personally found the original base game to be good enough for me), quality product. Hopefully this would have cleaned up the pricing and any chance for the Day One Preorders that really blew up customer appeal earlier.
I've only had 2 real complaints about this game: the matchmaking was lackluster for solo players, and the amount of dedication needed to be online. This changes fixed the matchmaking complaints I had, but as far as I know, should my internet hiccup for half a second or should Steam do the same, I'm booted form the game and so is everyone else if it was on Steam's end.
Now the best move for Evolve is probably to repackage this coming holiday season. Include all the new hunters and monsters in the base package, if not that then greatly reduce the prices of all. A restructuring of the character tier system would help. It was originally in place to keep the harder-to-be-adequate characters out of reach from beginners so that they can make an impact while still learning the game. To keep that original intent in place I would say keep the current "accomplish these things with this character" method but once that first set is complete, all of the rest in that class are unlocked.
I still believe that there is plenty of fun to be had in this game, those new matchmaking changes alone make me want to play again (yay only monster if I want to be.) Unless they do some big pricing and special sales or something, I don't see a resurgence for this game anytime soon. If it can make it to the holidays and pricing changes by then, or they get smart with Steam Sale pricing, then this game won't last much longer and that's sad, but such is life.
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RahnalH102the Green Devout, Veteran Monster Hunter, Creature EnthusiastNew MexicoIcrontian
I know I'm probably beating a dead horse but just so anyone interested knows, Evolve will be this weekend's free-to-try game on Steam. All the new Characters are included. There is also a new "Adaptation" TurtleRock is adding for free to all owners. An Adaptation is a variant or subspecies of a certain monster with altered abilities and looks. This first adaptation is "Meteor Goliath" which is centered around ranged play rather then a regular Goliath's balance.
Comments
I have Infinite so I'll be in again. Look forward to this.
In
Good times last night
/jealous
Don't leave us hanging, how was it?
I killed it (and them.)
Tons of fun. Still much butthurt about Kraken, but I actually killed a few during this beta so either me and the average hunter got better, or they did nerf it a bit.
The main worry is that it may get old fast if there isn't a lot of diversity to the content. Only Xbox got to test Evacuation mode while the rest of us got the same Hunt only mode. At launch it looks like there will be 12 hunters and 3 monsters. and at least 4 different game modes: Hunt, Defend, Rescue, and Nest; and at least 4 maps. There is an already announced 4th monster DLC and what appears to be 4 more hunters DLC coming. That would seem like a fair amount of playable characters to me. More game modes and a couple more maps would be nice. Story is also setup so that sequels or at least big expansion level content could be added.
Hunt: Basic 4v1, hunt the monster before it hunts you or destroys the power relay.
Defend: Hunters must defend structures for a set amount of time. If first set of structures are destroyed, time is increased and so one too a point. Have some base turrets to help. Hunters have quicker respawn and are revived at full health instead of lower health.
Rescue: 3 waves of survivors. Hunters must escort to evac point and defend. First side to 5 survivors killed or rescued wins.
Nest: Hunters must destroy all eggs or the alpha monster before time runs outs. Alpha monster (player controlled) must level up as normal and defend or hatch eggs for support. Can only have one hatchling minion at a time. Monster wins if all the Hunters are killed or time runs out.
Evacuation: 5 round match where the rounds change depending on who and how the previous round was won. Can contain all of the above.
As it stands now it's still very fun game. I just would feel uneasy about paying $60 for it (I already preordered it though.) If there is a bit more then what we've seen included at launch, then I think it will have a great base game to it.
My thoughts:
As Rah stated we only got to try Hunt.
Support: I gravitated towards support as it seemed like a class I could not be right in the monster's face but still help by keeping my team mates alive. Turns out I was right but those who played the monster (cough Rah cough) are quite aware of this also and since Hank (the only support I was able to try) makes people invulnerable, I was targeted as soon as I was starting to feel like I was helping. A tactic I could see working would be cloaking once targeted to get out of danger (Good game balance, back and forth).
Assault: I can see doing tons of damage with Markov when the teamwork is all there.
Monster: I blame not knowing the map layout for one of my Goliath failures (0-2) and the other on learning curve. I was able to stealth away at the beginning and even lose the hunters once they found me but struggled with killing and eating creatures / evolving. There definitely has to be a dynamic picking order of hunters depending on if you are in the thunder dome or not.
Others I only got 1 or 2 runs in and couldn't get a feel for the play style needed to use them effectively.
I've only ever played monster with you all and I emulated what the successful monsters in my pug groups did:
Stay mobile.
Jump/airdash or stealth as much as possible to leave minimal tracks (this is where Daisy can shine.)
Sniff constantly.
Grab quick snacks.
Get to stage 2 asap.
If I got caught, pay it back in kind (I'm not trapped in here with you, you're trapped in here with me!)
Avoid the assault while trying to manhandle the support or medic.
Focus trapper if I want the dome to go down.
If I corner a Hunter, end them.
Close- spaces are MY territory, open spaces with high points are not.
Evolving takes away my armor so I need to snack as much as possible before engaging.
As for hunters, I can't speak much on other classes but Support is my jam.
Hank: Well rounded support. Has great defense and offense. Find high ground near a fight and swap between laser cutter and shield generator depending on need. Both have really long range and are extremely accurate (100% assuming you have line of sight.) Only activate the shield when someone is about to take damage. That way it charges back up while it's not actually need. Think hard about when and where you drop the orbital strike.
Bucket: Takes time to get setup in a fight, but if done right deals great consistent damage with turrets and guided missiles. The UAV is great for finding and tracking the monster asap. Great defensive potential.
Cabot: Mostly offensive support. Has dust tagging ability that coats an area in radioactive dust, revealing and tracking all living things in the area for a time. Has a damage amp ray that increases all damage done to the monster when active and locked on. Lastly he has a very strong, single shot, guass rifle that can pierce obstacles. Cabot can drop dust in a far area of the map and should the monster be revealed, even behind cliffs, trees, and stuff, Cabot can shoot it directly, but again, at reduced damage.
Hunter general tips:
When tracking the monster spread out to increase vision but not too far.
Find what tracks you can and press tab to form a quick plan on here to look.
Don't just follow the tracks like a trail. Monster is faster, you'll be running in circles. Try to guess where ti is heading and meet it.
Maybe send 2 ahead and 2 "following" tracks.
Try not to shoot the native wildlife unless it's a man-eating plant or an albino. Otherwise it's a waste of your time and potentially a free snack for the monster. Also can give away your position.
When in combat, and you're not assault, try to stay higher then the monster and save your jetpack for dodges.
Typically, assault will be the front line, trapper the front-to-mid line, and ther medic and support in back.
Being focused by the monster? Where you run/dodge has some factors. Is a teammate downed? Trying making a loop away from your team and then back to them to give them time to regroup. Everyone alive? Dodge straight back to your teammates (especially to an assault) or risk getting separated and picked off.
If your downed and a support (or Lazarus) has cloaked and is trying to revive you, DO NOT SHOOT. Won't reveal the cloaked teammate, but will reveal you and may bring the monster back to you. Preventing them from reviving you.
Avoid shooting a fleeing monster as that can cause their stamina to regen faster, so they'll get away faster. If their armor is down. This isn't so bad as you'll deal permanent damage to their health. Trade offs to consider.
If trapper and you know you are near the monster, swap to the "THUNDER DOME" well before you plan to throw it as it has an arming time. Also consider if you want to dome it at the present area. Is this a good spot for us to fight? Can my team utilize all of their abilities here? How weak or strong is the monster? If the area dangerous to dome at, consider just following the monster and doming at a better spot.
it's 9 p.m. on the east coast, and this game is still available to play, HNNNNNG
Servers close at 8pm PST / 11pm EST
I hope DLC doesn't ruin this game. Their strategy is aggressive as hell (as it was when at THQ, but there it made sense cuz bankrupt), and I'm worried it'll burn out the community.
I'm excited for the launch, but I get the feeling the game's gonna need more free content to keep legs for more than a couple months. Might end up Titanfall part 2 if there's not enough to keep players engaged.
If they did things similar to Payday 2s model I think it would end up okay. If it all ends up being paid DLC then it will be quite the pain, and may even feel pay-to-win ish.
Some game should release a "secret" character that you can only play if you random, ever.
Also I think it would be really interesting if they came out with a parasitic monster that takes control of wildlife and has to level itself up by taking over bigger and bigger monsters eating them from the inside. Spore means Evolve.
I'm more for a monster that is smaller and is able to mess with their heads. Take over their bodies telepathically and whisper to creep them out. Maybe the farther they are from one another they are more susceptible to the monsters abilities. Make them turn on each other and all that adrenaline pumping stuff!
What Turtle Rock learned from the last beta session.
Also they listed that at launch there will be 1 campaign, 4 game modes, 16 maps, 3 monsters, 12 hunters, and 40 match modifiers. There are 2 more monsters, and ~4 hunters scheduled for release after launch. I haven't found anything on any more maps, game modes or campaigns though.
It's here, get in it
Been having a great time with Evolve so-far. Even got the wife to play!
I'll be playing this evening, I think.
Just checked out the reviews on Steam for this game.... wow, it has a pretty high number of negative reviews from users. Per Bobby's comment above, seems to be primarily linked to the "Day 1 DLC" issue.
I played the Alpha and Beta and wasted some cash on the Monster PC Race Edition. Been trying to improve performance on my laptop.
Seriously though, almost a Benjamin for the full package?
Waaay too heavy for day one. They really should have spaced this shit out. Makes things look bad.
For a game that I've been dying for for a couple of years now, this really makes me uneasy.
http://www.dlgamer.us/download-evolve-pc_games-p-25168.html?affil=4027398105
39.99, ends today
Hunt for Gold event. Log on this weekend and play some matches and you'll be awarded the development team's Golden monster skins sometime next week.
"NOTE: You need to link your my2K account to Evolve in order to get the Gold Skin."
They also say they will be having much more events like this in the future with the next one being "St. Patrick’s Day Trapper Challenge"
This weekend (9:00 PM PT on Thursday, March 19 and 9:00 PM PT on Sunday, March 22) if there are 35,000 games won by the hunters with Griffin among the team, everyone who plays during that time will get the above skin set for free.
@cola
The next four hunters have been announced along with the release date for them and the next monster: March 31st.
There is one more monster confirmed to be planned for eventual release. I haven't seen anything for more hunters yet.
This is also when the first free maps will be added. Though that's kinda a farce to say since Xbox get's them first for a month then Playstation and PC.
I've been watching and reading a bunch of discussion on the game, and combining it with my own playthrough have come up with some interesting notes on the game.
1: This is an asymmetric multiplayer game that while acknowledged by a majority of the playerbase, the full concept of which is not grasped by everyone. A well done very asymmetric game makes two almost separate games into one. In this case, the hunters and the monster. They all abide by a few shared rules but each play differently. The different playstyles can be called separate games entirely depending on the players personality. For example, some players will play anything in Evolve. Others only want to play as Hunters, and then only as a set few of the Hunters. Still there are some players that only want to play Monster. These preferences are so strong for some that they will leave the lobby if they get assigned a role they don't want to play. Then some hunter get upset because either they wanted to be monster and now that the role is actually open but they can't swap to it, or now they won't have a challenge hunting a bot monster. Also there seems to be a "You must play as the monster timer/count." in the matchmaking. You can play with a pug and everyone has the role they want, but eventually you all will get shaken up into other roles. Grouping with 4 friends or less is suppose to always make a pug the monster. This isn't always the case either.
2: The game should have been advertised differently. MANY people thought it had Day One DLC (finished gameplay content sold separately at release.) The only extra content out right now are skins for the monsters and weapons (the pics above.)
3: It's worth it's price now if you enjoy it as it is now. I knew from my time in the alphas and betas that I greatly enjoyed this game as a whole, and preordered it then. If you are unsure, I would highly suggest you keep a look out for it going on sale as you may get more bang fore your buck and get more content you feel it may need.
4: Points 2 and 3 above lead to a potentially really big problem. The game's community is relatively small (I've actually run into some people multiple times in matchmaking.) and doesn't look like it will change anytime soon. People will inevitably drop off as time goes by. Only the die hard veterans will remain. Enter the Steam Summer Sale for example. Sudden wave of new players who will likely get grouped with the veterans. This has 3 main outcomes: The veteran community shows no mercy and no manners, turning away the new players and potentially wasting their purchase. The veteran players are welcoming and understanding and show the new players the ropes. The new players will still likely get their asses handed to them but it wont' be an outright miserable experience entirely. Or neither happens in mass and people come to their own conclusions on their own or with outside help.
It will most likely be a majority of the third option with the rest being the other two options with one of those two options dominating the other. Hopefully it's just the latter two so the game grows, making it more fun for everyone.
Personally I'll try to be the second option and be as welcoming and friendly as I can be. I normally try to be anyways.
5: The price for the 4th monster is $15 USD. With my new understanding of the game and it's development, I still find it hard to justify $15 for it. $10 I feel would be a worthy estimate personally. $15 I can understand for all 4 of the next hunters. An option to buy them individually for a reduced price each but more total would be nice though. Keep in mind though that their pricing has not been announced. Nice thing about this dlc is that you don't need to buy the content in order to play with or against them. So everyone's game is enhanced to a degree by the few who do purchase these.
6: The other game modes add some nice diversity. There are many different strategies both sides can use on each mode. Hunt could use some of that though. It does have it's own nuanced strategies both sides can use, but some other mini-objectives in hunt could add some diversity to the main mode. For example it's been suggested that should a hunter(s) be killed by the monster but other(s) remain, that they have another option to work at should continuing the fight be unfavorable, which it regularly is should that point be reached. Currently, the hunters just run and hide as the game is flipped to the hunters being hunted. If certain characters were chosen, the hunters can choose to make a great trap now that the monster may be coming for them, if they have those characters on the team and they are alive. The monster can choose to find the remaining hunters and kill them, or continue hunting wildlife and level up, potentially nullifying that great trap factor.
This is only really a concern when pugging through the skirmish option. As Evacuation adds other objectives/bonuses based on gameplay and custom matches can have these bonuses manually chosen.
Result of all this analysis: Optimal way to have the most fun in the game is to play with 5 friends in Evacuation or Custom Games since everyone gets to play what they want to play, and many factors are added to the gameplay. Pugs have the typical pug problems, but the main issue for pugs comes from the asymmetry and matchmaking itself. Is the content worth it? Depends on your own personality and preferences. Be a savvy shopper and find out.
Anyway, should you get this game, I'll gladly play with you should you purchase this now or in the future. Hit me up on here or in steam and we'll have some fun hunting.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/product/B00HKCIT0O
Amazon Gold Box Amazon has the for Evolve Video Game (PS4, Xbox One, PC) for a low $39.99 Free Shipping Tax in many states. This is normally $59.99.
PC download activates on steam.
Turtlerock announced that the hunters will be $7.50 each.
Today they've added a free update that introduces Arena Mode.
This mode gets right to the action. The Monster and Hunters are dropped into 1 of 3 dome arenas on a map. The Monster is Stage 2 and has 50% armor from the get go. When a Hunter dies, there is no dropship bringing them back until the next round. When one side falls completely, the next round begins at another dome in the level. Best of 3.
Also in this update, fixed many exploits and tweaked some areas of certain maps as well as general bug fixes and balance changes.
Since I last posted, Evolve has:
The state of the game has plummeted and is relatively a ghost town. I still firmly believe it was mostly due to 2K not changing anything in the games path after acquiring it from THQ's fall. They should have kept it in development and got the new maps, hunters, and monsters ready and release it later this year instead of earlier. I believe this would have delivered a more, popularly viewed (again, I personally found the original base game to be good enough for me), quality product. Hopefully this would have cleaned up the pricing and any chance for the Day One Preorders that really blew up customer appeal earlier.
I've only had 2 real complaints about this game: the matchmaking was lackluster for solo players, and the amount of dedication needed to be online. This changes fixed the matchmaking complaints I had, but as far as I know, should my internet hiccup for half a second or should Steam do the same, I'm booted form the game and so is everyone else if it was on Steam's end.
Now the best move for Evolve is probably to repackage this coming holiday season. Include all the new hunters and monsters in the base package, if not that then greatly reduce the prices of all. A restructuring of the character tier system would help. It was originally in place to keep the harder-to-be-adequate characters out of reach from beginners so that they can make an impact while still learning the game. To keep that original intent in place I would say keep the current "accomplish these things with this character" method but once that first set is complete, all of the rest in that class are unlocked.
I still believe that there is plenty of fun to be had in this game, those new matchmaking changes alone make me want to play again (yay only monster if I want to be.) Unless they do some big pricing and special sales or something, I don't see a resurgence for this game anytime soon. If it can make it to the holidays and pricing changes by then, or they get smart with Steam Sale pricing, then this game won't last much longer and that's sad, but such is life.
I know I'm probably beating a dead horse but just so anyone interested knows, Evolve will be this weekend's free-to-try game on Steam. All the new Characters are included. There is also a new "Adaptation" TurtleRock is adding for free to all owners. An Adaptation is a variant or subspecies of a certain monster with altered abilities and looks. This first adaptation is "Meteor Goliath" which is centered around ranged play rather then a regular Goliath's balance.