Evolve Is One Of The Best Games We Saw At PAX
By Alex Chen | January 01, 0001
At PAX East last weekend, Team Kotaku went and played Evolve, the upcoming co-op shooter that pits a group of four hunters against one vicious monster. Yesterday, we talked about it. Here’s that conversation. Jason S. Hello, Team Kotaku. We are here to talk about Evolve, the upcoming game from Turtle Rock Studios (the Left 4 Dead people), which we all played at PAX East this past weekend. Stephen (who is on vacation) was the monster, against me, Evan, Tina, and Steve. Chris got to check it out too. So what’d you guys all think?(new Image()).src = 'https://capi.connatix.com/tr/si?token=995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c&cid=872d12ce-453b-4870-845f-955919887e1b'; cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "995c4c7d-194f-4077-b0a0-7ad466eb737c" }).render("79703296e5134c75a2db6e1b64762017"); }); Tina A. Game of show Jason S. It’s totally up your alley Tina A. I played it once more after you guys all left, on Sunday. Jason S. with friends or randoms? Evan N. I was keeping my expectations low, because I really love mc888 Left 4 Dead and have burned out on FPS for the last few years. But I loved it. Tina A. Yeah it’s exactly my kind of game. And I played the hell out of both L4Ds Mostly friends, one random PAX goer. Jason S. I thought it was really, really fun, even though I lost the game for us. Tina A. Well, let’s get into that. Evan N. Let’s shout out our roles. I was the Medic. Jason S. The concept — four humans teaming up against an overpowered monster, and only overcoming him/her through teamwork — is brilliant. Tina A. I think we made two big mistakes. I was on Assault. Jason S. I was the TRAPPER Tina A. Absolutely, that’s the backbone to L4D and why I love that series so much, too Really, every FPS could go over more effectively/fun if everyone grouped together and worked like a team, but FPSes so rarely encourage that Jason S. But in L4D you’re playing against the AI, right? Here you’re playing against another person, which changes everything Tina A. Actually you play against other players, too. The difference is that there is one big “monster” like there is in Evolve — namely, the Tank Tina A. But you have to wait to basically unlock it per level As opposed to Evolve, where it’s always the boss battle Steve M. has entered the room Jason S. Ahh Chris P. I played as the Medic as well, on a different team from you guys. Evan N. I was worried that playing as Medic would feel boring but it didn’t. Chris P. No, exactly Jason S. Yeah, I love that core idea of a game being insurmountable unless you and your friends figure out how to work together. Tina A. You’re in constant need, and you did a great job Jason S. So the Medic is fun? Chris P. Yeah Tina A. Stephen mentioned that he was having a hard time keeping our collective health down because of you, Evan Evan N. The map we played on was so vertical that there was challenge in finding a downed player Chris P. So, unlike a lot of other games (Like vanilla TF2) it was a really dynamic role. Evan N. and tagging the Monster with weak spots for your partners to hit felt like a nice bit of co-operative design Chris P. Yeah Evan N. I’m great at healing, guys Tina A. I thought as Assault I’d be first on the scene, but I realized quickly that the Trapper has to be tailing the monster the closest Steve M. Using the shield on people was interesting, because you have to keep paying attention to who is getting attacked Chris P. The Tranquilizer gun/sniper rifle combo makes it so you are pretty vital at taking this thing riches888pg down. Steve M. and the monster can spin at any second and switch targets to someone else, or to you Jason S. Evan Narcisse, official Kotaku Healer Tina A. Ain’t that the truth Chris P. Also, I liked how the monster’s three stages varied so much in strength. The balance of power really shifts depending on how good the person playing the monster is. Steve M. I definitely think the coolest part was that crocodile Jason S. The crocodile that ruined our game Tina A. Right. I played as the monster my second time around and I focused mainly on keeping distance from the hunters and eating wildlife Evan N. Yeah, the map really felt alive with all this dangerous alien wildlife Tina A. I was a bit more aggressive at stage 2 and went all out by stage 3 Jason S. Our team was so close to taking down Stephen Totilo, and then we ran into a crocodile. Story of my life Evan N. YOU ran into a crocodile, Jason Tina A. So, the monster can also get attacked by some red-outlined wildlife. Including that croc Tina A. Yeah, with the game rep screaming for you not to! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zlaPT08Tmxc Evan N. YOU, who was our trapper Tina A. You trapped us Jason S. He screamed at me AFTER I ran into the crocodile Jason S. I only play JRPGs, so I assumed we’d go to a separate battle screen Tina A. So that killed one of us, right? Was it you Jaosn? Evan N. when I talked about it with Stephen afterward, he said he jumped over the crocodile and figured we’d run into it Tina A. Yep, he knew what he was doing. I stole that tactic when I played as the Goliath, too Evan N. and then afte we killed it, he ate it to get a bunch of energy to fuel the next stage transformation Tina A. Except they downed him easy and got the health perk he drops when you kill him Tina A. So that kind of didn’t work out in my favor Kirk H. has entered the room Jason S. Did you win? Tina A. Of course. Tina A. I demolished them Tina A. They never even got a chance to go to the generator that pops up when the monster hits stage 3 Kirk H. Hey are you guys talking about Evolve? That game is pretty damn fun. I won when I played as the monster. Just saying. Kirk H. Okay bye Tina A. By that time the goal is either the monster kills the hunters, beats the generator down, or the hunters protect the generator Kirk H.has left the room Tina A. And they never even made it over there. I just cornered them and beat them down one by one Evan N. We should say that we had Stephen pretty close to death Tina A. We did! And there were two screw-ups that stole our victory. Jason S. Sucker was on the ropes Evan N. but Jason’s screw-up and losing Steve gave him room to reover Tina A. One was the croc we already mentioned Tina A. The other was my fault Tina A. I didn’t realize there are venus fly trap looking things on the map? Jason S. Kotaku readers, I want you to know that Evan has been talking shit about this crocodile for 3 straight days now Tina A. And I ran right over one. And I guess no one was around to help me out of it because you need a teammate to shoot it off of you (thanks guys) Chris P. That croc sucks, be fair Tina A. So I died and knocked our team down by another hunter Tina A. And you guys didn’t stand a chance with half a team Jason S. Well, toward the end we weren’t sticking together. That’s one of the keys to this game, as the humans: moving as one group Tina A. I think we got nervous after losing Steve and Stephen having just hit stage 3 Tina A. The appearance of the generator adds some pressure Evan N. Yeah, we weren’t talking enough. Jason wasn’t telling me when he needed healing, for example. Tina A. So we all ran off to try to capture Stephen, sort of abandoning all the rules we set up at the beginning of the match Evan N. Just one of the reasons our engagement