So most people know that Evolve the Big Alpha had occurred this past weekend. Well I managed to be lucky enough to get to participate in the alpha on Xbox Once, and I have to say, I really wasn't to impressed with it.
Let's start by explaining what exactly Evolve is. Its slated as the next big thing in the fps (first person shooter) games. With Evolve there is no longer the 8v8 team deathmatch or capture the flag games we are normally used to. Evolve touts a spin on the fps by going the 4v1 route. That's right folks, four people against one. It pits 4 people who are the hunters against one person who is the monster they are hunting.Now while this might sound interesting it can get into the same monotony that you find with all fps games. Nothing but repetitive gameplay.
With that out of the way let's get down to brass tacks and really get into some specifics of the game. Mind you they may change since this was just an alpha and should be taken with a grain of salt.
First let's address the class system. There are 5 different classes that you can choose from. There is the assault class which is considered the main damage dealer. The trapper class which is essentially a tracker with a pet monster that acts as a dog and is used to actively hunt the monster. Next is the medic class armed with a sniper rifle and some strange apparatus that heals your fellow hunters. This brings us to the next class which in the alpha was called support. The support class can put up shields around team mates to help reduce damage from the monsters attacks. And last but not least is the monster class. The monster will probably be the most fun for most people as they are just beasts in the game and they can of course evolve into a more powerful monster.
Next we have to talk about the visuals. The visuals in Evolve look good but for me, I really felt like they could have done more. The way the environments were designed really felt like they could have pulled more from the consoles and really beefed them up. I do understand new gen consoles are still in their infancy and there is a learning curve but if you look at some of the other games that are being released it really felt like more time could have been spent improving graphical integrity and really make it shine. The visuals do look great but it doesn't scream new gen to me.
Now on to the meat of the game. The gameplay. Gameplay is your typical fps style. The way Evolve handles weapons in the game is that each weapon is assigned to a button. For example the assault class has an automatic rifle which is good for medium to long range damage. Which in the default configuration is set to the y button. His secondary weapon is some kind of electrical weapon that shoots bolts of electricity which is set to the a button. The b button was for a temporary shield and so on. I think the one thing that caused me the most confusion at first was that fact that nothing was explained in the game. Evolve gave you a short video explaining the different weapons and what the class does but doesn't give you any other information. It was basically sink or swim. It took me a few minutes to figure out exactly how the system worked. Again since this was just the alpha I'm sure this will be addressed at final release. Other then those couple of issues the game plays out in a manner of you are dropped onto the map and the trapper then sets out his pet to start hunting the monster. This brings us to a part of the game which really wasn't that fun. The maps are a fairly decent size and you can actually run around for a long time and not run into the player you are hunting for quite a while if they are good at running. Of course the developers tried to break up this monotony by throwing in wildlife that you can kill for power ups, or that van actually jump out and attack you. It was somewhat reminiscent of the bots that run around in Titanfall. It is definitely not the same thing but gave me that vibe. While hunting the monster, they are also able to kill the wildlife, in fact that is how the monster evolves into a more powerful monster. Of course there are little things that will help you to track the monster such as monster tracks, birds are attracted to the monster, and of course the trapper tracking the monster themselves.
About this time I was really starting to lose interest in this game. Sometimes hunts can take a while before you even spot the monster for the first and one can only shoot so much AI wildlife before it becomes boring. Even then once you find the monster the fights weren't that impressive. They usually only last for a couple of minutes unless the person playing the monster is very good and manages to kill the hunting party or escape from view at which point the hunt starts again. Of course once the monster evolves to stage 3 they can then attack the power plant thus winning the match. None of this is explained until you start your first match. I'm really hoping that this is changed once the game comes to final release.
Final thoughts on this alpha? I think it possibly has potential, but I am very skeptical that they will be able to pull it off. As it sits just from the different sites and the site for Evolve leaves me with little to no hope. It feels like it might not hit that mark. I for one would not buy this game on release and possibly won't get the game even afterwards as I don't think it will be able to give us much content will fall prey to great fps killer repetitive tasks. I see a lot of games that had great potential but repetitive game play just killed them. I can see Evolve heading down that path already. Let's hope it doesn't.
