Evolve

[Dumien]

This is going to be better than titanfall.

I got to see this in action at the Pax East Booth. People were cheering and all the hype was happening. It was by far the most crowded booth with two over-the-top yet really informative announcers giving us a play by play. The game is sold on its 4 vs. 1 gameplay but it is quite obvious that there was a 6th "player" allowing for the fast changing of camera angle/perspective using in-game transitions. I originally was like "ah this is a cool concept but its gonna be tricky to balance 1 vs. 4," but naw...the fights were really fair and lasting well over 10 minutes.

The fights usually went like this... monster gets to level 2 -> attacks humans => humans take heavy damage but scare monster off -> monster retreats -> monster stalks enemy team for around a minute ->monster hits again -> fails -> monster runs away -> eats more ->final battle happens.

There are multiple types of monsters as well...but they only showed off two.

This makes for an always intense game because the monster can almost always choose when to engage and exit the engagement. We discovered the teapper to be the monster dangerous anti-monster human because he can trap the creature once already engaged.

There was also some sort of alternate win condition involving a generator that I think the monster has to destroy if they don't kill all the humans...

Overall the highlight of PAX for me.

[Dumien]

deserves 2 threads.

[wittyscorpion]

Questions:

1) how long does a typical game last?

2) does the game end when one of the hunters is killed? If no, what can that player do? Get revived by another player? Do the hunters still have a chance when they become short handed?

[Dumien]

The longest game we watched lasted around 14 minutes with about 5 seperate engagements. The shortest lasted 7 minutes with a devastatingly efficient level 2 monster that just played perfectly.

If one of the hunters are killed they have an opportunity to be revived. Every time they go down they get a debuff that stacks up to 2 times. The third time they go down they have to wait for a minute and thirty seconds to get dropshipped in. The debuff supposedly stacks again at that point. The monster's best tactic seemed to prioritize the trappers in each game (then the medic). At one point the trapper went down 4 times because he was so debuffed by the third death that a normal creature just demolished him.

One of the win conditions is when the creature downs all enemies at the same time. Also every time the monster evolves it must pick an upgrade path. The most effective upgrade paths seemed to be a mix of mobility and knockdown.

[pachiderm]

YOU WENT TO PAX EAST WITHOUT ME!?!?!

[Dumien]

I went with about 7 people...

Some people from my college went too but I wasn't able to meet up with them. :x

[wittyscorpion]

More questions about the game:

So Monsters can upgrade themselves through "evolution". What about hunters? I assume that each have their own upgrade paths as well?
Is there an XP / unlock / progression system similar to CoD, through which a player is gaining XPs after completing a game and then can unlock stuff using XP?

[Deleted]

Tried looking for gameplay and got 4 guys who commentated over the looped trailer for Evolve. Good thing my adblock was on.

[UrbaneVirtuoso]

I was piqued by the fact this resembled the overall concept of Predator, one of my all-time favourite franchises.

Needless to say, I'm a fan.

[wittyscorpion]

A game play video replayed from 6 perspectives: with commentary, trapper, assault, support, medic and monster:

[wittyscorpion]

Also, 4 new hunters revealed, bring total hunters for each class to 2:

news.xbox.com/2014/05/games-evolve-four-new-hunters?linkId=8305299

[wittyscorpion]

XONE gets DLC first, exclusive beta:

evolvehunter.com/2014/06/19/evolve-dlc-launches-first-on-xbox-one-xbox-to-get-exclusive-beta-this-fall/

This is great because I am intrigued by the game but would like to try it free first to see if it is something I could like before considering purchase. There are already more games than I have time to play this fall.

[wittyscorpion]

Evolve is going to offer an alpha on PC and the sign up is active right now:

www.gamrreview.com/news/91742/evolve-alpha-sign-up-now-available/

If you are interested, you must sign up bu the end of today (07/05)

[wittyscorpion]

Evolve is delayed until Feb 2015: www.businesswire.com/news/home/20140805006449/en#.U-Ff5YBdWmD

Announced that Evolve™, a new intellectual property for next-gen consoles and PC developed by Turtle Rock Studios, the creators of the cooperative shooter classic, Left 4 Dead, won more than 50 editorial honors at the 2014 Electronic Entertainment Expo, including the coveted Game Critics Award top honor for Best of Show. The title is now planned to launch globally on February 10, 2015.

[mannon]

Kinda surprising. Game looks pretty much finished from what I've seen of it, but I'm okay with that. There are enough games coming out now. I'd rather them take their time and do it right so it's 100% ready to go at launch.

[wittyscorpion]

XONE exclusive beta starts 01/15, registration process not yet announced: www.gamespot.com/articles/evolves-xbox-one-only-beta-coming-in-january/1100-6421669/

It's interesting to note that this is right on the heels of Halo 5 Guardian MP beta, which runs for 3 weeks from 12/29 to 01/18.

[wittyscorpion]

"Big Alpha" for this game is coming at the end of this month: evolvegame.com/news/evolves-big-alpha-coming-everywhere-this-halloween

XONE: 10/30 - 11/2
PS4 & PC: 10/31 - 11/2

Preorder from Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart will guarantee you access.

[Pegasus Actual]

Alpha codes also being handed out via message on Xbox One to members of the Dashboard Preview program.

[wittyscorpion]

Has anybody got the alpha codes? I did enroll but have not seen any notifications related to this.

[Pegasus Actual]

I have my alpha code, came through xbox live message not through email. From what I understand anyone in the dashboard preview gets them. Not sure if I'm going to get around to trying it, so if you don't got yours you can have mine.

[wittyscorpion]

Dumien was lucky enough to get a code from email. I just checked my email, me too! (the email is in my junk folder).

So two of us will definitely play it. Hope you can join us! I also noticed that majjam is playing it at this moment

[wittyscorpion]

Dumien and I played a few games last night, it was quite fun! Much more than I expected.

The controls are intuitive (at least for Hunters, did not try monster yet), the parkour system is simple and effective (you have a meter to consume by pressing A. As long as the meter is active you can go wherever you want, and no fall damage), and the 4 roles are all quite interesting and when working together can make for fun tactical combinations.

The matchmaking and networking part of the alpha are buggy as hell though. We had to restart the game many times and at the end we can't even invite each other into the same fire team any more.

[Dumien]

I started getting in some monster practice today... I can now begin to form opinions of every class. The second monster appears rather OP (it is a projectile-centric monster). Here is one of my favorite monster games where I got queued up against two really good players who just happened to be in my party. I somehow won against them as a level 2 monster by luring them into a trap.

Monsters are totally all about stealth. You don't leave tracks while sneaking...and you can perform takedowns on unsuspecting enemies.

The support second character is actually a huge damage dealer...and can spawn up to 5 turrets! This melts the monster. They also have GPS that (while stationary) can continually mark the monster on the map.

The Second tracker is really good. He has a harpoon gun (not traps) that can continually reel in the opponent.

The Second Medic is OP. Really OP. He can go up to corpses of friends and revive them even if they should be respawning in the dropship. For that ability he trades in the medigun.

The Second assault guy is more close range, but his flamethrower is significantly more powerful than the lightning gun.

[Dumien]

That is crazy.

Btw I would mention that this is one of the most difficult games I have ever played. It is so intense...with one small little wrong move losing you the game. I'm thinking we might see a competitive community evolve (ahah) from this game.

[wittyscorpion]

All right, I am buying this game purely due to developer's good will of offering DLC maps for free. Such gestures must be greatly encouraged

Newest trailer, for the story:

[wittyscorpion]

Evolve's evacuation, explained: evolvegame.com/news/evolves-evacuation-explained

There’s a lot more to the hunt in Evolve. In fact, up until right now, all you’ve seen is just one mode that’s part of a bigger picture – Evacuation. Altogether it’s a combination of modes, maps, and campaign effects that provide over 800,000 possible paths, giving you a ridiculous amount of variety for a different experience almost every time you play Evacuation.

The "Evacuation" experience is consisted of several phases over a period of 5 days (in game). Game modes include

Hunt (the only one we have seen so far, in game play videos and Big Alpha)
Nest
Rescue
Defend

Outcome of previous games (monster win or hunter win) will affect the set up of the next game. That's where the "800,000" possible paths number comes from.

This is an example:

[wittyscorpion]

A full evacuation game play:

[wittyscorpion]

Evolve beta details: evolvegame.com/news/the-evolve-xbox-one-open-beta-is-coming

Highlights:

1) Beta date: 01/15 - 01/19;
2) XONE beta open to everyone, PS4 small tests;
2) Beta progress on XONE will be carried over to full launch (launch date = 02/10);
3) Hunt playable on all 12 maps that support the game mode;
4) First 2 monsters and first 8 hunters are playable;
5) Evacuation playable starting on 01/17;

[eLantern]

Cool; can't wait to try it out as it's on my short list of Xbox One games that I'm fairly likely to get.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection (check)
Titanfall (check)

Halo 5: Guardians (highly likely)

Evolve (likely)
Star Wars: Battlefront (likely)
Inside (likely)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (somewhat likely)
Forza Horizon 2 (somewhat likely)
Halo: Spartan Assault (somewhat likely)
Child of Light (somewhat likely)
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (somewhat likely)

- quality games or likely quality game that are all perhaps worthy of consideration -
Cyberpunk 2077 (low-ish likelihood - need to see and hear more about it)
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (low-ish likelihood - if it goes on major sale I might consider getting it as I'm a fan of the Tomb Raider reboot)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (low-ish likelihood - likely another game that down the road I may consider picking up when on major sale due to enjoying the new Lara Croft storyline)
Tom Clancy's The Division (low-ish likelihood - never have been big on 3rd person perspective games, but I do like the sense of adventure and action with regards to it... maybe a down the road type of pick-up when it's on sale)
Quantum Break (low-ish likelihood - again another game that appears to feature the 3rd person perspective; just like The Division and Tomb Raiders games it'll likely depend on sale pricing and whether or not I feel up to playing it)
Life is Strange (low-ish likelihood - just not something I'd be hugely interested in playing, but who knows if it gets good reviews for the campaign's story maybe down the road I'd consider picking it up when on major sale)
*NEW* Gears of War game (somewhat likely - need to see and hear more about it)
Battlefield 4 (low-ish likelihood - not very likely unless the deluxe edition were to see it's already sales price cut in half once again)
Battlefield Hardline (low-ish likelihood - need to see and hear more about it)
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (low-ish likelihood - not very likely unless there's a major special price drop after xmas)
Far Cry 4 (low-ish likelihood - just not very likely even with a huge sales drop)
Destiny (low-ish likelihood - there's definite interest, but I hate grinding in MMO games and I believe that's what this game pretty much involves)

[wittyscorpion]

Dec 18, 2014 12:22:23 GMT -5 eLantern said:

Cool; can't wait to try it out as it's on my short list of Xbox One games that I'm fairly likely to get.

Halo: The Master Chief Collection (check)
Titanfall (check)

Halo 5: Guardians (highly likely)

Evolve (likely)
Star Wars: Battlefront (likely)
Inside (likely)

Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege (somewhat likely)
Forza Horizon 2 (somewhat likely)
Halo: Spartan Assault (somewhat likely)
Child of Light (somewhat likely)
Lara Croft and the Temple of Osiris (somewhat likely)

Cyberpunk 2077 (low-ish likelihood)
Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition (low-ish likelihood)
Rise of the Tomb Raider (low-ish likelihood)
*NEW* Gears of War game (somewhat likely)
Battlefield 4 (low-ish likelihood)
Call of Duty Advanced Warfare (low-ish likelihood)
Far Cry 4 (low-ish likelihood)
Destiny (low-ish likelihood)

Another game that you might want to add to your list, at the bottom with Far Cry 4 and Destiny: Tom Clancy's The Division.

Any chance I can lure you into playing Destiny with us? I know you are mainly a PvP player, but we have a group of XONE bros raiding together every week and we can use more players