Okay, so we’ve talked about Evolve already in the past, and yep it’s from Turtle Rock, the creators of Left 4 Dead so it should be a no-brainer. But it’s not. In fact, it requires a huge amount of brain to really milk the most out of, and if you don’t have brains, well it supports you too… with cajones.

Recently AusGamers was invited to not only play the latest build of the game -- one I was told was effectively the final, retail product, in principle, that would ship -- but also one sporting four new hunters. This is significant for a number of reasons, but for those who haven’t played the game it really boils down to one defining factor, and that is while classes remain the same: Assault, Trapper, Medic and Support, the differences in ability, armoury and therefore tactics is huge. It’s massive, actually, and we’re still only eight human characters in and a single monster -- not even the full manifest that will arrive for players when the game hits shelves.



We also played a new map that was far more open than the previous, but was also more dangerous due to the aggravated level of its wildlife. The number of times I was avoiding Goliath’s charge only to be trapped in a juiced-up venus flytrap was… irritating, to say the least. But these moments require the team to come together, a factor I’ll build on shortly. Suffice to say, without a bit of gunfire intervention on my teammates part though, I’d have died a slow, horrible [assumed-Boba Fett] death. By digestion.

But first, the new guys. Again, as mentioned earlier, classes remain the same but the characters here all sport key differentials. The new Assault guy, Hyde, is another bulky frontline dude sporting that short invincibility burst shield to get up close and do damage to the monster. Where he differs though is in the flamethrower mounted on his arm that is, as we were told, the most powerful weapon in the game, but requires some serious man-on-beast intimacy to get the absolute most out of meaning you leave yourself wide-open for attack if you linger too long trailing a slow-moving flame across an aggro and tough monster, who either wants to smash you, or get out of harm’s way himself. He also comes with a new toxic grenade that is ideal for flushing the monster out of hidey-holes, or to lure him away from downed allies so that the new medic can get in there -- more on him in a minute.

Maggie is the new Trapper and she comes with one of the biggest currently-revealed game-changers around in her pet trapjaw, Daisy. Daisy is an interesting addition to the game, because she acts like a bloodhound meaning you can effectively just follow her from outset as she’ll immediately attempt to track the monster. You can’t directly control her, but her AI will work to not only lead you to the monster, but help you find the fastest path to it. She’ll also lick you back to life if you’re down and need reviving -- of all the new characters we saw, I actually like her best.



Maggie, however, also has a few cool new moves of her own. Like Griffin, the Aussie-based Trapper revealed initially with the game, Maggie has the mobile arena as well as her own traps she can lay to tether the monster until he breaks them. These differ because you lay them in the ground as opposed to harnessing him by hand, and can be spread out in your own desired radius allowing for a tactical spread of them. Having these, the mobile arena and Daisy made Maggie one of the most enjoyable of the new guys to play.

Bucket is the new Support class and is a robot. Robots can hunt monsters too, apparently. He’s unique because he can not only unleash up to five mobile turrets (in any position he likes), but he can also take his head off (ala Bender) and set it out in the world (controlled by you) as a seminal UAV -- find the monster, hover over him while he’s in your sights for a few seconds and instantly everyone else gains a marker to head towards. The detriment here, of course, is that his body remains at the location you severed his head at.

And finally, Lazarus is the new Medic class, and he couldn’t be further apart than Val from the initial reveal group. His role is truly one in the shadows and while he has heal burst that requires your buddies to be close enough to be affected, his real talent lies in raising the dead. Laz has a stealth cloak that renders him invisible to the monster for a short period of time meaning he can roll up on downed friends and bring them back into the fight with his ‘Lazarus Device’ which forgoes the revive count each player is given per round. He also has a sniper rifle that is silenced and can’t be detected by the monster -- using this paints vulnerable targets on your target helping the rest of your crew, but you really need to do it all from the safety of the beatie’s lunging arms and gnashing teeth.



In play, all four of these guys play very differently, but it’s the tactics you devise as the monster to offset their individual talents that really shows the depths of the game’s systems and its inner workings. The new map, for example, has a stream running through the middle of it -- jump in here and walk at your own leisurely pace because the water masks your footprints. Or you can, as we were advised, walk backwards so your footprints show the opposite direction of where you’re going, all while you devise an ambush or simply keep the hunters guessing while you work towards the end-round goal of eating all the human children after you’ve hit stage three. You can lure them into man-eating venus flytraps and other beasties as well, taking them out while they’re occupied with nature -- the game is simply full of recourse for individual players to glean the most out of, but it’s the group dynamic and how you work together best as a team that really makes this a standout treat.

We played several rounds throughout our time with the game, and on top of looking better than ever (monster animations now are incredible), it’s a far smoother experience. Traversing through the world feels more natural and you won’t find yourself hung up on the environment as often. Moreover, the systems balancing and overall pacing feel like they’ve been tweaked to build more productive and enjoyable 4V1 matches -- this could also just be the process of having had my hands on the game a few times now, but based on feedback from 2K and Turtle Rock, it seems like it was a priority component to level out. In short, it’s currently one of the most engaging and rewarding gameplay experiences I’ve had, even in failed rounds.



Map-knowledge, character loadouts, perks, teamwork, stealth and brawling all combine on myriad levels in a complete package with Evolve and we still haven’t even seen it all. We’ve been told there are more monsters and hunters to come, along with new maps and upgrades, but perhaps most enticing of all is the promise of unique and different game-modes, along with a steady stream of post-release content that will make sense. Honestly, for a game I’ve seen so little of as far as the final product is concerned, I couldn’t be more excited.

Mark your calendars for October 21 on PC, PS4 and Xbox One -- the hunt begins.