Those who own Evolve but do not purchase Behemoth or the four new Hunters can still play against or alongside these new characters online and against them offline, adding depth and replayability for the entire Evolve community without dividing players based on what additional content they own.

And, two free maps and a free Observer Mode means more new content for all Evolve players to enjoy, whether they choose to play with one of the new characters, or stay with their existing favorites.

Evolve’s new Monster and Hunters are unique in appearance and abilities. Behemoth is a tank of a Monster that becomes a giant, destructive boulder and rolls through the environment for quick traversal. Behemoth is free for those who pre-ordered Evolve from participating retailers as part of the Monster Expansion Pack, or is available separately at cost.

Four new Hunters also join the Evolve lineup: Torvald, a cyborg Assault character with a mortar cannon for an arm; Crow, a Trapper with a pet Batray for tracking Monsters; Slim, a genetically modified combat Medic; and Sunny, a Support character equipped with a mininuke grenade launcher.

Each new Hunter expands the Evolve experience with new weapons, equipment, and abilities. The four Hunters are available as part of the Evolve Hunting Season Pass along with three Monster skins.

Each Hunter can also be purchased separately at cost.

Two new maps bring additional depth and replayability to the entire Evolve community free of charge. The Broken Hill Mine and Broken Hill Foundry maps introduce two distinct environments and add exciting new campaign effects to Evacuation, a unique experience that combines the full array of maps, modes, Hunters, and Monsters into a single dynamic campaign, offering near-limitless variety.

The free Broken Hill Mine and Broken Hill Foundry maps will be available first for Xbox One on March 31st, 2015, and will be available for Windows PC and PlayStation 4 on April 30th, 2015.

Observer Mode is a free feature designed to provide the Evolve community with the tools to observe and add commentary to Evolve.

Observer Mode allows a sixth user to passively enter a custom game in Evolve, enhancing any live streaming by seamlessly switching to view any of the five players. Observer Mode includes an informative HUD that updates in real time throughout the match, showcasing player health, survival odds, perks, the mini-map, and more.

Evolve is now available worldwide for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Windows PC.

The post Evolve has Evolved – News appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

With an idea that’s actually new and fresh, in a gaming landscape where we’re so often given repackaged and recycled ideas, it’s then especially sad that Evolve is so much less than the sum of it’s parts.

Plot is pretty thin on the ground when it comes to Evolve – it seems as though the intent is far more directed at getting your Hunter on the ground to go face a variety of nasty monster. Based on my time with the game, all I can really tell you is that a non-Earth planet that’s inhabited by humans is under attack by a collection of immensely tough and dangerously monsters.

In a bid to fend off these things before they kill everyone, a four-person team is put together to flush these monsters out of hiding and, using their distinct personal abilities, take it down.

And that’s about all the info you need really – the rest is kind of just white noise.

When playing the five day campaign mode, hunters versus monsters, each mission will have something at stake so that aiding the survivors will make your next round easier.

For example, one mission sees you try and rescue survivors near the weather control tower. If you can do it before the monster kills them all, they’ll get the tower working and the next mission you do will be during beautiful weather – i.e. no shadows for the monster to hide in. If you don’t, the weather will turn nasty with clouds or fog, and the monster will gain an added advantage while stalking you.

Each hunter has a very well defined and explained role to play in the hunting of the monster.

You’ve got the Assaults – massive super soldiers with a range of powerful weapons and abilities designed to boost their own strength. You’ve got Trappers, who specialize in finding and containing the monster through a number of unique tools – the most useful of which is the mobile arena, a portable force field that throws up a dome around the hunters and the monster so that neither can escape combat.

Then you’ve got your Support, which does exactly what you’d expect by offering various boosts to your teammates, along with the equal self-explanatory medic. These all play really well, and in the (sadly quite rare) occasion when everything in Evolve comes together as intended, the dynamic across a team can be wonderful.

However, the class structure is so rigid that if you’re down a teammate (due to death), the game will use bots to make sure it’s always a four person team, the whole thing can come apart pretty quickly.

Each class has three different characters you can play as – each with a few different abilities – so there’s some variety there, but it’s essentially the same gameplay wise.

When playing as the hunters, I found the offline mode much more enjoyable, as you’re able to cycle between characters on the fly. This is something new and exciting for an FPS, and frankly, I’d like to see that expanded on more.

Playing as the monster is a completely different experience from the fairly standard, albeit very slick FPS experience of playing as the hunters.

The monster has you play third person, controlling a large and sometimes unwieldy monster, stomping or flying about, doing it’s best to stay hidden and consume other animals to Evolve until it’s third and final stage.

Where the hunters are bogged down with strategy in their various abilities, the monsters are not. While the three monsters do have different skills, fundamentally they’re mostly used to attack or free.

The real trick with the monster comes in hiding, avoiding startling birds and eating enough to become strong enough to either kill the hunters or destroy whatever the objective is. Most of the time objectives can only be completed by a Stage 3 monster, which puts an interesting time dynamic on the game.

But while originality is all well and good, this game would have worked better as a campaign style experience – work together to beat a few Levels, then work together to take down a monster.

As it stands, the player controlled element of the monster means you’ll spend most of your time playing hide and seek, boosting around the map, not really doing anything.

Every now and then some non-monster wildlife will take exception to your presence and attack you, but for the most part Evolve can be broken down as 80% finding the monster and 20% fighting it.

You can’t help but feel as though this is an extra game mode someone has taken and just fleshed out as much as possible –like Dying Light’s ‘Be the Zombie’ mode, so Evolve just doesn’t ever feel like a full gaming experience – becoming the latest in the unseemly trend of releasing online focused game with no real core to fall back on.

I’m sure that it’ll improve itself (evolve, if you will) over time for free, much like Titanfall did, but for me Evolve loses points for not feeling like a complete game.

Definitely not one for buying, but maybe worth a few hours of hire on a rainy day.

The post Evolve – Review appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Evolve is a cooperative and competitive experience enjoyed online, as well as offline solo.

“2K and Turtle Rock Studios did a remarkable job delivering such a creative and ambitious game,” said Christoph Hartmann, president of 2K. “Evolve is an innovative and highly replayable experience that will define this console generation for years to come.”

Evolve features a wealth of content playable both online and offline, with three playable Monsters, 12 playable Hunters across four unique classes, four game modes, and 16 maps.

Evolve also includes Evacuation, a unique experience that combines the full array of maps, modes, Hunters, and Monsters into a single dynamic campaign offering near-limitless variety. In Evacuation, players choose a side – Monster or Hunter – and play through a series of five matches, where the outcome of each match directly impacts the next, totaling over 800,000 possible gameplay combinations for ultimate replayability.

“Our philosophy is to build incredibly fun game experiences that we can’t find anywhere else, and we’ve achieved that with Evolve,” said Chris Ashton, co-founder and design director at Turtle Rock Studios. “After years of iteration and playing the game every day, Evolve is a polished and balanced experience for players to enjoy online, cooperatively with friends against AI, or completely alone offline.”

From Turtle Rock Studios, creators of Left 4 Dead, comes Evolve, a shooter in which four Hunters face off against a single, player-controlled Monster in adrenaline-pumping 4v1 matches.

Play as the Monster to use savage abilities and an animalistic sense to kill your human enemies, or choose one of four Hunter classes (Trapper, Support, Assault and Medic) and team up to take down the beast on the planet Shear, where flora and fauna act as an adversary to man and Monster alike.

Level up to unlock new Hunter or Monster characters as well as upgrades, skins, and perks. Earn your infamy on the leaderboards and become the apex predator.

Evolve is now available worldwide for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 system, and Windows PC.

The post Start Hunting; Evolve Now Released – News appeared first on Shane the Gamer.

Evolve: Hunters Quest is a Match-3 puzzle combat game that takes players on more than 100 missions set in the Evolve universe.

Players join a team of Hunters on the planet Shear in search of new and unique wildlife and Monsters. Throughout the missions, players must match three tokens of the same color to unleash devastating attacks on their enemies, fill up energy bars to activate Hunters’ special abilities, and earn Mastery Points to level up their characters.

For fans who purchase Evolve on PC or console, Evolve: Hunters Quest also links directly into the main game for an expanded experience that can be enjoyed on-the-go.

Players can apply their Mastery Points earned in Evolve: Hunters Quest to characters in the Evolve game on any platform. Players can also discover and unlock unique game art, and enhance their console skills by watching replays of their online multiplayer matches from a strategic top-down view.

Evolve: Hunters Quest was developed by Cat Daddy Games, a 2K studio, and is now available for download for select smartphone and tablets from the App Store, Windows Store, Windows Phones Store, Google Play Store and Amazon Appstore.

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