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[Ferrio]

While the Alpha is at least mildly entertaining, after all the hype around Evolve, I am fairly disappointed with the experience as a whole. My thoughts;

I am willing to chalk up the ridiculously long loading times, poor matchmaking and server issues to the fact that the game is in alpha status. But playing the alpha has made me drop Evolve down my list from "buying" to "eh might buy." While I think Evolve is a great concept, the realization is underwhelming due to the things that I posted above and possibly the pressures Turtle Rock felt to try and keep the game fast paced and "exciting" for the mainstream, itchy trigger finger gamer. When the reality is, this isn't a game that should be for that type of gamer. It should slow down a bit, showcase more nuances and intricacies and deliver a deep, atmospheric and tense gameplay experience.

Good write up.

I think my issue is that theres plenty of 1v# of player mods (The Hidden, Marines vs Perdator mods) out there that have done a WAY better job. I think they took a big misstep in actually trying to balance the monster vs the humans. Instead they should of made the monster OP as shit, and make it a survival game for the humans. Instead you got this balancing nightmare of game where each side isn't that fun to play unless you get just the right players. Even then most the gameplay is about not actually interacting with each other, which is silly.


Also the monsters aren't that interesting. There's no finesse to them at all. Again referring back to the other mods, you'd have stuff like wall grappling, stealth etc. You could set up some pretty sick ambushes that'd scare the crap outta the human players. You can't do anything like that in this. Closest you can do is maybe get a height advantage and hope they're stupid enough to walk past you... even then you have nothing really to take advantage of that.

 

[majik13]

So I go the email from 2k a couple days ago about the PS4 postponement, but now I am hearing that it is working and they extended it from a firend, and now in here. You would think that 2k would let the participants know as well. But I guess not. I wouldnt have known unless my friend had told me. 2k hasnt sent me or told me shit.

Way to go 2k

 

[Razzorn34]

I spent most of my time playing the monster since I really couldn't get into any of the hunters.

At first, I had a hard time staying away from the hunters in the early game until I figured the tells they were looking for. Footprints, dead animals, broken trees, birds, simple route paths. It all adds up. After i figured all of that out, I started making great use of the stealth ability to minimize sound and stop scaring birds. Used rivers to mask my tracks, and started watching where I walked. A few times I had hunters like right next to me, but stealth is amazing. Getting jump smash and charge early on help a ton as well. Once I put all of that together, I started winning games constantly. Level 3 Jump Smash and Firebreath are godlike.

Then, I unlocked the Kraken, and it was game over. He plays similar on the ground, so all of the Goliath learning transfered over. But, he can fly, so I could easily stop hunters from tracking me, and get away easily. He also has better abilities over all IMO. I haven't lost with him once.

Overall. The game is fun, but I'd never pay $60 for this. It's more of a $20 game to jump in and play every now and then.

 

[Clinton514]

Just finished my first few rounds as a support. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of teamwork required to make the game that much more fun. It was suffering from stuttering here and there but nothing time before release can't fix.

So far I like it, but as mentioned above, I wouldn't pay $60 for that online. That's just my personal preference when it comes to online only type of games. The controls feel good and graphically, it's looking nice.

 

[SaberVulcan]

I think the main flaw on the core mechanic is that the monster is too weak. The hunters should be the ones trying to avoid a direct conflict and looking for strategies on how to tackle the enemy. On some matches my group decided to let the monster get to level 3 and still was an easy kill.

Interesting. I felt like the opposite was the problem. I played maybe 25 matches this weekend, with about 20 I was the monster. I only lost once as the monster, and it was my first time as the Kraken. Believe it or not I feel the Kraken is weaker in the inevitable big fight at the power core.

Anyway, When I was the hunter I only won once, and it was a painful experience. I was the Trapper and caught the Goliath 4 times before level 3, and we barely took down a grand total of 2 blocks of health. He was very good at just running in circles and we simply couldnt stop him from kiting us. Luckily the 4th capture he was still level 2 and we fought in a fairly open terrain, no hiding.

The monster, to me, feels too hard to stop and tracking it isnt even remotely fun. The only times I enjoyed tracking it was with the Griffin Trapper, as his sensor traps allow you to make 2/3 of the map wired to go off if the monster shows up, allowing you to hunt him in the other 1/3, which results in a lot of action. This is especially true for the Kraken, since although I personally dont think he is as OP as people say, he is VERY hard to track and pin down since he can just fly away.

That said, playing as the monster vs a stack of 4 was incredibly fun and satisfying. Almost no one utilized the stealth mechanic, and when I did people were dumbfounded. Its fun watching the end-game analysis and you see your monster dot just sit still as they run past you.

Overall it has potential but I believe needs a single player experience, which can be another instrument for unlocking the other characters. Learn the lore of the world and initial 4 characters, then introduce and unlock the remaining 4 or however many it is. Beating certain parts of the campaign can pin you against a new type of monster, and unlocks that monster for use. Use this in ADDITION to the current unlock method, so players have more ways to experience the game. I personally find the current unlock system a bit tedious. Oh I got all of the Trapper unlocks except following Daisy around for 6000 yards? Sorry guys, wont be useful this game, gotta follow the dog.

 

[Train of Midnight]

Personally, I can't wait to see what kind of game modes they'll introduce with the full game. I want to see a mode where you have to steal eggs from the monster or something

Also, has there been any official confirmation this will be multiplayer only? Val's drop talk one time hinted that after this mission she wanted to stick around and 'get to the bottom of this'. I was hoping that was a teaser for a story campaign.

I know would totally play a single player or co-op campaign. You could have a campaign for both sides, hunters and monsters, or maybe challenge missions? I'll be honestly disappointed if they don't have something along these lines.

 

[Experien]

Personally, I can't wait to see what kind of game modes they'll introduce with the full game. I want to see a mode where you have to steal eggs from the monster or something

Also, has there been any official confirmation this will be multiplayer only? Val's drop talk one time hinted that after this mission she wanted to stick around and 'get to the bottom of this'. I was hoping that was a teaser for a story campaign.

I know would totally play a single player or co-op campaign. You could have a campaign for both sides, hunters and monsters, or maybe challenge missions? I'll be honestly disappointed if they don't have something along these lines.

I'd say chalk that up to "witty banter" to flesh out back story and world like they did in L4D. They said...

You can play single-player and we have AI that fill empty slots, so you can play single-player as the monster, you can play single-player as the hunter with AI teammates against an AI monster.
We haven’t really talked too much about what single-player elements will be in the game. Other than that, story wise we are doing a lot of similar things like Left 4 Dead.

I wouldn't be holding out for much in the ways of a campaign unless it is like L4D's or Titanfall's.

 

[Razzorn34]

Interesting. I felt like the opposite was the problem. I played maybe 25 matches this weekend, with about 20 I was the monster. I only lost once as the monster, and it was my first time as the Kraken. Believe it or not I feel the Kraken is weaker in the inevitable big fight at the power core.

Yeah, early on I could see that the Kraken couldn't take as much punishment as Goliath. You just can't go running into buildings/caves with him unaware of being trapped. Staying out in the open and mobile is key. If the hunters want to camp the powercore. Just wait for them to come out. They always will. There is no reason for you to just run into a closed deathtrap.

 

[BigJonsson]

Finally loaded up the alpha on PS4 and haven't been able to connect to a game yet =/

 

[winstano]

Has anyone successfully gotten into a PS4 game yet??

 

[Prophet Steve]

Yeah, early on I could see that the Kraken couldn't take as much punishment as Goliath. You just can't go running into buildings/caves with him unaware of being trapped. Staying out in the open and mobile is key. If the hunters want to camp the powercore. Just wait for them to come out. They always will. There is no reason for you to just run into a closed deathtrap.

Eventually you hit the time limit though. I am not sure what to do about that. Although with a Kraken you can just shoot from a distance.

 

[CzarTim]

Has anyone successfully gotten into a PS4 game yet??

I got into two earlier. Nothing but crashes since.

 

[Experien]

Has anyone successfully gotten into a PS4 game yet??

Four or Five straight rounds yesterday...maybe a round or two last night and three rounds this morning.

 

[-Deimos]

Kraken is definitely more powerful than Goliath on the levels we have now. There aren't a lot of closed spaces and the hunter weapons aren't suited for long range.

 

[Garteal]

Thanks! I was pretty slow to figure out what's happening at the start (it was like 4am) but also not faced too many Krakens before.

Those guys were all in their 20s in terms of level as well.

Haha, so that was you in the beginning calling out wtf was happening?

Usually you get a few minutes to settle in!

I like how that's a possibility instead of the usual find the monster while he's feeding in peace until he's found.

Maybe if the medic tranq'd him more to slow him down some, maybe.

And yeah, from what I've read if he gets tranq'd he won't be able to fly anymore thus making him a much easier target.

3 keys for PC (Steam) left, PM or quote this message and I'll toss one to you asap.

 

[140.85]

How do I sign up for the PS4 beta?

 

[Kane1345]

Has anyone successfully gotten into a PS4 game yet??

Just the spinning red circle of doom

 

[Mupod]

My last few rounds I played medic and prioritized tranqing - partly to try and unlock Lazarus, of course. But it worked really well, monster couldn't escape easily. Had a couple of stage 1 wins as a result which was boring I guess.

Main issue is doing all the other shit medic has to do while keeping tranqs up. Faster swap speed perk feels like a must-have, even though I just unlocked faster movement speed which seems pretty damn useful.

Also that tranq gun has some range on it. I've tagged the monster pretty much firing blind once or twice.

And captain obvious here, but a good or bad medic can really make a huge difference. Due to the ineffectiveness of harpoon traps it's very hard to avoid taking some damage from the monster so your healer has to be on the ball - and more importantly, has to survive. Really curious how Lazarus plays because Val is all about staying really high up out of view. I lived a lot longer once I realized that.

 

[JNA]

Just played as a Goliatth and it really does suck. Very slow, low damage, only escape is charge. Even when evolved.

Whenever I play as Hunter, we always win unless I get new players as teammates.

Goliath definitely needs a buff. Kraken is fine but Goliath is so freaking weak that it's pretty sad.

 

[Navy Bean]

They really should have included some sort of tutorial. I had watched some games ahead of time and generally knew what to expect but even then I was clueless when first playing. Got frustrated and bored after a few matches and didn't have the urge to slog through until I felt comfortable with the game.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Just played as a Goliatth and it really does suck. Very slow, low damage, only escape is charge. Even when evolved.

Whenever I play as Hunter, we always win unless I get new players as teammates.

Goliath definitely needs a buff. Kraken is fine but Goliath is so freaking weak that it's pretty sad.

I dunno, I manage to win as a Goliath pretty easily.

 

[PhatSaqs]

Compared to Kraken, Goliath sucks. Rock throw definitely needs to be replace with something or do more damage. Its to hard to aim.

 

[JNA]

Compared to Kraken, Goliath sucks. Rock throw definitely needs to be replace with something or do more damage. Its to hard to aim.

It is such a useless power. I wish Goliath had some kind of status effects like Hunters have with shit like Harpoon guns that make you as slow as a turtle, explosives, etc. The only thing Goliaths have is Fire Breath but that doesn't really do much and would eventually get healed back up by a decent Medic.

Rock Throws should stun or slow down targets when hit by it, or an ability to grab a hunter and throw them. I mean the monster has hands right? Use em! XD

 

[Camjo-Z]

I don't usually speak out against things like this, but Evolve's characters stood out to me. Out of 8 only 1 is of color? With a game like that, set around a set gameplay goal that you repeat, it would be nice to at least have some character diversity.

The game has British, Russian, German, and robotic playable characters. There's more to diversity than just skin color.

 

[Jito]

Have Turtle Rock said anything about the load times and matchmaking yet? Only got two matches in last night in the space of two hours, the crazy long matchmaking and load times have completely put me off the game for now.

 

[[HP]]

hey guys, thanks for the generosity going around but the keys are all used by now.

Anyone happen to have a spare code for PS4 or PC?

Edit: Got one, thanks!

 

[-Deimos]

Just played as a Goliatth and it really does suck. Very slow, low damage, only escape is charge. Even when evolved.

Whenever I play as Hunter, we always win unless I get new players as teammates.

Goliath definitely needs a buff. Kraken is fine but Goliath is so freaking weak that it's pretty sad.

I really wish this alpha had private matches. It would be hilarious to see people's reactions after getting demolished by Goliath or Kraken.

 

[TetraGenesis]

Played four matches, 3 against Goliath, 1 against lil' Cthulu.

Not much of a fan thus far. It's not really thrilling. Kind of tedious even.

 

[Prophet Steve]

Damn, I was very close to getting killed as Kraken, one fifth of a bar left before I killed the last one.

Didn't have a lot of armor when they engaged me though, and I was level 2.

PC codes:

L736H-D7P74-R9KG5
L73AN-WZ3WM-4K5Z6
L73PB-B3DFF-0GLQF
L73R7-DT8IG-BT55Q
ZIMCY-RVC9V-MRV7M
ZIMG6-B477K-KMZXK
ZIMHX-XJAYM-RXXMX

 

[Captainbojanglesiii]

Cool, I can finally try Evolve after having to wait a few days!

(Starts game)

Yeah, this is gonna be cool

(Picks preferred roles)

Oh boy, let's search for a match

(Spinning circle for 5 minutes, Game crashes)

Well, that's enough Evolve for the day

 

[GwyndolinCinder]

anyone on ps4 got into a game?

 

[samuraidino]

Glad to see im not the only one whos incapable of playing it on PS4.

.... Unless the game is Actual player Vs Error Report. If so Error Reports have definitely won.

 

[Drencrom]

Haven't gotten any games yet...

 

[Jito]

Oh wow, top 5 Twitch streams for Evolve and everyone is just looking at loading screens which is pretty telling. This game is going to live or die based on it's load times by the looks of it. You spend more time in the menus than in games at the moment.

 

[Ferrio]

Oh wow, top 5 Twitch streams for Evolve and everyone is just looking at loading screens which is pretty telling. This game is going to live or die based on it's load times by the looks of it. You spend more time in the menus than in games at the moment.

Doesn't help that matches can be extremely quick, or if someone bails you gotta do it all over again.

 

[samuraidino]

Things seem to be improving slightly.... The matchmaking finally found some players!

....then immediatley crashed. win some lose some i guess..

 

[Seiniyta]

Seems like the game is really divisive, a lot of people like it a lot, but a lot of others find it boring/Don't like it. Which is interesting, but I can see both sides.

I personally like it a lot, my biggest fear is that there won't be enough content at launch. Are there goign to be any other modes at release? And any idea about the number of maps?

 

[CGwizz]

This beta is
95 % of the time watching a loading screen
3 % reloading game when it crashs in loading screen
2 % playing a role i dont like cause everyone wants to play monster

result : do not want

 

[Marvel]

Hasn't worked for me all day, matchmaking is brought to a screeching halt by that CE-blah blah error and closes it down.

Disappointing.

 

[Experien]

Most of my matches were 5 minutes long...only one time was 15 minutes and that was my first time playing as a Goliath and got owned hard.

 

[Ossom]

Played this at Comicon and was really impressed, mainly due to knowing little about the game and therefore having no expectations.

Roll forward to Friday night and I waste 3 hours trying to get on the PS4 Alpha. That's fine. These things happen. No i get home and am just about to get in the shower when I see that the Alpha is up for PS4 and 2K hasn't bothered to even tell me. Now I'm sat in my pants watching a red spinning circle. What are you doing to me!

This is slowly losing my interest and going from a day one purchase to a might buy at the right price kind of game. Come on guys. I'd rather not have the Alpha at all than have to put up with this. I know you're testing but all I want is a couple of games.

 

[Sniper McBlaze]

If someone has a spare PS4 EU code I'd love to have one! Big Left for Dead fan and the streams of this game looks intriguing.

 

[xKilltheMx]

Ive crashed on the search every single time I've tried. Deleting this shit.

 

[Altima]

This is the worst alpha launch ever in my experience.

This alpha seem to be a total failure. It make people do not want to buy their game instead.

 

[BlockheadBrown]

Played on PC and X1. Loved it. Expectedly had problems a couple of times during peak hours. It is an Alpha. Keep that in mind.

 

[Train of Midnight]

Wow. My reaction was so different. Almost every match is a blast for me. The gameplay is very much fully-formed, basically demo level, matchmaking issues aside. If this is the worst alpha you've played, you have never played a real alpha. Just no way.

My feelings, exactly. Can't wait to get back home tonight and play as much as I can while I can.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

Wow. My reaction was so different. Almost every match is a blast for me. The gameplay is very much fully-formed, basically demo level, matchmaking issues aside. If this is the worst alpha you've played, you have never played a real alpha. Just no way.

Agreed, even though I've basically had no issues with matchmaking on PC.

My one complaint is that there was a point where the monster we were hunting wasn't moving, so he wasn't leaving tracks or scaring birds and Daisy didn't seem to be able to find him. There was no way to find him, so we just waited by the relay for like 8 mins until he went into stage 3 (he was really slow with evolving, too..), showed up and rekt us.

 

[DarkJedi24]

Played a round as a trapper, and found it really a dull and frustrating experience with useless team members. Wanted to play as the monster, ended up playing as my third choice, enjoyed watching minutes of loading screens and deleted the alpha off my system. Will not be picking this up on release.

 

[Ferrio]

Agreed, even though I've basically had no issues with matchmaking on PC.

My one complaint is that there was a point where the monster we were hunting wasn't moving, so he wasn't leaving tracks or scaring birds and Daisy didn't seem to be able to find him. There was no way to find him, so we just waited by the relay for like 8 mins until he went into stage 3 (he was really slow with evolving, too..), showed up and rekt us.

He could of just been sneaking.

 

[LaunchpadMcQ]

He could of just been sneaking.

...I was not aware that was a thing. Still, it definitely killed the pace because we had scoured the map quite a bit before giving up.