Here’s a weird ass list for a weird ass year. Going to make my post the same as last year, breaking the format and making a proper list after it all.
X. Star Wars: Battlefront
EA DICE | PS4, XB1, PC
IX. Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady Studios | PS4, XB1,PC
Note: Unmarked Spoilers
VIII. SOMA
Frictional Games | PS4, PC
VII. Evolve
Turtle Rock Studios | XB1, PS4, PC
Continued here.
X. Star Wars: Battlefront
EA DICE | PS4, XB1, PC
Out of all the games I’ve ever had on my game of the year lists, the resurrection of Battlefront may very well be the sketchiest inclusion yet. To put it bluntly, this game is prettttty fucked up. The balance is all over the place in just about every mode—anything from Fighter Squadron’s huge Rebel swing as the A-wing totally dominates the Empire fleet, to the DL-44 being one of the most outrageous weapons I’ve seen in a game. You will encounter some form of bullshit around nearly every corner here, as well as abuse a lot of it yourself. But beneath all of that, the game really is a hell of a lot of fun to just pick up and play. Get in a party with a friend, match up and just talk about whatever as you gun down Luke across the snowy trenches of Hoth. Yelling out ‘do it’ as you psycho crusher your way through Endor as Palpatine. The less serious you take everything, the more fun the game will be.
As a Star Wars game, it’s worth mentioning that this might be the most stunning audio/visual combination I’ve seen in a game. The attention to detail and authenticity of the assets here are insane, especially running at an unwavering 60fps, which allows the game flow to feel good while looking just as solid. Thermal Imploders create an intensely vibrating explosion that never gets old, and the tried and true blaster soundes echoing across the landscapes sound just as you’d expect, to say nothing of the sight you behold as you see twenty people simultaneously fire their laser blasters at an AT-AT.
Out of all the modes available here, Heroes Vs. Villains seemed the most solid. A smaller 6v6 mode where 3 people would each be given a character—Luke, Leia and Han Solo pitted against Darth Vader, Palpatine, and Boba. Once a main character goes down, they’re out for the round, though players will continuously spawn in as foot soldiers(or a special trooper if Leia/Palpatine are still alive). Though even here I wouldn’t say the balance is ideal (Leia is RIDICULOUS), the matches and comebacks that can occur are pretty thrilling, and actual teamwork goes a long way. The rest is fairly standard fare with deathmatch, capture droids, etc. which will hardly set the world on fire but are still entertaining. But as alluded to before, these smaller modes get dominated by the DL-44, a pistol capable of one-two shotting you all over the place, and when there are loadout options like Scan Pulse which is essentially a wallhack ping, you will get the drop on any and everyone. Worse, yet, is that Battlefront suffers from the age old multiplayer design that has infested and dragged everything down with a slow burn of unlocks tied to arbitrary XP, and this particular gun is the last one you end up unlocking...so that’s more than a little DICEy.
Onto the mainstay for most people, we have the large modes in Supremacy and Walker Assault, which fall more into my first paragraph. People will be perched on ridiculous ledges sniping you, or be in the AT-AT to mow you down as you spawn, or camping as Boba Fett to go 70-1. There is so much happening here that it all becomes a cacophony of nonsense, which actually almost becomes part of the appeal. I start hunting for the most ridiculous spots to one up the other people in the game, using the most scumbag loadout possible. One positive aspect to all this madness is there really are a lot of trailer-esque moments, such as an X-wing crashing into the ground right beside you as you run under an AT-ST lobbing bombs down on rebels. You really feel like part of a grander battle through these modes, though even with that in mind the majority of my time wasn’t spent in these kind of modes as they amount of chaos can be hard to keep up with for long.
All in all, that might not sound great. But before I knew it, I was approaching the level cap and had way more hours than I realized logged in here, so something had to have been done right. Even if it’s elevated by using the Star Wars property moreso than simply being a well-crafted MP game, it can be very hard to disconnect the two and in the end the fun I’ve had was still totally real, even if it might be due to being a scumbag IRL.
As a Star Wars game, it’s worth mentioning that this might be the most stunning audio/visual combination I’ve seen in a game. The attention to detail and authenticity of the assets here are insane, especially running at an unwavering 60fps, which allows the game flow to feel good while looking just as solid. Thermal Imploders create an intensely vibrating explosion that never gets old, and the tried and true blaster soundes echoing across the landscapes sound just as you’d expect, to say nothing of the sight you behold as you see twenty people simultaneously fire their laser blasters at an AT-AT.
Out of all the modes available here, Heroes Vs. Villains seemed the most solid. A smaller 6v6 mode where 3 people would each be given a character—Luke, Leia and Han Solo pitted against Darth Vader, Palpatine, and Boba. Once a main character goes down, they’re out for the round, though players will continuously spawn in as foot soldiers(or a special trooper if Leia/Palpatine are still alive). Though even here I wouldn’t say the balance is ideal (Leia is RIDICULOUS), the matches and comebacks that can occur are pretty thrilling, and actual teamwork goes a long way. The rest is fairly standard fare with deathmatch, capture droids, etc. which will hardly set the world on fire but are still entertaining. But as alluded to before, these smaller modes get dominated by the DL-44, a pistol capable of one-two shotting you all over the place, and when there are loadout options like Scan Pulse which is essentially a wallhack ping, you will get the drop on any and everyone. Worse, yet, is that Battlefront suffers from the age old multiplayer design that has infested and dragged everything down with a slow burn of unlocks tied to arbitrary XP, and this particular gun is the last one you end up unlocking...so that’s more than a little DICEy.
Onto the mainstay for most people, we have the large modes in Supremacy and Walker Assault, which fall more into my first paragraph. People will be perched on ridiculous ledges sniping you, or be in the AT-AT to mow you down as you spawn, or camping as Boba Fett to go 70-1. There is so much happening here that it all becomes a cacophony of nonsense, which actually almost becomes part of the appeal. I start hunting for the most ridiculous spots to one up the other people in the game, using the most scumbag loadout possible. One positive aspect to all this madness is there really are a lot of trailer-esque moments, such as an X-wing crashing into the ground right beside you as you run under an AT-ST lobbing bombs down on rebels. You really feel like part of a grander battle through these modes, though even with that in mind the majority of my time wasn’t spent in these kind of modes as they amount of chaos can be hard to keep up with for long.
All in all, that might not sound great. But before I knew it, I was approaching the level cap and had way more hours than I realized logged in here, so something had to have been done right. Even if it’s elevated by using the Star Wars property moreso than simply being a well-crafted MP game, it can be very hard to disconnect the two and in the end the fun I’ve had was still totally real, even if it might be due to being a scumbag IRL.
IX. Batman: Arkham Knight
Rocksteady Studios | PS4, XB1,
Note: Unmarked Spoilers
Next, we have Rocksteady’s latest(final?) entry into the Arkham series with Arkham Knight. Into the never ending rainstorm that is Gotham, we have a general expectation on what’s going on as this entry plays out very similarly to City--grapple glide around, take down side villains, eventually trek towards that main story, and collect roughly three shitloads of riddler trophies.
The core of the game remains intact, bringing back the simple to grasp brawling that oh so many games have fullblown taken for themselves now, with predator sections pacing up the bone breaking. Added to the mix is the Batmobile, which as the new kid on the block is unsurprisingly used probably far more than most people would want—riddler puzzles, riddler races, combat, and even its own variant of predator chases are all here and accounted for. Like all things in life, moderation is key, but there’s not as much of a balance between these elements which the other games did well. Particularly in the late game, there is a huge focus on way too much batmobile-ing and even if I find most of the stand alone aspects to be fine, it’s simply not as fun or finely tuned as the other segments. The freeflow melee combat has a nice complexity when it comes to full combos and not being hit, and predator challenges always give you a plethora of gadgets to mess with AI, while the batmobile counterparts are just…standard, I guess? Combat here becomes more grid based as the movement becomes free ranged to side boost out of clearly shown attack lines from enemy vehicles, which basically means the combat is zigzagging to safe zones while you line your reticule up. Many of these fights play out the exact same way and feel like you’re going through the motions, even if they’re alright. The stealth segments are a bigger offender as they’re super simplistic vison cone avoiding as you maneuver behind a tank to shoot in it’s videogamey weak point. When they then stack this stealth sequence into a BOSS BATTLE I kind of wanted to die on the inside. Special shoutout to the VR challenges, which also have more batmobile focused challenges than pure combat/predator ones…they even have you fight Deathstroke in a TANK after he continuously taunts and talks about fighting you hand to hand. Rocksteady pls. It’s not all bad, though, as there are some genuinely clever uses of the mobile for puzzles, such as grapping and reversing down a wall to repel the car down, or some of the remote controlled uses to reposition it and allow Batman to further progress. The other highlight are the actual high speed takedowns, which go figure are by far the least used aspect of the batmobile, sticking mainly to side mission APC takedowns. These high speed chases look great and feel brutal when the slowmotion takedowns kick in, along with you ripping through fences and going off ramps.
The plotline of Arkham Knight has similar highs and lows. The surprising high for me is the usage of Joker, who was kept under wraps prerelease but is used in an incredibly clever fashion for the entirety of the game. Mark Hamill knocked it out of the park with his delivery this time, and I’m saying that as someone who was pretty sick of them always hinging the plot onto the Joker. He manages to have a more deserved presence and gives a ton of charm when he gives his input on scenes that just happened, belittling you and laughing the entire time. The low is, well, the namesake of the game itself…the Knight himself falls extremely flat due to the setup of the series. They had to introduce and familiarize players with Jason Todd, and do so in a way that literally beats you over the head hard enough to get a concussion, as otherwise the unmasking would be a “who?” from people not keen on the Batman universe. He felt more like a villain they decided they wanted after it was too late to really work well, as they didn’t plant the villain seed properly in City. But even with this in mind, his motivations and the lengths he goes to reiterate that he is here to kill Batman all just go away after a wonky boss fight where they share about two lines, showing up again at the end to save Batman from Scarecrow. Alright then.
Luckily, the game is still an Arkham game at heart, and that’s enough to still stand out above most games at the end of the year. Rocksteady still nailed the feel of Batman, and I want to give special note to the camerawork in this game. The Joker usage and general element of messing with your mind is done EXTREMELY well here. Joker will pop up in very natural ways, and even in the main city small things such as posters will warp into messed up versions once they’re out of view, and the entire ending sequence where you start to play as Joker and even flip to an FPS get pretty nuts. They even frame a handful of jump scares as you move around the city that catch the player off guard due to how naturally they appear. This mixed in with the already gorgeous looking game make for a game with some damn good production values. It’s not the smoothest conclusion to Rocksteady’s series, but it’s still a solid entry to a great franchise.
The core of the game remains intact, bringing back the simple to grasp brawling that oh so many games have fullblown taken for themselves now, with predator sections pacing up the bone breaking. Added to the mix is the Batmobile, which as the new kid on the block is unsurprisingly used probably far more than most people would want—riddler puzzles, riddler races, combat, and even its own variant of predator chases are all here and accounted for. Like all things in life, moderation is key, but there’s not as much of a balance between these elements which the other games did well. Particularly in the late game, there is a huge focus on way too much batmobile-ing and even if I find most of the stand alone aspects to be fine, it’s simply not as fun or finely tuned as the other segments. The freeflow melee combat has a nice complexity when it comes to full combos and not being hit, and predator challenges always give you a plethora of gadgets to mess with AI, while the batmobile counterparts are just…standard, I guess? Combat here becomes more grid based as the movement becomes free ranged to side boost out of clearly shown attack lines from enemy vehicles, which basically means the combat is zigzagging to safe zones while you line your reticule up. Many of these fights play out the exact same way and feel like you’re going through the motions, even if they’re alright. The stealth segments are a bigger offender as they’re super simplistic vison cone avoiding as you maneuver behind a tank to shoot in it’s videogamey weak point. When they then stack this stealth sequence into a BOSS BATTLE I kind of wanted to die on the inside. Special shoutout to the VR challenges, which also have more batmobile focused challenges than pure combat/predator ones…they even have you fight Deathstroke in a TANK after he continuously taunts and talks about fighting you hand to hand. Rocksteady pls. It’s not all bad, though, as there are some genuinely clever uses of the mobile for puzzles, such as grapping and reversing down a wall to repel the car down, or some of the remote controlled uses to reposition it and allow Batman to further progress. The other highlight are the actual high speed takedowns, which go figure are by far the least used aspect of the batmobile, sticking mainly to side mission APC takedowns. These high speed chases look great and feel brutal when the slowmotion takedowns kick in, along with you ripping through fences and going off ramps.
The plotline of Arkham Knight has similar highs and lows. The surprising high for me is the usage of Joker, who was kept under wraps prerelease but is used in an incredibly clever fashion for the entirety of the game. Mark Hamill knocked it out of the park with his delivery this time, and I’m saying that as someone who was pretty sick of them always hinging the plot onto the Joker. He manages to have a more deserved presence and gives a ton of charm when he gives his input on scenes that just happened, belittling you and laughing the entire time. The low is, well, the namesake of the game itself…the Knight himself falls extremely flat due to the setup of the series. They had to introduce and familiarize players with Jason Todd, and do so in a way that literally beats you over the head hard enough to get a concussion, as otherwise the unmasking would be a “who?” from people not keen on the Batman universe. He felt more like a villain they decided they wanted after it was too late to really work well, as they didn’t plant the villain seed properly in City. But even with this in mind, his motivations and the lengths he goes to reiterate that he is here to kill Batman all just go away after a wonky boss fight where they share about two lines, showing up again at the end to save Batman from Scarecrow. Alright then.
Luckily, the game is still an Arkham game at heart, and that’s enough to still stand out above most games at the end of the year. Rocksteady still nailed the feel of Batman, and I want to give special note to the camerawork in this game. The Joker usage and general element of messing with your mind is done EXTREMELY well here. Joker will pop up in very natural ways, and even in the main city small things such as posters will warp into messed up versions once they’re out of view, and the entire ending sequence where you start to play as Joker and even flip to an FPS get pretty nuts. They even frame a handful of jump scares as you move around the city that catch the player off guard due to how naturally they appear. This mixed in with the already gorgeous looking game make for a game with some damn good production values. It’s not the smoothest conclusion to Rocksteady’s series, but it’s still a solid entry to a great franchise.
VIII. SOMA
Frictional Games | PS4, PC
Considering I jumped into this without having a clue on what the game was about, I came away pleasantly surprised by SOMA. Coming from the company that brought us Amnesia, I mainly went in expecting a horror game where I would run away and hide from various creatures that want to kill me. While that happens(to a pretty minor extent in the end), this is much more psychologically driven and in many cases done through pure atmosphere. The real horror of SOMA is conveyed by a fantastically realized environment, and the chilling tale it tells.
Starting off in a little apartment in the shoes of Simon, you’re left to get acquainted to the simple mechanics at play…which is to say, you can walk around and examine stuff in the environment, and that’s basically it. Through here there are nuggets of detail that can be picked up on about Simon; primarily the fact that he was in a car crash and had severe brain damage, which follows up to his doctor’s appointment where he agreed to an experiment. While getting a scan done, there’s a flash and suddenly you’re propelled into PATHOS-II, a strange underwater facility where no human life seems to be present. What is found, however, are a few robots that seem to think they’re human, and some hostile lifeforms. From this point on, the game delves into many different themes ranging from human consciousness to what it really means to be alive, introducing a few characters that you start to grow attached to in this facility that feels frozen in time.
The most traditional part of SOMA would be the enemy encounters, which play out as combatless cat and mouse segments. Weirdly enough these are the weakest parts of the game—moving from point A to B while avoiding the sp00ky enemy in the center that will chase you. Sometimes these just felt out of place or as if they existed just to really call this a horror game, but they tend to fall flat and I found myself just wanting to get these parts over with to see what would happen next in the actual story. SOMA is not going to appeal to someone who wants to be running away from a bunch of enemies and trying to really survive either way, as these sections aren’t all that numerous through the game, so if that’s all someone wants to play a game for, they’ll surely be bored before seeing much of it.
Beyond this you’re generally just exploring the areas, with audiologs, environmental puzzles, and terminals abound. There is a plethora of interesting characters and backstory to read up on as you try to rattle together what happened here and how you ended up mixed into it all. PATHOS itself is split into multiple separate bases, so you will frequently head out into the ocean floor to get to the different subsections. These moments are much slower burns, where the atmosphere is given time to really shine. One of these sections in particular take you to the floor of the ocean, and what entails is, simply put, one of the most unnerving experiences I’ve ever had from a videogame.
What really stood out for me is the lasting impression SOMA leaves once it’s all over. The ending is something you can both see coming a mile away yet is executed perfectly, that it made me just sit there through the credits without saying a word. I’ve been thinking about the game long after being done with it, which for a story heavy game says it all.
Starting off in a little apartment in the shoes of Simon, you’re left to get acquainted to the simple mechanics at play…which is to say, you can walk around and examine stuff in the environment, and that’s basically it. Through here there are nuggets of detail that can be picked up on about Simon; primarily the fact that he was in a car crash and had severe brain damage, which follows up to his doctor’s appointment where he agreed to an experiment. While getting a scan done, there’s a flash and suddenly you’re propelled into PATHOS-II, a strange underwater facility where no human life seems to be present. What is found, however, are a few robots that seem to think they’re human, and some hostile lifeforms. From this point on, the game delves into many different themes ranging from human consciousness to what it really means to be alive, introducing a few characters that you start to grow attached to in this facility that feels frozen in time.
The most traditional part of SOMA would be the enemy encounters, which play out as combatless cat and mouse segments. Weirdly enough these are the weakest parts of the game—moving from point A to B while avoiding the sp00ky enemy in the center that will chase you. Sometimes these just felt out of place or as if they existed just to really call this a horror game, but they tend to fall flat and I found myself just wanting to get these parts over with to see what would happen next in the actual story. SOMA is not going to appeal to someone who wants to be running away from a bunch of enemies and trying to really survive either way, as these sections aren’t all that numerous through the game, so if that’s all someone wants to play a game for, they’ll surely be bored before seeing much of it.
Beyond this you’re generally just exploring the areas, with audiologs, environmental puzzles, and terminals abound. There is a plethora of interesting characters and backstory to read up on as you try to rattle together what happened here and how you ended up mixed into it all. PATHOS itself is split into multiple separate bases, so you will frequently head out into the ocean floor to get to the different subsections. These moments are much slower burns, where the atmosphere is given time to really shine. One of these sections in particular take you to the floor of the ocean, and what entails is, simply put, one of the most unnerving experiences I’ve ever had from a videogame.
What really stood out for me is the lasting impression SOMA leaves once it’s all over. The ending is something you can both see coming a mile away yet is executed perfectly, that it made me just sit there through the credits without saying a word. I’ve been thinking about the game long after being done with it, which for a story heavy game says it all.
VII. Evolve
Turtle Rock Studios | XB1, PS4, PC
When it comes to multiplayer, few series sunk their teeth in me quite like Left 4 Dead. It took a simple concept and made it work—co-op, zombie hordes, and the incredibly fun versus mode that put you in control of the special zombies. Countless nights were spent mastering the maps and various tricks in the zombie’s arsenal, which had me excited for Turtle Rock’s next multiplayer undertaking with Evolve. Asymmetrical hunter team versus a player controlled boss monster makes for one hell of a pitch, and I love what they did with it.
Hunters are split into 4 classes—Assault, Medic, Trapper, and Support. Each class has 3 characters with a different loadout that share one ability. Every Assault character come with a personal shield that makes them invulnerable to damage, every Medic has an AoE heal burst, every Trapper has a throwable dome that puts an impassable wall down to block the monster in, and every Support has an AoE cloak to sneak around. While most of these are tried and true archetypes, the alternate characters different loadout dramatically impact how a class is played. For example, one medic uses a grenade launcher that can swap ammo between healing rounds and incendiary rounds, along with an AoE speedburst to keep the team on a monster’s trail. Another medic has no healing at all beyond the class-based burst heal, but a cloak system and a glove to revive people from death. Crazy stuff like this means I actually enjoyed playing all the classes, even if I traditionally never care for the pure damage dealer or heal class.
The Monster, instead of a static loadout, levels up through a match as it evolves. Maps take place in a fairly large environment littered with wildlife to eat, both passive and hostile. As the monster eats, it’ll get closer to being able to evolve and then ideally finds a place out of sight to cocoon and grow larger. Each monster has 4 main abilities but points can all be dumped into single abilities to make them super powerful early on, though you won’t have nearly as many options in combat. Eating also provides armor, which is important as the health does not regen on the monster. Getting caught and hurt badly early on will forever impact the rest of the match; despite gaining a large new chunk of health upon leveling up, that lost HP will remain missing. Evolving also sheds armor, so getting caught while doing it can be game ending. There’s a lot of risk/reward being thrown around, and the core setup is so the level 1 monster is weaker than the hunters, 2 is on par, and 3(the max) is stronger.
But what do you do? Evolve is split into 2 main modes in Hunt and Evacuation. Hunt is the primary mode and what the game is balanced around, the monster has a headstart to begin eating while the hunters drop in from a ship. The hunters must simply hunt, while the monster either needs to kill them or evolve to the max state to get an objective to destroy on the map which the hunters will try to defend. Worst case the match goes to a timer that favors the hunters, so the monster can’t just hide and win. Evacuation is a more for fun mode that spawns multiple days and has other modes like Nest and Rescue, which task the Hunters to destroy monster eggs or pick up and bring civilians to a dropship while the monster roams around. These both favor one side pretty heavily, and the winner will impact the next match in some way(like a laser grid that cuts a map in half making the monster not able to move around as well). The mode ends with Defend, where the monster starts maxed out and tries to get through three generators while minions spawn in on a timer. These are hectic and fun, but as mentioned, aren’t very balanced so they aren’t really there to hold attention very long.
On a basic level, that’s a lot to take in. One unavoidable side effect of the game structure is that it is a bad idea to try to solo play this. This is at its very core a team based game, and you NEED communication to really accomplish anything. Even one member of the hunter team being bad or uncooperative can make a match a blowout, as there’s a lot of room for someone to just separate from the team, get caught in a plant trap and die as nobody can afford to go get them(and the monster can take advantage of this disorganization). Playing as the monster is ideally what you do if you just want to play alone, but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. At its best, though, Evolve is fucking amazing—playing the Monster against a good full squad of teammates is a thrill in ways other multiplayer games can’t even touch. Seeing them right on your tail and trying to figure out how to maneuver the map, who to target in a fight, etc. are just a few things that need to be racing through your mind. As the hunter there’s a lot of pressure in every role, especially as the Trapper, who almost singlehandedly dictates the pace of the match. If you have a Trapper running in circles following footsteps, he is never going to actually find and trap the monster. If you have one that actually is using the map to his advantage and is trying to cut off where the monster will be, you will have a real match. Again, it’s unavoidable with how the game is setup, but it’s something that has to be kept in mind either way.
The biggest failings of Evolve are sadly more of the middling corporate variety. Since launch there have been 6 more hunters and two more monsters, and a lot of people were naturally turned off over the very high asking price of these. This is a game that had a single monster locked as a preorder bonus and charged $15 standalone for it. While they have kept their word in not splitting the community and have released free maps, a free mode, and alternate loadouts for the characters on top of balance patches, in a competitive environment you still really need to have access to other hunters to be able to fill team roles and adjust to the meta. The monster is less important to have, but the pricing is still hard to swallow. Aside from that, the Wraith monster at launch was a goddamn nuisance. Framed as a sneakier assassin character, matches would constantly come down to the timer as it was way too effective at escaping a good trapper, and was a pain in the ass to actively fight due to out of whack damage output. It took them way too long to actually balance this thing for my liking.
The rigid focus on needing real teamwork will hold it back from a casual audience, but I have a great deal of respect for the design they pulled off here. I have a soft spot for asymmetry in games, and Evolve pulls it off in a thrilling way. I genuinely hope Turtle Rock get another shot at working the kinks out with another installment.
Hunters are split into 4 classes—Assault, Medic, Trapper, and Support. Each class has 3 characters with a different loadout that share one ability. Every Assault character come with a personal shield that makes them invulnerable to damage, every Medic has an AoE heal burst, every Trapper has a throwable dome that puts an impassable wall down to block the monster in, and every Support has an AoE cloak to sneak around. While most of these are tried and true archetypes, the alternate characters different loadout dramatically impact how a class is played. For example, one medic uses a grenade launcher that can swap ammo between healing rounds and incendiary rounds, along with an AoE speedburst to keep the team on a monster’s trail. Another medic has no healing at all beyond the class-based burst heal, but a cloak system and a glove to revive people from death. Crazy stuff like this means I actually enjoyed playing all the classes, even if I traditionally never care for the pure damage dealer or heal class.
The Monster, instead of a static loadout, levels up through a match as it evolves. Maps take place in a fairly large environment littered with wildlife to eat, both passive and hostile. As the monster eats, it’ll get closer to being able to evolve and then ideally finds a place out of sight to cocoon and grow larger. Each monster has 4 main abilities but points can all be dumped into single abilities to make them super powerful early on, though you won’t have nearly as many options in combat. Eating also provides armor, which is important as the health does not regen on the monster. Getting caught and hurt badly early on will forever impact the rest of the match; despite gaining a large new chunk of health upon leveling up, that lost HP will remain missing. Evolving also sheds armor, so getting caught while doing it can be game ending. There’s a lot of risk/reward being thrown around, and the core setup is so the level 1 monster is weaker than the hunters, 2 is on par, and 3(the max) is stronger.
But what do you do? Evolve is split into 2 main modes in Hunt and Evacuation. Hunt is the primary mode and what the game is balanced around, the monster has a headstart to begin eating while the hunters drop in from a ship. The hunters must simply hunt, while the monster either needs to kill them or evolve to the max state to get an objective to destroy on the map which the hunters will try to defend. Worst case the match goes to a timer that favors the hunters, so the monster can’t just hide and win. Evacuation is a more for fun mode that spawns multiple days and has other modes like Nest and Rescue, which task the Hunters to destroy monster eggs or pick up and bring civilians to a dropship while the monster roams around. These both favor one side pretty heavily, and the winner will impact the next match in some way(like a laser grid that cuts a map in half making the monster not able to move around as well). The mode ends with Defend, where the monster starts maxed out and tries to get through three generators while minions spawn in on a timer. These are hectic and fun, but as mentioned, aren’t very balanced so they aren’t really there to hold attention very long.
On a basic level, that’s a lot to take in. One unavoidable side effect of the game structure is that it is a bad idea to try to solo play this. This is at its very core a team based game, and you NEED communication to really accomplish anything. Even one member of the hunter team being bad or uncooperative can make a match a blowout, as there’s a lot of room for someone to just separate from the team, get caught in a plant trap and die as nobody can afford to go get them(and the monster can take advantage of this disorganization). Playing as the monster is ideally what you do if you just want to play alone, but it’s not going to be everyone’s cup of tea. At its best, though, Evolve is fucking amazing—playing the Monster against a good full squad of teammates is a thrill in ways other multiplayer games can’t even touch. Seeing them right on your tail and trying to figure out how to maneuver the map, who to target in a fight, etc. are just a few things that need to be racing through your mind. As the hunter there’s a lot of pressure in every role, especially as the Trapper, who almost singlehandedly dictates the pace of the match. If you have a Trapper running in circles following footsteps, he is never going to actually find and trap the monster. If you have one that actually is using the map to his advantage and is trying to cut off where the monster will be, you will have a real match. Again, it’s unavoidable with how the game is setup, but it’s something that has to be kept in mind either way.
The biggest failings of Evolve are sadly more of the middling corporate variety. Since launch there have been 6 more hunters and two more monsters, and a lot of people were naturally turned off over the very high asking price of these. This is a game that had a single monster locked as a preorder bonus and charged $15 standalone for it. While they have kept their word in not splitting the community and have released free maps, a free mode, and alternate loadouts for the characters on top of balance patches, in a competitive environment you still really need to have access to other hunters to be able to fill team roles and adjust to the meta. The monster is less important to have, but the pricing is still hard to swallow. Aside from that, the Wraith monster at launch was a goddamn nuisance. Framed as a sneakier assassin character, matches would constantly come down to the timer as it was way too effective at escaping a good trapper, and was a pain in the ass to actively fight due to out of whack damage output. It took them way too long to actually balance this thing for my liking.
The rigid focus on needing real teamwork will hold it back from a casual audience, but I have a great deal of respect for the design they pulled off here. I have a soft spot for asymmetry in games, and Evolve pulls it off in a thrilling way. I genuinely hope Turtle Rock get another shot at working the kinks out with another installment.
Continued here.
