Hunters:

Jacob:

My time with Evolve was spent as Val the Medic. Her jobs are obviously to act as the healer for the three heavier hitters in the Hunter squad. Armed with a heal ray, I could keep the assault class alive while he faced off against the Goliath.

Healing isn’t the only skill the medic has; I actually found the most useful tool at my disposal to be the tranquilizer gun, which when used on the monster will slow it down considerably. It gets the added bonus of outlining him to let the rest of the hunters know its current location.

The medic also has a sniper rifle that I barely used during my match. When you score a hit on the monster with the sniper, it creates a weak point that the other hunters can hit to deal extra damage. It’s a nice feature, but is dwarfed in usefulness to the tranq and med-gun.

Turtle Rock puts a lot of emphasis on teamwork in their games and Evolve stays true to that in a brutal way. The hunters have to stay together and have to work together; if one hunter isn’t utilizing his character’s abilities and rather chooses to just fire at the monster, the hunters will lose every time. Stick together, win together.

Zack:

During the beginning, when I was watching the tutorial on how play with the Trapper, I was intimidated by the complexity that revolved around the controls. Though, when I got my hands on the controller, it took a couple fumbles at first, but switching through the different weapons became second nature.

As people began to take on the different roles, everyone seemed as if they were trying to distance themselves from the Trapper, so of course, I had to dip my toe. The main task required of the Trapper is to hunt down the Monster, and facilitate the hunt as you unleash hell on it. There are several ways to approach catching this creature, but either way you’ll be scared shitless when first approaching it.

To track the monster, you can begin with the generic Sherlock Holmes investigation technique: follow the footsteps. This feature is a viable means of locating the Monster for any player, but you’re the Trapper. You have the necessary equipment to locate the Monster from afar, knowing the exact whereabouts and movements made.

Typically, the Monster is going to try to escape your clutches because leveling up is a major perk for it. Rest assured though, we have the means to pin this sucker in. Deciding between launching an orb to encapsulate the Monster inside the dome or pull out the grapple-gun to drastically slow down its pace, either technique is highly effective. You also have the convience to unload on the Monster with your machine gun, although Assault has the brute force under control.

I can remember dashing after the Monster, as it was clinging to the little health it had left. I launched an orb to prevent him from fleeing any farther. As it nearly escaped, before the force field can come down all the way, I managed to whip out my grapple with enough time to stop him dead in his tracks. Victory in the most panicked fashion.

Monster:

Alex:

I am always a big fan of being a hulking, horrendous and fear-inducing monster, so when given the chance: I jumped right for it. The Goliath, one of multiple monsters to be in Evolve, as we were assured by Turtle Rock, is a big brute with a focus on melee, throwing rocks, and pretty fierce mobility.

The scene started with me being able to set up my monster: there are three levels, and each level you get three points to dump into your skills. It’s a basic line up of throw-rock, charge, a leaping attack, and fire breath, but each get’s much more useful as you power it up. You can’t max everything out in one run, but I found min-maxing movement right from the get-go gave me a huge advantage over the hunters.

You can “evolve” by eating animals and getting points, and when you have enough, you can seclude yourself to a corner and Evolve to the next stage. It really started with me feeling weak, with only a few brushes with the hunters. I avoided them at all cost but made it to level two in no time flat. After that, I only got into a battle once, and managed to get away before the dome came down and locked me in, so with them trapped in their own seal, I quickly reached a pack of weak monsters and hit level three. That’s when the game changed.

All four were on me now, but I wasn’t weak and defenseless like before, oh no. It quickly turned into a bloodbath when I ripped their support apart, meaning they couldn’t shield anymore. Then I trapped them in a corner with my massive and evolved body, leading to fire breath, charging, rocks flying, and death.

It was a wondrous victory, and I don’t know if I’ve ever felt more powerful then when I cut through the assault, the most powerful player, and devoured his corpse. Evolve is multiplayer unlike anything I’ve seen before. I was the final boss.