Evolve from potential to total flop.

Hello Interwebs!

Introduction:

Asymmetrical multiplayer has always been around, and been fun, but never hit it big until Evolve came into the scene. Evolve was to be the next big hit multiplayer game from Turtle Rock Studios, they were the people behind Left 4 Dead. Sadly, very sadly, the game flopped and lost its player base fairly fast. In an attempt to breathe life back into this beast that was in development for over 3 years (to my knowledge) it went free to play beta on PC and was scheduled to go free to play on console the following year. This is where the game got worst in my opinion.

For a game that was actually really well made, it was lacking in many areas such as game modes, and stuff to do during play. But the 2 changes that were the most disappointing is letting all the characters throw the Dome out to trap the monster and the introduction of a Planet Scanner that can ping the monsters location every 30 seconds. These two changes rendered the trapper class overpowered, seeing as it can tell where the monster is at the press of a button every 30 seconds.

Gameplay changes:

The Tracker class is in charge of well tracking the monster and then trapping it in the Dome so the hunter team could beat down on the monster, well originally. Now the Tracker has given up their Dome for a over powered Planet Scanner. By having the Planet Scanner ping the monster every 30 seconds for a duration of 5 seconds it becomes far too easy to track the monster. Letting everyone throw the Dome out is what made Turtle Rock Studios change the Tracker’s main ability from the Dome to Planet Scanner.

Originally the Tracker had a much bigger responsibility in the game. It was their job to find and trap the monster. Then slow it down while the others played their role. It made staying together all the more important. There was no point to split up other than to ping the monster yourself, keep eyes on it, wait for the team to catch up and trap it. Now there is less of a point in splitting up to search (incredibly dangerous in the first place) as you know where the monster is every 30 seconds. Players will always take the most direct route, since it is the most efficient. To also have any player throw the Dome makes it worthwhile to split up (in an attempt to catch the monster for the team) but that is dangerous and goes against the theme of the game. The Planet Scanner pings make it pointless to split up other than to search an immediate area. Which still proves helpful to spread out in a small area because you all aren't very far apart. If something were to happen you would be right around the corner or just behind a large obstacle.

The screen will prompt when to throw the Dome, taking all skill from it. Before you would have to coordinate with your team on when it would be best to throw the Dome. You may have your line of sight broken but have a teammate on mic yelling to throw the Dome as they would know both of your positions, leading to a fun and intense cat and mouse chase with tactics and coordination. This also meant that a monster could escape your Dome if they happen to get far away in time of you throwing it. But now with the prompt to throw the Dome you will, what seems to be always, capture the monster. This takes away a lot of the emotion from the game lowering the stress and intensity of it. Even for the monster, they knew they would be trapped no matter what if one person got close. This was also problematic if the monster had been stealthy, the hunters would lose track of the monster, leading to the monster getting away. Now the hunters are being told by the game through arbitrary U.I. that the monster was nearby, press this, and it will be captured. This would happen even if the player didn't know the monster was around or see it. This treats the player like they are stupid. The player knows about the Dome and how it works. Let the player use their skill to determine when to throw it, they don't need their hand held.

The point of the monster is to try to hide, eat, and Evolve to a stronger form. It took skill, luck, and strategy to do this well. But once the Planet Scanner came into play it's near impossible to deek out the other players furthermore finding a real hiding spot to Evolve without them closing the distance is very hard, due to every 30 seconds the trapper can activate the Planet Scanner. This made games much faster and as a result they SHOULD HAVE made evolving faster as it's rare to hit stage 3 now. This also takes away the fun of being a monster. Most often it is very easy to kill a stage 1 monster and not particularly hard to kill a stage 2 monster, especially if you were able to deal damage to it while in stage 1. One ability the monster has is to stalk, hiding it's foot prints, and then pounce, capturing an enemy and beating them till death. But always having your position or area known means you can't be stealthy enough to do this move as the risk and reward of it is greatly against you. The enemies can easily free their ally and deal massive damage to the monster.

Game mode, lack of fun, lack of modes:

Evolve originally had two main game modes: hunt and campaign. Their online campaign consisting of 5 matches and 5 or 6 game modes (some of which were more interesting than hunt). The main game mode at the time was hunt. When it went free to play they took out the online campaign thus all the interesting game modes were taken away. It was sadly replaced with arena. A game mode in which your all trapped in the Dome and have a best of rounds fight to the death. Arena just seems boring to me, taking out everything else that made the game unique for a fight just sounds lackluster to me.

Hunt is the most boring of all of the game modes that have been around. It is bare bones to the teeth. It is hide and seek. The 4 hunters seeking the 1 monster to kill it, while the monster got stronger to kill the hunters. When the monster got to stage 3 they become able to destroy the fusion reactor. It was pointless as the hunters would always fight till the death, meaning the fusion reactor would never actually be destroyed. The only good thing about it was it gave all the players a place for the final fight. As there was nothing for the hunters to do and the monster finished the only thing it could do, get stronger and fill armour, it was down to the final fight. Destroying the reactor only pressured the hunters out of hiding or stopped them from retreating until their allies respawned. It essentially was the catalyst to end the match. The hunters may retreat to try to save themselves or wait for teammates to respawn. They may also keep retreating to avoid death but come right back. This would prolong the game until the time limit was reached resulting in a less fun and impactful end. It was smart to add an objective as a catalyst for the final battle. This would also set up a final battlefield. Everyone knew where to meet up, this was going to be do or die. It was intense and fun to finally have a fight with the monster finally fit to fight and not run. This was a smart decision to add, if only there was more objectives that influenced play.

Seeing as there was nothing to do in this mode there should have been side objectives to stop players from getting bored of the same repetitive game loop. Completing objectives could either give the hunters a boost in DPS, Speed, or map awareness, like the Planet Scanner. This would also mean the monster could sabotage their plans or give them a reason to fight in early stages. It would create a new dynamic for the game in risks and rewards. Players earlier on would have to break into two teams of two just to make sure they weren't as easily picked off by the monster. If all the hunters went off to accomplish one part of an objective by themselves they run the risk of dying by the environment or getting picked off by the monster, horror movie-esque style. It would have been cool to have objectives that change the map, maybe cause a collapse somewhere or change water levels. This would add more to the exploration and make maps more dynamic, thus making it more interesting for the player. It would also be fun if there was stuff the monster could destroy that would give them an upper hand. Like raising water to reduce tracks, or setting more wildlife free so they had more to eat to get stronger. The monster could also destroy the equipment the hunters set up to hinder them.

Conclusion:

None of the game mode problems were tackled when it went free to play. Only the balance of the game was heavily thrown to the hunters. Making the balance of the game worst and hiding the fact there was nothing for players to do in these matches other than hide and seek. With a repetitive and now far more imbalanced game with a lack of modes, and interesting things to do, it flopped yet again. Meaning even more players were abound to come and even more go. With the rate of players leaving the developers eventually had to face reality, shutting down further production and work on Evolve. Hopefully the next project they pursue, with the lessons of old, will be bigger, smarter, and more fun with all of the tactical feel with a large variety of reasons to coordinate.

Until next time, keep eating and growing.

Have a wonderful day/evening!

Bye :)

#Multiplayer #Design #gamplay #Balancing #Evolve