We went hands on with the latest first person shooter from Left 4 Dead’s Turtle Rock Studios at E3 2014. With its 4v1 gameplay (a squad of four characters VS one player controlled monster), class based characters, and fast paced combat it was one of the highlights of E3 2014 for us! Find out more about our experience after the jump…
2K really did an amazing job preparing us to play Evolve for the first time. The moment you walked into the theater area, you’re greeted by one of the developers and shown a short video (about three minutes) on what Evolve is, what each class plays like, and general tips for surviving in combat with the various classes. It was really useful and made for a great overall experience rather than some booths throwing us into a game and going “OKAY! PLAY!”
I played the Assault class during my play through with three other press members playing as the other classes (Medic, Trapper, and Support) and fellow Twitch streamer Indie playing as the monster. The assault class are the heavy gunned man-tanks that deal a lot of damage, but can also take a lot of damage in turn and are designed to be the last ones standing in any fair fight. The Assault class has two main guns; a large machine gun and a lightning gun as well as a grenade and a shield that can make him invulnerable for a limited amount of time. The shield is especially useful against The Monster, as he can take you out in a hit or two.
Evolve plays very much like Left 4 Dead in its squad based gameplay. You MUST work as a team in order to bring down your enemies. If you don’t all hope is lost and the monster you’re facing will surely win. There are two ways the monster can win:
- Wipe out all enemy players
- Reach level 3 and destroy the generator on the map
As the squad, it is your job to stop the monster from doing either of those things, tracking him down and attacking him over and over until he is dead.
The guns shoot amazingly well. Left 4 Dead always felt like it was a bit squishy with its gun play. Turtle Rock learned its lesson here and the gun play is tight and satisfying. When you shoot something, it feels like something is actually being shot in your hands via the rumble triggers of the Xbox One version we played.
Tracking down the monster is extremely satisfying as well. I was surprised at how much fun it was chasing him down. I went in thinking that the tracking would be the most boring part of the game, but it was exciting with various creatures to fight in the map besides the monster. The chase was thrilling and when you finally caught up to the monster the fights were epic. You felt like you were really fighting a giant monster who could destroy all of you at any second!
Overall I’m really excited for this title and cannot wait for the October 21st release. Evolve will release on Xbox One, Playstation 4, and PC!