I feel like several times a week I’m asked, “HEY WEIRDO! Why haven’t you played Evolve yet?” and several times a week I respond with, “Because I suck and haven’t made an appointment at any of the conventions.”
That’s the truth. But there’s also another element. I’ve been a bit hesitant to book an appointment with Evolve because I’m typically not one for online multiplayer shenanigans with strangers because I get all tense and worried I’m going to suck. Weird, right? Like, I typically give NO shits about what others think/say/etc. But I strongly dislike rude people and there tends to be an abundance of those on the internet. WHO KNEW?!
So, yes. My silly anxiety slightly impacted my decision to hold off on booking an appointment Evolve. And with the release date sorta-kinda around the corner (February 2015) I thought I could wait to play Evolve within the comfort of my own home..with bots.
But then those of you who have played Evolve kept telling me how AWESOME it was and how RAD and how FUN and how AMAZING it was and DKFJLSDFLJFK it made you feel. So, when an appointment booking request made its way to my inbox I thought, “Well, this could be an interesting experiment and a chance for self-growth.” So I booked an appointment.
How did it go, you ask?
I was able to play two rounds as the Assault Class (I preferred Hyde over Makarov as Hyde has a flamethrower and life doesn’t get much better than that) against a Kraken and a Goliath. Fortunately for yours truly the dude playing as the monster hadn’t played before (I’m told those have a major learning curve) so he was super easy to take down. Which, again, is very fortunate because there were MANY times I was, like, hanging out in the very back of the group not quite sure what I was doing except shooting our tracking animal Daisy which I mistook for the Goliath.
…Yeah.
I can’t help but think of Evolve as a lovechild between Titanfall and Monster Hunter, and it totally works. I mean, you’re jetpacking around, using rad weapons, supporting your allies, tracking down this huge-ass creature thing and you’re ALL working together to make it happen. Or trying to. Three of the five players had never played Evolve before so we had quite a few laughs. I, um, never admitted to anyone that I was shooting Daisy half of the time, though. That’s kind of embarrassing.
Needless to say I’m pleasantly surprised by the amount of fun I had playing Evolve. Working with three other people proved to be a majorly fun experience. (“Majorly fun”? Really, Britt?) Then again the folks I played with were kind, light-hearted people so I didn’t experience the typical anxiety I generally do, but nonetheless I’m totally and completely convinced Evolve will be a day-one purchase. I might not play with strangers, but if I can grab a few friends and crank that difficulty up I think it’ll be a grand ol’ fucking time. And plus, I need more flamethrower in my life.
I made some good friends playing the alpha. I’m more of the helper kind of player. I would rather give play advise than put someone down for being new. That being said, I’m also inclined to sneak up and grenade you into the man eating plant. If you cant laugh with your friends then you can laugh at them, until they pay you back that is.
I didn’t realize you could play the game single player, that may change my outlook on it a bit, depends on how the bot AI is. I think Evolve looks awesome, but I’m worried that after a few weeks, at most, most of the people I know will move on, leaving the only option to play would be with randoms, which is scary…especially when teamwork is so necessary. Or even worse, after a few weeks there won’t be many people playing it at all, making finding a match difficult…kinda like the Dead Rising 2 MP, which was actually pretty awesome, the gameplay anyway…not the 5 minutes of waiting between each 1-2 minute event. I played it again a few months ago, and it could take 20 minutes to find a match.
It’s probably fine, though, if you have a group of friends who you usually play games with anyway, you can just add it to the list of games you can play together…like Left 4 Dead, Borderlands, etc. The keyword, though, is IF. Not everyone is so lucky to have that group of friends to play with.
How twitchy would you say the gameplay is? One of the problems I had with Titanfall is that engagements were usually 1v1 and very quick. I just don’t have those resources anymore.