Evolve (PS4)

I got this for a friend a year ago. We played a little and I was hooked. Totally forgot about it but saw it a month ago. Got a copy for myself. This is a great game.

As expected most people seem to find it "repetitive". I'll say it right now this game is much more about social interaction than the actual game itself. The game itself is fun, and for the most part balanced although the last monster unlocked does seem to be a little overpowered. There are a few varying game modes which didn't look too interesting but became pretty fun when I started playing with a group of friends online. The characters are unlocked by a little bit of grinding/replaying as the same character. You need to utilize all of their abilities before you can play as a different character. All of them seem to have their own traits and are balanced. It's a very enjoyable game but a very large part of it is talking with other players. The biggest concern I have now is that the dlc characters and monsters will be more powerful creating a "pay to win" situation. While i'm not sure if this will be the case time will tell. The characters seem incredibly expensive though. The hunting season pass essentially means that each character costs £5. I'd much rather grab a ps2 game or 2 from a bargain bin than buy one single character who i'm not even sure i'd enjoy playing as.After hearing the developers of left 4 dead helped to make this game I decided to pre-order it. The back and forth between the characters is much better than I thought it would be. Each one having their own backstory/stories to share with each other. There's even rumors of one of the characters being a spy for a corporation. There's a huge reliance on teamwork and sticking together. For this reason there really should be a fast "vote to kick" feature, so that the hunters can get a team that co-operates with each other. I'm not sure if this feature is in or will be added but I think it'd make for a much better experience.Overall if you want to talk to new people and hunt some monsters this game is nice, it's exactly what I was expecting. However most people are probably going to be put off since it doesn't have a straight forward storyline. It does have a single player campaign but it's identical to playing the campaign online making it essentially pointless unless you don't have online, in which case I wouldn't really recommend the game because it's repetitive. The interaction between the characters and the players you meet online is what keeps things fresh. The maps are wonderfully detailed and varied which means you'll spend a long time searching for the monsters and enjoying it too. Overall I recommend it but if you're worried about playing the same thing over and over again i'd give it a bit of a miss until it drops in price.

*** Updated review on 11/2/2015 ***Ok, after playing for around five hours which involved going through the tutorials (which do help a lot), playing single-player offline and multi-player online I can now update my review for this game.I am going to focus on playing as the monster for this review as that is a major part of the game.General (playing as the monster) :When playing for the 1st time as the monster you will be beaten badly (offline by bots or online by people) as once a battle starts it is tempting to just keep fighting the hunters even if the monster is not fully evolved or the monster shield / health is low.I can see now why a lot of people are giving 1 star reviews as they are getting frustrated from getting beaten all of the time. That being said, like any game it will take time to fully understand the monster abilities, combat and levels so eventually the monster should at least have a good chance of defeating the hunters.After a few games of being crushed as the monster I started to play differently in terms of how I moved around the level, attacking and eating wildlife and keep track of the hunters are in-case I needed to make a quick escape. I also more selective of which hunters I attacked during combat. This was mostly the assault hunter and the healer hunter as these two hunters are biggest danger for the monster.One important lesson to know is that if you are a level 1 monster with low health and you evolve to level 2 then your health is increased (and so on again for level 3). This is a life saver as I initially thought the monster can not regenerate health during the game. So if you are very low on health and not fully evolved then try to escape and level-up to increase your health.Movement and combat (as the monster) :This is where the game is getting on my nerves the most. You can move around the level as normal using the controller stick but when you want to climb you have to hold down the left-shoulder 2 button. I cannot understand why this is needed. The monster should just automatically climb when you push the stick to move over a obstacle / rock-wall. I found myself walking in-front of a wall and wondering "Why is the monster not climbing over? Oh yeah, I have to hold the stupid shoulder button!"When using a ability like a rock-throw or fire-breath (as the Goliath monster) it is really difficult to see where to aim as combat is so chaotic with a lot going on the screen. Some sort of enemy lock-on would help here a lot even it was only a small time lock-on.Melee combat does not feel "solid" enough at the moment. So it is difficult to tell when you have damaged wildlife or hunters. Sure you can see the health bars flash and hear the voice damage noises but the game needs to add something else to make it more obvious to the player.When a hunter throws down the entrapment dome then this makes it very difficulty for the monster especially if there is no where to hide or climb. If the monster could damage the hunter who triggered the dome so it could be disabled then at least the monster would have a chance of escape. This would also then add more strategy to the game as the hunters would need to protect the dome hunter.Final thought :It is early days for this game and I am sure the developers will be making improvements and changes as the community reports back on the game. A game this complex is bound to need a lot of tweaking and changes once more people have played it. It is just a shame these was not done properly during the alpha and beta testing stages.

The game is potentially a great online experience, however many of the games I have played are awful, because there is NO TEAMWORK. Players just run off thinking they can take on the monster themselves, this isn't Call of Duty/ run and gun. I find myself playing the single player mode (which this game isn't aimed at) as the bots actually team up with you. If you can find a good group/ play with friends, this would be a 5/5 game with lots of replay value, as each match is unique to the way you have to tackle it. If you are unlucky (as I have been) and get stuck with Call of Duty players who do not work as a team, this game is pretty awful, and you will constantly lose, and where is the fun in that? ;)My second issue with this game is the hunter preference, you don't always get to be your preferred hunter class, which is fairly annoying seeing as I paid £40. If I want to be a Trapper class then why not link me to a game where that class is available rather than forcing em to be an Assault class?So many people have quit games before it starts, and I am sure this is due to not getting their preferred class. Whats more, if you quit a game, there is a timer before you can rejoin one. I know this was put in place to stop you from quitting, it just seems more of a Freemium strategy, and £40 isn't freemium.Visuals are so so for a PS4 game that is this far into the PS4's life, doesn't really look any different than a PS3 game in my opinion. Definitely not worth a £40 price tag. There isn't enough content here for this game to be £40. Also there is a lot of additional content available, but they only seem to be vanity packs, so this isn't really important.If I was honest, I would probably wait a few months before buying this game, it is sure to drop in price soon, and that might give the developers time to sort out the issues many seem to have with it.If you like online games with teamwork with friends, I would recommend this game. However, as said before it may take a while to find a team online who work as a group. This game would probably work better as a free game, with in game purchases to upgrade.If you are a lone wolf and don't like teamwork, do not buy this game.

I did not know what to expect with this game. Upon playing it is immediately a breath of fresh air. Whether online or offline (against AI) this game has a unique, hide-n-seek style of gameplay with 5 hunters searching for an overpowered monster.The style of the game is great, although not mind-blowing graphically. The different (limited) maps are all unique however never memorable, although that adds to a sense of unfamiliarity when playing. There are 5 different classes, each with several different characters that can be unlocked. Each class has a unique playing style and each character has different abilities/equipment leading to very tactical gameplay.Playing as the monster you have a choice of 3 monsters that all differ greatly in look and playstyle. As the monster your main concern is finding enough prey to feed on so you can evolve whilst staying hidden and not dying until you are powerful enough to take on the hunters. All of these factors lead to very tense, tactical games. The balance of these games swing throughout, if hunters find the monster early on then it will be no match for them however late game the hunters stand little chance. This can be an issue. Battles also rely on team work, if one member is not functioning properly (as is common online) then the team is doomed. Offline the AI are competent and you can switch between them on the fly. Another negative is that often hunting for the monster can take up to 10 minutes which after playing for a while can get repetitive and quite frankly boring.There is a lack of content aswell, with their only being a handful of game modes and maps. Single player mode is limited to the same as online but with AI and a training mode. Additional DLC content is extremely over priced, especially for what you get (£8 for an additional character!!!).Overall this is a fun game with a good concept that has great potential, however it lacks content for the money I paid compared to other games. Fun in short bursts.

I think most of the negative reviews on here are driven by two things that are important to keep in mind:1) Gamer community throwing a massive tantrum because of the DLC on day 1, so instead of reviewing the game on its merits such as concept, gameplay etc - they give it a far worse rating that would otherwise be fair.2) Not being as "deep" in terms of what they expected, I'm seeing complaints of it not having a solo campaign, bla bla bla, because they have so much time on their hands they need it. This game focuses on what it does best, online co-operative team play.3) "This game is too repetitive wah wah wah" - oh jeez, some of the most popular games are the "most repetitive" - FIFA 15? COD series?I can only think that those complaining did not do their research on the game and found it to be different to what they were expecting. Is that the game's fault? No. People got sucked in to buying this as soon as it came out, at full price, thanks to a brilliant marketing campaign (see the other reviewer on here on here who got suckered in posting about him seeing flyers on the London Underground). And sure, they were expecting the world and were disappointed. Anyone buying a game at full price with no predecessor, past blueprint is taking a risk at being disappointed when they set their expectations sky-high.I did my "homework" on this game before purchasing it and found it to be something I could see myself enjoying and fitting in to my lifestyle. I do not have the time to get all emotionally invested in a long drawn out campaign story. I want to come home, get on and just play a match anywhere up to 15mins, the end of which there will be a winner. If I have time, i'll play another etc.It's a fantastic game, it's my 3rd day owning it and already getting ready for another session. I paid £28 and got all the DLC for free - BARGAIN.Instead of me giving my opinion on the mechanics/concept/gameplay of the game, I suggest anyone looking to play this game - go online, on to youtube and watch the walkthrough's. I personally like GhostRobo's on there, they were entertaining to watch. If you get a sense of "man i wanna play this" - get it. You will not be disappointed. I know I am not!