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Evolve (Alpha)
For those of you who don't know, Evolve is a mostly co-op based game developed by the makers of Left4Dead.
I put a few hours into the alpha yesterday and I'm pretty impressed so far. The game involves a team of four Hunters who's only task is to take down a large and rather unpleasant monster. The monster, controlled by a fifth player, needs to stay alive long enough to feed, grow and become powerful enough to take on the hunters. It's a pretty basic but interesting concept, and it works really well. The Hunters are split into 4 separate classes, each with its own role and equipment:
Medic
Obviously your first job as the medic is to keep the team healed up and, well, not dead. Your main tool for this is the Medgun, which gradually heals a teammate when you hold down the trigger. Unfortunately it projects a bright green stream as you use it, so you make yourself a pretty big target for the monster while using in a fight. As well as this you have a separate heal ability to slightly heal yourself as well as all nearby teammates, but it comes with a cooldown period so has to be used wisely. Offensively, the medic carries a sniper rifle, which doesn't deal huge damage in itself, but does open up holes in the monsters armour, allowing the rest of the team to deal increased damage if their accurate/lucky enough. And finally, the tranquilizer gun, which slows the monster down for a short period, and highlights it for your teammates. This can come in really handy, especially in early stages when the monster is more likely to run and hide than stand and fight.
Trapper
The Trapper tracks and traps the monster, with the help of a large dog-like alien thing called Daisy. Daisy will work to pick up the monsters scent and track it down, allowing the trapper to use her equimpent to hold the monster down. Harpoon traps can be layed on the ground like mines, and will tether the monster to a spot, preventing its escape. Theyre best used several at a time, as the monster makes short work of them, so they provide more of a short distraction than any real trapping capability. The Mobile Arena however, can be deployed to create a large domed force-field around an area that will effectively trap the monster for a good period of time, allowing the team to fight it without it escaping. The trapper also carries a machine pistol, which deals decent enough damage up close, but spreads like crazy over any range.
(I have a lot less experience with the other two classes)
Assault
This guy deals the damage. He carries a Lighting Cannon that does some heavy damage, and also chains to other nearby creatures. For longer rangeattack, he has a fairly standard assault rifle. Mines operate as you'd expect them to, can be used to set up traps or just generally thrown around to deal bigger damage. He also comes with a personal shield to soak up some extra damage.
Support
His main weapon is the Laser Cutter, which is essentially a rapid-fire laser cannon with a cool down period after extended firing. He carries a shield generator, which operates much the same as the Medgun, shielding a chosen teammate but making yourself a more obvious target in the process. He also has the ability to cloak himself and nearby teammates, which can be useful for setting up traps and bailing out if a fight isn't going your way. And finally, he can call in an orbital barage, which will shower and area in artillery, doign some heavy damage. Just make sure your teammates stay clear.
Now, most of that is fairly standard video-game stuff. Playing as the monster is where things get really fun. The monster operates similarly to the Tank in L4D, but much faster. As well as standard melee attacks, you'll get 4 special abilities: a rock throw, a leap attack, fire breath and a charge attack. You'll get more points to gain/upgrade these abilities as you evolve. In order to evolve, you'll need to hunt other animals scattered around the map; some are docile, some will do you serious damage to a weaker monster. Some wildlife will also offer temporary buffs. As the monster I've found your best bet it to sneak around and hide as much as possible, feeding when you can, and just generally avoiding the hunters. Sneaking is slow, but you won't leave footprints for the Hunters to track, and you're less likely to disturb flocks of birds which will alert the Hunters to your position. Once you get the hang of it though, these trails can be used to send the Hunters off in the wrong direction, giving you more time to feed, and eventually grow to the third and final stage of evolution. Then, you're incredibly hard to take down, and will have an "objective" to destroy a relay somewhere on the map. This usually ends in a last stand where the Hunters bunker down around the relay and either kill you or die trying.
If you have access to the alpha, I'd highly suggest giving it a go. I'm pretty sure it's available if you own XCOM. I'll probably be playing a fair bit over the next couple of days, so give me a poke on TS if you wanna join in.
tl;dr hey everybody, play this fun multiplayer game with monsters and hunting and some pretty interesting mechanics!
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