Evolve, newest shooter from creators of Left 4 Dead

You don't understand. It was ridiculously easy for the monster to win in under 5 minutes with the way the game is balanced right now.

And you played it yourself?

I'll be brash and say, "Fuck balancing."

You are fighting four living people. This isn't work together with 3 other people, this is survive long enough until you can kill them.

The example of the monster winning in 5 minutes needs to be clarified - who was playing the monster, how many times had they played, how experienced was the test group? Even so, you could have your run of bad luck.

Monster doesn't need to be toned down at all from what we've seen here. That mobile shield gadget looks mighty useful. The monster being able to access exclusive portions of the map doesn't sound bad at all.

edited 30th Apr '14 10:20:59 PM by FOFD

So "Release the kraken!" joke time?

Progression revealed.

With these dark words I cast    NECROMANCY    on this thread:

The Alpha for the game is out, and if you have XCOM on Steam (on PC), you get automatic access. I'm downloading the game as we speak.

I have some codes for PC if anyone wants 'em:

4DNW2-8H0JJ-5QXDP 4DNZN-55XPJ-PWV2T 4DP0B-PN2L3-2YLMN 4DPCE-QBH4N-YPHX9 GNPGX-FW5MM-9HX0D GNPIM-BQ8ZQ-FIZC7 GNPLB-3CBZW-XJXQF GNPXB-LAQ0X-IE63B

edited 1st Nov '14 9:25:07 AM by SonicWind

And of course the Alpha comes out when I don't have a Windows PC XD I've just got a Mac.

So, just got a new PC, and installed the alpha. It's... well, I had trouble keeping up with anybody. And I was the medic. Yeah, monster won that one.

Tried the game myself. At first it's unsettling, but I made it through eventually.

I just think there's a bit of a pattern in nearly every match. I mean, most of the time the match rides on whether the trapper can find and trap the monster early or not.

I've yet to win a fight against a stage 3 monster, but that's mostly because the team failed to shut it down, and if they couldn't handle the low level Goliath, they certainly cannot handle stage 3.

I've had a trapper not use Arena until stage three (!). Son, that's a nice effort, but if the monster is stage 3, it's not running away anymore.

On the other hand, I got a Support lay down an outstanding Orbital Strike by leading his target beacon. Well done to that dude.

Tried it, It's awful and not at all what I expected.

The monster eats stuff and then grows bigger in less than a minute. The game isn't "Evolve", it's "Grow Fast".

I'm also entirely certain the base Medic character is played by Courtenay Taylor which is of course awesome.

Yeah, I kinda wondered if the whole matter with the Trapper's Mobile Arena is a bit too hit-or-miss to the entire game. Not really sure how they could make it less severe if that indeed is a problem though.

edited 2nd Nov '14 3:45:28 PM by VutherA

Well if the monster gets trapped then it's essentially game over unless you're powered up enough. Being able to avoid being trapped is one of the main objectives of the monster.

Yeah Arena is insane. I mean, every classes obviously have their importance, but Arena is leap and bound beyond what the other classes can do.

And the game is pretty much built after it. You need a way to force a fight with the monster since it's faster than the hunters, as is he can outrun the hunters until kingdom comes, except if the Hunters are telepath and figure out which way he'll go after eating so or so beastie.

Also, I don't know if you had the same experience, but the wildlife can be more or less ignored. Sure, some are really dangerous, but I think it's way too easy for both the monster and the hunters to go around. If they buffed the creeps they could probably nerf Arena, though that would be like taking a huge shit on Goliath's stage 1.

I haven't seen a Kraken yet.

edited 2nd Nov '14 4:02:46 PM by QuestionMarc

Well, it might not be very fun for the other 3 people if the one Trapper is failing really hard to trap the monster, eh? Alternatively, what if it's too easy for the Trapper to get the monster?

I'm not saying for certain there's a problem, I just think it would be good to gauge the matter carefully though since very severe mechanics tend to be disliked in action games - it is an Alpha after all so theoretically changing things quite a bit is very feasible right now.

My brother's been playing more than me, but I have noticed getting in a bad fight with wildlife is indeed rather rare and pretty embarrassing.

Similarly he's been noticing even if people happen to down the big ones, they tend to ignore the buff it drops because he's always getting them! People ignore it that hard!

That being said the actual buffs themselves look pretty darn good overall.

edited 2nd Nov '14 4:10:27 PM by VutherA

Creep buffs are pretty good, classes seems decently balanced (Arena being on the strong side), but the monster power curve is insane and if the hunters don't get their shit together, they're fucked at stage 3. Then there's the issue of the wildlife.

All around I think for a game in alpha (Alpha in name only?) the balance is good enough, but they ought to touch it up.

What surprised me as well was the duration of the match. Most of them were over under 5 minutes. I don't know how long they were aiming for the average session, but that is really short. I think one thing that would help the balance is give the Hunters a shot at upgrading their gear. Like, at stage 2 or 3 the monster gets slower, but the Hunters get access to dropboxes of weaponry that can upgrade their arsenal and equalize the fight against der monstrositat. It'd give more tactical situations as well, since the could either fight the Hunter over the drop boxes or go for the power core.

I felt like a shorter match wasn't a bad thing, but a different "mode" where the game's numbers are changed to generally lead to a longer match wouldn't be a bad idea either.

Also I'm kinda figuring the Monster just really needs a more in-depth tutorial which is probably the main reason why you've seen matches tend toward short.

Don't get me wrong, there's nothing wrong with short matches, but it feels like I do 4 minutes of matchmaking and loading to do 3 minutes of running and 2 minutes of fighting. That's my gripe with it really.

And yeah, I talk about balance a lot, but truth is I am not really familiar with the game all that much. I'd need to try it more and see more people who know what they can do on both side of the conflict (at once, if possible).

Yeah, I do think balance is a bit hard to discuss at this point with it being certain that most players don't too thoroughly get the game yet.

And so I really do think a bigger tutorial would be very integral to testing...

This right there would be a pretty great idea.

Why Turtle Rock didn't include it in game is beyond me.

All missteps are easy enough to pass off with "Beta", so I imagine "Alpha" practically makes them immune to criticism.

All things considered though, damn good game to be described as "Alpha".

Yeah, I once heard on a podcast that a game is described as "Alpha" when it's pretty much beta, and then moves to "Beta" when it's basically done.

I personally find I don't see that very often.

That's why I implied it was alpha in name only.

Hopefully the devs are smarter than to think "Oh we're in alpha, we'll change nothing at all". I mean, if they're early in the development, it's a good time for taking in critics and making changes before shipping the whole thing.

Pity I didn't have time to play much :( I had only two complete matches, first one had really bad monster player(he was bad at escaping even without arena) and second one ended up with level 3 monster killing everyone and destroying relay

Because of problems with the PS4 version (which have been fixed), the Alpha has been extended. It will now end on the 4th at 3 PM EST.

edited 2nd Nov '14 8:47:09 PM by SonicWind