Evolve Beta

[Danimal]

Weak man

If you played the Alpha and Beta I'm not really sure what is going to change your mind but I'll be curious to hear.

[Spooky]

Weak man

If you played the Alpha and Beta I'm not really sure what is going to change your mind but I'll be curious to hear.

Terry - Anxious to get some games in with you. Tonight maybe? Remember I am East Coast. I hope you find it as compelling and fun as I do.

Danimal - I played a bit of the Alpha and Beta as well and came very close to bailing on this on as well. I talked myself into pre-ordering and was bummed I did. For me though, I guess the issues with loading times, not finding sessions, getting in crappy rooms, etc...from the Alpha and Beta left me frustrated and bored when it came to getting into an actual decent session. Because I wasn't really feeling it either.

But after making myself give this one a serious try ($60 down the drain will do that) I completely changed my impressions of it. And now I freakin' love it. I think the concept and execution are pretty brilliant actually.

I understand it is an online MP game only but I think it has a pretty decent amount of depth. Different classes working together (like SERIOUSLY needing to work together to kill the monster) and then the entirely different angle of being the monster. There also feels like a lot more content than I expected. I think there are something like 12 maps, each with dynamic weather and lighting that is quite impressive, lots of modes and a huge amount of customization for private matches.

Can't find a decent group to hunt with after a few tries? Switch over to the Monster and it plays more like a single player experience. But if you do find a good group to hunt with it is pretty freaking exciting to have everyone playing their part and destroying the monster quickly. It really is a good sense of accomplishment.

One other thing I found interesting, I totally thought that being a hunter and trying to find the monster would be the aspect that would have the most adrenaline pounding moments (the anticipation of finding it and then it coming of out nowhere to engage, etc...), but it's actually the role of the monster that proves to be most anxious and stressful aspect for me. The running and hiding once the match starts, the searching for food to level up, the constant need to be careful of leaving tracks or scaring birds and then ultimately being found out of nowhere is quite a rush.

[Danimal]

Unfortunately nothing they did will fix the fact that it:

A. Doesn't have a single player campaign or story mode ala L4D
B. Doesn't have co-op against the AI ala L4D

I understand the push for 4 v 1 games is all the rage now but IMO it's developers taking a short cut by not including a solid story or AI. I'm not paying $60 for a game that relies on others to have a great time, when I can spend the same amount on something like Dragon Age

I understand people like these games, I'm just not one of them. Titanfall for $20 is a great game, for $60 i would of been like WTF. Just a matter of opinion, neither is right or wrong. Glad you're having so much fun with it though.

[Spooky]

Unfortunately nothing they did will fix the fact that it:

A. Doesn't have a single player campaign or story mode ala L4D
B. Doesn't have co-op against the AI ala L4D

I understand the push for 4 v 1 games is all the rage now but IMO it's developers taking a short cut by not including a solid story or AI. I'm not paying $60 for a game that relies on others to have a great time, when I can spend the same amount on something like Dragon Age

I understand people like these games, I'm just not one of them. Titanfall for $20 is a great game, for $60 i would of been like WTF. Just a matter of opinion, neither is right or wrong. Glad you're having so much fun with it though.

Understood and good points.

As for you point 'B', I don't think you're entirely correct. Sure, it's not Co-Op in the sense that you can team up with 2-3 others and play your way through a "mission" or "level" like L4D but you absolutely can play against the AI from either the hunters or monster side. I can go into single player and play as the monster against the AI hunters with a wealth of modes and options (which is great practice). Same thing with being a Hunter. Just like the L4D games, the AI will control whatever spot is not taken by a human. So you CAN play it like L4D Co-Op if you and a buddy wanted to be hunters, leave the other 2 hunter slots for the AI and hunt an AI monster, or 4 humans against an AI monster, or two human hunters, 2 AI hunters against a human monster, etc...

[Danimal]

Thanks I was unaware of that. I must of missed that in the beta.

[TCrouch]

That is why I eventually picked it up.

I saw no real single player stuff in the alpha/beta, but when Spook mentioned the ability to play vs. AI, that became a more tempting option.

[10spro]

Yeah, the Solo mode is a great way to practice using the different characters while learning which weapon does what or for playing the beast before going into MP. Randoms are usually OK, some prefer not to follow Daisy which is a problem.

[Spooky]

Yeah, the Solo mode is a great way to practice using the different characters while learning which weapon does what or for playing the beast before going into MP. Randoms are usually OK, some prefer not to follow Daisy which is a problem.

Daisy seems inconsistent to me. Or maybe she's just too slow...?!

[10spro]

Yeah, the Solo mode is a great way to practice using the different characters while learning which weapon does what or for playing the beast before going into MP. Randoms are usually OK, some prefer not to follow Daisy which is a problem.

Daisy seems inconsistent to me. Or maybe she's just too slow...?!

I never use my jets until absolutely necessary so yeah you see guys using it from the get go which may give you the impression that she's behind.

[Spooky]

I am plannig on playing this tonight. Should be on around 10pm ET. Would love it if anyone else could join in.

[Zeppo]

I am plannig on playing this tonight. Should be on around 10pm ET. Would love it if anyone else could join in.

I'll join you. I can't really play too long past 11 ET, so I will probably start sooner than 10 ET. Look for me. I need to make sure my notifications are on the right settings - I missed a few invites from you Spooky.

EDIT: Oh wait, you were talking about last night. Oops! Anyway tonight's a good night for me so I'd love to have some company hunting monsters (or being hunted).

[TCrouch]

I played it for a little while last night solo, and eventually just logged off. Never had any invites or anything that I saw.

[Spooky]

Terry - I was on last night playing from about 9:30pm-11:45pm ET. However, due to the completely unintuitive XB1 Friends List interface I never saw you as online. Thing is that I don't think we are "friends", just followers. Does that make a difference? I added you as a Friend last night but I don't know if the new interface actually sends out Friend "Requests" anymore, or if I just show up as a follower of yours. Either way I kept looking every 10 minutes or so for any friends online to invite but never saw you show in that list. Bummer. Can you game tonight?


Zeppo - I am hoping to play more tonight too so I will DEFINITELY keep an eye out for you. My buddy Soupa Mac is all about this game too so we have been teaming up. I'm sure he'll be wanting to play tonight as well.



Just an FYI about the online play right now though: It's unfortunately not working so great for teaming up as a party. At least for me and Soupa Mac it's not. We tried many different ways and combo's of inviting each other to a game, both as an XB1 Party or just as in-game invites. The issue we keep running into is that whenever the other person is added to the in-game party and then we try searching for a session, the invited person gets dropped and gets a "Connection to host has been lost" error. This was happening the majority of the time. So we kept trying different ways to see if maybe being in an XB1 party was causing the issue or if the order we did the invites were, etc... But eventually we just kept re-inviting the other person everytime there was a disconnect and eventually it would just work and we'd get into a room and be able to stay in it until we quit out.

So - just a word of warning for when we do get a handful of people together to play.

[TCrouch]

I'll certainly give it a try. You don't have to go into matchmaking if you're just playing with Bots as the rest, right?

I tried some games as the Trapper with Bots for the rest and it was...interesting. Spent most of the time chasing nothingness, then when I trapped the creature in the dome, eventually it killed me and ran off again. Was sort of frustrating, actually.

I tried to add you as a friend, but you were already there...so I don't know what to say on the friends list thing. I still dislike XB1's friends and notifications interface.

[Spooky]

I tried some games as the Trapper with Bots for the rest and it was...interesting. Spent most of the time chasing nothingness, then when I trapped the creature in the dome, eventually it killed me and ran off again. Was sort of frustrating, actually.

Hmmmm...well - that is kind of the game at heart. Obviously you try not to get killed and at the same time work with your team to kill the monster. I do think that playing solo as a hunter with just AI bots exemplifies the potential monotony of the game and has a very different vibe than playing together with other people. Playing solo as a monster against AI bot hunters is much more interesting (and freaking difficult).

The one aspect I read people complaining about that just doesn't bother me in the least is the "chasing" or hunting. Every match is quite different and all depends on the quality of the hunting team as well as the skill of the person as the monster - but there are rounds where I spend the majority of the time searching...and searching...and searching... But then there are others where it is quick skirmish after quick skirmish. To me that's the beauty of the game. It's not the typical "everyone run to the center of the map and fight!!!". If a hunting team is skilled and works together, most of the time the searching is kept at a reasonable amount.

But I've definitely been in many rounds that have had us hunters just running in circles and seeing the messages about the monster leveling up - which makes you feel pretty helpless. While many people view that as boring, I view it as a challenge. I'd rather search and search than die and respawn 100 times in 5-10 minutes. The other thing about the rounds where there is limited engagement and the monster levels up fairly quickly is that the end result is always a HUGE battle at the power relay, which are pretty awesome. I've been with good teams that squeak out a win, killing the level 3 monster at the relay and bad team that just get destroyed quickly.

[TCrouch]

I think playing as the Trapper was the issue. If I was the tracker, and had tools to chase it, that would have been nice. Instead I just chased bird alerts and the bots seemed to follow me around. Seemed to be all a game of chance.

[Zeppo]

You can hot-swap at will among the hunter bits, and I think the way the classes are set up, it would be pretty key to do so if you aren't playing with a full team. Certainly, when I play as the trapper (I think I've only tried Melanie so far), once we engage the monster and if I can get the Arena up and trap the thing, I, pretty much reduced to trying to drop as many harpoon traps as possible and stay out of the way. I try to do some damage, but slowing the monster down with the traps so that the heavy hitters can do their work is what I concentrate on; well that and reviving anyone who gets incapacitated. I feel like as the trapper, my work is done if I can get the monster trapped inside the arena. I think if I were on a bot-filled team, I'd switch to the Assault guy or the Medic or what have you at that stage, and I think I would get very frazzled as well. I've only once played without a full room, so I haven't had to worry about that stuff.

And I agree Spook, playing as the Monster is very stressful in the good video game way. I do feel like the initial hunt phase is a lot of running in circles, but I also think that will get a lot better as I learn the maps and use the radar more! It took me several rounds before I even realized you could pop up a radar map!

I love the match replay that goes in high speed on the radar map after a round. It's pretty neat to see the flow of movement and especially to see where the monster was hiding when we were running in circles!

[Spooky]

Nice attempt last night Zeppo and Soupa! Was fun while it was working. Sorry about the dude off my friends list that I invited in. He was a random I played with the other day and apparently now he is an expert and likes to belt out instructions. lol As obnoxious as that was I figured we could learn a few things from him...

Need to try the again soon and they need to tune up their servers!!!!!!

[Spooky]

Looking to play some more of this tonight. Probably be on around 9:00pm-ish ET.

[TCrouch]

I'd like to try it, but not sure how long I'd stay if there's a guy barking sh*t out like that dude sounds like he was doing

I'm all for tips and tactics, but not "that" guy haha

[Spooky]

I'd like to try it, but not sure how long I'd stay if there's a guy barking sh*t out like that dude sounds like he was doing

I'm all for tips and tactics, but not "that" guy haha

Hey Terry - hope you weren't online waiting for me to play last night. Was about to log on and then got a call from a long distance buddy and was on the phone for the night catching up.

I am planning on being on tonight around the same 9pm time with Soupa Mac getting our Evolve on.

[Zeppo]

I should be able to join you guys tonight. Looking forward to it! Hoping to not be frustrated by server issues this time. . . .

[ScoopBrady]

I have been playing this exclusively solo trying to wrap my head around it. I have to say that there is definitely a steep learning curve that I still haven't completely wrapped my head around but I am having a lot of fun with it. I have played as the Assault and the Trapper. I have managed to unlock the second character for each of those classes. I'm not sure if I am ready to venture into the online world yet but I really do enjoy playing with bots. This game seems to have a lot of depth to it. My few attempts at playing as the monster did not go so well.

[TCrouch]

I'd like to try it, but not sure how long I'd stay if there's a guy barking sh*t out like that dude sounds like he was doing

I'm all for tips and tactics, but not "that" guy haha

Hey Terry - hope you weren't online waiting for me to play last night. Was about to log on and then got a call from a long distance buddy and was on the phone for the night catching up.

I am planning on being on tonight around the same 9pm time with Soupa Mac getting our Evolve on.

I hopped on and saw you hadn't been online for a while, so I didn't wait around. I saw Scoop on in some matches, but didn't want to intrude, so it was no worry on this end.

[Zeppo]

That was great fun last night, Spook and Supa. Even though it was only a couple of rounds, they were good rounds, especially in regard to how different they were. The server issues suck, but once we were in, it seemed fine. Those couple of random dudes who were talking in those rounds seemed nice, too.

Man, I hate the Wraith! The few times I've encojntered someone playing the Wraith it's been a total disaster.