3 epic reasons Asia will love 2K Games’ 4v1 monster-hunting shooter Evolve

We tried Evolve yesterday. It’s a four versus one first-person shooter by Turtle Rock Studios, the people who made Left 4 Dead and Left 4 Dead 2, and it will be published this fall by 2K Games. Yes, Evolve is a game by a Western developer published by a Western company, but trust us when we say: Asia is going to love this.

Teamwork is important. So very important!

Asian games have long promoted the concept of teamwork. Our free-to-play MMORPGs often need group quest runs, or organized raids to take down a boss. We have always played in groups, teams, or guilds, unlike the every-man-for-himself, I-slept-with-your-mom-if-you-missed-that-shot mentality nurtured by bro shooters.

In Evolve, a team of four takes on the role of hunters and faces off against another player, who is the monster. The hunters have four different classes, each with more character choices (yet to be revealed) nested in them, while the solo player takes on the role of a unique monster. The game will ship with a lot of hunters and more monsters, but for yesterday’s demo we tried just four hunters and one monster, the aptly named Goliath.

The Goliath evolves twice, so it has three evolutionary stages. But this is no benign Pokemon. The Goliath is hungry and it’s out to kill. As you crash your way through the jungles of Shear, you have to eat wildlife to grow. Once your growth bar is full, you can then hunker down somewhere to evolve.

At the third stage of evolution, your goal as the monster changes. While you previously just had to hunt down those pesky hunters and gobble them up, you are now supercharged and hungry for more. You have to head for a generator in the center of the map, destroy it, and then eat up all the scientists that are set loose.

This changes the dynamic of the game. For the first two levels, the hunters hunt. They work in a team and they have a whale of a time hunting the Goliath down, pinning it with harpoon guns and tranquilizing it so it’s weaker. But when the Goliath hits its final form, the roles reverse. The hunters are the hunted. They are forced to camp around their generator to protect it from an awesome beast. Their fights turn heated, stressful, and desperate.

That’s where you have to work in a team. After all, it’s impossible for four smart, educated, and capable gamers to lose out to just one player, right? You can’t, and don’t want to, lose. Evolve promotes teamwork at its finest. Take that from someone who spent three hours straight yesterday playing the game’s pre-alpha demo build.

Just remember to let the guy playing the monster have a go at hunting, too.

Engagement is key

How often have you played Dota 2 only to be faced with an opponent who camps around the tower and refuses to get out from behind his stronger teammates’ skirts? Or how about a Left 4 Dead game where your undead opponents sneak around and ambush you just as you are about to get into the safe house?