TheNinjaAce

Let me start off by saying...I don't pre-order games. This is the only exception I've had. Evolve's a 4v1 multiplayer-oriented FPS game that focuses on a team of hunters that have been sent in to the planet Shear to deal with the planet's rather nasty non-native monster problem. It's been described as "A videogame boss fight, in which the boss is player-controlled". This really changes things from traditional boss fights, making the game a whole lot more fun. There are 4 distinct hunter classes: Assault, Medic, Support, and Trapper. The hunters must rely on teamwork and coordination to take down the monster, which is able to "evolve". This "evolution" ability allows the monster to, essentially, get bigger and stronger. Matches start in favor of the hunters at monster Stage 1. Things shift to become balanced at Stage 2, and once the monster gets to Stage 3, it has the advantage (this doesn't at all mean that the Monster is overpowered at Stage 3). Evolve is an experience that can be described by the phrase "Easy to learn, difficult to master". There is a learning curve, mainly that deals with proper movement management for the Hunters and Monster, as well as teamwork. It is absolutely necessary that the hunters work together, at least outside of fights with inexperienced monsters. Once you learn the basics (and over the course of the first few hours of playing, you'll know what's necessary), the game becomes a whole lot more fun. The game deals less with having fast reflexes and powerful guns to kill your opponent, and more with executing a careful plan, on both sides of the fight. Sneaking up on your opponent, surprising them, doubling-back, etc. are all strategies the monster is able to employ to shift the balance in his/her favor. Hunters can use item combinations, such as the famous "Beam Team" employed by the support Hank and medic Val to heal a teammate and keep them invincible for a short time (Hank has an invincibility beam, and Val has a traditional-style MedGun). There's a lot of depth in Evolve. Different combinations of hunters and their respective items/weapons/abilities make for a lot of different strategies. Even with the individual hunters, some pretty cool ideas have been formed: for example, the Trapper, Abe, has a tracking dart pistol that can track the monster if it's shot at it directly, or if the monster eats wildlife that has been tracked. I played in a match during the beta in which the hunters and I (I was running Abe, then) ran with a strategy known as the "War of Attrition", which is basically killing all wildlife and tracking it. The match got really interesting, since we were employing this strategy whenever possible. The characters themselves are fantastic. Each of the hunters has their own fun bits of dialogue, and their designs are fantastic. All characters (monsters included) have a distinct personality. Lazarus is a stubborn, grumpy old man; Markov's a jolly, optimistic man who's obsessed with dying a glorious death in battle; and Cabot's the optimistic, great leader of the group (just to name off a few). Graphics are fantastic; this runs on Cryengine, so that's no surprise there. Even on lower-end hardware like the PC I use, I have next to no complaints. Anyone who's complained about the graphics really doesn't have any justification, in my opinion. Audio as well; great music, great sound effects. There's a lot of controversy surrounding the game for its DLC, and instead of explaining why this isn't an issue, I'll just leave you with this final point: you don't have to buy DLC. Happy hunting.

I originally came across this game one day whilst scouting through various YouTube videos; and I fell in love at first sight. This game is for those with unique tastes, in the sense that it is ALWAYS fast-paced, and you need fast reflexes to stay alive. The game consists of a PvP environment in which players fight in one of 4 game modes: Bounty Hunter, Domination, Deathmatch, and Team Deathmatch. Players go into battle with their Vectors, each fully customizable with various color schemes, weapons, abilities, etc. The most unique and important part of this game is the difficult to master but extremely flexible movement system. Part of the time you're blazing past structures in Jet mode, and the other part of the time you are in a Hover (or Harrier, as it's called) form. Hover mode is extremely easy to maneuver in close areas, while Jet mode is for chasing others down and getting away from others. The integration of both modes is what makes this game special. There is a fairly steep learning curve for some, but I've heard others can pick up the game and do well in a few minutes. Even while you're starting off and you're...trying to maneuver without crashing, being chased by someone, trying to pick up health at high speeds, or trying to shoot at others, it's ridiculously fun. Even managing to stay alive has an immensely rewarding feeling to it, as people are constantly shooting everywhere. I am aware of the bugs in the game. The developers have been said to be working on ironing out these issues. The tutorial in-game is quite poor (I managed to learn a fair bit of information from people in-game), so I may suggest looking at videos or tutorials online. The menu interface seems put together poorly as well, and I occasionally go on servers I didn't select because of whatever connection mechanics. I'm putting my faith in this game, and this is because I can look past all of the bugs and issues. The core of the game is extremely well-refined, the graphics and sound are excellent, and the system requirements are easy to meet (I could run it on my integrated Intel 4000 Graphics decently, but I'd still recommend having a dedicated video card.). The community has some friendly people in it, even though it's extremely limited as of right now. If you're someone like me who can look past the problems and enjoy an FPS like this one in its core, get the game. You will not be unsatisfied.