A game to watch this year is Evolve, the co-operative multiplayer shooter earning some big buzz. Simon Bishop got a hands-on look at the game in Sydney, courtesy of Take-Two Interactive.
Take-Two Interactive's Evolve is a game that has just come out of nowhere. One minute it's announced, and the next I'm sitting playing it.
Evolve is a co-operative multiplayer shooter from the guys who created Left 4 Dead.
What sets it apart from the slew of other games in this genre is that the enemy that you're hunting is being controlled by someone else, not AI.
Basically, there are four hunters searching for a monster.
The hunters are split into four classes: the trapper, the assault, the medic and support.
Each has a specific role that alone has no hope of defeating the monster but when combined with the others, is virtually unstoppable.
The Trapper (Griffin) has got a weak submachine gun, but doing damage is not Griffin's job.
As his name suggests, his job is to trap the monster in a specific area of the map using his ''Mobile Arena'', which allows the other hunters to do their thing with a tactical advantage.
He also rocks a (rather irritating when you're playing as the monster) harpoon gun, which restricts the monster's movements.
The other class of hunter, which is not damage-focused, is the Medic (Val).
The medic's main objective is to keep the other hunters alive.
She can do this in two ways: a hand-held med gun which directly heals one team-mate, and a ''Healing Burst'', which heals all team-mates within range of her.
Her offensive weapons do little damage, but expose weak spots on the monster for the other hunters to utilise.
She also has a tranquilliser rifle, which, like the harpoon gun, restricts the monster's movements, as well as illuminating it for the hunters to see.
Now we get to the guys who do the damage: the Assault class (Markov) and Hank the Support.
Both of these guys are all about whittling away the monster's health.
Markov has got a rifle for long-distance shooting, and an extremely powerful lightning gun for close-quarters combat.
Hank, meanwhile, has an orbital barrage, which also deals massive damage to a very specific area of the map.
By themselves they have no hope, but working together you can see the potential.
The Trapper lays down their Arena that traps the monster, in comes the Support that lays down the Orbital Barrage, meanwhile the Assault is using their lightning gun and the medic is healing them all.
When they all work together, it is absolute poetry in motion.
As they say in the A-Team, ''I love it when a plan comes together.''
But there's one more class to play, and that is the monster, in this case Goliath.
This was my favourite.
The monster starts off weak, and must eat the various wildlife that lives in the map in order to gain strength.
The monster has three stages.
In the first stage it is weak and extremely vulnerable to the hunters.
The second stage it's getting even, and then in stage three the tables are turned.
I found this to be a great mechanic.
The hunters quite literally become the hunted.
As Goliath, you have powers such as fire breath, and the ability to throw large boulders at the hunters which do massive damage.
Not only that, but the monster is far more agile than the hunters.
The hunters have jetpacks but these are finite.
It's a large game of cat and mouse, except there's four cats and one monstrous mouse.
Tactics play a huge part in Evolve.
You'd think, as the monster, that the only option is to be a bull in a china shop, but there are little subtleties that really swing things in your favour.
You're able to sneak around, which doesn't leave any tracks for the hunters to follow, and also is very quiet.
This leads to a situation where you can deliberately lead hunters on false trails or into traps by laying tracks and then doubling back.
It's incredibly satisfying to watch the hunters disappear off into the distance as you sneak the other way, building up your strength the entire time.
It's these tactics that really give the game life and set it apart from other co-operative shooters.
I began playing it with no expectations, and was left wanting so much more.
I'm really looking forward to playing more of it when it launches at the end of the year for PS4, Xbox One and PC.
- Simon Bishop
