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‘Evolve’ Review: Monster Hunter
Evolve, the newest game from Turtle Rock Studios, is a 4-versus-1 first-person shooter in which soldier “Hunters” team up to battle a human-controlled monster in a variety of alien environments. It has all of the expected characteristics of a multiplayer-focused game, including perks and skins, but what separates it is the main conceit: Asymmetrical multiplayer.
That is itself an interesting design choice, not entirely new but part of a growing trend in the industry. In that way, this game is basically an end-boss battle played over and over again.
Even though the concept hasn’t been done to death, Turtle Rock Studios has a proven track record worthy of making Evolve a major 2015 release. The team’s most acclaimed effort, Left 4 Dead, still boasts an engaged online community, so it should go without saying that Evolve is blessed / cursed with high expectations.
The game showed really well at industry and fan events, but as with any online-focused game, the question remains: will it hold a player base well beyond the initial grace period of its release?
Despite some issues concerning the game’s longevity (and DLC plans), Evolve nevertheless remains a challenging, stable, well-realized gaming experience.
In Evolve, players choose from one of four Hunter classes: Assault, Support, Medic, and Trapper. Assault is your basic soldier, while Support protects the team and offers additional firepower. The Medic class is tasked with reviving injured comrades, and the Trapper tracks down the monster. Each possesses its own strengths and weaknesses, and the dev team has made sure to balance the game so that you can’t just choose a class and then go in guns-a-blazing, unless, of course, you have no real desire to defeat the Monster.
In addition, players can choose to be the Monster, and the variety of monster types ranges from the Godzilla-esque Goliath to the Cthulhu-ian Wraith and the classic Kraken. Like with each Hunter class, the Monsters possess different abilities. Goliath breathes fire and pummels hunters into submission, the Kraken rains down lightning on hapless warriors, and the Wraith uses teleportation and subterfuge to kill off Hunters en masse.
Besides evade and kill the Hunters, the Monster’s function is to level up by killing and devouring the less domineering creatures in the game. Monsters begin at Level 1 (relatively killable) and end at Level 3 (nigh upon invincible), so the element of time becomes extremely important.
As players progress in each class, they unlock new characters, whose powers and abilities differ from their “classmates.” Unlocking them in multiplayer modes requires players to master the current character’s abilities, measured through hitting certain numerical benchmarks (6600 damage, and so on). The progression tips the odds in favor of the hunters, but at no point does the struggle become easy for the hunters. It’s a continuous struggle.
Regarding upgrades, the way that the game engages players with numbers, too, is kind of fascinating. It has a pretty in-depth system for interpreting data from matches and using that data to reward or encourage players. After each match, for example, your performance is compared against the worldwide baseline, which then informs how your play stacked up.
During matches themselves, the Monster is so overpowered, to defeat it will require a concerted effort from the Hunters. That goes for each of the three (currently released) Monsters. As mentioned above, a gang of single-minded vigilantes is much less likely to take down one of the creatures than a cooperative unit. It really comes down playing the class.
If everyone plays the character as intended and the team works together — and they manage to track down the monster before it reaches Level 3 — it’s not impossible to earn a quick kill.
However, let the monster reach Level 3, and it becomes a lot — a LOT — less pleasant to track down “the target.” If that happens, you’ll spend a lot more time watching other players from a postmortem position, waiting for the Dropship clock to wind down so you can rejoin the match. Not only that, but the ultimate maguffin for each level comes in the form of a reactor that can be destroyed by a Level 3 Monster, so players are encouraged to take the thing down anytime before that final evolution occurs.
All of this is to say: if you’re the Monster, the game is a whole lot more simple. Your job is to evolve (level up) and destroy every single thing in your path. I will say that I found myself more excited to play the basic Hunter than to take on the responsibility of tormenting the four-person team, but I also cannot deny that I’m probably in the minority on that.
In addition to the seismic destruction put forth by the Monsters, each environment is filled with an abundance of hazards, including man-eating plants and other creatures. Even if finding the Monster requires some tracking, you’re not going for an idle walk in the woods. There’s still plenty to kill and maim you within the confines of the arena.
Logistically, the matchmaking works well, based on my personal experiences, and it seems to do a fairly complex job of evening out the fairness of play in each individual match. No Level 20 player is going to be paired with a Level 1 beginner. The dev team boats on the Evolve website that balancing is one of their main concerns, and so far I think they’ve done a fine job of keeping games interesting.
That process is further streamlined by the way the game front loads user preference in choosing a Hunter class. New players are required to rank the classes 1-5 (including the Monster), and the matchmaking attempts to accommodate those wishes. I’m sure class popularity might complicate that somewhat, but I’ve managed to be Hank (Support) at least 75% of the time, which was, honestly, surprising for me.
Furthermore, I didn’t experience any lag or slowdown, even when the game warned me that my internet connection might cause some issues. The load times might guard against that, but it’s definitely nice to play the game without a drop in frame rate.
The game looks awesome, from the highly-stylized Hunters to the environments, which are definitely modeled on the game’s influences. One arena, for example — The Aviary — is reminiscent of, say, the jungle from Predator. The cartoonish character designs are somewhat reminiscent of Team Fortress 2, and that’s not the only place where one could draw those kinds of inferences, but the overall aesthetic works.
Evolve is serious but doesn’t take itself too seriously, which is definitely a plus.
Its only real problems, in my opinion, extend from the time players will potentially spend waiting. The load times are nowhere near those of, say, PS1-level, for sure, but being a multiplayer-only game, the wait times will be more significant. The game runs efficiently in a lot of ways; all I’m saying is, maybe have something by your side while you wait for matches to begin.
That fact is compounded by other non-action-oriented aspects of being in-game in Evolve. The discrepancy between the time spent hunting down the Monster and actually battling it can be quite wide, depending on the skill of the Hunters / Monster. That particular factor can account for much more actual playtime than one might expect. A few matches have dragged on far longer than necessary merely because the Monster successfully evaded our searches.
Ultimately, Evolve is a solid multiplayer experience, but it is also quite ambitious. Putting out an ostensibly multiplayer-only game plants a seed in the minds of gamers, and that question is: What is this game’s shelf life? For much higher-profile brands, like Call of Duty, the question doesn’t matter, precisely because the series is guaranteed to have players. For a new intellectual property, the uphill battle is acquiring and keeping users.
Still, Evolve is, despite the controversy over its DLC plans, an extremely solid and stable game experience. I’ve had zero problems connecting to servers or engaging in the game’s various play modes. The sort of repetitive maps can be problematic down the road, I’m sure, but for the time being, I’ve hardly noticed it.
The Final Word: Time will tell if it holds players’ attention the way it wants to, but judging by the studio’s plans for supporting the game through DLC, it appears that Evolve will continue to garner attention long after this week’s initial release. In the meantime, I’ll be hunting Monsters.
We are now one full month into Spring 2024, which kicked off on Tuesday, March 19 and comes to an end with the start of Summer on Thursday, June 20. This year’s summer movie season has a whole bunch of exciting horror highlights, including A Quiet Place: Day One, MaXXXine, and Alien: Romulus, but let’s hold that particular thought until June rolls around.
We’re here today to talk about Spring 2024 and the many horrors we still have left before the weather gets warmer and we find ourselves in the heat of one hell of a spooky summer.
Here are 12 horror movies you don’t want to miss in Spring 2024!
STING – April 12
Two words: SPIDER HORROR. Writer/Director Kiah Roache-Turner (Wyrmwood) hopes to induce eight-legged terror with his brand new horror movie Sting, only in theaters April 12.
Of particular note, Sting features practical spider effects from 5-time Academy Award Winner Weta Workshop, with the spider in this one inspired by H.R. Giger’s Xenomorph!
In Sting, “One cold, stormy night in New York City, a mysterious object falls from the sky and smashes through the window of a rundown apartment building. It is an egg, and from this egg emerges a strange little spider. The creature is discovered by Charlotte, a rebellious 12-year-old girl obsessed with comic books. Keeping it as a secret pet, she names it Sting.
“But as Charlotte’s fascination with Sting increases, so does its size. Growing at a monstrous rate, Sting’s appetite for blood becomes insatiable.”
BLACKOUT – APRIL 12
Indie darling Larry Fessenden is back with new horror movie Blackout this Spring, Fessenden’s third movie – following Habit and Depraved – to put his own spin on classic monsters.
While Habit was centered on vampires and Depraved was a fresh take on Frankenstein’s Monster, Larry Fessenden’s Blackout is the filmmaker’s contribution to werewolf cinema.
The film follows Charley, an artist whose drinking binges blur with his sneaking suspicion that he might be a werewolf. He distances himself from those he loves and sinks deeper into solitude, his flashes of memory of his nighttime grisly acts manifested through his artwork.
ARCADIAN – APRIL 12
If Nicolas Cage is covered in blood, you better believe we’re going to be watching. Cage gets his own A Quiet Place with Arcadian, a new creature feature coming to theaters April 12.
In Arcadian, which also comes to Shudder later this year, “After a catastrophic event depopulates the world, a father (Nicolas Cage) and his two sons must survive their dystopian environment while being threatened by mysterious creatures that emerge at night.”
Jaeden Martell (IT 2017) also stars in the post apocalyptic monster movie.
ABIGAIL – APRIL 19
If you’re bummed about Melissa Barrera being fired from the Scream franchise, you’ll definitely want to get out to your local theater this month to support Abigail, the new VAMPIRE BALLERINA horror movie from Scream and Scream VI directors Radio Silence.
Barrera stars alongside fellow horror favorite Kathryn Newton (Freaky) in Abigail, which is actually the latest horror movie in Universal’s relaunched Universal Monsters Universe.
In the film, “After a group of would-be criminals kidnap the 12-year-old ballerina daughter of a powerful underworld figure, all they have to do to collect a $50 million ransom is watch the girl overnight. In an isolated mansion, the captors start to dwindle, one by one, and they discover, to their mounting horror, that they’re locked inside with no normal little girl.”
LATE NIGHT WITH THE DEVIL – APRIL 19
One of the most talked about horror movies of Spring 2024 has been the Halloween 1977-set Late Night With the Devil, which has been playing in theaters since its premiere on March 22.
Late Night with the Devil will begin streaming at home on April 19, 2024, less than one month after arriving in theaters. Shudder will be the exclusive streaming home of the movie.
David Dastmalchian (Dune, The Suicide Squad) stars as the host of a late-night talk show that descends into a nightmare in Late Night with the Devil, set on Halloween 1977.
In the found footage-style film that captures a period aesthetic, “A live television broadcast in 1977 goes horribly wrong, unleashing evil into the nation’s living rooms.”
INFESTED – APRIL 26
Spring 2024 is all about SPIDERS – sorry, arachnophobes! – with the previously mentioned Sting being followed by the French creature feature Infested (Vermines) later this month.
What’s particularly exciting about Infested is that its director, Sébastien Vaniček, has been hired to direct the next installment in the Evil Dead film franchise, so this will be our first taste of what Vaniček is capable of within the genre. And the buzz for this one is strong.
In his review out of Fantastic Fest last year, for starters, Bloody Disgusting’s own critic Trace Thurman raved that Infested is “one of the best spider attack movies in years.”
In the upcoming horror film, “Fascinated by exotic animals, Kaleb finds a venomous spider in a shop and brings it back to his apartment. It only takes a moment for the spider to escape and reproduce, turning the whole building into a dreadful web trap.”
HUMANE – APRIL 26
The daughter of horror master David Cronenberg, Caitlin Cronenberg is making her own mark in the genre filmmaking space with IFC Films’ Humane, coming to theaters this month.
The film is described as “a dystopian satire taking place over a single day, months after a global ecological collapse has forced world leaders to reduce the earth’s population.”
The wild premise? 20% of the world’s population must VOLUNTEER TO DIE!
“In a wealthy enclave, a recently retired newsman has invited his grown children to dinner to announce his intentions to enlist in the nation’s new euthanasia program. But when the father’s plan goes horribly awry, tensions flare and chaos erupts among his children.”
I SAW THE TV GLOW – MAY 3
Fresh off the haunting and singularly creepy indie We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Jane Schoenbrun is back with A24‘s I Saw the TV Glow, releasing only in theaters this May.
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for BD, “I Saw the TV Glow offers a layered and authentic portrait of identity, wrapped in ’90s nostalgia and surreal imagery that embeds itself deep into your psyche.” Meagan continues, “Schoenbrun delivers a singular vision of arthouse horror that entrances for its fevered dream style and insanely cool imagery.”
In A24’s latest, “Owen is just trying to make it through life in the suburbs when his classmate introduces him to a mysterious TV show — a vision of a supernatural world beneath their own. In the pale glow of the television, Owen’s view of reality begins to crack.”
TAROT – MAY 3
Originally titled Horrorscope, a much better title if you’re asking me, Screen Gems returns to the big screen with studio horror movie Tarot this Spring, a Tarot-card themed spookshow.
When a group of friends recklessly violates the sacred rule of Tarot readings – never use someone else’s deck – they unknowingly unleash an unspeakable evil trapped within the cursed cards in the upcoming Screen Gems horror movie Tarot. One by one, they come face to face with fate and end up in a race against death to escape the future foretold in their readings.
The hook for this one? Artist Trevor Henderson designed the film’s eight monsters!
THE STRANGERS: CHAPTER 1 – MAY 17
Bryan Bertino’s 2008 home invasion classic The Strangers spawns a brand new reboot trilogy this year, with first film The Strangers: Chapter 1 kicking things off in theaters on May 17.
The Strangers: Chapter 2 is expected to follow in Fall 2024.
Madelaine Petsch is the lead of the new reboot trilogy, playing a character who drives cross-country with her longtime boyfriend to begin a new life in the Pacific Northwest.
When their car breaks down in Venus, Oregon, they’re forced to spend the night in a secluded Airbnb, where they are terrorized from dusk till dawn by three masked strangers.
IN A VIOLENT NATURE – MAY 31
Slasher fans who have been hungry for a new Friday the 13th movie won’t want to miss In a Violent Nature, which plays out like a Friday movie… entirely from Jason’s perspective!
IFC Films will release In a Violent Nature exclusively in theaters on May 31.
In the film, “When a locket is removed from a collapsed fire tower in the woods that entombs the rotting corpse of Johnny, a vengeful spirit spurred on by a horrific 60-year old crime, his body is resurrected and becomes hellbent on retrieving it. The undead golem hones in on the group of vacationing teens responsible for the theft and proceeds to methodically slaughter them one by one in his mission to get it back – along with anyone in his way.”
Meagan Navarro wrote in her Sundance review for Bloody Disgusting, “In a Violent Nature may offer slasher thrills and a delightfully gory rampage across the wilderness, but the approach captures the carnage through ambient realism. It results in a fascinating arthouse horror experiment that plays more like a minimalist slice-of-life feature with a grim twist.”
THE WATCHERS – JUNE 14
M. Night Shyamalan returns with the new thriller Trap this coming August, but the road to that film’s release will be paved by the feature debut of his daughter, Ishana Night Shyamalan.
Ishana Night directed The Watchers, in theaters from WB/New Line on June 14.
The film follows Mina, a 28-year-old artist, who gets stranded in an expansive, untouched forest in western Ireland. When Mina finds shelter, she unknowingly becomes trapped alongside three strangers who are watched and stalked by mysterious creatures each night.
Which Spring 2024 horror movies are YOU most looking forward to?
4 New Horror Movies Releasing This Week Including ‘Late Night with the Devil’ at Home
‘Ready or Not’: Radio Silence Filmmakers Tease the “Absolute Banger” of a Sequel That’s Taking Shape
“We Built Every Creature” – ‘Alien: Romulus’ Goes Heavy on the Old School Practical Effects!
‘Sting’ Review – Throwback Creature Feature Entertains With an Impressive Practical Monster
‘Abigail’ Review – Radio Silence Delivers Another Gory Good Time at the Movies
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