Evolve, a new multiplayer shooter promising to be “the evolution of multiplayer” got its first cinematic trailer today. The game is being developed by Turtle Rock Studios with the same team responsible for Left 4 Dead. After surviving THQ’s bankruptcy the game has found a new publisher in the form 2k Games.
While a few gameplay details are floating around, the trailer below has no actual gameplay footage.
Now this isn’t necessarily a bad thing. After all the Left 4 Dead trailers were also entirely cinematic and for the most part they delivered some pretty fun gameplay and multiplayer experiences. In Evolve you take on the role of one of several different classes of what the game calls “hunters”, including a medic that can heal other players with an energy beam (this may sound familiar to Team Fortress 2 players), a trapper who can snare monsters, a support class with shields and cloaking, and an assault class presumably for raw damage.
Where Evolve seems to differ from its spiritual predecessor is the fact your team will only be facing one monster at a time, and that beastie will be player controlled. Said monster will be able to (as the game’s name implies) evolve by feeding off local flora and fauna while it puts the 4 hunter characters through the ringer. I’m curious to see where this goes, controlling special infected and hunting down living players was a great aspect of multiplayer in left 4 Dead, but ultimately your abilities were fairly limited. I’d roll the dice on the alien monsters in Evolve having a bit more features, being a lot tougher, and maybe, hopefully, setting up for some scenarios similar to movies like Predator or Aliens. Ultimately only time will tell.
Game Informer has made Evolve their cover story for February, and more details can be found on Evolve’s website.
