Balancing in “Hunt”: Quite okay, but…
At the moment I am writing this, I have reached level 40, I am in 3rd place in the Europe leaderboard and 6th in the global leaderboard as Goliath. I don’t mean to imply that I am in any way “better,” but that I’ve really invested a lot of time in the game over the last week, and my opinion on balancing isn’t just pulled out of thin air.
In short: The balancing is mixed. In the “Hunt” mode, the crown jewel of the game, everything is wonderful except for the “Wraith”. Every hunter can fulfill their role well, but both Kraken and Goliath can emerge victorious from the hunt. The good lady among the monsters falls completely out of her role. Even with an experienced team, it is hardly possible to trap her in the dome – and if they do, she simply runs in circles or sends her clone forward until time runs out. The majority of players simply leave a match in high-level play when they see an opponent is playing a Wraith. This is by far the least fun.
Balancing in the Rest of the Game
In all other game modes that you mostly play during the “Evacuation” campaign, the balancing isn’t well done. In the “Nest” mode, Bucket is a must-have character, as he can only destroy eggs with his turrets without being present. A very good hunter team simply splits up completely and takes 4 eggs under fire at the same time. The monster cannot run from one egg to the next quickly enough and eliminate the individual hunters until the drop ship brings reinforcements again. No matter if Goliath, Kraken, or Wraith, you have absolutely no chance against a good hunter team.
In “Rescue,” the Medic Lazarus combined with the Support Cabot has proven to be an unbeatable combo. Lazarus can resurrect dead civilians and do so infinitely. Cabot can shoot through walls with his gun and thus ensure from a distance that the monster cannot eat the civilians (which would prevent a resurrection).
The only strategy that I have successfully used here in high-level play was simply to ignore everything and focus on feeding up to Stage 3. Usually, that works until the hunters have rescued the 4th civilian – and then a decisive battle against the hunters begins, meaning: I don’t care about the mission objective, I only focus on annihilating the opposing team.
In the “Defend” mode, the finale of each “Evacuation” campaign, the Wraith is absolutely useless. She cannot win. Even against the bots, it is difficult. The Kraken is very strong with his ranged attacks and can attack the generators from a distance where the hunters have no countermeasures whatsoever. Only the Goliath offers a really exciting final battle as he has to get close to the action if he doesn’t just want to throw rocks.
“Goodbye, you bastards!”
Something like this and similar phrases surely every player has read in a team game. The angry player dives into certain death and then leaves the running game. With one hunter less, victory is hardly conceivable.
As if that wasn’t bad enough, Evolve does not punish such behavior. Anyone who leaves a round early gets a ban of a whopping 60 seconds. In my eyes, that is not a punishment, but almost a motivation to leave the team behind. I can only hope that this will be corrected upwards. Because in 60 seconds, I just grab a new cola and do not reflect on my misbehavior. Maybe I’ll laugh for a moment about the developer who thought this was a great idea.
The In-game Shop
I must admit that I was somewhat shocked to see an in-game shop at the start of the game. Fortunately, you can currently only purchase various skins for weapons and monsters, as well as the season pass.
Whether a coloration of the monster is worth 3 € is debatable – considering that the game already costs 50 €, it is naturally questionable why one cannot unlock these things. But that seems to be a general trend in the gaming industry to clutter full-price titles with cosmetic DLCs, so I don’t necessarily want to blame Evolve for that. It still leaves a negative aftertaste.
