The creators of Left 4 Dead unveil a brand new next gen co-op game that turns your best friends into terrible monsters.
As exciting as a new console launch is it’s usually not a good time for ground-breaking video games. As the years go by the number of classic launch titles begin to seem more and more like a statistical anomaly and it’s only months later that you begin to hear about the really exciting stuff and – if you’re lucky – get to play it. Evolve is one such game: a brand new franchise from a highly respected developer, and if you’re a co-op fan probably the most exciting next gen game so far.
Although their history has been heavily intertwined with Valve, Turtle Rock Studios has been an independent developer for most if its existence. Starting out working on a number of different Counter-Strike projects, their main claim to fame is Left 4 Dead (but not its sequel) which many would argue is one of the best co-op games of the last gen. Although the setting is completely different Evolve has a lot in common with Left 4 Dead, except this time your team of four players aren’t defending themselves against zombies but against a fifth player who takes the role of a giant monster.
There are few games nowadays you can sum up so succinctly, but that basically is Evolve. According to our interview below there is only a ‘light narrative’ to explain everything, with the demo we played making the set-up plainly clear: the four human players are hunters on an alien world teeming with unfriendly wildlife, and with more than a whiff of Avatar’s Pandora about it.
The nature of the monsters is unclear but the one in the demo we played is called Goliath and is a sort of cross between the Cloverfield monster and King Kong. What exactly his beef is we’re not sure, but his goal in the game mode we played was to evolve through two intermediary forms until he’s big enough to demolish a generator and scoff a bunch of pesky scientists.
The goal of the hunters is simply to kill the monster, which is easier said than done considering Goliath breathes fire, throws giant boulders, and can climb almost any relatively flat surface. As anyone who has played Left 4 Dead will be able to guess co-operation is the key here, with the hunters having one of four clearly defined roles: trapper, assault, medic, and support.
We get a go as each during the demo, starting with Hank the support (although we later learn that although the class types are always the same there are lots of different characters in the final game, so you don’t always have to play as Hank and his gigantic beard).
In any case each class has four pieces of unique equipment, with Hank’s primary weapon being a relatively powerful laser cutter. But he’s also got a shield gun that can be used on allies, a cloaking device for everyone nearby, and an orbital barrage that can call in an air strike after just a few seconds.
The support character is traditionally not the easiest class to start with in other games, but Hank’s abilities seem fairly clear to us we watch all four characters peering down at the lush jungle of the planet Shear, before jumping out of their dropship and beginning the chase. The monster leaves luminous blue footprints in its wake but it’s never entirely clear where it is, as we and our fellow journos (and one 2K producer) explore the game world and run into some small computer-controlled enemies.
The level is set entirely at night and there’s a neat torchlight effect that makes the demo especially reminiscent of Left 4 Dead. The graphics are good but nothing that’s likely to take your breath away. The forest environment is dense and atmospheric but the foliage doesn’t bend as you move through it and, understandably, everything seems optimised for speed and a consistent frame rate rather than graphical showboating.
Given how many computer-controlled creatures can be running around at once that’s especially understandable, but except for some small-ish critters that spit poison most of them seem to ignore us or actively run away. The true purpose of these mini-monsters isn’t obvious until much later in our playthrough but in following the footprints we come across some very large dinosaur-like creatures.
Despite the producer repeatedly telling everything they’re not the monster a couple of the group take it upon themselves to fight them anyway, at which point the creatures take an active interest in squashing them flat. Death isn’t permanent for any human player though, as they can be revived as long as you get to them in good time. And even if you don’t they’ll be respawned after a few minutes. Although if everyone’s getting hammered by the monster at the time there’s unlikely to be a chance for that.
Saying teamwork is crucial is really no understatement and as we come across the monster for the first time we realise that even in its un-evolved state it’s still much bigger than we are and that even the assault class’ weapons seem like pea shooters in comparison. Hank’s weapon certainly doesn’t seem to be making much headway and instead we concentrate on trying to shield the other characters as they need it (their health is always visible in your HUD) and calling in artillery strikes as often as possible.
We admit we kept forgetting to use the shied but even as the monster evolves into an even larger form, and manages to finish off the whole group, we come away relatively satisfied that at least we were able to follow what was going on. Which in a new multiplayer game is not always a given.
Next up we play as Markov the assault, who has a long range assault rifle, a lightning gun, mines, and a personal shield. Clearly he’s a much more straightforward character, but we’re a bit nervous of playing him as it puts all the onus on us to deal the killing blows to the monster. There’s also the problem that this time round our trapper doesn’t seem quite as competent and before we know it the monster has evolved twice and in its ultimate form makes a beeline for the generator.
We hunters get there first though and it’s suggested we lay mines around the generator and then take up position on nearby containers (which house the scientists). This works better than expected and with our support and medic both keeping us topped up we start to make some real headway. But as it comes down to the wire, with both sides down to their last few blips of health, the monster kills the trapper and medic and makes use of the distraction to finish off the generator.
We’re clearly getting better with each go though, as the 2K producer confirms that at first playing the monster is easier – but that as players gain experience the shift in difficulty starts to move against it. As we ready for another match though we ask about what perks and equipment can be unlocked in the full game, but no-one’s saying and we’re stuck with a fairly unexciting starter selection that invariably ends with us choosing extended jetpack power.
Although their range varies slightly with each one all the characters have a jetpack, with Val the medic able to leap tall buildings with a single double jump. Val has no offensive weapons but is actually a good deal of fun to play as, even though two of her equipment slots are used up with a healing gun and a sort of shockwave healing effect. On top of this she has a rifle which shoots targets onto the monster, which others can then shoot for extra damage, and a tranquilliser gun which both slows down the monster and shows its location for a short time.
Being the medic means you naturally take a wider view of the battle, as you skulk around on its outskirts, meaning you have the chance to shout out more general tactical advice to the rest of the group. For the demo we all have headphones and it is hard to imagine the game really working without some kind of verbal communication between players.
There’s another showdown at the generator and to the team’s great delight this time the monster loses, and we get to have a go on the fourth and final hunter: Griffin the trapper. His abilities are the most unique to Evolve as he has a harpoon gun that’s used to stop the monster from running off and sensors he can put in the ground to try and track its movements. He only has a weedy machinegun for defence, but his fourth item is the ‘mobile arena’ which creates a large forcefield dome that can trap the monster for a short time and stop it from moving too far away.
The arena takes a few seconds to deploy and there’s a real skill in setting it off to catch the monster, but luckily we’ve been watching other people use it up till now and manage to get it a couple of times. When it comes to the endgame at the generator though the trapper seems to have almost nothing to do, as his gun isn’t powerful enough to make a difference and the arena is rarely necessary.
The harpoon is useful but it does suggest some balancing is still needed for the game. Although the only other problem we noticed is that the support’s shield beam is very hard to see, and it’s not obvious whether you’re hitting other people with it or not.
Despite these minor problems the game’s many years of development have clearly not been wasted and as we finally sit down to take control of the monster there’s a real thrill of discovery and anticipation. Tactics and controls are whispered in our ear by a kindly producer, who advises staying out of everyone’s way as much as possible, as you try to evolve.
This is achieved by eating the smaller computer-controlled monsters, and once you’ve binged enough you can enter a vulnerable cocoon state, before bursting out as a larger monster able to eat even bigger creatures. When you evolve up you’re also given the chance to learn a new skill, as you start out with only basic rock-throwing and melee attacks. Naturally we plump for fire-breathing first, leaving a dash attack till later.
The monster is much more agile than the human characters but as we’re caught in the middle of eating there is a terrible panic that we’re ‘not ready’ and as we rush to get away we stumble into a cluster of mines and then an arena shield. The trick with the monster seems to be to go on the offensive when cornered and by targeting the medic specifically we’re able to break up the attack and run off for dinner in the confusion.
When we evolve again, and make it to the generator, there’s more traps awaiting us and we’re brought down as we try and run away to heal (also by eating other monsters, although armour can’t be replenished). We’re still happy with our performance though and, unlike many a preview we’ve been to, everyone is happy to have another go rather than just wander off to see if there’s any food left.
Of course even a lengthy demo like this is no way to judge a multiplayer game that’s intended to offer hundreds of hours of entertainment, as there’s no way to tell how quickly repetition and overfamilarity might set in. But considering we’re only playing one map, with one mode and one monster everything seems impressively entertaining for now.
We did raise the obvious concerns with Turtle Rock co-founder and art director Phil Robb, in our interview below, but he seems confident that the game will prove at least as entertaining, and as influential, as Left 4 Dead. And at the moment we’re perfectly willing to believe him.
Formats: Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and PC
Publisher: 2K
Developer: Turtle Rock Studios
Release Date: Autumn 2014
GC: So I’ve just come from playing the demo, which was great.
PR: Would you tell me if you hadn’t had fun?
GC: Sure, but I’d be diplomatic about it…
PR: [laughs]
GC: So you started on this… two and a half years ago was it?
PR: Er.. three years. Three years ago, really.
GC: Wow. So, at that stage were you planning it as a next gen game?
PR: Initially we planned it for the previous gen but as we get further into development we found that those machines just couldn’t handle what we wanted to do. In order for the monster… in order for us to pull off the scary sort of vibe, we need lots of foliage, we need lots of underbrush, we need lots of places for the monster to hide. And what that means is a lot of assets being drawn all at the same time.
And in addition we have a lot of AI running it, which again takes a lot of processing power. At the end of the day we were just not getting good frame rates on the old machines. A lot of stuff we were having to cut out in order to get it to run, and to keep the frame rate up, and right about that time we started hearing about all the next gen stuff and it just seemed like a prudent thing to do. It’s like, ‘Gah, let’s just shoot for the new stuff’. And so far it’s worked much better.
GC: Is there any particular reason you didn’t go with Valve as the publisher? Especially after THQ went down?
PR: We worked with Valve for like… six years, as an independent studio, with all the Counter-Strike stuff – and even on the Left 4 Dead stuff we were independent. The thing that’s great about Valve is that those guys are like… once you’re signed on with a partnership with them they’re very supportive. So we were always able to show our game ideas to them and just get honest feedback.
But then they bought us, they bought Turtle Rock from the original owner, and they bought Left 4 Dead. And so we basically spent a year as Valve South, as we were called, but the thing about that is co-development is a bitch. You take a big team in Seattle and a team in Southern California and they’re both sort of banging on the same thing, trying to get it done… communication was really difficult.
There’s a really big tax on that sort of dislocation, not monetarily but in terms of efficiency. We ended up tripping over each other a lot and at the end of the day as much as we love Valve our relationship was better as a contractor than as actually being part of the organisation. Because our cultures were similar, but also very different.
So, at the end of Left 4 Dead Valve wasn’t particularly happy with way things went. We weren’t particularly happy with the way things went that last year, and so we sat down with Gabe and we sort of had a real honest discussion, and said, ‘Look, this didn’t work but what did work was us as an independent studio doing work for them.’ For Chris [Ashton, the other co-founder of Turtle Rock's most recent incarnation - GC] and I Turtle Rock was the best place we’d ever worked, we don’t want to see it go away.
The original owner was like, ‘Ah, I’m done running a company’ and so for us it was just, ‘What are our choices?’ We could let Turtle Rock die and just go get jobs at some other company or we can take a chance and keep it going. And the nice thing was Valve was willing to give us our name back, and they gave us our old contract back. And for the next two years we were doing DLC for Left 4 Dead 1 and 2.
GC: That is weirdly nice. No one’s ever said something like that in an EA interview.
PR: [laughs] That’s true, and I worked at EA too! Which is interesting, because coming from EA… you know I worked at EA for four years and they have a very different culture. A more corporate, whip-cracking kind of culture. And Valve are pretty much the complete opposite.
GC: So do Valve honestly have no bosses? I imagine they do really.
PR: There’s a hierarchy there. It’s an unspoken hierarchy but it’s there. But at the end of the day it made more sense for us to split back out and eventually the Left 4 Dead DLC dried up and Chris and I sort of looked at things and said, ‘Look, if we’re going to do anything big again we gotta do it now before Left 4 Dead sort of fades…’ And certainly before people forget that we’re the ones that created it. And so that’s what we did.
GC: So something I think of at the moment is that in 10 years time people will try and sum up this outgoing generation in a sentence or two and they’re going to say something like: the colour brown, shooters, and zombies.
PR: [laughs] I like that, ‘the colour brown’.
GC: Not that I have anything against those things you understand, as long as they’re part of a cycle and there’s an end to it at some point.
PR: Nobody likes stagnation, right?
GC: That’s what I’m hoping. It’s not always clear.
PR: [laughs]
GC: So were you trying to get away from any of that with this new next gen game? I mean it’s a shooter but it’s relatively colourful even at night and there are dinosaur monsters and some melee combat…
PR: Here’s the thing. We are always striving and looking for new experiences. If we had done Left 4 Dead 2 it would have been a very different game. [The sequel was made internally by Valve – GC] So we had a lot of things that we wanted to try, certainly in the co-operative space, that we never got a chance to. So we just took that and rolled it into this.
But… the industry is risk adverse. But we like to try new stuff, and our game ideas generally come from us sitting down at lunch, or whatever, and saying, ‘This would be really cool’ and ‘ Yeah, that would be really cool’. And like, ‘Why hasn’t anyone done that before?’ and then ‘Yeah, why haven’t they?’ And of course a lot of times that ends up with us scribbling down ideas that get stashed in a notebook somewhere, waiting for us to come build them…
GC: So is this left over ideas for Left 4 Dead? Is this what you would have done with Left 4 Dead 2 if you’d made it?
PR: No, no. Actually, this idea pre-dates Left 4 Dead, this is something that we were talking about before Left 4 Dead even existed. And before we had even really thought of that idea. And it’s just really been percolating in the background waiting for things to get to the point where we thought we could pull things off convincingly.
GC: There are two potential problems I see with a game like this and the first one is you’ve got a finite number of maps and monsters and once you’ve seen every permutation the appeal begins to drop off drastically. Left 4 Dead, I was just saying to your other guy, it’s very different when you play it for the first few days because it’s still scary and unknown. But as you learn the systems and the maps that kind of goes away and you’re not surprised by anything any more.
PR: I think at the end of the day it comes to… I mean we’ve got a lot of procedural elements built into the game. I think you’d have to play the game for a really long time to see all the different permutations of things that can happen. But in addition to that, you put a game out there and you just let it go… yeah, people are going to get used to it. But that’s why you support a product after release, right? That’s what DLC is for.
And the nice thing about that kind of attitude is we get to see what the community does with the game. We’re going to put the game out there and the community’s going to get a hold of it and they’re going to do **** stuff with it that we never ever imagined. Half of those will be they ****ing break the game, right? [laughs] But we’ll fix it. And the other half of it is they’re going to do things and take things in a direction that we didn’t expect but are actually really cool.
And that’s great for us to see but then we can say, ‘Hey, that is really cool but we can build more of that into the game’ and we’ll see things in the game people don’t respond so well to and we’ll say, ‘Okay, we’re not going to worry about that stuff so much any more’.
GC: And the other major problem, which was certainly common with Left 4 Dead… and it’s not really a problem with the game it’s a problem with human beings… it’s that it’s the sort of thing that only really works with five people that are trying to do it properly. It’s a much more involved set-up than something like Call Of Duty and then you’ve got the problem of if nobody wants to be the medic or whatever the equivalent of being the goalie is in this game.
PR: [laughs] One of our best players in the office is ****ing hardcore and he’s a medic.
GC: He’s a hardcore medic? [laughs] He heals people like a muddyfunster?
PR: [laughs] You got a good medic, he can carry the team…
GC: On no, but that’s what I mean. If you haven’t got someone that’s playing them properly you’re in trouble.
PR: Right, right. So we did a test and we made a poll internally and we said, ‘Tell us what your first, second, third and so on preferred roles are’. And we asked at what point are you saying,’Ah, I’m not playing because I don’t want to be this guy’. And the really interesting thing was that the results came back and a large percentage of people got either their first second, or third choice. So they didn’t get to the point where they thought, ‘**** it, I’m gonna quit’.
So there’s that, but if you’re asking me if we’re able to solve the problem of griefers and assholes on the Internet? You know… [laughs]
GC: You could have electrified keyboards or something? A lot of games ship with their own peripherals nowadays.
PR: [laughs] All we can really do is build the game in such a way that we reward people for playing the way we want them to play and we penalise people for playing the way we don’t want them to play. And if there’s somebody in the game who’s just ****ing around and not helping, first of all his team-mates can boot him and second of all they’re not gonna win. They’re gonna loose and the monster’s gonna win. That’s one of the timeless problems of multiplayer gaming, you’re always going to have a jerk who’s going to ruin it for the rest of them.
GC: So is there any significant single-player element in the game?
PR: This game, in it’s heart and soul, is a multiplayer co-op game. That said we do have stuff for people who either don’t have friends or don’t like playing with other people, or who are anti-social or whatever… [laughs] There is a bit in the game where you can try out the hunters and sort of explore the game by yourself and learn how they all work.
We’ve also got it set-up so that any permutation of AI can be put in the game. So say, you’ve just got a monster but you’re a little hesitant to go online with him because you haven’t figured him out yet. You can set-up the game with four AI hunters and then play as the monster. And we’re doing our best to make sure that’s a compelling, fun experience for people.
GC: I got the feeling there wasn’t an eight hour, cut scene-riddled campaign mode.
PR: No, no…
GC: My first clue was that the HUD just called the boss ‘Monster’. I like that, that’s all I need in terms of story.
PR: [laughs] In that bit where you go in and learn about the hunters there’s a light narrative there…
GC: But these are four classes of hunters though, with multiple different characters in those classes. Is that right?
PR: Yes, yes!
GC: So if I didn’t want to play as Val the medic I could play as Jeff the medic, or whoever?
PR: Yes, exactly. Each class will have multiple guys in it but the constant is they have to fulfil their role.
GC: And is everything set on that planet that we saw?
PR: Yes, so it all takes place on Shear.
GC: I get the impression you’re not going to tell me what the other monsters are but can you given me an idea of what sort of range they encompass? Are there going to be giant robots and other sci-fi type opponents, or are they all creatures like that?
PR: Yeah, Goliath is the first one… I mean they all have sort of similar origins, which I won’t go into, but each monster has a very different play style. So for example, if you don’t like being a giant reptilian gorilla that smashes stuff and breathes fire there are other guys that play very different. And so if you’re the sort of guy that prefers being sneaky there’s gonna be something there for you.
GC: So, maybe like a Predator type thing… I mean will any of them shoot or are they all like physical type attacks?
[The attending PR guy shoots disproving looks at all concerned.]
GC: I’m really not trying to dig out secrets, I’m just trying to get an idea of the range of the game. I mean as far as I knew the robot thing could be true.
PR: You have to wait and see! But what I can say is that if you think about Goliath and his sort of attack mode it doesn’t take much imagination to think, well if this guy’s the smashy guy what possibly could be very different from that. Just think about the exact opposite of what that might be and you’re probably not too far off the mark.
GC: Okay, that’s great.
PR guy: Sorry guys, I’m gonna have to wrap it up.
PR: Anything else?
GC: Oh… let me see, I was timing myself there I’ve used all my questions up.
PR guy: If you want to go back in there’s another game starting now.
GC: No hang on, hang on. I was offered another question there!
PR: [laughs]
GC: OK, asymmetrical multiplayer looked like it was going to be a big thing a year or so ago but it hasn’t really taken off yet. I don’t know if that’s just because asymmetrical is a terrible word but the only other thing I can think of like this at the moment is Nintendo Land and Fable Legends. Why do you think the idea hasn’t made more of an impression than that?
PR: It’s ’cause it’s hard. Just the balancing aspect, it’s a pretty monumental task to balance a game where you’ve got four people against one person, right? And that’s what makes it hard. Given our experience, and we’ve got some really great systems and techniques for working out and making sure that everything gets tested properly… but it’s no small undertaking.
GC: Why do you think it’s worth the effort though? Why not just make a normal co-op and make life easy for yourself?
PR: I think it’s something new. I think it’s a new experience that people will get to be part of and it’s that kind of fulfilment, Why not? We think it’d be really fun so we’re gonna give it a go. It’s trying to bring two different kinds of gamers together and hopefully it works out good.
GC: Excellent, thank you.
PR: No problem, that was good.
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