I remember watching a Let’s Play of Evolve in 2014 before the game was officially launched. The tension of chasing a huge monster before it becomes too strong was exciting and playing the monster was exciting. The game received great praise in 2014 and won several rewards prior to Evolve‘s launch. Published by 2K Interactive, Evolve was a multiplayer focused 3rd person shooter where four players play as Hunters while one played as a monster that sought resources to “evolve.” It was the first game from Turtle Rock Studios who spun off from Valve in 2011 who worked on Left for Dead. However, the myriad of downloadable content, lack of story and interesting game types led to mixed reviews and loss of player base.
What happened?
Evolve launched on February 10th, 2015 for $60. Despite being a commercial success, the mixed reviews were apparent from Day One. Many players criticized the sole focus on multiplayer that quickly became dull. The Hunter gameplay was praised with the different class types but playing as the monster was limited. The biggest issue was the massive amounts of Day One downloadable content. On Day One, to acquire all the DLC, it cost $136. Different monsters and hunters were all locked behind a paywall and player fatigue was fast. in July 2016, 2K made the game free-to-play due to lack of player base but the damage was done. 2K and Turtle Rock ended continuous support for the game four months later.
End of Evolve
Today, 2K announced that Evolve’s dedicated servers will be shut down on September 3, 2018. Several game features will be removed:
- Hunt (Ranked)
- Players will still be able to play Hunt by going into Quick play and Custom games
- Player Profile data
- Leaderboards will no longer be populated with player data
- The in-game store will be removed
- The newsfeed will be unavailable
- Player Badges will be unavailable
Peer-to-peer multiplayer will be the only method to play multiplayer meaning your speed is based on other players’ computers. The features below will remain.
-
- Quick Play
- Hunt
- Nest
- Rescue
- Defend
- Arena
- Evacuation
- Custom games
- Quick Play
- Single Player (solo vs. AI) –
- Evacuation
- Quick Play
- Custom games
- My2K login access
- Access to all hunters, monsters, purchased DLC, skins & player badges
Strangely, 2K encourages players to use all their keys or purchase whatever content they would like before the servers close as they will no longer be sold. In my opinion, the rest of the content should be released for free.
Sources:
Game Informer – Evolve becomes F2P
Game Informer – Evolve ends updates
Gamespot – Evolve launches with DLC
The Gaming News Corner 