Evolve has been generating right noises from the initial announcements. One thing that which seemed amiss was the Goliath monster, which essentially seemed like a larger version of the Tank from Left 4 Dead. It’s a natural point of inspiration, given that Turtle Rock Studios teamed up with Valve to develop that game, and therefore a good starting point, but it just wasn’t distinct enough, and quite a tame design for a beast.
Thankfully, with the announcement of a new monster in the form of the Kraken, Turtle Rock has managed to create something quite unique and very exciting. It’s not an entirely new idea for a creature – it’s a Lovecraftian beast, with strong ties to Cthulu – but it’s something that hasn’t really been done in this medium before, and shows that they’re going beyond standard monster templates, taking cues from other works of fiction.
When facing the Kraken, Evolve’s core gameplay remains the same as ever: it’s still four hunters versus one monster, and in this match I took the role of Hyde, who was the Assault class of the group in this case. He’s equipped with a mini gun for long-range attacks, and a flamethrower for close encounters, while his support items include toxic grenades to flush the enemy out from hiding and a personal shield which stops any and all direct damage. He even has a jetpack for getting around quickly or scaling vertical walls, though that’s not unique to the Assault class.
