'Evolve' continues its rebirth with new co-op mode
After going free-to-play, the game now has a more traditional multiplayer option.
The asymmetric shooter Evolve is experiencing a renaissance. Reacting to dwindling player number, developer Turtle Rock made Evolve free to play, rebalanced the gameplay and promised more additions down the line. The changes, at least so far, have been a success, and now the developer is introducing a new mode that scraps the core 4-vs-1 dynamic in favor of a more traditional co-op experience. Called "The Deepest Dark," the mode sits alongside the other play options, rather than replacing them.
The Deepest Dark sees players face off an AI-controlled monster, hunting it down and destroying its eggs before they hatch. The monster, a Gorgon Queen, has different characteristics to the regular game's human-controlled beasts. Rather than gaining energy from eating NPC fauna, the Gorgon extracts power from player-controlled characters. In addition to dealing with the Queen and her eggs, gamers will also find local wildlife aggressive. Gameplay is punctuated by a gravelly narrator, whose canned phrases will feel familiar to anyone that's played the brutal Lovecraftian RPG Darkest Dungeon.
The new mode is out now on PC in open beta. As with the free-to-play switch, the developers will wait until they've perfected the changes before considering a console rollout. While you wait for that to happen, you can watch The Deepest Dark's very '80s trailer:
