A new, free-to-play incarnation of 4v1 multiplayer game Evolve is now available on Steam. You can expect some major gameplay changes, and an overhauled progression system.
Developer Turtle Rock released Evolve back in 2015, and while it was by no means a bad game, the response from fans and critics alike was pretty lukewarm.
DenofgeekThe team at Turtle Rock shared news of the move into free-to-play in a post on their forums, where they addressed some of the game’s shortcomings:
The DLC shitstorm hit full force and washed away people’s enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical pick-up-and-play experience. We want that magic back and we aim to make it happen. We’ve made a lot of changes, improvements and additions to Evolve over the past year and we’ve got a lot more coming. In short, we’re giving this game a vigorous overhaul!
Anyone who already owns the game on PC and has it installed should see an update downloaded automatically. Everyone else can head to Steam to pick up Evolve: Stage 2.
Turtle Rock stressed that all content is now available to unlock through play, and play alone – Evolve is now entirely, completely free.
But the studio hasn’t forgotten those that bought the game when it came out – anyone who did will be granted ‘Founder Status’ in the new version, and will receive ‘gifts, rewards, and special access’.
On top of all this, Turtle Rock is reducing load times, fixing bugs, tweaking maps, adding more customisation options and improving the UI.
It’ll also be making changes to classes to ensure that teams are ‘less reliant on having experienced trappers and medics.’
There’s no word on whether we’ll see these changes come to the Xbox One and PS4 versions of the game, but Turtle Rock hinted that it hasn’t forgotten about those players.
Ewan Moore is a journalist at UNILAD Gaming who still quite hasn’t gotten out of his mid 00’s emo phase. After graduating from the University of Portsmouth in 2015 with a BA in Journalism & Media Studies (thanks for asking), he went on to do some freelance words for various places, including Kotaku, Den of Geek, and TheSixthAxis, before landing a full time gig at UNILAD in 2016.