In the Game, on day one:
Just so that it’s all in one place, this is what comes with the game on February 10th:
- 12 Unique Maps – each with a variety of modifiers that can drastically affect each match
- 12 Hunters (Abe, Bucket, Cabot, Caira, Griffin, Hank, Hyde, Lazarus, Maggie, Markov, Parnell and Val)
- 3 Monsters (Goliath, Kraken and Wraith)
FREE MAPS, FOREVER
There’s nothing worse than getting left out because you didn’t pony up extra cash for a different bundle. Phil recently vowed on IGN that you will never have to pay for additional maps that get built. “First thing we said was that we can’t break the community up, so all of our maps will be free. We never want anyone to get booted off a server because they haven’t bought something.”
Turtle Rock’s Chris Ashton adds, “We are committed to this game and creating a lot more down the road. We have people on the team looking forward on what’s coming next for Evolve.”
We have also confirmed that additional Monsters and Hunters are currently in development. “Even if you don’t buy them and your buddy does, that’s cool,” explains Phil. “You won’t be able to play asthose characters, but you will certainly be able to play with those.” So, if you choose not to buy the fourth Monster, you still run the risk of having to fight against it in multiplayer. And the same goes for additional Hunters – like the ones coming in the Hunter Season Pass that is getting announced today.
HUNTING SEASON PASSES
If you love the idea of more Hunters bringing a lot of additional variety to the hunt, you’ll want to keep an eye on this. The Evolve Hunting Season Pass contains four new Hunter characters (one from each class), as well as three new Monster skins (Magma Goliath, Magma Kraken and Magma Wraith.) and will only cost you $24.99. Considering that if you bought them all separately, all of that content will run you about 30 bones, stash that extra $5 in your pocket as a thank you for joining us on the hunt.
The Monster skins will be available on launch day and the upcoming Hunters will be available as released. (More details on the downloadable Hunter characters will be available as we get closer to their release after the release of Evolve on February 10, 2015. In the meantime, let the inevitable speculation on the new Hunters begin!)
MOAR MONSTERS
You’ve been wondering what that new mystery Rock-Lobster-looking silhouette was all about.
It’s about time you guys also meet Behemoth, the fourth Monster in Evolve that comes with the Monster Expansion pack (and FREE if you pre-order) and will be available after Evolve ships. For more info on this monstrosity, check out this story that also posted today.
We recently chatted with Turtle Rock’s Chris Ashton about what goes into creating a Monster. The short version: It takes a lot of time, iteration and careful balancing. The slightly longer version:
“We start with a theme. Then we go through a brainstorm and think about the gameplay style and some abilities we want to emphasize around that theme. We hope to have more than four abilities and refine them down. So, for example, when we started with Goliath, all we knew is that we wanted a brawler. We didn’t know what it’d look like or what its abilities would be – we just wanted a soldier. An all-around Fighter. That design goes to a concept artist and they start to bring that to life. After we have a monster locked down visually, then we think about how its abilities will look and how they will behave. Then that gets concepted.
Then we start prototyping. A lot of times we’ll prototype stuff on the code side at the same time those concepts will start going into production and start to model the character.
An engineer will start to prototype with placeholders - like subbing in Goliath and odd objects. We’ll code up everything and way before the monster’s actually built, we’re playtesting and start testing all the abilities to find the ones working really well…and so much more.”
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again, the Monster Expansion Pack for Evolve – gives you two things: At launch, you get an exclusive Savage Goliath skin. After the game ships, you get the fourth Monster (BEHEMOTH). That is a retail value of more than $14.99 and adds a whole different gameplay mechanic to how you’ll fight. If you pre-order, you get this FREE when the Monster is done. If you’re already thinking of buying Evolve, this really is the no-brainer.
Lastly, there’s the Evolve Digital Deluxe Edition, which features $95 worth of content for $79.99. That’s the full game, the Monster Expansion Pack, as well as the aforementioned Hunting Season Pass.
Well, what are you waiting for?
If you want to learn more about the DLC – or have any general questions about ordering the game, check the Evolve Digital Version breakdown on the blog.
As always, we anticipate your thoughts on this latest news related to Evolve. You can post in the comments, or head over to our Evolve Forums.