Playing as the Goliath wasn't exactly what I thought..
It is said that as Goliath.. you're the monster and the Boss of the game. But it isn't as easy as picking up the controller and smashing the buttons to victory.
Sure, you are a beast and you have various abilities to send the Hunters scampering.. but it's not going to be easy against experienced Hunters. With 4 well-coordinated Hunters attacking from all angles, you are going to go down fast.
But nothing to worry about, the name of the game is Evolve and that's what your goal as the Monster is.. Evolve!
You start of as a Stage 1 Monster and have to eat some of the other creatures to fill up a meter. It's not going to be easy though.. At Stage 1, some of these creatures are as big as you and taking them down can get messy. Even more so, if you get caught by the Hunters. Once the meter is full, you will have the option to Evolve into the next Stage. You have to be careful where and when you decide to start the Evolving process. It will take a while for this process which will be your most vulnerable state.
Once you have Evolved into the next Stage, you become bigger and get to unlock more abilities or level up your current ones that you have chosen before.
At Stage 2, you feel more of a Boss and can be more of a threat to the Hunters. Less experienced Hunters are going to find you a huge problem. Still, your aim will be to reach the Ultimate Stage 3 where you at your strongest. One of the 2K Staff also told me that this is when the roles can be reversed.
He went on to explain that only at Stage 3, can your Monster take out the Generator in the map. This is when you, as the Monster go for the target and the Hunters will fight to defend it. At the Generator, it becomes their 'home turf', where they can set up traps to weaken you. However, at Stage 3, you should be at the peak of your powers.
It's going to be an interesting game with the 2 sides having very different play-styles.
As Hunters, you will need the whole team to co-ordinate and work closely together. It's almost a must for players to have mics to shout out commands and listening to the others. All Hunters will need to close down the Monster as quickly as possible to not give it the advantage. You will need to use the various skills at your disposal, as a team, to help one another.
I liked the fact that each class has their own fixed set of skills to force the different classes to play how they are supposed to, while making the best use of their abilities. You do get Perks to increase damage, increase damage resistance or health regeneration but it's not a RPG-style of a game where you can customize your weapons or skills.
As The Monster, you will need to be tactical. You will need to use the terrain to your fullest advantage and put the distance between you and the Hunters, to buy you the time to feed which will let you Evolve. While the Hunters are in First-Person View, you will play in the Third Person View as the Monster to give you a better look at the surroundings.
Also, you will have to avoid the traps laid out to avoid giving away your position. Use Sniff to see who's around you. Creatures or Hunters near you will be highlighted and you track their movement even behind obstacles.
Go into Stealth mode to creep around so that you stop leaving footprints on the ground.
If you are forced into a fight, you have 3 damage-based abilities that you can choose from, Flame Breath, Leap Smash and Rock Throw.
There were a couple of tricks that I picked up from several of the 2K Asia staff but I won't be sharing those here. Let's just say, I'll be using those to give myself an advantage during the first few sessions when the game is out.
It's going to be a fun game with Hunters and Monsters trying to outdo each other and with friends, I can imagine there's going to be plenty of laughter and trash-talking long after we put down the controllers. From what I have seen so far, the game seems well-balanced and equally-skilled players are going to create some epic battles.
There's no sign or hint of a Collector's Edition but I get the feeling that a CE with a Goliath statuette will sell very well. *Hint Hint*
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| We got the model, now to scale it down.. |
I mentioned that I attended the event with a couple of friends.. Let's see what they had to say about the game..
Jerome: The Event's awesome, got to meet friends and interact with people. I enjoyed the event. Being a Hunter, you will need the whole team, but as the Monster, you will need to strategize.
Abhi: I felt the game is balanced. I thought it is great that all classes are balanced.
Lukhman: I think the game is great, it promotes teamwork. The learning curve is steep but that's great. Teamwork is crucial.
Thanks guys!
To answer a few questions from other friends who asked me about the game..
The setting is based in a Jungle with Cliffs, Trees and things like that. Somewhere in the center is a huge Power Plant type of building that houses the Generator. There will be more maps and arenas so the setting might be different in those.
There was no mention of the background story of the game but I read somewhere that the game is set on a different planet and these are Alien Monsters.
There will be more game modes but the staff weren't giving any clues of what those will be. Single player story mode? 8 Hunters vs. 2 Monsters? 2 Teams of 4 Hunters racing against each other to hunt down 1 Monster? We'll see..
I was really impressed with the game. Before trying it out, I was pretty set on playing as the Monster but it was really fun playing as a group of Hunters. Might play as the Monster when I'm alone or as a Hunter when I'm with friends.
Evolve is one of the few new IPs that I'm looking forward to in the new-Gen consoles. In fact, I'm planning to get it earlier now that I have another reason to upgrade to a PS4.
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