Evolved : What Happened?

[(N☆G) Jackal ★JJ★]

So, I remember enjoying the beta A LOT but once the game came out it seemed to die extremely fast. Faster than the beta did.

I just wanted to run some thoughts on how I personally think the game ended the way it did and if you disagree, I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Day 1 DLC

For starters, Day 1 DLCs.
I think launching a game with Day 1 DLC was one of the four absolutely game ruining things that they did. I don't think I really need to go much further into this as its pretty open and shut. Was incredibly poorly received and very few people liked the concept of a $60 game with DLC right out the door. Makes the whole thing feel more of a cash grab.

Balancing

Next, balancing. THE BIGGEST game killer I remember was the wraith. It literally drove the player base out at launch. There were pages upon pages of complaints, rants, rages, and nerf demands for it. It had an incredibly high win rate and the studio wanted to see if it was just players didnt know how to deal with it or if it really needed a nerf so they waited almost an entire month and released more DLC before making their first nerf.... a nerf so absolutely hated by the community that it didn't impact win rates and it kept being a massive issue.

The game became Evolve : Hunters vs Wraith instead of Hunters vs Monster and it made the game play absolutely unbearable. People tried hard to stick it through and the 2nd nerf that happened still wasn't enough to heavily impact its win rate and by this time more than 50% of the player base was already gone.

Constantly on the Run

The next biggest thing was monsters realizing the game is more about running instead of hiding. Once people FULLY understood this concept, it was literally 20+ min games of just running around ahead of the trapper who was the only one at the time who can do anything to really stop the monster.

Complete Disregard to the Playerbase

The player base was VERY vocal for months after launch on what things needed to be done to improve the game play. The developers constantly released more and more DLCs though instead of fixing any of the complaints made by the community who were all screaming about the same things over and over.

Season Pack DLC Ripoff

This still falls under the above other header but its such a big issue that it needs to be on its on. COMPLETELY screwing over its fans/supports/backers by releasing the final monster in its own stand alone DLC outside of the already very hated dual Season Passes.

I think the biggest killer of this game was how slow to act the developers were and how badly they wanted to push DLCs out instead of listening to their playerbase and fixing all of the massive problems that kept making players leave.

Since the game rebranded to Evolve Stage 2 you can longer find the date of how many people left the 2 months the game was out. I remember around 70% leaving the first month and then another 15% of its original fan base leaving mid month of the following month. The game lost nearly 90% of its entire paying player base within the first two months of the game and when the extra heroes and monsters came out it brought people back but nothing was fixed so everyone left again.


I loved the game and really wanted it to be something amazing as I remember climbing the leaderboards with Val but I felt a complete disconnect between players and the developers. Honestly, Evolve is one of the few games that I would love a massive redo over where no one knew of the game and it launched all over again bringing thousands of players back into it where know one knew how to player and didn't abuse things too much.... even if it would only last a month and a half.

Also, on my way out.... I remember this gem going around the forums at launch. Still cracks me up. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWJ77J3Zf68

[Dark Judas]

The developers weren't the problem. It was 2K who were the whole reason TRS kept changing their financial structure when it came to DLC and microtransactions. I was on the forums from the beggining of Evolve to the end, and I still pop back there every once in a while. Turtle Rock Studios would love another chance at bringing Evolve back, but 2K is so obsessed with money (and recently, sending private investigators to peoples houses for no reason and ruining youtubers careers in the process) that they lost track of what actually matters, and that's having a satisfying product.

[Avatar_Khaine]

Ironically, I foresighted most of this at the start. I didn't buy the game until it suited my PoV what it was worth so I waited. Typical customers went with the hype and bought it, they were left disappointed but I didn't, because I weren't that dumb to go with the flow. Then, I bought the game on sale " Evolve: Monster Race Edition PC " which INCLUDED the 2nd season pass. And this does somewhat debunk your claims about Gorgon not included and was supposed to be bought separately, this is not true. Wraith was nerfed to the oblivion making her less viable and only good monsters were Goliath and Kraken ( EK later ). About that running, everybody says this no matter what site or forum I read it from. How hard is it to check the minimap and use IQ to make a tactical troubleshoot and let's say; CUT the monster ? We all know how to navigate with this minimap, it's not harder than CS or CoD. The problem is playing with randoms, someone has to follow the tracks and flush the monster towards Trapper and Trapper has to stand at first in the middle and be informed where the monster will be. It's this game learning curves > casuals.
And day one TRS announced the F2P version/ the stream when it was the topic, I told them that it wouldn't solve anything. You only bring more casuals and you're not fixing the glitches nor balance issues, you only create new ones and eventually that same hype dies instantly. I was ignored but would you look at that, I was right. And I don't blame TRS, guess 2K had it's own things going on with the F2P update and TRS was only the employee and not the boss.

[Zunymitshu]

stupid dlc practices and rampant hackers are the main reason myself and almost everyone I played with quit. When the top leaderboard guy has stats that are impossible to get without hacking yet he isn't banned, it's time to leave.

[Crunchy[Daz]]

Day 1 DLC: This is not an issue if you understand game development, which most gamers do not. I'd like to say they overreacted but that doesn't even do it justice. You might not have been around here for the launch of Evolve but people were wishing death and cancer on the devs families over this....over day 1 DLC....yeah all over cosmetic DLC that did nothing for gameplay.

Balancing I found to be not too bad in the Beta. Overall most of the changes they made were not that good. They did address some issues but I think they could have done a better job.

Always on the run? Yeah if you're new to the game or have a ♥♥♥♥♥♥ team then this is exactly what the game feels like. There's really not much more they can do about this and the things they did do were pretty terrible. Giving everyone a dome? Dumb dumb dumb. It didn't help that people couldn't grasp the concept of trying to cut off the monster instead of blindly just following it.

The playerbase? I actually commend them for doing anything at all for the playerbase. Again, i mentioned above how toxic the forum was here. How do you as a gamer even expect them to do anything for the playerbase when they are literally having death wished upon their families? Nothing should warrant that behavior and certainly not the Day 1 DLC or season pass fiasco they had.

Their DLC plan actually wasn't that bad compared to the practices other games had at that time and certainly not compared to how things are now. They offered free game modes and free maps, making sure that the playerbase wouldn't be split by those with some maps and those without. And yes there was day 1 cosmetic DLC. Cosmetic, as in, doesn't effect gameplay at all. No one should have ever raised a fuss about this and it really just showed how ignorant most gamers are of the development cycle. There is a reason Day 1 cosmetic DLC happens, and its not for the reasons you would think.

Bottom line is that alot of people didn't give the game a fair chance because they didn't understand it or how to play it. All those COD twitch shooting kids would run n gun, fail and blame the game for it. All the while shelling out $15 for what, 2 new maps in COD? It was a game that was not guaranteed to be fun or even give you a close match. It really depended on the players moreso then anything in the game itself.

Had TR been given more control instead of the heavy handedness of 2K then maybe the game would have survived.