Evolve just added a free arena mode

Evolve. A great game, for the two weeks or so that it held the attention of anyone who bought it. But it just never had that certain staying power, with players quickly dropping off and pursuing other titles instead. If there’s one complaint that I had with Evolve, it’s that a quick game would usually result in 15 minutes of chasing a monster in a circle while the Benny Hill theme played in the background. It got a bit tedious, is what I’m saying. But for the tens of you still playing Evolve? The action is about to pick up.

And that’s because the game is getting a proper deathmatch mode. Four hunters enter! One monster leaves! It should be live right now, with the mode being described via AGB as follows:

• The short version: The Monster and the Hunter squad all get dropped into a dome. No escape, no excuses – this ain’t over until someone goes down!
• The new Arena Mode places five fixed domes on each of the 14 maps in Evolve. For those not up on your math, that’s 70 locked-down venues, ready for brawling.
• At the start, you select a map, then you’re in for a best-of-three series of hardcore firefights. The Monster and Hunters are locked in that dome until one side is eliminated. After that match, you immediately jump to another dome on the same map for round two – that continues until there’s a victor.
• All the Hunters and Monster begin each match with one perk.
• Monsters start at Stage 2 with 50 percent armor, but can feed on wildlife in battle to regain armor and even evolve to Stage 3. (Though the size of the mobile arena makes this a tough task.)
• The dome isn’t coming down. So, for all you Trappers out there, your job got a little easier.
• There is no dropship timer. Once a Hunter dies in battle, they have to sit it out until the next fight.
• Players can’t change their character or perk selection between rounds, but Monster players can change their abilities.
• Obviously, if you’re looking to get competitive with Evolve, something like an Arena Mode is going to be awesome to play – or watch. That’s just a taste of things to come.

I think I would have loved this mode from the start of Evolve. Still, might be worth vacuuming the dust off of my copy of the game for. Just got to watch out for those damn allergies.

Last Updated: May 27, 2015