Evolve’s offline and solo modes revealed

Evolve’s big selling point is the 4 Vs. 1 asymmetrical multiplayer. It will be a ridiculous amount of fun with friends, but what if your internet goes down, or you have no friends? Don’t worry, you can still have a roaring good offline time with Evolve.

Depending on your choice, you can play the entire campaign (or just a single map or mode) all by yourself. Choose to play as the monster or the entire group of hunters as you tackle Hunt, Nest, Rescue and Defend modes. Is it still fun? Is it still a challenge? Oh for sure.

Solo Monster

The monster is always a solitary gaming experience in Evolve, so it was the easiest transition for me to play the campaign by myself as it. Here are the series of videos of me playing the new monster, Wraith in each game mode. Those hunters are all controlled by the AI.

As you can see, it’s dynamic and interesting. At the end of each round, whomever wins will gain a map advantage for the next map in the campaign. However, to avoid balancing issues, the opposite team will also get a buff for the map. This ensures that if you have an excellent player who sweeps the campaign it will get progressively harder in each map to even things out.

Playing against the AI is no mean feat – they aren’t just mindless blobs who chase the monster acting like idiots. They can set traps and work together in unique ways. I was shocked during an early play through as the monster to find a dead carcass waiting to be consumed. I figured the hunters had been attacked and I went for the easy meal. Next thing I knew, there were harpoon traps pinning me down. Not so clever girl – I fell right into the AI’s trap.

Solo Hunters

I found playing as solo hunters a whole lot more difficult. It’s up to you to choose how to play – you can pick your role and stick with it throughout, or you can chop and change between the various hunters. Switching between the hunters is fluid and easy, although I found myself getting confused about which abilities I was going to use and where they were mapped on the controller. Obviously, with more time getting to know the various hunters, this wouldn’t be an issue. Here are a couple videos of me not doing nearly as well as the whole group of hunters.

I found the AI to still play to their roles and do a good job at that. Of course, their banter and conversations got a bit much – I’d probably turn that off if I were going to play for long stretches alone. It doesn’t really compare to playing with friends, but it’s still an excellent experience and great for players who want to get some practice in so that they can show off their amazing tricks to their friends.

Progression

There is a meta-game to Evolve as well. As you play as the various hunters or monsters, you level up as a player, as well as those individual hunters or monsters. This means that if all you do is play as the monster, you will unlock all the other monsters, and probably max out the monsters’ skills. Plus, you can unlock extremely cool looking skins and emblems.

I found this really fun when I was playing as Wraith. Because I had an obsession with her Decoy ability, I was able to use it repeatedly and because I was so great with it (in all due modesty), it leveled up and became even more powerful.

Thankfully, your progress and unlocks achieved offline will carry over for online play. This means that you can practice offline and level up your monster, only to be outsmarted by real live opponents when you finally play online. Still, at least they will be amazed by your cool skins, right?

Last Updated: December 18, 2014