Evolve is just... not enjoyable as a hunter

[IllumInaTIma]

Early impressions guys, early impressions! Don't yell at me and call me a noob, ok? So far I've played around 5 games and experienced each hunter, and it just wasn't fun. We've lost every single match to the monster and although I'm sure that the lack of coordination played part in it, it just felt that the monster was way too overpowered.

So, during phase 1 and 2 monster is weaker-equal to the hunters and they are supposed to track him down. But, as a novice, I had no idea how to do it. I've tried to follow Daisy, local tracking dog, but Daisy is kinda... stupid. She would run in circles, go back and forth, and when it felt like she was going in some specific direction alerted birds would reveal to us that the monster was in the completely different part of the map! If you do get a glimpse of the monster your medic has a chance to shot it with tranquilizer and mark it... for like 3-5 seconds. Which is really not enough. 80% of the time monster would just shrug it off and disappear again. I was able to trap him once with arena dome, but we were barely able to take down its armor, which regenerated after the fight. So, phase 1-2 in a team of novices is just running around in circles. Not enjoyable in the least.

And then, after monster eats a lot it is time for phase 3 during which roles are changed. Now hunters are supposed to protect the point while monster tries to destroy it. It is probably the funnest part, as I no longer have to run around. But during phase 3 monster is nigh unkillable and can kill you in a couple of hits. Or with one rock throw when you are airborne. Yeah.

What about your early impressions?

 

[The Wykydtron]

Not played it yet but is it like in that Aliens vs Predator game (newest one I think) muliplayer where everyone would just not play humans because Predator was OP as fuck? I think Aliens had the same problem there, you needed to be co-ordinated cuz if humans were decent they would stick together in one place. Predators would just chill in stealth, blow people up with shoulder cannons then stealth again.

Apparently I have Evolve? Ok, XCOM coming through for me again apparently. I'll post again after I try a few games but in general monster vs humans games tend to have those kind of balance "problems." Yolo queue just doesn't fit how the game is supposed to be played with people running around on their own and inviting sudden instant kill stealth attacks because you have nobody watching your back, you fucking scrub.

The L4D2 rage is real. 3 man premade and the one random is just holding W + M1 until he gets hit by any CC and dies, probably spawning the Tank while we aren't ready too. I bet he mains Pyro in TF2.

 

[Smooth Operator]

Well yes a team that doesn't coordinate will get eaten pretty quick.
But with a good team I also noticed a terrible flow to the matches, when you got good hunters the only option for the monster is to run away and grind "XP", which they can do easily because it's world traversal is much much faster. So you got the monster going off on it's own grinding mobs while hunters run after it fruitlessly for a good half hour until they can finally fight on the same level... and the final showdown will be decided in 5 minutes. Unless one side runs off to heal up and the circus goes around again.

With the current setup there is just a whole lot more chore/waiting time then fighting.

 

[Kopikatsu]

I find it fun, but yeah. I've never seen the Hunters win a single game. Not once. Even when I play the monster, killing the hunters is trivial once you hit stage 2, even though that's supposed to be when you're 'evenly matched'. Despite that, even at stage one, it's easy enough to murder half the team and then split while they heal up again.

However, I've been told by another player that apparently it's the opposite on the X1, and the Hunters always win there. He said that the Hunters are far slower on the PC version for whatever reason, so it's much harder to track, fight, and flee from the monster.

 

[IllumInaTIma]

So, around 5 more matches and not a single win. One of the biggest problems is that the means to control the monsters, as in Tranquilizer gun and Harpoon traps are just incredibly, INCREDIBLY weak. Tranq slows the monster down for about 3-4 seconds and harpoon traps take a long time to set up, long time to recharge, they tend to miss, have a very short range and monster can just BREAK the link with one sweep.
Yeah, I'm done with this game. Unless they will bring some major buffs to the hunters it will simply be NOT ENJOYABLE.

 

[Kopikatsu]

So, around 5 more matches and not a single win. One of the biggest problems is that the means to control the monsters, as in Tranquilizer gun and Harpoon traps are just incredibly, INCREDIBLY weak. Tranq slows the monster down for about 3-4 seconds and harpoon traps take a long time to set up, long time to recharge, they tend to miss, have a very short range and monster can just BREAK the link with one sweep.
Yeah, I'm done with this game. Unless they will bring some major buffs to the hunters it will simply be NOT ENJOYABLE.

Actually, the more I play it, the more I realize the monster is kind of fucked. Class abilities by themselves are weak, but that's because they're meant to be stacked together.

After a long, long string of hunters losing every game, now that I'm in games with level 10-15 people (which includes myself), we haven't lost yet. The monster just can't handle being chased down by a competent team.

Looking back on it, every time we lost was when we didn't properly use the deployables. And also the tracker wasn't very good at... well... tracking.

 

[fix-the-spade]

What about your early impressions?

The game pretty much requires Team Speak and an established crew, which could be it's undoing.

As the Hunters you have to lay sensors systematically, stick together and then be extremely aggressive once you catch the monster, with Randoms it's basically impossible. Hunter movement seems to be too slow as well, or I'm missing something.

Hunters need some buffs to their abilities though, especially if they intend this game to be played on matchmaking.

I've been having more fun with Depth recently, sharks coming out of the darkness teeth first never ceases to be terrifying to me.

 

[Drummie666]

Can't say I agree at all. I've got just over an hour of playtime and I've managed to win both rounds where I've played as a hunter. Poor bastard didn't even make it to level 3 the one time. I don't really know what to tell you except... ya know, you suck.

I did managed win the one round where I played as the monster, which I did find a bit overpowered once I got to the last push on the hunters at level 3. I didn't even get swarmed all that much, and I won because everyone separated themselves out so much that I could easily just wipe out each one of them individually.
The second time I played as the monster, I actually had a difficult time because they actually managed to trap me properly. Don't know how that game would have ended though, since the game crashed on me.

Anyway, that's just my two cents. I'll go put some more matches under my belt to see if I can notice what you guys are talking about.

 

[Ragsnstitches]

Here was I thinking the Monster was too weak.

Lost only one match in 10 with randoms. As long as everyone does their part and the team doesn't take too long to locate the Monster, the Monster would always be overpowered (to clarify, he would be overpowered BY the hunters).

Depending on the map and how well coordinated your team is, tracking the monster might be a piece of piss or a major chore. The key to closing in one him is to guess his intended position. Don't just follow the tracks, they are a guide sure, but you are slower then the monster by a fair margin. The Monster needs to feed in order to evolve, so he will be frequently making a racket around the place munching on monsters.

An advanced tactic that requires team synergy is to split up into pairs. This gives you more ground to cover.

When the team closes in on the Monster, Medic Tranqs the Monster to slow it down first. The Trapper closes in and places an arena, then spikes any choke points with snares. Assault starts dealing damage while support shields teammates being punished by the Monster. Medic heals those who need it, Trapper continues to drop snares as they become available, Support tries to use camo to get himself and friends out of danger zones (or to rez fallen teammates) and Assault continues doing what it does best. If ever the monster does a long wind up attack like a rock throw, Support then calls down a bomb strike for massive damage.

All the while each member uses his or her primary weapon to dish out damage. Rinse and repeat if the monster survives the Arena.

If any teammate is utterly useless at their job the match is much harder for hunters and far easier for the Monster.

The only match I lost was because our trapper went for a tour of the Dam and got eaten by the local flora and fauna multiple times. Eventually the Monster evolved to stage 3 and without a reliable means to pin him down he just hit and run our asses until we were down to just the trapper, then he went after the generator unmolested.

I haven't played as the monster yet myself, but I suggest the OT tries him out first before calling him OP.