Evolve

Evolve is an action video game with a focus on both co-operative, and competitive, multiplayer gameplay. The game adapts a '4v1' asymmetrical structure where four players take control of the Hunters, while the fifth player controls the Monster. The Hunters' main objective is to track and hunt the Monster in a limited amount of time, while the Monster's goal is to evolve and make themselves more powerful.

In the beginning of a match, a 30-second headstart is given to the Monster so that they can have enough time to escape before the Hunters parachute from a plane to where the Monster started. Each map features an open world environment for players to explore and play within. To help the Hunters navigate the environments quickly, they are equipped with jetpacks, allowing them to jump over obstacles and cliffs. The jetpack can also be used to dodge attacks performed by the monster, though it consumes a Hunter's energy.

The game is set in a fictional future where humans have successfully discovered ways to survive outside Earth and have begun colonizing other planets. Humans arrived at Shear, a distant planet located in the "Far Arm" of space, and began creating colonies and industrial factories.

As the colonisation progressed, humans began to meet resistance from alien life-forms, known as Monsters, that had the ability to evolve by consuming local wildlife. As the Monsters destroyed the colonies on Shear, a former "planet tamer" named William Cabot was brought out of retirement to deal with the threat and to evacuate the remaining colonists from Shear. Cabot assembled a team of Hunters to eliminate the Monsters and protect their communities.

Evolve was developed by Turtle Rock Studios. Evolve's creative director, Phil Robb, and lead designer, Chris Ashton, are the co-founders of Turtle Rock Studios alongside Mike Booth. The team had a heritage of developing competitive multiplayer games, such as Valve's Counter-Strike series and the Left 4 Dead series. According to Robb, the team wanted to build a co-operative, multiplayer game because it gave the team a chance to play with their family and friends together, instead of against each other, and found it offered a more enjoyable experience than competitive multiplayer games.

The concept for Evolve was completed in 2005, before the development of the first Left 4 Dead game. However, the Evolve project was put on hold, as Turtle Rock thought that the technology at that time was not advanced enough to handle the game's design.

Evolve received a largely positive reception from critics upon its initial announcement. It was nominated for six different awards in the Game Critics Awards, namely Best of Show, Best Original Game, Best Console Game, Best PC Game, Best Action Game and Best Online Multiplayer. It won four of them, and lost the Best Original Game Awards to No Man's Sky and Best PC Game to Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Siege. Evolve was also named the Best Game, Best Console Game Microsoft Xbox, Best PC Game and Best Online Multiplayer Game at Gamescom 2014.

Publisher 2K Games stated that these awards indicated that Evolve could become a defining title for both the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. However, the DLC controversy caused backlash from customers, and the game was criticized for serving as a framework for the release of DLC.