Set on an alien planet in the distant future, gamers hunt their prey in adrenaline-pumping 4v1 matches. Players experience Evolve as a first-person shooter when playing cooperatively as the four hunters, while they control the monster in the third-person perspective, providing a gameplay experience unique to Evolve.

Play as the Monster to use savage abilities and an animalistic sense to kill your human enemies, or choose one of four Hunter classes (Trapper, Support, Assault and Medic) and team up to take down the beast on the planet Shear, where flora and fauna act as an adversary to Hunter and Monster alike. Evolve includes three Monsters, 12 Hunters, 16 maps, and four game modes: Hunt, Nest, Rescue, and Defend.

Evolve also features Evacuation, an experience that uniquely combines the full array of maps, modes, Hunters, and Monsters in a dynamic experience that is different every time you play. Players choose a side, Monster or Hunter, and play through a series of five matches across all maps and modes in the game, with each victory or loss directly impacting the remaining matches in Evacuation with benefits to either the hunter or monster side. Each additional play through of Evacuation results in different combinations of mission types, environments, and map affects, totaling over 800,000 possible combinations. Because Evacuation includes every element of Evolve in one dynamic, unique package, it is highly repayable as a multiplayer, cooperative, and solo experience.

While it isn’t a campaign in the classic sense, there is a story to tell: The planet Shear is getting overrun by Monsters. Within five days, the battle for Shear will be won or lost depending on the actions of four Hunters…and, of course, one mutating Monster. Those five days are broken up into five rounds as you fight your way across the planet. The first round is always Hunt, on a randomly chosen map.

It’s a race for the Monster to eat enough within the environment to evolve to stage 3, and find the power relay on the map to destroy the objective. All along, the Hunters and Monster play cat-and-mouse, hoping to kill for a quick victory.

After that first victory, players continue the fight to one of two adjoining territories, voting on location and mode. In addition to Hunt, the modes that can be up for selection are:

• Nest mode has the Monster player protecting its brood, randomly scattered all over the map, while the Hunters are out to scramble some alien eggs. If the Monster is able to get to the eggs, it has the option to hatch one of them into a minion – a stage 1 Goliath that runs around, aggro-ing Hunters. Hunters win by destroying all the eggs and the minion, or killing the Monster.
• In Rescue Mode, injured colonists trying to escape the Monsters are placed randomly on the map. Hunters need to locate, revive and protect them as they make their escape. Monsters need to munch on as many of these colonists as possible and keep them from getting away. Whoever saves – or kills – the majority of the colonists, wins.
• This is it – the last stand. In Defend Mode, winner takes all. If you’re playing from the Hunter perspective, you’re desperately defending the Evacuation point while the ship is fueling up to escape. As a Monster, you’re leading hordes of Goliath minions as you attack the Evacuation point in waves. Will the Monsters break through and destroy everything? Or will the colonists get away in time?

Evolve will ship with 16 different maps that span four unique biomes: forest, desert, acid and ice. 12 of these maps can be played in Hunt, Nest, and Rescue modes. Four additional maps were built specifically for Defend mode.

Remember that “800,000 variables” number we were throwing around up top? Every time that you win a match, there is a campaign affect applied to the next map you choose. So, as one example, the Dam is saved and the Hunters win for that day.As a result, the workers are able to power up Perimeter Fences, which cut neighboring maps into half sized portions, creating an interesting advantage for the Hunters. That’s just one possible game-changing outcome from one map.

Evolve is available for pre-order at participating retailers. Those who pre-order the game from participating retailers will be rewarded with the Monster Expansion Pack, which includes the Savage Goliath skin at launch and a new monster character as soon as it becomes available after Evolve is released.