Evolve's Big Alpha starts at the end of the week, and to get people excited for the game, developer Turtle Rock Studios has started a "making of" video series starring Adam Sessler. For the first video, the developers talk with Sessler about balancing asymmetrical gameplay and the details of the upcoming alpha.
Get The Details Of Evolve's Big Alpha
In the alpha, players who got access will be able to try out both sides of Evolve's asymmetrical combat, the hulking Monster and the team of four Hunters. Two out of the three Monsters that will come with the final game, Goliath and Kraken, will be available in the alpha, though new players will need to successfully complete a game as Goliath before trying out Kraken. The latter Monster's flying movements are tricky to pick up, and the developers want to make sure that players learn the basics of Monster gameplay with the accessible Goliath before jumping into advanced gameplay with Kraken.
The Big Alpha will kick off on Thursday for Xbox One players and Friday for everyone else. Sunday will be the last day of the special preview.
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One of the main goals of the alpha, according to the developers, is to make sure gameplay is balanced, which is the topic of the first half of the video. Balancing gameplay is difficult, especially for a game whose base premise is about asymmetry. Letting thousands of players try out the game for a long weekend will help developers see which strategies come to the surface as broken and which gameplay mechanics could be more useful with some buffs. As one developer said in the video, more games of Evolve will likely take place on the alpha's first day than the small team at Turtle Rock has been able to play throughout development.
Gameplay balance is an important area for the team at Turtle Rock. The developer's goals for the game include preventing the ever-so-prevalent competitive multiplayer phenomenon of snowballing, when one team gets ahead in the beginning of a match and then cannot be caught. The idea in Evolve is that either side, the giant Monster or the team-based Hunters, can feel like the underdog and either side can come from behind to win if the skill is there.
It's an ambitious goal, but the developers still have a couple of months to figure it out.
Evolve will hit PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on February 10.