Evolve set to become a free-to-play game on PC, beta starts today

midian182

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When a timer appeared on the website of asymmetrical multiplayer shooter Evolve this week, many thought the game's sequel would be announced once it reached zero. But when the title was removed from Steam yesterday, another theory was put forward: it was going free-to-play.

Developer Turtle Rock Studios has now announced that the speculation was accurate; Evolve’s free-to-play PC build goes into Beta later today. The team hopes to use this testing phase to fix bugs and make the game more stable “over a period of weeks and months.”

Evolve isn’t just becoming free-to-play, it’s also getting a major overhaul. Some of the changes include a reworking of the Hunter class so teams are less reliant on having experienced Trappers and Medics, and a redesigned progression system and tutorials. There will also be more customization options, as well as improvements to the maps, UI, load times, and overall performance.

There was a lot of hype in the run-up to Evolve’s release back in 2015, and while it was quite well-received by many critics, the lack of lasting appeal was pointed out as one of its major failing. The pre-release announcement of Evolve’s DLC, some costing as much as $100, didn’t help things.

“[...] when Evolve launched, the reception wasn’t what we expected. Sure, there were some good reviews. There were also bad reviews. Yes, there was excitement. There was also disappointment – for players and for us. The DLC shitstorm hit full force and washed away people’s enthusiasm, dragging us further and further from that first magical pick-up-and-play experience,” wrote Turtle Rock founders Chris Ashton & Phil Robb.

Anyone who has already bought Evolve will be given “Founder” status in the new FTP model, allowing access to all in-game content already owned. They will also receive “gifts, rewards, and special access.”

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Really liked evolve and as most games cost 100 moneys for full game with all dlc never really got why people were so mad. Hope this fixes it but never liked ftp and would much rather seen monsteredition coming base edition and dropping price by 50%. Better match making and ranking would have also been necessary as it was impossible to find a game with group of friends and it only got worse over time as only way to play it was without them and then you got even more lvl to mess with the broken matchmaking. Really liked the atmosphere and characters, shame their marketing team failed with the dlc marketing.
 
Too little too late really. They should've gone F2P with paid dlc from the start or just not use scummy dlc practices and sell at full price. This is only going to alienate the few fans they have left that paid full price.
 
This was one of the most disappointing games in recent memory. Especially coming from Turtle Rock of L4D2 fame. After about 6 hours of play, I'd had enough and was really upset (at myself) that I pre-paid $80 for the enhanced edition. Did that based purely on the L4D2 reputation.

Last time I'll do that...
 
It looked nice, but not enough to pay the loads they were asking, it looked like something that you could go around the content in a couple of hours.
 
This was one of the most disappointing games in recent memory. Especially coming from Turtle Rock of L4D2 fame. After about 6 hours of play, I'd had enough and was really upset (at myself) that I pre-paid $80 for the enhanced edition. Did that based purely on the L4D2 reputation.

Last time I'll do that...

Pretty much this. Their DLC model basically killed what what otherwise a VERY solid game.
 
This is not going to work out. It might bring some players initially, but I'm sure it'll be more of the same garbage the game had when it launched. Last I heard, the player base on this game was laughable and even when the game came out, I heard nothing but bad things about it. I beta tested the game on Xbox One and PC, and I really didn't enjoy it, so I never purchased it in the first place. I'm happy I made that decision. I just really don't care to give this game another shot and I don't have any friend's who are interested either. I'll just wait for better titles to come out from better companies.
 
I'm one of the guy who got hyped about this game and pre-ordered it along with 3 other friends. Of the 4 friends, I played the most with... 8 hours in. Never had that feeling before that I actually wasted money on a game. Running arround and playing cat and mouse got boring VERY quick. They should have stick to the L4D model, but with monster or something, with some arena mode. Cool graphics tho...

I totally forgot about this game until this F2P anouncement, so I might actually go back and take a look at this major hoverhaul they are promising...
 
Pretty much this. Their DLC model basically killed what what otherwise a VERY solid game.
Uh, what?

Did you even play the game, or are you fine with an utter lack of content? Not even including all the poor design decisions..
 
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