THERE'S a saying: If we act like prey, they'll act like predators.
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And that pretty much perfectly sums up the new shooter from Turtle Rock Studios and 2K Games EVOLVE.
Just when you thought the shooter genre had about tapped out all the more unique, original and distinctive ways to amuse gamers, along comes Turtle Rock with one of the more imaginative and enjoyably fresh shooters released in quite some time.
The overall theme behind Evolve is the thrill of the hunt.
The premise is so simple but so exciting.
Take four professional, well-equipped and well-trained hunters and pit them against a giant, ferocious and powerful beast and you pretty much have Evolve summed up in a nutshell.
There is a storyline to Evolve, but one can only wonder if people really care about a plot or a backstory in a game like this.
For those who DO care, the story of Evolve is set in the distant future on the planet Shear, a faroff, distant world in a region of space called Far Arm.
The human race has made the long journey to Shear and has established a number of colonies on the planet. Those colonies are now under attack by a race of evil creatures.
To combat the threat, a legendary figure named William Cabot is hired. He does this by hiring a team of monster hunters to take down the monsters one by one.
This hunt and those hunters form the basis of the story and gameplay.
When you click the start button, you are faced with the biggest decision of the game - will you play as one of the four hunters or as the lone monster?
The hunter team is made up of four characters - each one a distinctive character class, which brings with it unique skills, talents and abilities.
You can play as the assault character (the one that damages the monster), the support character (the one that buffs the hunters), the medic (the one who heals the hunters) and the most important character of them all; and the trapper, the leader of the group whose job it is to track the creature and follow it.
The premise of the game is to track down the monster and kill it using your unique skill sets, heavy weaponry and a vast array of wonderful little tricks and high-tech tools.
The monsters are wonderful creatures, powerful and brutal - out to survive by any means necessary. When you choose to play as the monster, you're in for a real treat.
Firstly, you have the choice of one of three monsters - the awesome Goliath who will attack head-on, breathing fire and throwing enormous, mankilling boulders at anyone or anything.
Or perhaps the mighty, flying kraken, spewing rivers of lightning on your opponents is more to your liking. Or then there's the almighty wraith, which boasts amazing powers.
Whichever one you choose, there's a lot of strategy to playing the monster.
You'll need to feed by attacking one of the many smaller creatures that inhabit the planet.
This serves two purposes. Firstly it will boost your shield, a rather helpful side effect. It will also help you build towards enabling your monster to move through its various stages of evolution.
You start at stage one and slowly move to stage two then the most powerful form, stage three where you are a virtually unbeatable killing machine.
The key to success is to stay hidden from the hunters, while you build up your strength and increase your powers to stage three.
The hunters aim is to track down the monster and kill it before it can reach that stage.
It's all very exciting and full of wonderful expectation.
The hunters can play online with four players, or you can play offline and have the AI control one of the hunters (or the monster if you like) by supplementing it with a bot.
Either way, it works just brilliantly.
If you're in the market for a topnotch shooter with a difference, a game that boasts a number of different modes other than the basic one mentioned here, then forget the droids because Evolve could be the game you're looking for.