Evolve goes free-to-play

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Turtle Rock Studios' asymmetrical multiplayer title is now free on PC via Steam.

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by Chris Brand

@pass_controller

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As of today, anyone who owns Evolve will be granted "Founders Status" and all the content you own - hunters, skins and the like - gets carried over to the new version, which the developers are calling Evolve Stage 2.

You can catch the re-launch trailer below:

Founders will receive exclusive badges, skins and other cosmetic items, 3,000 Silver Keys (a new in-game currency), all past and future Adaptations for previously owned Hunters and Monsters, dozens of Weapon Skins and four unique, animated Founder badges.

Co-founders of Turtle Rock Studios, Chris Ashton and Phil Robb have penned a letter to the community listing some of the reasons why Evolve has changed to a free-to-play model:

“...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,” they said.

“We want that magic back and we aim to make it happen. We’ve made a lot of changes, improvements and additions to Evolve over the past year and we’ve got a lot more coming. In short, we’re giving this game a vigorous overhaul!”

The developers have overhauled many of the game's systems whilst changing to a free-to-play model.

There'll always be 4 hunters and 1 monster to play as, which will change weekly, and 2 characters can be unlocked by completing the tutorials. If you already own Markov and Goliath you'll instead be rewarded a large number of Silver Keys.

Silver keys can otherwise be earned by logging in every day, playing matches, completing challenges and levelling up. These are used to purchase characters, skins and perks.

Hunters have been tweaked to help with balancing and to be less reliant on having experienced Medics and Trappers on the team:

• The Trapper class no longer has a mobile arena, it's now a shared ability that all hunters have called the Shared Dome. Instead, the Trapper now has a Planet Scanner which will indicate the direction of the monster and give a brief speed boost.
• The Support's Shield Burst will block a portion of damage to all hunters within a 30m radius.
• Assault's Defense Matrix now blocks 75% of all incoming damage for a short time.

There's a long list of other changes and bug fixes which can be found here.

​Console players needn't feel left out as Evolve will be going free-to-play on all platforms after the PC beta period.

Does this renew your interest in Evolve? Let us know in the forums or comment below.

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