• Left 4 Dead's successor wasn't a flop it was just 'ahead of its

    From TechnologyDaily@1337:1/100 to All on Fri Aug 26 17:15:03 2022
    Left 4 Dead's successor wasn't a flop it was just 'ahead of its time', say devs

    Date:
    Fri, 26 Aug 2022 16:00:29 +0000

    Description:
    Game director Phil Robb responds to Evolve's recent resurgence.

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    Seven-year-old multiplayer shooter Evolve recently received a second wind,
    but developer Turtle Rock Studios reckons its ill-fated follow-up to Left 4 Dead might have stood a better chance of survival if it had been released today.

    The asymmetric competitive shooter in which four players face off against a mutating, player-controlled monster was all but shuttered only a few years after its release in 2015. After initially gaining critical traction, Evolve was relaunched with a free-to-play model a year after launch, before its dedicated multiplayer servers were taken offline in 2018.

    But its seen a resurgence in recent weeks. After publisher 2K resurrected Evolves peer-to-peer servers, the games player numbers rocketed above
    anything it had seen over the past few years.

    Speaking to TechRadar Gaming, director Phil Robb reckons that resurgence is owed to loyal fans, but also influenced by the gaming industry at large. With gamings shift towards team-based shooters like Overwatch 2 , and the popularity of free-to-play shooters such as Fortnite , he thinks Evolve might have been spared its demise in todays climate.

    Evolve might have been a bit ahead of its time and might have a better shot today than it did in 2015 if it properly launched with a different business model, says Robb.

    Unfortunately, being ahead of ones time isnt always a good thing, since that wont keep the lights on. I think if Evolve was launched today as a free-to-play game, it would have a much better shot.

    Also, given the number of team-based games that have launched since Evolve, I think audiences now probably will have an easier time understanding how it works than they may have back at launch. Mutating form (Image credit: 2K Games)

    When Evolve hit shelves back in 2015, its microtransactions were quickly derided by fans and critics. As Polygon reported at the time, more than $60 about 50 / AU$85 worth of DLC was excluded from its season pass, which already set players back $24.99 about 20 / AU$35. Although not out-of-place among the monetization models of todays live-service games, its pricing structure soured the enjoyment of fans whod otherwise praised its team-based gameplay.

    In Evolve, players have to coordinate class-specific abilities across vertical, fast-paced gunfights, while surviving sporadic attacks from the stealthy enemy Monster. That beastie, meanwhile, will gradually evolve into a more powerful version of itself, unlocking new abilities across a single match.

    Its tough to point to any one particular thing that kept Evolve from sustaining an audience long-term, says Robb. Certainly, the way Evolve was priced and pre-sold did not help, nor did the DLC fiasco, but there were also design aspects that back in 2015 may have been tough for larger audiences to understand.

    Evolves hunters, in particular, really did have to play correctly as a team for a match to be enjoyable. If everyone is not playing their part well, the game just breaks down.

    While Evolves player count is tailing off again, its brief surge in
    popularity still stands out as anomalous. In an industry dominated by live-service games that continuously reattract players through seasonal updates, its unusual for a stagnant, seven-year-old title to receive a spike of interest.

    In 2015 and 2016, it was hard seeing Evolve fail to sustain a healthy community after pretty solid initial sales, so watching Evolve now get a bit of a redemption story is pretty great, says Robb. Were also glad players who always loved the game get a chance to play again. After a shaky first season, Dice says Battlefield 2042 is 'on the right track'



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    Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/news/left-4-deads-successor-wasnt-a-flop-it-was-just -ahead-of-its-time-say-devs/


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