Evolva Review

Every once in a while a game surfaces in this over saturated market of ours that offers something unique and different to gamers. As somebody who gets to see a ton of games in all their faultiness and/or glory you just get really excited when a game world forces you to stay addicted for a certain period of time, sucking you into its rich environments and fast-paced action. Think different is the motto! Think Evolva kids!

The game is not by any means revolutionary, but it's the combination of 'little things' that determines Evolva's unique visual and gameplay style. Set in surreal environments of an alien planet, Evolva is based on a very imaginative premise that allows for an elaborate and vibrant art design, as well as some tactically unique combat planning.

The player is in control of a team of four Genohunters, as they're called; a unique type of extraterrestrial task-force equipped with the sole capability of inheriting traits of other living (well they were, before you killed them) organisms e.g. Sucking their DNA and as a result, inheriting valuable abilities. Genohunters are deployed to different locations in order to combat various types of eco-threatening organism. And so the story begins --- a vicious and resourceful virus has started to spread over a defenseless planet killing off indigenous life forms, and sucking the planet dry of its resources. In order to protect its core the virus is creating different types of 'protective organisms' (creatures) capable of inflicting serious damage to anything that tries to go up against their creator. No fear thou, as vicious as the virus is, Genohunters are a slick bunch set to resolve this matter in the most efficient manner. They'll mutate themselves in order to acquire the best of any organism's weapons or abilities... The more life forms they kill the more skills (DNA traits) they acquire; and the deadlier they become.

Evolva is a tactical, squad-based action-adventure game that provides the players with the possibility to tailor the team of Genohunters specifically according to their liking. No Genohunting team will ever be the same. Every gamer will have different ideas about mutating their team so that it could best fit their needs. Truly a unique aspect of the game --- one that holds great potential both in single player planning and multiplayer battles. Being able to mutate your Genohunters in all sorts of ways provides for some highly non-linear ways of resolving certain 'hot situations'. You can decide to work on Genos' physical abilities and maybe duck, run and jump your way out of trouble, or you could opt for a more weapon-happy approach and simply annihilate everything that stands in your way. Or you could decide to go for a mixed approach by balancing your team's skills out; arranging so that they would present a potent combination of speed, agility and firepower. There is a number of different ways you could complete the missions, and as I have mentioned earlier, no player will reach the goal with the same type of Genos under their control.

Talk about control... Managing Genohunters is a breeze. The screen is divided into four windows. The main window is showing the selected Genohunter led by the player, while the other, mini-windows show the actions of your teammates. By default your teammates will follow you around and do stuff on their own. There is an option of placing specific team members to specific locations if you eventually decide to exert some more control over them. I have found the teammates to be an irreplaceable part of my success. The friendly AI seems to be on the highest level of today's squad-based action standards (yes, and that includes that wacky ass piece of crap - Daikatana). Apart from some very difficult exercises that my fellow Genohunters weren't able to resolve on their own, I was actually amazed how well they followed me around and fought against the creatures. So well in fact that I let some of them handle certain delicate situations on their own, knowing they could handle the pressure. Now, how cool is that?

The enemy AI is just as impressive. Specific weapon types mostly define creatures' fighting strategies. I could notice certain cunning combat strategies during the intense combats; attack formations, grouping and even defensive tactics. Short-range combat creatures like Claw Spiders will back off when sufficiently wounded, and will even try to regroup before attacking an able Genohunter. Other long-range combat creatures will try to keep you as far away from them as possible. The idea is to kick your butt from a distance, and not let you get in too up close and personal. Some of the Claw Spiders will attack in formations with Fire Spiders, protecting the artillery with infantry units so to speak.

The whole experience of team combat is on a different level from what we're used to seeing in today's games. The action is fluent, dynamic and most of all intense. Combined with some intelligent mission design and balanced out weapons, I can emphatically claim that Evolva's gameplay is seriously fun and addictive as hell. Wait until you start mutating your group of Genos, then you'll know what I'm talking about.

The only real downside that I could think of is the lack of more cut-scenes, and NPCs. You just get that feeling that if they put in a little bit more of movie-like atmosphere into the storytelling and plot development Evolva could have been one of the best squad-based action games of 2000. I just kept thinking how cool it would have been to blend certain aspects of Outcast and Evolva. That would have been some game, I tell you!

Regardless, Evolva turned out to be one solid gameplay experience that didn't come banging in through the front door with over pretentious media hype. Computer Artworks team worked hard at it, perfected their organic environments, and made a much more elaborate project than any of their organic screensavers ever were (no pun intended fellas).

Organic Visuals and T&L

Last, but not the least, let me say a few words about the unique visual experience of Evolva. The 3D engine utilizes the power of Hardware T&L to a great degree of success. The background environments are a trade off, meaning that the beautiful land scenery and the high poly count of trees and hills, are balanced out in terms of frame rate with a relatively simplistic looking, but effective sky. The character models are very high in poly count and beautifully animated. I played the game on a PIII 550 and GeForce 256, in full detail, 1024 resolution and 32bit color palette without any noticeable FPS drops. The colors in the game are lively and go well with the organic art style. Playing Evolva I certainly got the sense of being on an alien planet, and the creatures combined with the abstract environments made me feel like an adventurer exploring uncharted territories. Solid frame rates and fluent animations made the game's non-stop action sequences even more appealing.

The final word on the visuals is that Computer Artworks managed to deliver both in terms of artistic value and 3D machinery. Even when the screen was filled with a bunch of enemies and Genohunters the FPS count remained fairly steady, largely due to the fact that Transform and Lighting calculations were being performed without CPU's interference.

Final Few Words...

This is fairly easy. I have found Evolva to be an entertaining, well-rounded project with plenty of goodies to offer to gamers. My advice is, go buy it!

My best bet is that you'll like it, at least as much as I did...