This article was taken from the March 2015 issue of WIRED magazine. Be the first to read WIRED's articles in print before they're posted online, and get your hands on loads of additional content by subscribing online.
Creating an iconic monster isn't easy: for every King Kong there's a Sharktopus. But for Evolve, Turtle Rock Studios' first major new title since the best-selling Left 4 Dead, the California-based developer wanted to create a creature that was both memorable and adaptable.
The game takes place on the planet Shear, where human settlers are being terrorised by alien creatures. Players work together as a team of Hunters (pick from medic, assault, trapper and support classes) -- or join the baddies as one of three species of monsters with power-up abilities: Goliath, Kraken or Wraith. (If you pre-ordered the game, you get a fourth monster, Behemoth.)
However, early designs for the beasts proved not monstrous enough: "We had these very abstract looking creatures," says Phil Robb, 44, Turtle Rock's cofounder and creative director. "In the game, you didn't know what you were looking at."
So the studio turned to monster archetypes and the natural world: Goliath, a fire-breathing reptile, references, among other beasts, gorillas via classic creature Godzilla. During gameplay, the monsters can adapt and enhance their abilities to make the most of their environment -- or just overpower the humans. "People have pointed out that what the monster does is not actually evolution -- it's metamorphosis," says Robb. "The word
'evolve' plays more into the idea that you have to change in order to meet the various challenges -- you evolve your strategy."
Evolve is out for Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and PC on February 13
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
