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Evolva May 5, 2002 Price: $1 (Jewel case)
When gamers spend $50 on a game they tend to immerse themselves totally into the virtual world reading all sorts of secondary materials to get a better understanding of the environs and characters. When gamers spend $1 on a game they tend not to give a rat's ass. As my attention span faltered during the extended-length intro and my hand instinctively reached for the ESC key, I am thus not even entirely sure what the back-story of Evolva is--though I have a feeling that teaching it in a Kansas high school could get you arrested. Evidently there is a parasite that is infecting whole planets at a time (though it manifests itself by creating spider like drones that get progressively larger over the course of the game) and it is up to a team of four "GenoHunters" to stop it. They visit one planet after another collecting genetic material from indigenous species which they use to "evolve" themselves to fight the parasite. Strictly speaking, "mutate" would be more scientifically accurate than "evolve," though I doubt they teach that in Kansas, either.
When Evolva was released, it was considered the proving ground for new video card features such as on-chip T&L (transform and lighting) and bump mapping--not only is the nVidia logo on the back of the Jewel case, but screenshots from Evolva were used as well on the boxes of GeForce2 video cards to demonstrate their new features. Strangely enough, despite the constant hype, few people were actually impressed with its graphics. Contemporary reviews rated them as serviceable enough, though the levels were far too repetitive in their features to really be considered extraordinary. Now, at high resolution with 4x FSAA enabled, not to mention the Dot3 bump mapping (a feature that was released in a later patch), the game still remains credibly current in comparison with recent releases. Although the landscape is indeed sparse, if suitably otherworldly, it is the animation of the four GenoHunters will win nearly anyone over. As they evolve, their bodies reflect the changes in ways as subtle as musculature and as dramatically satisfying as when their hands instantly sprout enormous claws. Seeing them gait around the various plateaus and vistas of the game, one leaping tremendously after the next, really is a wondrous thing to behold.
Although players can directly control only one of their characters at a time they can switch between them with a press of one key (each of the four has a special trait: agility, speed, strength, and intelligence, each useful in different situations) and can group or guide them to specific locations or targets with another. This is especially useful for making jumps that are hard to accomplish manually--it is often easier to direct the rest of the team to make the leap and then switch to one of them, calling the remaining GenoHunter to join the rest. They tend to fight admirably on their own, using the sharp talons, flaming breath, or darted-quills that they have evolved--especially when there is a large enemy where their varied strategies tend to compliment each other well. On the other hand, many times during the game the player will be completely swarmed with parasites (often upwards of 30, when normally only 2-5 appear), and they will be much less effective. This is mostly due to the parasites' overwhelming propensity to attack the character that the player is controlling--necessitating much fleeing. The end result of this is that the parasites are chasing the player and the GenoHunters are chasing the parasites; meaning that not a whole lot of actual combat is taking place. Evolva would be much more exciting if the AI treated all of the GenoHunters equally, whether the player was controlling an individual or not.
While the game pretends to be about ecology, new DNA samples are doled out like any other weapon in any other game. Early on, players will have to make a significant jump in order to continue on. Fortunately enough, there is a deceased creature with giant frog-like legs near by. After using the creature's body to evolve the GenoHunters they can now make the leap with relative ease. Once a new genetic ability is given, they can usually only be developed further by sacrificing other skills (e.g. increasing the size of a GenoHunter's claws might decrease its running ability) though, on average, all of their traits tend to improve somewhat over the course of the game. Evolva is a hard game, especially so during the occasional
swarming episodes which can vary randomly in difficulty due to their
chaotic nature. Because of this, it takes a good amount of dogged
perseverance to make it through to the more rewarding sections of
the game after the particularly slow start. For a dollar, not many
gamers are going to feel compelled to see the game through--though
if you appreciate the alien landscapes and the four strange little
GenoHunters, it is certainly a dollar well spent. by Richard Leader |
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