Face-Off: Evolve

[Administrator]

Previous builds of Turtle Rock's Evolve showed promise, thanks to the combination of impressive CryEngine-powered visuals and a unique take on the traditional team-based multi-player shooter - but at the same time the experience was let down by technical issues ranging from slow and inconsistent matchmaking to unstable netcode, leading to player disconnects. Launching with a massive 3GB day one update that promises to fix a wide range of bugs, alongside performance improvements, the good news is that the final version of Evolve provides a significantly better online experience than the pre-release code you may have already played.
Matchmaking across all formats is improved, with waiting times that usually take between a few seconds to two minutes, while lobby disconnects occur less frequently - though they are not completely eliminated. The Xbox One and PC versions of the game feel the most polished in these areas, with increased stability compared to the PS4 version. For example, matchmaking is a more inconsistent experience on Sony's system, often leaving you waiting between five and 20 minutes when things don't aren't quite working as they should. Rebooting the game usually takes care of the problem, although we noticed that the same problem usually crops up again after a few faultless matches.
General online performance during gameplay is also more stable, resulting in fewer disconnections and crashes, although both problems still appear on occasion. The end result is that the experience feels smoother and generally more consistent to play than before, with technical hiccups less frequently impacting the enjoyment of the game. That said, there are still a few issues: monsters have a tendency to clip through scenery on occasion during combat, while frame-rates often stutter heavily when a player is placed into an existing match, particularly if you get spawned right in the heart of battle. At one point we were also confronted with a major rendering bug on the Xbox One that projected environment shadows in mid air, flickering and floating in and out of view. Thankfully we only encountered this issue once over several hours of play, and it resolved itself on the next respawn.
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