Pre-Purchasing Evolve on Xbox One Lets You Skip Grinding

[Steven Bogos]

Pre-Purchasing Evolve on Xbox One Lets You Skip Grinding

If you pre-purchase Evolve on Xbox One's digital marketplace, you'll save yourself 10-15 hours of grinding for unlockable content.

No-one really likes having to grind for content in multiplayer shooters - at best it's an annoying wall between players and the rest of the content they paid for, and at worst it's an obvious attempt from the developer to get players to buy Evolve [http://help.ea.com/en/article/battlefield-4-shortcut-kit-info/], Turtle Rock's upcoming monster hunter shooter for next-gen platforms, will of course have it's fair share of grinding, with players having to unlock characters (both monsters and hunters) by reaching a certain level of "mastery" with the weapons from the previous tier's character.

But not if you are an Xbox One owner who is willing to pre-purchase the game on the platform's digital marketplace right now. That's right, Xbox One owners who pre-purchase will be able to skip Evolve's progression system entirely, and have instant access to Tier 3 hunters and monsters both for the game's upcoming beta [http://evolvegame.com/news/evolve-has-gone-gold], as well as the final game.

They will also get instant access to the any platform [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/previews/12768-Evolve-Preview-Wraith] during the beta.

People who have had extensive hands-on time with the title estimate that skipping the game's progression system would save players around 10-15 hours of grinding. The game's beta runs from January 15-19, and the final release is set for February 10.

Additionally, pre-order customers on all platforms will receive the Monster Expansion Pack, which will add a fourth playable monster to Evolve after launch, and the Savage Goliath skin. 2K stated today that players who want to purchase the pack after release will have to shell out $14.99.

Source: Polygon [http://evolvegame.com/news/xbox-one-open-beta-play-as-wraith-the-newest-hunters]

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[Setch Dreskar]

Oh if this is true then I will be sure to tell everyone not only not to pre-purchase but tell 2K off for this sort of scumbag behavior.

We are talking about the core concept of the game, its balance which while being asymmetric with the hunters getting weaker over time and the monsters getting stronger, still required a careful balance [something that during the beta was clearly missing as unless a monster player was completely terrible they could easily take out the hunters almost immediately] and since the unlocks offer differing abilities, like the kraken having some serious balance issues being unlocked from the start seems like a terrible decision and creeps into pay to win, for a title you are already dropping full price for.

To be fair, after trying the beta I was certainly never going to pick this game up and play it, but hearing this makes me want to actively discourage others from doing so as well, where as before I was content to just avoid the title all together.

 

[Godzillarich(aka tf2godz)]

"Pre-order the game to not play most of the game". Is this what pre-orders have come to. At least when wow did this it was to allow old players to skip to the new content. who would pre-order the game to not play most of the game.

 

[Baresark]

Wow... way to kill your marketing momentum. This shows us one very valuable thing. You have to grind for things like characters rather than having them as a choice from the start. Meaning that people who pre-order automatically are going to have a better experience over the other early adopters.

 

[oldtaku]

Here, we made this bad game, but you can pre-order it to skip the worst parts.

Wow, I'm sold!

 

[EMWISE94]

Stuff like this usually rubs me the wrong, anytime somebody has to pay (even if its the same price at launch) to get an extra edge in games, it always strikes me as the developer actively admitting that they didn't make a balanced game or a developer not confident in their product and feel the need to get people to the "good parts" faster.

To me, if a game has you start at the bottom and work your way up to the good stuff, its more fun to actually have to play to get there, I mean that golden and diamond studded assault rifle wouldn't be that special if it weren't for the hours you put in leveling up to get to it, and guess what devs? sometimes grind is fun! if you know how to do it right you can eliminate that feeling of grind being tedious and boring and actually make it a fun experience.

 

[Nazulu]

And, just like that, 2K is dead to me. Dumping in a progression system just so you can add pay to skip options for suckers is part of what makes the gaming scene possibly the worst of the media industry.

You are tainting our hobby you fucking bags of shit!

 

[zalithar]

Like other posters here I am very displeased with the progression skipping. I like Disgaea. so to me removing a good grind (there are some grinds I would be glad to see go) is removing a selling point. As well as throwing in elements of P2W. Though there is one other thing in this article that concerns me just as much:


FIFTEEN BUCKS FOR A CHARACTER AND A SKIN!?!?

That would literally have to be in the top 20 best characters ever, of all time, to even come close to justifying that price. I'm really glad this game got so little of my attention.

 

[Queen Michael]

I'm gonna prepurchase this game and I wasn't even planning to play it. That's how much I hate grinding.

 

[Nurb]

Pre-ordering is poison. Don't do it. Evolve is a shallow money-grab that doesn't care about gameplay. Don't buy it.

 

[Elfgore]

And this just went from a possible first week purchase to a discount one. I don't mind grinding for items, but playable characters I do. That and I've slowly lost interest over this game the past few months.

 

[Clive Howlitzer]

Is it weird that it has the opposite effect on me than they intended? Not only do I not want to pre-order it on Xbox One but now I don't want to buy it at all.

 

[loa]

Best case scenaro: this is fun gameplay which they make you skip so pre-ordering breaks the game just like most preorder guns and whatnot do.

Worst case: they acknowledge that this is just an annoying roadblock specifically designed to "encourage" players to buy booster packs and whatnot for the game they paid full price for which also requires a subscription on consoles in order to be able to be played at all.

 

[milijanko]

I stopped bothering with MP games that lock gameplay elements behind arbitrary walls. I think BF:BC2 "Magnum Ammunition" and "Ceramic Body Armor" were the breaking point to me. That was the stupidest BS I have ever seen in a MP game.

From my perspective unlocks only delays me from having fun I paid for and leave newcomers often useless to their team until they unlock all the equipment needed. So after hearing about this, it seems I won't bother with Evolve either.

 

[tzimize]

I'm gonna prepurchase this game and I wasn't even planning to play it. That's how much I hate grinding.

^__________^

Oh the days when all the grinding you had to do was refrain from buying much for a round or two to save up for an AWP in CS

 

[MerlinCross]

Pre-ordering is poison. Don't do it. Evolve is a shallow money-grab that doesn't care about gameplay. Don't buy it.

Agreed on the pre-ordering but really? Gameplay looks fun to me but I don't know much about the progression. Must be really bad if they are letting people pay to skip it.

 

[zidine100]

Why does this remind me of the free to play model, but instead of free everyone pays/

 

[Hairless Mammoth]

I thought grinding in MP games was to encourage you develop the skill to play the game, and the rewards would make you feel like you worked hard to earn something. I guess TR couldn't balance that right, or make it enjoyable, so they decided to make skipping a large section of it a preorder bonus. (That or MS and 2K struck a sinisterly foolish deal, that makes the game look bad.)

These xbox marketplace preorder bonus also has the nice extra of locking buyers into not being able to recoup some of their purchase price, when they decide the game is shit. Way to dangle the carrot on the string, MS and 2K. Don't fall for this scam, people. It's another anti used games tactic.

I really wish preorder bonuses would die, in a reality breaking ultra supernova. They used to be physical goods that rewarded those who did show support for a game early. Now they're lures for a possibly bad game and made out of code, so the price is a one time payment to the dev team's wages and the bonuses can be sold again later on as DLC to the masses not willing to risk large sums of money on an unreviewed game.

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

This isn't a reward for pre-purchasing as much as it's a punishment if you don't do it because it's an aspect of gameplay that a lot of people despise. Be sure to skip this one as not to encourage anyone else to do this kind of shit. Fuck this generation. It's been less than two years and it's already worse than the last one. F2P business model doesn't belong in a full priced product.

Gameplay looks fun to me but I don't know much about the progression. Must be really bad if they are letting people pay to skip it.

Yeah, it may look fun but you can't know that it actually is. Not in these days. And then they announce that you can skip a large chunk of gameplay if you pre-order like a good boy. That's a telltale sign that something is wrong.