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You never know what developer Turtle Rock has cooking in its mad scientist, monster-birthing labs. Evolve started off with a fire-breathing Goliath, a lightning-charged flying Kraken, a ghost with razor blades for hands, and twelve unique hunters to fight against those monstrosities. Not enough variety for you? Well, the developers don't think so either. There's DLC to be made, and the designers are busy brainstorming and concocting new creatures and hunters to add to Evolve's competitive multiplayer.
Evolve's first DLC is adding one new monster, four hunters, the Observer mode, and two environments. Not a small amount of content. The DLC characters are made playable to those who purchase the DLC pack, but even if you don't buy in, you can still play alongside the new characters and monsters in the added maps when the DLC releases on March 31 on Xbox One and April 30 for PC and PS4. For more details on the new monster, hunters, and maps, check out the following slides.
The monster is a ground-smashing, rolling Behemoth
The Behemoth is (as you might have guessed from its name) the largest monster in the roster. This giant beast is tall, wide, and covered head to toe in rock armor (except for the exposed guts on its belly), allowing it to absorb more damage than its monster counterparts. The Behemoth may look like a slow, lumbering beast at first glance, but once its special abilities get added to the equation, a skilled Behemoth can get away from and single out members of any hunter team.
One of the Behemoth's most useful skills is the roll, which may be the best way to travel in Evolve. It curls up into a giant, fiery boulder allowing you to traverse the map's flat paths rapidly, making the map's windy roads and paths feel like a giant pinball game. On top of that, the monster can smash the ground to create a towering rock to block off or trap enemies, and grab hunters at a distance with a tongue grab. For damage dealing, lava bombs can be used to ignite areas with precision-thrown fireballs, and the fissure ability sends out a flaming path of destruction directly in front of the Behemoth.
Torvald is an assault hunter that's more machine than man
If you mixed the Terminator with a Viking warrior, you'd end up with Torvald. Most of his body is robotic - a result of the monster attack on the planet Shear - but all those mechanical parts just help make him a devastating killing machine who can deal massive amounts of damage at any distance.
Torvald can pour on the pain like no other assault hunter in the game. His back has two artillery cannons attached to it, giving you the ability to hit slow moving targets at long range with an explosive, area-of-effect barrage. When the battle gets up close and personal, he can deploy shrapnel grenades that weaken the monster and enhance the incoming damage from your team. Plus, he has an eight round, auto-fire shotgun that blasts all eight shots in one trigger pull. If you're the monster, you don't want to be anywhere near this guy.
Slim is an inhuman medic that prefers the front lines
Slim looks like he belongs on the monster side of Evolve's matchmaking given his insect carapace and buggy eyeballs, but, don't be fooled: Slim was once human. His insect body is what you get when gene splicing is motivated by experimental war science. But despite his appearance and insectoid claws, Slim is a pretty badass medic.
Slim is a front lines fighter who charges in and fights his battles up close. His leech gun rapidly builds his healing burst, allowing you to heal nearby teammates every five seconds as opposed to the regular 20 second cooldown. He also carries a healing drone that can be sent to heal a single teammate or pick up a downed ally. For defense, he can deploy a spore cloud, preventing the monster from sniffing and seeing its enemies highlighted on screen. A loss of sniff power might not sound like a huge setback, but it's surprisingly difficult for monster players to attack hunters without being able to key in on their red outlines and health bars.
Sunny is a support with nuclear capabilities
Sunny is the first female support character to join the fray, but compared to the rest of the new additions to the hunter roster, she seems like a run-of-the-mill support hunter. She doesn't have any weird mutations or tragic stories about being transformed into a cyborg, but the tech-savvy gearhead is sure to win you over with her a big gun and handy set of abilities.
Her fuel booster is the perfect gadget to help your team catch up with monsters in Evolves Hunt mode. It projects a jetpack boost bonus to one ally, allowing that player to launch themselves long distances extremely quickly. Once you're in the fight, she can set a stationary, shield projector anywhere on the ground to protect you and your team. Then there's her mini-nuke grenade launcher. This beast shoots grenades that do enormous amounts of damage and explode in satisfying, fiery balls of death. Doesn't get much better than that.
Crow is a lone wolf trapper with a pet bat
Crow is one of the most interesting additions to Evolve hunters. He has a bit of the "I'm the pointman" look to him with his animal hide clothing and Sam Fisher goggles. As the Tracker, he's responsible for zeroing in on the monster's location. Like Trapper Maggie and her pet Daisy, Crow relies on his animal friend to sniff out his prey, but with this pair, you have more direct control over your pet batray's movements.
Releasing the batray, Gobi, sends it off in a single direction and highlights every living thing in its vicinity. It doesn't point out the monster to you, so you'll have to recognize it by the silhouette. In addition to his tracker bat, Crow has two weapons that have primary and secondary firing modes. His stasis gun can use rapid fire to slow the monster for one second per blast, or charge for a longer lasting ten-second slowing effect. His long rifle will do normal damage if fired rapidly, but a fully charged shot will completely ignore the monster's armor, which may keep monster players from charging hunters with full armor and low health.
Two new maps have been added
Whether you buy into the DLC or not, you'll get access to the two new DLC maps, Broken Hill Mine and Broken Hill Foundry. These are both fully-featured maps, meaning they include the Evacuation environment bonuses for the winning teams, which can provide enhanced jetpacks and extra shield projectors for hunters, and boosted melee damage for monsters.
The Broken Hill maps feel much more confined than the standard environments. The Broken Hill Mine is a series of tight corridors that surround a central chamber. This is an excellent environment to make use of the Behemoth's rock wall and rolling abilities to block off hunters and escape. Broken Hill Foundry feels even smaller, adding verticality and narrow alleyways in favor of wide open spaces. Both maps will definitely keep both teams on their toes.
Observer mode gives you an audience
The first DLC pack also includes Observer mode, a spectator mode built for displaying matches to an eSports audience and shoutcasting. The interface allows you to see everything that's happening including player views, third-person camera angles, and the overworld map. Player status is also displayed so you can see the health and armor of the monster as well as the health of each hunter.
The spectator can also view the survival odds of each team based on the characters' health status, perks obtained, and armor level. Observer's features are catered toward creating better viewing experiences on professional streams, so if you like to sit and watch the pros do their thing, you'll get an even better picture of what's happening in those matches.
Check back for more DLC info
That's all we have for the Evolve's first DLC pack. Are you looking forward to taking control of the Behemoth? Did any of the new hunters catch your eye? Looking forward to trying your tactics on the new maps? Let us know your thoughts on Evolve's DLC by leaving a comment below.
For more from GamesRadar+, check out the games we want to see at E3 2015 and take a look at our list of the best Xbox One games.
