Evolve goes Free to Play on PC

Remember Evolve? Probably not--as I so cleverly joked about in this article right here, Turtle Rock's Evolve fell into the same class of game as Titanfall: a game that received massive critical acclaim when it first came out, but while it had an original premise and unique gameplay, it didn't offer anything beyond that, so while it enjoyed about a month of fervent popularity, it was eventually forgotten as people got accustomed to the novelty and moved on to something with more staying power. This was especially problematic for Evolve, as the game no only charged your standard $60 entrance fee, it came with a whole bunch of DLC that added some--but not enough--of the much-needed variety the game was lacking.

Well, yesterday, Evolve was pulled from the Steam store, and on the website, a mysterious countdown clock started ticking down. Twenty-four hours later, Turtle Rock has no revealed after... needless ceremony, that Evolve has been replaced with Evolve: Stage 2--turning the PC version of the game free-to-play.

This is a beta test, so Turtle Rock can test out new features and the servers while players, presumably, flood to the now free-to-play experience. While they weren't 100% clear about all the changes and differences that the free version would include, they were quick to say that anyone who had purchased the game before this point would get the "Founder" status. You'll get:

• 3,000 Silver Keys (in-game currency to buy the optional cosmetics), all past and future Adaptations for previously owned Hunters and Monsters, dozens of Weapon Skins, and four unique, animated Founder badges.
• If you owned any Hunters, Monsters, or Skins previously, those will be carried over to Evolve Stage 2.

Right now, it seems like this is the 'right' kind of free-to-play game, where everything can apparently be unlocked through play, although how practical that actually is (how many keys you get and how much things cost) is still up in the air. And while players who bought the game might be pissed... well, I'm sure they'd rather have people to play with, and this update will unquestionably manage to do that. Perhaps this will finally make Evolve relevant again?

We'll have to see.