'Evolve' 1.3 Patch Nerfs Kraken, Brings Sweeping Changes To Game Balance

Turtle Rock Studios' asymmetric online multiplayer game "Evolve" just received a major patch. The patch 1.3 brings about sweeping changes to the monsters vs. hunters game in terms of overall game balance. The patch is already live on the PC version, with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One following suit next week.

"Evolve" is a fairly balanced game in itself, with initial telemetry figures revealing a near 50/50 win/lose ratio between players who had chosen the human hunters and those who had gone for the all-powerful monsters. However, certain monster types, such as the Wraith in particular, were being favoured by players for their overwhelmingly powerful move sets and attack attributes.

Gamespot reports that the 1.3 patch is largely aimed at ironing out these imbalances and levelling the playing field. The idea is to give gamers an incentive to choose different monster types and not just stick to a few powerful ones to maintain an unfair edge. As expected, the Wraith has suffered the most nerfing within the monster roster, followed by a more modest downgrade to the Kraken's abilities.

The official "Evolve" 1.3 patch notes mention that the Wraith's warp speed has been reduced by a sizeable 25 percent. The monster will also decloak momentarily and reveal its position when hit by gunfire. This should make her less overpowered, because although she had lower hitpoints her damage per second and ability to reach Level 3 quickly made her the most imbalanced monster in the roster.

The Kraken has been modified with fixes meant for "some flight edge cases" that were apparently making him too powerful or weak according to the situation. On the bright side, certain changes actually work in favour of the monster now. For example, tranquiliser darts now no longer slow him down. The patch also fixes a bug that prevents Kraken's Aftershock ability from breaking harpoon traps and Arc mines.

The rest of the monsters have received minor improvements and maintenance according to the patch notes. Moreover, all monsters can now view the most recent damage displayed onto their health bar. The main purpose of this visual aid is to allow players to keep a track of burst damage. Speaking of damage, Hyde's Toxic grenade weapon is now augmented with a 50 percent improvement to the DPS figures. The idea is to make this weapon better at area denial and to dissuade players from spamming it repeatedly.

"Evolve" is an online-focused PVP game bringing an asymmetric twist to classic multiplayer gameplay. The game is the distillation of PvP combat and infuses a fresh perspective on the formula by allowing player-controlled hunters to cooperatively take down other players controlling massive monsters. The game had released on the PC, PS4 and Xbox One on Feb. 10 to rave reviews and an equally vocal outrage from gamers for its DLC-oriented policies.

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Evolve Intro Cinematic (Credit: Evolve official YouTube channel)