If you were on the lookout for a weird mix of Metal Gear Solid and Dead Space, boy, do I have the game for you: Evotinction.
The debut title from developer Spikewave has horror vibes and definite influences from the aforementioned Dead Space and even Alien: Isolation.
Does this weird mix of horror and sci-fi have enough substance to take up valuable storage space as we head into the usually busy time for video game releases?
Story and Gameplay
The Evotinction story puts you in the shoes of Dr. Thomas Liu, a scientist who resides in a massive research facility to try to establish the future of the human race. This sounds like a grand task, and it is made harder when the AI onboard the facility goes mental, à la HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey or SHODAN from System Shock.
The AI has decimated several of your colleagues and deployed drones called Genies to act as a guard patrol.
Your task now is to figure out what went wrong with the AI and make things right again. A lot of the story and exposition is done between your character and one of the friendly AI drones, Oz, guiding you through the facility.
The story is pretty light. As you can tell, a lot of the developers’ efforts have gone into making this game look stunning, which we will discuss later, but overall, it’s a simplistic story that holds enough interest to keep you going. This is mainly due to Liu’s fantastic voice acting, who conveys the feeling of someone who is incredibly scared of the situation but knows he has to stay focused to get things back on track.
If I were to nitpick the story, I would say it does start confusingly as there isn’t a tonne of explanation provided at the start. The rogue AI releases a virus into the facility called RED, but you have no real idea what this virus does for a good chunk of the game, and you won’t know what is going on till you are near the end of the game.
The story might sometimes be confusing, but the game plays rather well. Evotinction is heavily stealth-focused, and a very old-school stealth game at that. Dr Liu has no real combat ability, and you never really kill any enemies; rather, you just subdue them.
The weapon that you do have is upgradeable for other hacking functions and helps you sneak past the drones. All rooms and areas require you to sneak past the drone patrols, and most of the time, you will be involved in hacking something. However, you have to make sure you do the hacking tasks quickly as if you take too long, you will set off a security alert and have a swarm of these drones on you in a flash.
Sometimes though, when sneaking around, I found the AI a bit inconsistent as to when they could see me. Sometimes they spotted me instantly, and at other times, they played dumb.
Moving around the world is pretty smooth, and for a doctor, Liu is quite agile, but you have some confusing barriers in the world, and vaulting over barriers can be very inconsistent.
Graphics
This is one area of the game that is honestly incredible. The facility does give off vibes of the USG Ishimura or the Nostromo as it is so oppressive and makes you feel like you have absolutely no hope of surviving.
The lighting in this game is fantastic and really drives home the feeling that you are one of the last remaining living beings in the facility, and it also does a good job of making you feel like you are in a futuristic setting like the aforementioned titles.
The character model of Liu and his outfit are also done superbly well, and you can see that the developers really do have a flair for visual treats.
Conclusion
Overall, I feel like this game is a great spin on sci-fi horror and feels similar to the likes of The Callisto Protocol that was released a couple years back.
Evotinction does have superior gameplay to The Callisto Protocol, well, in my opinion anyway, but due to the confusing nature of the story and the sometimes iffy AI, it stops this game from hitting the high scores. Still, I think the score given does the game justice.
For a budget title on the PS Store, it is well worth your time. If you enjoy the other games I previously mentioned in this review, you will definitely enjoy Evotinction.
Developer: Spikewave Games
Publishers: Astrolabe Games, Perpetual Europe
Platforms: PS4, PS5, PC
Release Date: 12th September 2024
Gaming Respawn’s copy of Evotinction was provided by the publisher.
