Evotinction PS5 Review. Evotinction is a hacking based stealth game, and the debut effort from studio Spikewave Games. From the first trailer I saw, I was immediately intrigued by Evotinction’s air of mystery, and the promise of a strong narrative, along with the unique blend of hacking abilities and stealth on display certainly seemed like it could be a worthwhile experience.
Evotinction Review (PS5) – A Fascinating Steath ‘em Up in a Futuristic World
Evotinction opens by showing the player a number: 2009. This is the driving force for the player; before you find out about the virus that is infecting the AI, and prior to finding out about any personal connections.
This is the number of active human signal in the facility that Evotinction is set in. Since Doctor Liu upgrades himself with cybernetic enhancements at the opening of the game, it is a number that will always be present during gameplay and periodically go down.
This is your push to finish your mission as quickly as possible. Of course, you can’t complete your mission without the help of your trusty AI companion, OZ. While OZ does not come along with you on your journey, he will always communicate with you through your Personal Interface.
You will find plenty of other AIs while you are on your journey, however they are just a bit less friendly than OZ. There is a wide variety of enemies that can make your day go from bad to worse, depending on how well you are at sneaking around.
I Dream of Different Genies
When it comes to stealth in video games, players can often find the mechanics of sneaking around to be hit or miss. Thankfully, Evotinction’s approach to sneaking around and taking down enemies is a very engaging one.
Doctor Liu has all of the physical ability of a normal person, so this means that he won’t be flipping and dancing around the shadows like a ninja. Rather, he depends on the environment around him and his hacking abilities to overcome his cybernetic foes.
In the beginning hours, the enemies that you will face most often will be some variation on the Genie, similar to OZ. Unlike OZ, however, these Genies have been infected by the RED virus, which has turned the AI companions that once filled the facility to help scientists further humanity against them instead. These floating orbs now prowl through the halls in search of any remaining humans.
Some Genies are able to hear, while others are not. The only way to find out one way or the other is by Doctor Liu getting close enough to scan the bots. Scanning the bots can help you find out how careful you have to be around them, but what about how to take them out? Fortunately, are many abilities that the good Doctor can gain throughout the game.
Fight Back Against the Machines!
One of the most useful is the ability to blind the enemies. Because you are hacking them, you do not have to physically touch the robots to do this, but the further you are away from them, the longer it will take to hack. If you take longer than five seconds to hack a bot, they will be able to trace your location from the hack, which can be an issue if there are more than one or two left in the area.
My favorite strategy is to use the virus variant of this hack, which will infect the AI that you hacked and any surrounding AI when it is activated. If you get yourself in a tough spot, all hope is not lost. You can activate a DDOS attack if you get surrounded, which anyone playing online games around Christmas time can tell you is no joke.
This attack will take down the surrounding bots for a short time and scramble their location tracking on you, allowing you to either make a quick escape or shut your assailants down.
There are only two ways to permanently deal with your foes: you can either shoot them with your E-Blaster, which has limited ammo and is needed for some puzzles, or you can scan the barcode that is printed somewhere on them.
This barcode initiates a shutdown sequence that will disable the droid. The best part is that if you need practice, Evotinction has you covered. There is a list of simulation missions that can be accessed from any Personal Interface terminal, which essentially serves the same role as Metal Gear Solid’s VR Missions.
They are a consequence free area to try out all of your abilities as you gain them, and they will even give you rewards that carry over and help you out in upgrading and gaining new abilities.
Put on the Pressure of the Atmosphere
My favorite thing about Evotinction, above even the very stellar gameplay, is the atmosphere. One thing that is very apparent when walking through the halls of HERE is that this used to be a functioning facility.
There are research labs, warehouses, offices, and common areas that are all in differing states of disarray from the attack on the facility. Each one of these tells the player a story as they make their way through the environments. It’s made all the more impactful by the music and sounds in the game, which are almost nonexistent. Except in rare cases, there are no non-diagetic sounds in this game.
The sounds you hear as the player are those that Doctor Liu would really be hearing as he is walking and sneaking through the abandoned corridors.
Each creak and groan of the once-vibrant facility puts the player on edge just as much as it would the character that they are embodying. This game is an easy recommendation for those that enjoy stealth adventures, environmental storytelling, or a good old fashioned machine uprising.
The journey through HERE’s facilities to stop the RED virus and hopefully save the lives of those stuck in the lockdown with you is one that will keep you on the edge of your seat until the credits roll.
Evotinction is out now on PC, PS5, and PS4.
Review code kindly provided by publisher.