Turtle Rock has added a new Hunter to its asymmetric shooter Evolve named Emet, a medical drone that's been "repurposed" for combat. Naturally, the upgrade process didn't go entirely smoothly, and so Emet suffers from a sort of robotic split-personality disorder that's left it part extra-helpful Claptrap, and part HK-51, but more homicidally unhinged.
"E.M.E.T. drones are used throughout the galaxy whenever disaster strikes and injured people need medical attention," the Evolve website explains. "They are reliable medical techs but not very good in battle situations, so Jack shoved a death commando logic core into this one!"
Emet packs a Replay Cannon that tags a target with an explosive dart and then launches several rapid-fire homing missiles at it. He carries Healing Buoys into battle that will regenerate health in nearby allies, and a Respawn Beacon that teleports Hunters into combat directly from the Dropshop, thereby reducing respawn times to 30 seconds. He also has, when he's in murder-mode, a very foul mouth.
Emet launched yesterday alongside Evolve update 7, which features various fixes and balance tweaks, the addition of colorblind support, and plans for two free Hunter adaptations, Wasteland Maggie and Tech Sgt. Hank. Unfortunately for Turtle Rock and 2K, neither the android nor the update appear as though they'll do much to resurrect Evolve: The free weekend in September drove relatively strong numbers for that month, but its average player count over the past 30 days has sunk to just 333—well outside the lower limits of Steam's top 100 game rankings,
Whether you want to be a monster or murder them this weekend, video games have you covered. Evolve [official site] and Killing Floor 2 [official site] are both holding free trial weekends on Steam right now, giving you until 9pm UK time on Sunday to play the full versions of the first-person shooters. As is customary, both of the games are on sale too, if you turn out to want them for ever and ever and ever until entropy tears Steam apart particle by particle and we all become nothing.
Turtle Rock has announced that its four-on-one shooter Evolve, including all currently available DLC characters and content included with the Hunt 2.0 update that went out earlier this month, will be free for everyone this weekend.
Evolve's Hunting Season One and the playable Behemoth Monster will go free at 12:01 am PT on September 4, and remain open to all for 24 hours. At 12:01 am PT on September 5, the freebie will switch to the characters and content included with Hunting Season 2, which will also stay free for everyone for 24 hours. Anyone who purchases the game once the weekend is over will retain the progress they earned during the free play period, except for DLC unlocks, which will revert to zero.
Turtle Rock is also dropping the Meteor Goliath monster free of charge to all players, permanently, on September 3.
It's fair to say that Turtle Rock and 2K need this weekend to be a success. Evolve is still stuck well outside the top 100 games on Steam based on player count, and its numbers continue to slide: Its 30-day player average in mid-June was a little over 600, but over the past 30 days has declined to less than 450.
Fresh out of the Evolve [official site] employment program for shooty dudes and aliens is Turtle Rock Studio’s new Trapper class hunter, a term that in Evolve-speak refers to one of the four characters whose aim it is to slaughter the monster baddie. Meet Jack, a guy who refers to himself as The Jackal and likewise looks like he’s just slipped out from Mad Max casting. It’s some really neat character design.
