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Looks Kraken: Evolve footage shows off tentacled monster

Evolve Turtle Rock Kraken

Turtle Rock have been keeping coy about the monsters you’ll be hunting in Evolve, till now, only showing off Goliath, who is essentially the tank from Left 4 Dead. At E3 the studio revealed Kraken. While Goliath is a slow, but powerful, melee character, Kraken can fling orbs of electrical charge at the hunters and glide above them, like some great, electrically charged hawk. With tentacles.

Newly released footage shows Kraken at work.

Kraken’s main weapons seem to be two disjointed limbs hinged to its back. It’s able to swing those like whips, sweeping a space in front of it. The fleshy whips are covered in what look like either teeth or nipples, either way, they’ve an electric current running through them. Just like teeth and nipples.

The monster can also fire ball lightning about the place, frying any hunter in its way. This is a great shift away from the melee focussed Goliath. Players in control of Goliath have to close the distance between themselves and the hunters whenever they want to fight. This makes the hulking mass of muscle much easier to trap. If playing Kraken you can be much more calculating about where you attack.

The biggest difference between Goliath and Kraken, however, is the way it moves. Kraken can fly. This means it is able to move over the distractions of the level’s natural wildlife – that can often take a bite out of anyone not being wary. It’s not clear in the video but an airborne monster may not leave a scent trail. In previous footage hunters have managed to track their prey following its scent, if you, as the monster, can avoid leaving one it gives you a huge advantage.

There’s a lot of pluses to Kraken but I’m not completely won over by the creature. Evolve’s monsters have the hint of bullet soak about them – they need to to remain strong against four players shooting at you constantly. When I’ve a massive health bar in a game I find I get detached, becoming less invested in the action. At least with Goliath you were right up close with the other players, chasing them to get into attack range. If I can hover off in a distance firing at the hunters will taking shots from them I’m not sure it will be as enjoyable.

However, I’ve not yet had a chance to play Evolve. Steve has and he’s a fan.