The landscape the GeoHunters and their enemies fight on is more than just an eerily beautiful stage. The level design keeps players thinking by incorporating a number of puzzles. Continuation beyond a certain point in a level may require absorbing the DNA of a particular creature, or the use of split teams. Yes, this is the old key hunt in disguise, but again it's also a nice change of pace. There is some occasional backtracking, but the levels generally flow well from one area to the other. Sometimes Evolva creates the feeling you're being corralled through the game rather than left to discover it on your own, but solving puzzles is satisfying.

If there is a fault in the bizarre alien environments, it is that the views can begin to seem too similar between levels, despite attempts to shake things up with some underground sections. There are also some things lacking that are common in mature shooters. The mission objectives are almost always focused on killing, with very few opportunities to do anything else but win battles of attrition. Stalwarts in the shooter genre have proven a variety of missions are possible, such as rescue, recon, defend, and surgical strike. In a game like Evolva, which has potential to teach some basics about evolution theory, environmental conservation, parasitism, and other biological concepts, it's unfortunate the focus is often on killing everything in sight. The lack of a simple targeting cross hair doesn't help make the combat any easier either. Some might also complain about the seeming limitation of only twelve missions and no mission builder. Evolva succeeds in most other technical respects. The save game system is efficient and the manual is fairly good, only falling short when describing multiplayer setup. LAN and Internet play are supported, but players may have trouble finding opponents, especially as multiplayer support is provided by HEAT, who recently closed down. Evolva performs well and revealed no bugs during play.

Despite gameplay that is ultimately less innovative than the creators may have hoped for, Evolva does offer a new look. Interplay, with Evolva and the upcoming Sacrifice, gives players some new vistas and unique monsters. This shooter could have done more, but it does enough right to qualify as solid.

By
Bernard Dy