Player counts for Evolve have started to dwindle, but 2K Games and developer Turtle Rock Studios hope to bring back more players with the brand new arena mode, available today.
Arena mode is part of a free update for all platforms: PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC. As the name implies, matches exclusively take place in the mobile arena. There's no hunting whatsoever, just four hunters trying to put down a gigantic monster.
The new mode uses a best-of-three format, and each match takes place in a fixed arena. The team at Turtle Rock Studios has selected five arenas for each of the game's 14 maps, so ideally there will be variety as players continually participate in arena mode.
The monster automatically starts at Stage 2, and right from the word go it's a fight to the death. Either the hunters kill the monster, or the monster kills the hunters. Those are the only two victory conditions.
The hunting aspect of Evolve is one of my favorite things about the game, so I'm curious to see how players react to a mode in which hunting is completely absent.
