Evotinction Review – Hackneyed

You’re Doctor Thomas Liu, there’s a spherical Genie known as 0z (with a number zero, not an “O”, mind you), and a powerful virus called RED has spread through the operating system MORE in HERE. Don’t ask where it came from – neither Liu nor 0z know. Get out there and fix it while the script continues racing 60 words per minute. The remaining Genies in the facility have been compromised, and you have to use hacks and an E-Blaster and go on to synthesize a serum to counteract RED…

At this point, the story went past in media res and made me believe I missed a significant chunk of the game, but no, this is how Spikewave Games’ Evotinction kicks off. Looking back, a lot of it feels like a blur, and while you grasp the basic gist soon enough, the pacing is breakneck, barely giving the plot time to breathe. Not counting the long camera shots with no cuts, odd close-ups and enough lens flares that serves as little more than superficial “aesthetics.”

"Evotinction has its share of “surprises”, and while I can’t delve into too much, there is a fair bit of metanarrative. Even the loading screens tend to break the fourth wall, "

Still, with admittedly sleek visuals thanks to Unreal Engine 5 and as part of Sony’s China Hero Project, there is some charm to Evotinction’s stealth action, even if the forgettable story, two-dimensional characters, and odd action sequences bring pause.

Let’s go back to the beginning. You’re Doctor Thomas Liu, as the game keeps telling you, and you’re the head of a remote facility called HERE. There are presumably breakthroughs galore, though Thomas often collides with his boss over the ethics of some experiments. Somehow, a virus known as RED spreads through the facility’s operating system MORE, sealing the doors and locking all the humans in their rooms while cranking up the temperature. Your job is to defeat RED while saving as many people as possible. Or so it seems on the surface.

Evotinction has its share of “surprises”, and while I can’t delve into too much, there is a fair bit of metanarrative. Even the loading screens tend to break the fourth wall, speaking to the player as if it’s more than a game. The general direction isn’t too bad, but the pacing and characterization leave much to be desired.

Thomas has some interesting qualities initially. There’s a sense of weariness and trepidation, which is also apparent in the voice logs. However, it never really leads to the player empathizing with his predicament. Past a certain point, it all feels moot in favor of a more player-focused perspective. The shift can feel jarring, even if it’s eventually explained away.

"Getting spotted in certain situations, especially in the early going, is also a recipe for death – sorry, “getting hacked” – due to the limited avenues for escaping or thwarting pursuers."

0z comes across as concise and matter-of-factly but without time for his analysis to breathe. The same goes for everyone else, even Thomas – it feels like they’re doing a first-run read-through of the script with rudimentary amounts of emotion. There isn’t much else to anchor the player to the narrative, causing the gameplay portion to feel almost disconnected from the story. “Almost” is the key – if Evotinction went completely off the rails, it would be something else, in good and bad ways.

As hard as I am on the story-telling, the gameplay does deserve an honorary mention. Evotinction is a stealth game, albeit one with several insta-fail scenarios. Getting spotted in certain situations, especially in the early going, is also a recipe for death – sorry, “getting hacked” – due to the limited avenues for escaping or thwarting pursuers. Nevertheless, it does have a solid stealth system at its core.

Thomas automatically takes cover and peers out naturally from behind. Movement is pretty solid, though crouching in spaces with furniture packed together can get iffy, and the number of objects you can hurdle over is surprisingly limited. What solidifies the gameplay loop is the various tools available to subvert the Genies.

Since they’re drones, you have multiple options, from destroying them with a close-range E-Blaster shot (which graduates to a long-range E-Gun later) to manually shutting them down. The latter requires being directly behind them to facilitate the shutdown and can take longer than pulling the trigger (with the latter using up precious ammo). You can also hack them to remove their movement and vision, making it easier to sneak past or shut them down. I also appreciated how later models would have enhanced hearing, which kept options like turning off their hearing viable.

"I’m impressed that Evotinction keeps introducing new tools to outmaneuver enemies while ensuring the threat remains high (especially as newer Genie types and scenarios are revealed)."

You can also introduce some viruses into the equation, causing linked machines – who will react if their comrades are tampered with – to get hacked simultaneously. Deployable chips also open up, allowing you to create decoys to divert attention or even force-link machines, making them easier to hack. While there’s extensive power at your fingertips, hacking has some drawbacks – you must get close enough to a target, potentially risking detection. If the hacking isn’t complete within a five-second window, the Genies will start tracing your position. Each subsequent hack also reduces the overall “Stealth” meter – once it’s depleted, forget using any hacks.

I’m impressed that Evotinction keeps introducing new tools to outmaneuver enemies while ensuring the threat remains high (especially as newer Genie types and scenarios are revealed). The AI is somewhat forgiving, though it ramps up the detection and variety of kill methods to match your growth. Thankfully, you have a brief window after being detected, allowing you to fire off the E-Gun or shut down the network, stunning all nearby enemies while you escape.

Level design isn’t particularly incredible, but it’s still solid, leveraging the different facilities in HERE for stealth purposes without making them feel too out of place. You don’t have much freedom for exploration, but there’s enough wiggle room in the mid to late-game stealth encounters.

In addition to the regular stealth sections, you also have bosses. The first is somewhat comical because the game is suddenly a third-person shooter of sorts – complete with the strangest dashing animation I’ve seen in UE5 – while the second is more grounded, even if it took some time to figure out that I had to shoot the weak points on its shell.

Aside from the campaign, there’s a Simulation where you can practice different hacks and tools, completing challenges to earn Tokens to upgrade your current repertoire. These start simple, offering various scenarios to learn each method before upping the difficulty. One of the trials seemingly bugged out, preventing me from using the hack in question, but otherwise, it’s a neat little side activity.

Graphics-wise, Evotinction’s environments look good, though some character models can vary in quality. Performance is also solid for the most part, but some scenarios can cause slight dips in performance. The frame rate absolutely nosedives when there are too many particle effects, as seen in the second boss fight, resulting in a messier-than-necessary encounter.

I’ve said my piece about the voice acting, but the sound design and music also stick out. It feels overly quiet at times but not in an intentionally eerie way – more like some sounds are missing. The music isn’t bad, but sometimes it doesn’t match the atmosphere, especially the sci-fi techno.

Evotinction is an overall intriguing effort from Spikewave Games despite the varying quality of its many aspects. While the story and characters are exasperating yet uninteresting, the stealth mechanics are decent enough to encourage forging ahead and seeing what’s next. Though there isn’t much to warrant a return, it’s a capable time waster that could have been more.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 5.