The open beta for Turtle Rock Studios’ Evolve will run exclusively on Xbox One from January 15 to 19, as the studio confirmed in an announcement on its website. Any Xbox One user with an Xbox Live Gold account will be able to download the beta client and join the hunt. The open beta was confirmed at Gamescom after being previously announced for the fall to correspond with the game’s original October 2014 release date.
Players will have access to Hunt mode with the first two monsters (Goliath and Kraken), eight hunters (Markov, Maggie, Val, Hank, Hyde, Griffin, Lazarus, and Bucket), and twelve maps. Starting on January 17, they will also be able to play Evacuation, Evolve‘s dynamic campaign mode that procedurally combines maps, hunters, monsters, and gameplay types to create a unique series of five matches that flow into one another, culminating in the eponymous evacuation of the hunters.
Because the purpose of the open beta is to stress-test the game’s multiplayer servers, there will be no offline, solo play, which will be available when the game ships on February 10. Any monsters and hunters unlocked during beta play will carry over into the full game after launch.
There will also be smaller closed technical tests for Windows and PlayStation 4, launching on January 16 and 17, respectively. These tests will be more limited in scope than the Xbox One beta, not including Evacuation and not allowing unlocked content to roll over into the full game. To participate you must have been invited to the Big Alpha in October/November. Steam users who already have either Left 4 Dead or BioShock Infinite in their library can also take part.
Evolve is an asymmetrical hunting game. Four player-controlled hunters with varying abilities take on one player-controlled monster in different types of matches across alien environments swarming with dangerous AI life. It expands upon the cooperative framework that Turtle Rock developed with Left 4 Dead.
Evolve launches on PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on February 10, 2015.
