EVO - The Search for Eden

"An action game plus the mind-numbing experience of an RPG...and yet it's good."

Graphics: 8
Sound Effects: 6
Music: 8
Originality: 10
Play Control: 7
Challenge: 7
Replay Value: 7
Overall: 8

EVO – The Search for Eden is an innovative game from Enix that is a peculiar fusion of the platform and RPG genres, with a little something that no other game (to my knowledge) had included before then. The point of the game is to evolve your little creature until it is strong enough to defeat the various monsters that, for an assortment of reasons, want to eat you. Just think of it as the older brother of Pokémon.

Good Points:
Sheer variety is the greatest strength of EVO. Through the course of the game, you evolve from a fish into an amphibian, then a reptile (and possibly a bird, though it’s actually easier just to skip this evolutionary step) into a lower mammal, and finally into a human. As you evolve, you grow new body parts to become stronger, such as larger jaws or a tougher hide. You have pretty much total control of what parts you evolve next, so you can choose what kind of character you want to play.

Bad Points:
In a traditional RPG, to become stronger you must kill monsters in order to get experience points that will increase your level. In EVO, you must kill monsters (actually they’re animals, but we can call them monsters because we kill them) to get EVO points to increase your strength. In fact, you must kill a LOT of monsters to get enough EVO points to progress through the game. While the fact that it is a platform game means it doesn’t get quite as boring as an RPG can get (oh no, a minotaur. I will slowly press the buttons to make my guys kill it. Whee.), it is rather repetitive to hang around killing the same stupid creatures over and over again. It’s not too bad, but you’ll wish there was a faster way.

Graphics:
Since the game is based on altering your physical form, naturally the graphics are designed toward showing the effects of your evolutions. Each time you grow a new part of your body, the graphic changes to display it (make a small mammal with a rabbit body and a lion’s mane. It’s adorable). The other creatures aren’t nearly as detailed, but overall the graphics are quite nice, even if they are a bit cutesy.

Sound Effects:
If you’ve ever played an old-school Nintendo game, you’ll know what kind of sound effects EVO has. The sound effects are disappointingly simplistic, especially when compared to the quality of the rest of the game. While you may look like a big, mean dinosaur, when you jump or bite something the game makes a BLOOP that could easily be found in an old NES cartridge. Occasionally the game makes an attempt at sound effects, such as the mammoths’ trumpeting, but even those are poorly done.

Music:
The music, on the other hand, is excellent. The background songs are neither too loud nor too quite, i.e. you notice them but they don’t get on your nerves. The music is generally well suited to the level you’re on, and some of it is downright catchy. While not exactly symphonic quality (it sounds like a somewhat primitive synthesizer, but one of much higher quality than the one that made the sound effects), the background music does contribute to the game.

Originality:
I don’t know of any other game quite like this one. It’s a platform game, much like any other. It’s an RPG, not too different from others you’ve played. But it’s the combination of the two genres, plus the fact that the protagonist is an evolving creature and not a sword-wielding hero, that makes this game stand apart from the crowd. It’s not the best example of any type of game, but the fact that it combines two very different kinds of games so well (not like Faxanadu or other old NES attempts at this sort of thing) makes it worth playing.

Play Control:
The play control was not nearly as good as I had hoped. The hit detection is kind of finicky, so you have to be at a very specific distance to bite an opponent. If you’re too far away you’ll miss (obviously), and if you’re too close you’ll ram into the enemy and take damage. It also takes a lot of room to turn around, so if there’s an enemy behind you you’ll probably get hit before you can bite him. Add this to the fact that when you get hit it stuns you for a moment, which is plenty of time for the enemy to walk into you, thus doing more damage, and you may get a little frustrated at points, especially at the giant frog boss.

Challenge:
The game is pretty easy, but not terribly so. The normal levels are a cakewalk, but the bosses can be difficult until you’ve figured out their pattern. Of course, once you’ve done so, it’s just a matter of being patient enough to wait for the moment in which to strike…Basically, I’m saying the game is not all that hard, but at least some of the bosses will provide some test of skill.

Replay Value:
Not as high as you would think. Sure you get to customize your character, but there is definitely a “best” form for just about every boss, though in the Age of Reptiles there are two “best” forms (a two-legged form and a four-legged form). It might be interesting going through the game again and trying different tactics against certain bosses, but other than that there’s not much incentive to play again. Of course, it is a fun game, so there’s nothing wrong with doing so, it’s just that you’ll probably see everything the game has to offer the first time through.

Overall:
After all is said and done, I liked this game. It was a bit too easy, and the sound effects could use a heckuva lot of work, but overall it’s a very entertaining game. Come on, who DOESN’T want to control the process of natural selection (in a much faster paced and more exciting process than found in SimEarth)? The ability to customize your character is an excellent bonus, and eating brontosauruses is pretty fun too. The biggest complaint I have is the lousy hit detection, but the game is easy enough that you shouldn’t lose any sleep over it.

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 09/06/02, Updated 09/06/02