Evotinction Review

If you were to chuck disparate elements of The Matrix, 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator into a blender, you’re likely to get a bit of a derivative mess. Perhaps the awkward portmanteau that is the game’s title should be fair warning (I guess Exlution would have been worse though), but Evotinction is a confusing sci-fi romp that’s not quite sure what to do with itself, paling in the shadow of the big boys of the metagenre that it yearns to stand next to. Serviceable stealth and some very crisp art elevate the experience, but by the time credits rolled I wasn’t wondering whether androids dream of electric sheep, but rather what on Earth had just unfolded over the past six hours.

Who am I?

Despite some bamboozling twists and turns, the premise of Evotinction boils down to some fairly simple elements. Essentially a vast community of scientists and tech experts have isolated themselves from humanity and established a huge complex in which to do cutting edge research into robotics and AI. But in a turn of events that no one could have predicted, a hyper intelligent central AI has gone rogue after being afflicted with a virus, turning the installation’s multitudinous robot servants into deadly killing machines. It’s a classic tale of the hubris of humans playing God and their eventual comeuppance when their creations escape their hands. It’s not exactly the most original sci-fi trope, but it’s a decent enough motivator to trudge around the facility and figure out a way to shut it down lest the virus spread to the outside world. If you fail, an invention that was supposed to represent humankind’s next evolution may well catalyse its total extinction…evotinction.

The game is played from a third-person perspective as you take on the role of Dr Liu, an engineering boffin who managed to at least partially get ahead of the virus and establish an external base from which to plan his attack on the rogue AI. He’s no warrior, but with the help of big brain time and some augmented reality implants Dr Liu is able to hack into just about anything with an electric pulse – if it beeps, he can kill it. There’s a large emphasis on stealth, whereby you’ll creep around contained areas trying to avoid or dismantle robotic enemies. Much of the game’s more interesting ideas are housed in its stealth and hacking elements, and while all the moving parts don’t really come together in terms of balance, there are moments of fun to be had fooling the murderous robots and taking them down.

A humble sprinkler proves the undoing of many a robot

Dr Liu has a range of abilities (hacks) which allow him to take the fight to the machines, but like dodgy Macca’s WiFi they only work when you are in very close proximity. The further you are from the target, the longer a hack will take, and anything longer than five seconds will alert the network and bring enemies running (actually floating mostly) your way. Being caught can sometimes mean instadeath (and a funny death screen claiming “you’ve been hacked”), but you can also skulk in a corner and wait until your enemies forget about you. Hacking skills (nunchuck skills, bow hunting skills) can include shutting off hearing modules, disabling motion or movement, turning enemy allegiances or even temporarily taking control of a robot to scout the area. More elaborate skills have larger hacking time penalties, and each area has an overall maximum amount of time you can spend on hackin’ before the network tracks you down and marks you for destruction.

The stealth and hacking is functional, but as mentioned lacks balance. I found myself relying on a meagre handful of skills with very little issue (water sprinklers for instance are every robot’s Kryponite), and it really wasn’t necessary to resort to some of the more confusing combat elements that are both poorly explained and prohibitively difficult to actually incorporate. An upgrade system and a slowly growing variety to your gadgetry does help, but within a couple of hours you’ll have settled on the strategies that will easily get you across the line in most instances. There are also a couple of shaky boss battles and set pieces which ditch the stealth and become a bit more action oriented, but these are tonally jarring and fairly frustrating cases of trial and error which throw out mechanics previously relied on, and largely fall a bit flat.

Environmental detail and lighting is undeniably crisp

If you fail, an invention that was supposed to represent humankind’s next evolution may well catalyse its total extinction…evotinction

In terms of tone, Evotinction wants to be a type of sci-fi survival horror in the vein of something like Soma, but while the environments are quite beautifully rendered and lit, they also have an overwhelming sense of sterility that actively works against establishing a coherent vibe. There are dozens of voice recordings hinting at a large community of brilliant minds working side by side on exciting projects, but the evidence that this was actually any sort of reality is lacking in the game world. The enemies as well have none of that menacing edge that might instil a little atmosphere or sense of trepidation, which the game sorely needs. The standard enemy (called a genie) is a floating ball for Christ’s sake, with a barcode on the back of its head that can be scanned to instantly shut it down. Scary stuff. A minimalist to the point of being almost non-existent soundscape really hammers home the overwhelming beigeness of the atmosphere, which is unfortunate because the visual fidelity itself is really quite impressive and brimming with potential.

Final Thoughts

Evotinction draws inspiration from a host of classic sci-fi influences, but flip flops between tropes and struggles to find an identity of its own. Its flat tone and atmosphere betray the beauty of its presentation, and what is really a basic story fails in many ways to hold itself together under the weight of its loftier ambitions. The action stealth certainly flirts with some interesting ideas, but a lack of balance and wonky execution unfortunately make it another imperfect cog in a machine that already has several. ChatGPT may rise up one day and decide that humans are a nuisance to be eradicated, but Evotinction fails to capture the potential horror of that.

Reviewed on PS5 // Review code supplied by publisher

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