Online game "Evolution 2:Battle for Utopia"

The developers of the mobile hit "Evolution. Battle for Utopia" from Russian studio IT Territory managed to surprise in their time by offering a rather interesting gameplay action game with elements of strategy. This conditionally free MMO was among the best in 2014 according to the App Store and Google Play versions. A couple of years later, a sequel was released, which we will tell you more about now.

But before we talk about the gameplay itself, let's tell you what actually happens in these two games. The action of the first and the second "Evolution" is set on the planet Utopia, which people began to colonize after a dangerous virus raged on Earth. On the planet they built a huge city Green City, which was supposed to become a salvation paradise for billionaires. But, as it turned out later, the whole project was just a cover for mafia leaders and their insidious plans.

Well, and in general, with colonization everything did not go exactly as planned. Due to overpopulation, there was a shortage of resources, and refugees from Earth began to storm Green City. As a result, its leader ordered the Dominion to destroy the city. And Dominion is a supercomputer, an artificial intelligence, which because of an incorrect command took it as an order to destroy all humanity in principle - not only on Utopia, but also on Earth. And now it won't stop..

In addition, cultists and dangerous gangs have appeared on the planet (especially "Red-Faced") - this is not counting mutated and extremely aggressive spiders and other representatives of local fauna. The hero of the second part, the captain of the Black Legion Walter Blake, whose main task is to stop the Dominion and its cyborgs. Blake is a super-soldier, created and endowed with special power and psi abilities as a result of very dangerous secret experiments.

And both the first and the second part are now working and developing simultaneously. The authors originally talked about the desire to achieve synergy between them. Therefore, the plots are tightly connected. Plot-wise, "Evolution 2" starts right after we kill one of the key characters in the first part, but we see all the subsequent events through the eyes of Walter Blake, not the commander, the main character of the first "Evolution". And, by the way, in the original game after this key event, Blake's base immediately appears on the map.

The story missions are the central element of the whole game. These missions are dynamic, they are always accompanied by dialogues, cut-scenes, meeting new characters and visiting new locations. As we go through them, the local codex is replenished and we learn new details about the lore of the game, events and characters of both the first and second parts.

And sometimes there are really unexpected turns of the story. For example, one of the members of the Red-Faced gang, who took part in the attack on Blake's gang at the beginning of the game, eventually becomes his loyal companion and partner - you'll find out how it happened.

In general, the defense and development of our base is also one of the key moments of the whole game. Everyone playing Evolution 2 has their own base, which we can see on the globe of the planet - this refers us to the XCOM series.

The base not only stores resources, but also houses a workshop for making consumables (such as first aid kits and grenades) and a lab for studying useful technologies that allow us to produce the same consumables, increase damage from grenades and generally improve our base and its defense power. As you study them, your level of scientific progress increases, which gives you access to new technologies.

There are mines near the base, where different resources are extracted - and some technologies just increase their efficiency. Over time, we get the ability to capture more distant mines in other sectors.

However, in order to fly there, you need to improve your helicopter for biofuel - this is almost the key resource in the game. You can also send your partners to patrol the territory in search of caches with valuable rewards. Besides the very first, free partner of Blade, gradually he will be able to hire other characters with their own advantages and useful skills, but it will cost a lot.

Naturally, other players periodically try to attack the base. This happens even during your absence - to defend against them we have to organize defense, installing various units, air defenses, turrets and so on in the slots designed for this purpose. New slots are opened for biofuel, and to create units we collect parts of blueprints throughout the game.

Also for certain resources defenders can and should be pumped, which increases the overall defense. By the way, you can personally test this very defense capability by entering a training battle with your own fighters. And before attacking the bases of other gamers, you can conduct reconnaissance - it strengthens the attack of the helicopter, guarantees the destruction of the strongest defense unit in a successful raid and gives a bonus to the attack.

However, you have to pay for exploration with medals, which are not so easy to earn. In addition to other gamers, our base attracts the attention of representatives of various hostile factions operating in the world of Utopia. They constantly increase the threat level and create terror - "hot spots" on our territories.

And we have to eliminate these dangers in time by defeating them with the help of so-called "instant execution" (autobattle, which spends valuable stimpaks) or by personally killing the enemies during an offensive operation. If the threat level becomes high, the enemies will start taking over our mines.

Conversely, by reducing the threat by 50%, we can sabotage the faction to obtain valuable chips for equipment upgrades. Once the threat is completely suppressed, the faction will temporarily retreat from our base, and a final battle with the faction's boss will become available - this can bring especially valuable gems and even Dominion psi tech.

All this applies to PvE-activities, which are quite a lot in the game - the list of missions and raids is regularly updated. In addition, there are cooperative co-op raids, where, as a rule, you need to deal more damage to bots than the other player to get the most valuable reward. According to the mission results, you can give your partner a like (or on the contrary, a dislike) - the game has a special cooperative store, where likes are used as currency.

There are also battles between players. PvP is represented not only by attacks on the bases of other users, but also by direct battles of players against each other, which take place within the framework of tournaments lasting several days. They are duels in the format of "2 on 2" - one player and his bot partner against the same couple of opponents.

In these battles we increase both the local rating for the tournament and our overall PvP rank, which gradually brings new valuable rewards. And when you reach the 500th level of the rating you will be able to join clans, participate in clan tournaments and get all the bonuses associated with it.

The battles here follow the formula of a positional mobile third-person shooter (the game is now also available on personal computers) - in the first part we just moved the hero between the shelters and periodically activated the necessary buttons, and he shot himself.

In the sequel everything is much more interesting. Blake shoots himself from different weapons (including shotgun, machine gun, sniper rifle and others), but we can personally choose and change targets, including in slow-motion mode. In addition, you periodically need to take aim with the sniper rifle. And this is important - if you hit the enemy with an accurate shot when he tries to throw a grenade, it will fall and explode under his feet, causing damage to the surrounding enemies. And if you destroy the drone right above the enemies, it will also explode and hit the enemies.

It is also important to accurately shoot at particularly strong enemies that can reinforce allies and use stationary machine guns. And some bosses need a precise shot to hit the most vulnerable parts. We also need to use our own and our partners' psi abilities wisely, adding elemental damage to attacks or, for example, turning ordinary bullets into grenades. It is important to roll and change cover in time to avoid explosions and area attacks. And in battles with other players, you need to pick up dropable health kits, boosts and rocket launchers.

Finally, we are free to give orders to our partners to use their abilities and attacks against the targets we choose. And you should choose these targets and the moment to attack wisely too - it's more important to hit the most dangerous enemies like exploding kamikaze spiders first. In other words, the battles here are quite tactical, and in them much depends on the player's personal skill.

For all our successes we get experience and the opportunity to pump up Blake's characteristics, his skill in wielding different types of weapons, the level of armor. Partners are also pumped up. All this together determines the level of our power - if it is insufficient, some missions will be unavailable.

All this is spent on various resources and skill points, which can be earned, including for filling the progress bar in battles against specific types of enemies. In addition to the resources that we get by in-game means, of course, there are also those that can be bought with living money - first of all, these are valuable gems.

There is also an in-game store full of special offers - especially valuable are new, more powerful weapons (they are divided into ranks) and armor sets. As is customary in such games, there is a premium subscription, regular and seasonal (paid) battle pass, where rewards are given for completing daily and seasonal tasks.

Especially important in the game are energy for PvE activities and tickets for PvP battles. Their limit is limited, and in order to quickly replenish the stock you need rare stimpaks - and here, of course, the donation comes into play. For example, those who have a premium subscription do not run out of energy at all.

At the same time, the level of this very energy is gradually and completely free of charge restored throughout the day. That's why you can't say that you can play Evolution 2 only once a day until you run out of energy and tickets. Besides, there is always an option to fight in cooperative mode for free if you accept another player's challenge.

Conclusion: "Evolution 2. Battle for Utopia" - in many ways unique, dynamic and versatile freetupley shooter, which found a place for a brisk (but far from primitive) action, and for strategy in the spirit of XCOM.

Zarium. August 2023