Evolve monsters now power up with skill points

Evolve has changed since last time it was shown to press, with previews out of PAX East 2014 highlighting a new skill point-based creature evolution system.

As you may have noticed in the new Evolve screenshots, the Goliath monster - the only one we've seen so far - has different forms, depending on what abilities have been levelled up.

The Goliath has four abilities - a charge attack, a leap attack, fire breath and the ability to throw chunks of earth. The way players take on these forms has been adjusted; eyeing off the screens carefully will reveal the menu you use to level up your abilities.

Speaking to Polygon, executive producer Denby Grace said players were a little confused by the old system, so Turtle Rock implemented the skill point system.

"You can choose to spread your skill points across three abilities or max one of those abilities up. It's really made your choices much broader," he said.

"It has made for some really, really interesting strategies."

Eating animals is still required in order to increase your skill points, so players have to balance their desire to increase skills with the possibility of being spotted. Grace said the Hunters can follow the trail of corpses, or look for carrion birds attracted to the monster's leavings. Animals too small to eat will flee from the creature, giving alarm calls.

"It goes really deep. A lot deeper than you initially think," Grace added.

Hunters can also make use of fauna to unlock buffs.

Speaking to Joystiq, Grace confirmed that while all Hunters fall into four classes, eahc has several class variations, which play "very very differently".

Every match requires a member of every class, and should last about 12 minutes.

Evolve is expected on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in the third quarter.