Evotinction in the test: Red alert in the futuristic stealth action thriller

I wasn’t even planning on Evotinction when it showed up in my inbox a few days before release. And I’ll put it this way: It wasn’t because of its name that I took a closer look at it. In my opinion, the mixture of evolution and the extinction of a species has more of the charm of a fence post than that of a clever thought game.

However, I quickly become perceptive when it comes to stealth action – even more so when it’s set in a futuristic scenario. After all, you wake up as Thomas Liu in a facility whose staff has disappeared, while fully automated drones hover patrolling the abandoned rooms. A virus called RED is behind it and to find out exactly what happened, Dr. Liu gets past these guards, hacks the drones or disables them with electric shock.

He also answers questions about his identity during short breaks. He is guided by his personal drone, which goes by the name Oz… If you don’t get halfway into all this after a few minutes, you probably don’t have much to do with science fiction. But funnel or not, the story is interesting and the mystery keeps it fresh for a long time. There are even a few surprising moments, so I found the thread to be quite entertaining.

Hear and see

Nevertheless, sneaking and hacking are of course clearly in the foreground, even if hacking in Evotinction has nothing to do with programming. Rather, it is a collection of programs that you activate over several meters to stop patrolling drones from moving, turn off their visual or auditory perception, or turn them in a different direction so you can sneak along behind them.

Better yet: There are drones that are directly coupled to each other and if one of them is hacked, the other one will know immediately. What is the advantage? You can find it where you can plant a virus in such a drone in order to block the view of everyone connected to it or to otherwise manipulate it.

Liu can also tap into surveillance cameras to get an overview and distract drones by setting off smoke detectors. Just remember not to turn off your “ears” first. Apart from that, Liu uses gadgets with which he activates a hologram of himself at any position or creates a privacy screen using holographic walls.

It’s about using the environment as cleverly as possible in order not to be seen or at least to disappear quickly afterwards. Because there are not just the regular patrol drones. There’s also some sort of turret and other equipment in his way as he tries to stop RED.

Active and passive hacking

Oh, and by the way, he always only has a limited amount of time to carry out a hack because the system will trigger an alarm at some point. In addition, the network generally registers any external intervention and at some point blocks any further access. In order to reopen it, you would have to find a computer on which you can delete the log files for the current area. Of course it’s cool that this is possible! But it would be better if the hacks were carried out more quickly.

How can that work? Well, on the one hand, every hack costs a certain number of seconds and this varies significantly depending on the program. The decision about which manipulation you really need to move forward therefore plays a major role. The time required to hack also depends on the distance to the target, which is why clever sneaking or waiting is also helpful.

Evotinction is both on Steam and the PlayStation Store available where there is both a PS$ and a PS5 version. The price is just under 30 euros. If you’re thinking about playing the game on Steam Deck, I would advise against it. The frame rate drops into the 20s and sometimes even lower, even at the lowest settings.

• Steam
• PlayStation Store (PS4)
• PlayStation Store (PS5)

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On the other hand, you can also shorten the time required for hacking by pressing a certain key at the right moment. Think about active reloading in Gears of War and its imitators, because that’s exactly how it works here. It gives the accesses an active component and thus additional tension.

However, you first have to activate this option for shortening, which is why the upgrade system comes into play at this point. This also rewards careful exploration, as many of the resources necessary for expansion can be found as collectibles in the area. Of course, some hacks and gadgets are unlocked at certain points in the story. Others, however, you have to develop yourself and some can be expanded in several stages.

Too much here, a little little there

None of this is perfect! The HUD information is sometimes so numerous and overloaded that the overview is lost, and in general it is not always possible to see what exactly is happening quickly enough. Every now and then the task is not entirely clear and the developers – the Chinese indie studio Spikewave Games – unfortunately did not succeed in introducing it.

For example, the fact that many mechanics are only briefly described is extremely unfortunate when a large part of them works a little differently than in conventional stealth action. If you want to switch off drones silently from behind, then this is possible. However, it was only after a frustratingly long trial and error that I found out that you have to look exactly at the barcode on the back and that this doesn’t work via the zoom of a surveillance camera.

Apart from that, a few little things have crept into the program that keep spoiling the good impression. Text spoken by Oz can be overlapped with other voice recordings because the latter are then not automatically paused. In addition, the button to turn off a camera is the same button that is used to zoom in on the image.

And then there are the boss fights, which don’t happen all the time, but unfortunately put sneaking aside and rely mostly on pure action – and of a rather cumbersome kind at that. This reminded me of the first issue of Deus Ex: Human Revolution, when it didn’t have a “Director’s Cut” in the title, where this was also the case.

All in all, I like the versatile stealth action in Evotinction, as you can cleverly sneak past the drones and other guards using quite a few hacks and gadgets as well as elements in the scenery. On another level, this also reminds me of Clandestine, in which another independent studio also staged unusual stealth action with interesting ideas, but without competing with Deus Ex, Dishonored or Metal Gear Solid.

Evotinction in the test – conclusion

I can recommend Evotinction especially to players for whom stealth action isn’t just that one level in Call of Duty, and who are willing to trade high-end production values ​​for an experimental flair. The narrative-familiar science fiction trip doesn’t look bad! Above all, I have fun trying out different hacks and the tension that arises when you are discovered in a botched hack and have to have the presence of mind to correct the errors, for example by activating the sprinkler system over three approaching drones. If that sort of thing appeals to you, then you’re doing a lot less wrong with Evotinction than the somewhat bland title might suggest.

Evotinction
PER	CONS
Versatile stealth action involving the use of various gadgets and hacks Relatively extensive expansion of skills Familiar but entertaining story	Especially at the beginning some poorly explained functions Sometimes confusing, overlapping HUD information Boss fights with dull action instead of clever stealth