Let's play Evolva (Completed)

[Orgasm]

I dont get the mutate screens. There are 2 different colors but it doesnt say what they do?

 

[DraQ]

I dont get the mutate screens. There are 2 different colors but it doesnt say what they do?

The changes are shown once you hover your mouse/click one of them IIRC.

It's been some time and I only played it a little bit, the CD went missing afterwards.

 

[spekkio]

What DraQ wrote.
The left part showing the skills is important.

Hardon had Jump skill at this level after 1st mutation:

Then I've decided to learn a Speed skill.

When you hover the cursor over the upper/lower option (to the right), the left part shows what will happen after the mutation:

Jump will go down (red), becoming unusable, Speed will go up (green).

Then I mutated again:

Once more, Jump went further down, Speed increased. Final effect:

I hope this helps.

 

[spekkio]

Mission 02

I've skipped the objectives, because you will see them anyway during the mission:

We meet some ostriches right at the beginning

It looks like they're running from something... Oh:

We didn't even have to kill the ostriches, mudcrabs killed them, we killed the mudcrabs. Stabilization mission 101...

More mutating:

The quest arrow points towards the ledge guarded by a new form of life - the shooting thingies:

How do they work? Well:

The next fragment of the ledge is protected by the pumpkin-thingies:

Staying at the ledge above the plain, we can see a flock of ostriches being killed by evil mudcrabs

Those guys made things easier for us: now we only have to collect the meat...

At the end of the ledge, we encounter another blockade:

1st explosive plant spore (tm) lays inside. Guarded by mudcrabs of course.

Hardon picks up the spore:

Garf picks up another one just in case (of Hardon screwing sth up).
The ledge ends close to the cave where we found the spores. Now we have to descend onto the plain where ostriches were killed.
As you can see, this is now mudcrab country:

It's time to kick some mudcrab ass and chew new genes!

BTW, Biowhore's Speed is back at Lv. 1

Let's go:

We kill some mudcrabs and pick up ostriches' remains.

The compass points out W

But I've decided to go E instead. It turned out to be a good idea:

It looks like some ostriches are still alive

We should fix this overlooking ASAP. But for now, let's explore further.
We encounter some kind of an organic barrier (plants?).

There are some creatures behind it. Garf & Biowhore try to investigate, when suddenly:

Barrier burns down and we are attacked by the 2nd alien lifeform: a fire-breathing roach

Those fuckers:

a) breath fire

b) explode when killed

We kill them all using our mighty claws and go after the 2nd explosive plant spore.
On the way there we encounter some shrooms, trapped behind the plants.

It's evolving time! All units except Jack learn the Flame skill:

Jack rises his Claw skill to Lv. 2:

Hardon's flamer at work:

We follow the compass, meeting some ostriches and mudcrabs

Killing mudcrabs is much easier now (they drop like flies when burned a little)

Notice that the friendly AI uses skills properly: it starts with the flamer, then, when energy wears out, switches to claws.



It looks like the mudcrabs guarded the 2nd explosive:

Jack & Biowhore pick up the spores

Parasite structures? We haven't encountered any yet...

One more thing: here's how the charged attack works (orange bar):

We go back to the plain, freeing remaining ostriches from their existentional problems

There is only one place that we haven't explored yet: the hill in the middle of the map:

We reach it's top and surprise, surprise: there's a corridor there!

The path is also blocked by plants, so we wouldn't be able to cross it without a Flame Skill

Hardon's Speed is back at Lv. 1

We breach a heavily fortified perimeter:

Only to reach the surface.

(I hope that you noticed Jack's classy horns...)

The compass points forward, but we should explore the surroundings first.

We kill some mudcarbs, and finally...

Well, it looks like an alien structure all right. We circle around and when we reach the entrance again, the welcoming committee awaits us:

Hardon tries to scout ahead on his own, but is forced to withdraw

He lost most of his HP so he decides to watch the fight from above for a moment

Well, since things didn't look too good, he decides to join after all (yes, that's 8 mudcrabs and 2 roaches)...

Thank god for the friendly healing shrooms!
Parasite structure at last:

Hardon throws 1st spore in:

Jack does the same with 2nd spore:

There is a fierce reaction

And finally:

Our Popamolers at the end of 2nd mission:

Stats Screen:

Damn, some civilians were able to survive again!

 

[Jack]

I really like the horns.


The graphics have aged surprisingly well :graphicswhore:

 

[lightbane]

Interplay and Shiny Entertainment were so awesome back in the day... Until the Decline forced them to close and leave and absorbed all of their imagination, goodwill and originality.

 

[pipka]

Let's mutate and eat our enemies: The Game.
Moar.

 

[spekkio]

Mission 03

The compass points W, but... Who the fuck is this fucker up the hill?

I've decided to stay near the northern wall

The center of the map is protected by the shooting thingies

We kill some mudcrabs, but they are not the main threat in this mission...

That's right, we have some fucking sniper beetles against us, people!

Biowhore bravely rushes forward:

Fuck.

Fuck!

Well, we could continue without Biowhore, but it would be VERY difficult (4 vs 20 and 3 vs 20 really makes a difference in this game, trust me).
Plus, he she wouldn't be participating in our gene-harvest, ending up very underdeveloped in comparison to the rest of the team at the beginning of the next mission.

tl;dr

It's Loading time!

Let's try some actual tactics this time. We kill the mudcrabs, then ungroup.
John acts as bait

Some beetles decided to follow him - not a great idea for ranged units...

We heal using shrooms and open our dear Mutator again:

Learning Spike decreases both Claw & Jump but fuck it - it's our 1st proper ranged attack. All units except Jack learn Spike.

Hardon with his gun equipped:

Now we're ready to continue:

We fall into an ambush almost immediately:

Alien teams are more versatile now: they consist of mudcrabs, beetles and occasional roaches.
But that won't stop an angry Popamoler! We kill them all and meet another local form of life - a mortar thingie:

More fuckin' beetles

Hardon & Biowhore barely survive...

Luckily for us, absorbed meat heals us a little. Shrooms are very scarce here.

We killed so many aliens, that we can evolve without penalties:

There's a barrier at the end of the valley

Behind it we find some mudcrabs and... another barrier

Jack finally learns a new skill

We kill another group of aliens that was hiding behind the barrier and finally...

Damn, that's some fuckin' civilian convoy!

Fuckers probably heard about our non-violent policies, because they start running east as soon as we show up.

The problem is, the aliens are approaching from this direction. A fierce battle begins

Some civilian casualties were of course inevitable...

Finally, all hostile creatures are dead (including some butthurt frogs that attacked us)

Well, it looks like it's escort mission no more...

We move through some underground tunnel

Guarded by pumpkins

Finally, we reach a plain, only to be attacked by... a lonely roach

Fucker died before even reaching us and using his flamer... Those aliens are bunch of fucking... Holy fuck!

After killing the main alien force, we encounter another group of mudcrabs, resting in mud:

Seeing us, they rush upwards, other Popamolers rush at them, but our wise leader Hardon orders them to go back

We slaughter those poor fuckers using our Spike guns when they try to cross the narrow passage

Damn, how many of them are still alive?

The corridor ahead is guarded by the mortar thingies

We reach the surface eventually. Things doesn't look too good - there are some alien tentacles growing from the ground!

Could that be...



Luckily for us, the final enemy force consists mainly from the fire-breathing roaches

Roaches drop dead pretty fast. Remaining mudcrabs even faster:

Finally:

Hardon, being a true leader, decides to backtrack on his own almost 1/2 of the map.

His target: the turtle-like creatures that we had to protect earlier.
Hardon brutally murders an innocent turtle:

But this poor creature's death won't be in vain:

:tearofeagle:

All units learn Armor Skill.

Popamolers at the end of Mission 03:

Stats:

Stay tuned for our 1st boss-fight!

 

[Cenobyte]

Heh, great game. The soundtrack was also quite good, iirc.

Go on, exterminate the alien scum!

 

[spekkio]

Mission 04

We start above an entrance to some canyon. There's a river flowing through it.

To the left and right we have some alcoves, blocked by rocks / plants.

Of course we clear all of them, killing all aliens

And some harmless ostriches and turtles (well, ostriches attacked us so they asked for it)

Continuing down the canyon we meet the 1st real threat in this mission: one of the "Bigger Ones":

As you can see, it's a fire-breathing roach, only... bigger. We will meet more "Bigger Ones" in the future.
They're tougher and meaner than the regular units, but the main problem with them is that they can use Special (Charged) Attacks without charging.
So, this fucker can spit those huge fireballs constantly. BTW: one hit from this attack is enough to kills a regular small mudcrab!



We kill the bastard and encounter another bunch of mortar-thingies

Behind the barrier we meet another group of mudcrabs (one of them is a Bigger One) and turtles.

Following the turtles, we find some kind of a ramp

The path to the left is guarded by local flora (pumpkins and mortars). There's also another Big Roach. Fortunately for us, he gets his ass killed trying to reach us.

We kill the poor turtles and continue upwards

There is a hill guarded by mudcrabs on the other side of the valley

But the path leading there is blocked by a pile of rocks

We try to clear it, only to find... a binary explosive

So, we need another one to blow this boulder up it seems. Let's go back and explore the bottom of the valley

It's blocked at all ends, except one

We reach a plain only to bump into... some mudcrabs & beetles, playing with the frogs

This could end only in one way

There are also green binary explosives here

Let's take some with us for future use. We go back all the way to the boulder

Garf acts as an explosives expert

The path is cleared!

We are now above the valley, on the high rocks guarded by mudcrabs

We jump from one rock to another (both Hardon and Biowhore fell dawn at some moment, luckily the AI brought them back up after a long trip - great pathfinding most of the time)

We end up... directly above our starting point!

There's an entrance to a tunnel there

Let's mutate!

We access the tunnel

Only to find... a hardest battle yet (2-3 Big roaches plus shitload of mudcrabs and beetles)!

Yet, we're victorious again!

There is a new type of a barrier here: the rock than cannot be crushed by our claws

There's definitely something behind it (some createures' sounds can be heard behind the rocks)

We have only one path available ATM:

The one blocked by crackable rocks

At the end of the tunnel we encounter... a new alien lifeform: a mortar ticks!

The tunnel behind them is a dead end. It can only mean one thing - there's a new weapon available: a Spore. Hardon and Biowhore learn it.

Hardon with his new weapon equipped:

Using Spore, we can break all these new rocks

And kill the aliens more effectively from a range

It's also very effective against the Bigger Ones - we can take them out using one unit. Here's a screenshot of Biowhore soloing the Big Roach:

Well, this whole area is actually a huge network of corridors, filled with aliens.

We kill >9000 of them, clearing the whole area in a search of an exit.

Finally, we reach some big underground cavern... guarded by two Big fuckin Roaches of course:

We survive mutherfucking BARELY! A final part awaits:

Garf, having 0,2 HP, decides to go back through the minefield to heal up.

Jack decides to join him.
Garf survives the pumpkins with 0,1 HP.
Both of them heal using shrooms and go back to the rest of the team.

Let's go!

Hardon dies within seconds (mostly due to the damage from the pumpkins)
Both Garf & Jack use their primary explosives

Both of them go back, but Biowhore decides to face the boss in melee

Luckily for her, the explosives do their job:

Our Popamolers at the end of Mission 04:

Stats:

A real genocide!

Hardon at the beginning of 5th mission:

 

[Jack]

You LP made me want to replay the game.
At mission 3 the fan that cools my graphic card flew off and my graphic card melted.
I think it has something to do with the bumpmapping.

If I was an American I would sue you.

 

[spekkio]

Lol, invest in "Basic overclocking" skill, n00b!

FFS!

 

[pipka]

EXPLOSION!!! :twisted:

How big are teh maps? I see you ran around the same spots and I can't figure it out.

 

[spekkio]

Play the game nigga, check out Jack's post for info how it can improve your graphics card's performance...



OT: levels are really huge most of the time, each one takes ~2h to complete, even knowing what is where (most of the time I play one level ahead before LP-ing just to make the actuall LP more streamlined and cinematic). Level design is also quite neat - Land 5 will be a good example of that.

 

[spekkio]

Mission 05

The entrance to the tunnel:

Well, it's "Protect some shit" mission this time, so somebody should stay near the entrance to the tunnel just in case. Let's delegate Hardon.

There's a huge pile of rocks above the cave with the tunnel's entrance. Let's see if we can go there.

Garf takes the lead

Two mortar ticks try to surprise buttsex us

But we have some ranged weapons too

After that we kill some beetles

The compass arrow points W, but the path is blocked by some bars - if any Popamoler move close, the bars pull out blocking the way:

Using an entrance at the opposite side of the valley we can reach the rocks in the middle (the ones that the ticks were standing on). There are green binary explosives there

We can see Hardon guarding the entrance and the pile of rocks above it, but the path to the right cannot be accessed by jumping

Well, let's take some explosives with us and continue E

There's a lake of lava at the end of the valley, guarded by mudcrabs. Our Spore Cannons are super-effective against them

Moving N we come to a huge plain where ostriches and mudcrabs nicely play

There are also some ticks and beetles guarding a ramp at the opposite end of the plain

There is some kind of a chamber there, blocked by the bars that open and close in regular intervals

Scared ostriches gathered there - an occasion that we shouldn't miss

Our units incline some more

The chamber is actually a time-based trap.

When the 1st door open up, we have to move in into the chamber and keep circling around avoiding the exploding pumpkins till the 2nd door open up.

Of course we should move one Popamoler at a time.

There's identical ramp on the other side of the chamber, guarded of course.

We kill the guards and continue W, meeting... some indigenes

Heck no we don't want no non-hostile. Genocide plz.

We kill some turtles, mudcrabs and frogs, everything seems totally cool

When suddenly!

Fuck! I've got so immersed in killing that I hadn't noticed that some mudcrabs tried to sneak past Hardon. It looks like they've succeeded.

Loading time...

When our 3 units engage the aliens attacking from N, a group of mudcrabs shows up near the entrance to the tunnel. Let's switch to Hardon and take care of things manually...

Thank god that they appear one at the time!

Further ahead the team finds a strange rock formation: a labyrinth of tall, circular walls.

We move through it and enter another plain... filled with mortar ticks!

Some of them are on the ground level, some shoot at us from the ledges above... They're fucking everywhere!

Finally, they're all dead. Instead of moving forward

I decide to go back to the previous rock formation to look for shrooms. But there's something strange there

The top of the rock formation can be accessed from one of the ledges. It's guarded by mortar-thingies and covered with some green substance

Garf tries to scout, and... starts sliding!

This green stuff is slippery as fuck (well, jumping like UT'99 player with ADHD helps a bit). But there are some new creatures there, that seem to move freely on it: the chicken-like (or something) creatures.

Garf slaughters all of them without mercy

It's mutate time! All units learn Sticky Foot skill (we killed so many creatures that it can be learned without penalties, so what the hell...).

We go back to our original path and find some kind of a field, filled with indestructible crystals (and destructible mudcrabs)

This field has 5 entry points: the one that we came in, the one leading to the ledge from where the ticks were shooting at us (it's covered with this green stuff too)

Two entry points are blocked by crystals and one is blocked by flammable plants

Let's check out the last one 1st

What do we have here?

Big fuckin' roach of course! Plus some mudcrabs. A roach kills most of the mudcrabs with his fireball of doom

At the end of the corridor there is a round valley, populated by ticks

There's a ledge at the end of it, blocked by plants, but... inaccessible

Those two corridors blocked by crystals lead there probably

But how should we break the crystals? Let's go back to the muck-covered ledge. Our units traverse it carefully.

The path is blocked, but we can crush this boulder with Spore Cannon of course

Inside we find a nest of the roaches! Zone is really hot...

There's a blue binary explosive at the bottom (at last!).

Let's take two of them and go back to the entrances blocked by crystals

Good news - the crystals can be destroyed by binary explosives

Bad news - more ticks

We reach the barrier, burn it down

And meet... another alien life-form: a Cloaked Figure Cloakable Spider!

Further path is blocked by the bars similar to the ones we encountered at the beginning

You should know what we need by now: a Stealth Skill

How does it work? Well, it's simple (and drains energy quick):

The path leads us... all the way back to the 1st ramp (before the trap-chamber).

We go back all the way to the 1st bars near the beginning of the level

Hardon rejoins the team finally

He picks up a green binary explosive nearby.
Both he and Jack move past the bars and reach the ledge above the tunnel's entrance

Let's blow shit up

Yup, the tunnel leading to another continent is secured!

Our Popamolers:

Stats:

Stay tuned for more work done in smaller groups...

 

[lightbane]

That was epic. If you continue your purification like this, perhaps the Ordo Malleus will consider a raise... In other words, MOAR...

 

[Azira]

Moar!

 

[pipka]

I have faith in you, spekkio.

 

[spekkio]

Mission 06

This mission takes place during the night. I've increased brightness a bit to make things more visible.

We start this mission in two separate groups

Jack and Biowhore start in the alcove behind a lake of lava

They can't cross it, so they pretty much trapped for now

Let's switch to Hardon and Garf.
We move W, meeting a group of ostriches and mudcrabs.

We kill them all and continue W, picking up some blue binary explosives.

We reach a plain full of crystals. And mudcrabs. Plenty of them.

Hardon barely survives. Next part of the map is guarded by a Big Roach.

We kill him and continue W. There's a river of lava flowing there.

Are the other Popamolers close?

We find a new indigenous form of life: an exploding thingie. They explode when shot.

Those things can be quite useful. We can lure aliens close to them and blow them up, hurting enemies. Let's test this idea right away:

Yeah, that group of invisible spiders didn't expect our l33t tactics

Continuing forward we meet a group of friendly turtles and frogs

Garf attacks them on his own (WTF, dawg?)

Unfortunately for us, there's also a group of beetles and mudcrabs there (some of them are the Bigger Ones)

We're once again victorious

Well, Hardon is. Garf died....



Loading Time...

Let's make this slow this time. We kill all indigenes, then attack the aliens.

Garf is so pissed, that he murders even the baby-turtles without mercy

It's Mutator time!

Of course right after spending most of our genes without penalties, we bump into a new form of alien: a mommy spider

These bitches spit small spiders, that work like homing missiles

We kill both of them and take the green primary explosive

We continue W. There's a canyon with a ledge to the left

At the end of the canyon we meet some muck-walking chickins

But it's a dead end: there's lava everywhere

Let's go back to the previous ledge. It's slippery, protected by spikes

a tick

and the bar-door

Using invisibility we sneak past the bars

Only to reach... another dead end

This rubble cannot be blown up. But that's not the point actually. Down below, we can see...

Jack and Biowhore!

We throw our explosives down below (one at the fuckin' time!)

Guys from the other group pick'em up

And blow the huge builder up

Free at last!

Since Jack & Biowhore didn't mutate earlier, we can teach both of them a Necrocyte Skill without penalties

Biowhore with her spider-producing womb equipped (left hand):

Stay tuned for more adventures, starring Jack and Biowhore this time!

 

[pipka]

 

[spekkio]

Biowhore and Jack try to pass the river of lava using rocks, but they area is guarded by ticks

Since Jack was too afraid to jump over the lava, Biowhore deals with them on her own

Too bad that she loses half of her health. Perfect time for the reinforcements to arrive of course

Biowhore goes back to Jack, both of them kill all roaches.
It's time to finally cross the lava river. On the other bank we find... more lava

We can see some mudcrabs on the other side of the 2nd lava river. We continue E, finding a shell-like rock to the north

That's when the mudcrabs show up, probably the ones from a moment ago

So, there should be a way through the 2nd lava river...
We continue E, finding 2nd rock structure to the north

Shit hits the fan: we are attacked from both sides: south (beetles, shooting at us from the other side of the 2nd lava river)

and north (mommas)

Biowhore loses most of her health and decides to GTFO onto the 2nd rock structure

It's covered by muck, but safe (?). Jack kills many beetles and mommas single-handedly

But since there's still 3 or more beetles left

he decides to join Biowhore

At the end of the muck-covered path he encounters a tick, guarding green explosives

Jack is able to kill the tick, but fails his jump to the other side. Biowhore joins him.

It looks like the beetles from before followed Jack. He kills all of them

Biowhore picks up one of the green explosives, Jack crosses the 2nd lava river (it's more like a lake actually).

Jack clears the other bank of the lake, destroying boulders and mudcrabs

There's only one exit from this area: a tunnel blocked by crystals

There's also a cliff leading to more lava

Biowhore follows Jack, picks up some mushrooms and uses 1st explosive

We need a blue explosive now. Let's go back to the ledge near the 2nd rock structure

There are only green explosives there. Biowhore picks up one of them just in case.
Let's check out the only place unexplored ATM: the shell-like structure

We circle around to the top

finding.. a green explosive

Let's go back to the crystal barrier

Jack blows it up

We failed at keeping a safe distance from the explosives...

Loading Time...

We do it right this time:

And access an underground tunnel

There we meet:

Momma spiders

Shooting thingies

More mommas + invisible spiders + ticks + green explosives

Pumpkin thingies

The end of the tunnel is blocked, but there are also blue explosives there

We blow shit up

And cross another lava lake

We end up at the ledge, above... the fucking alien colony!

Let's explore south for now. There are both types of explosives there, a tunnel blocked by crystals and a huge shroom colony

We are attacked by some aliens - looks like somebody spotted us earlier. Luckily for us, most of the enemies got stuck on the ledge leading up from the alien village

We blow them up using our ranged weapons and finish off remaining ticks & beetles

Finally: the alien village

Let's do it slow. We go back to the tunnel blocked by crystals and blow it up

It leads to another over-the-lava-cliff

But we can jump to the other side this time! Biowhore act as a scout, finding a weird rock structure, looking somehow familiar...

It's time to switch back to Hardon & Garf. They go back to the place where the chickinz were, finding... Biowhore! :p

We jump over the lava carefully.

Well, most of us do. Witness my screenshooting skills:

One second later:

Hardon

Oh, well - another AI's fuckup. Let's end this mission...

Biowhore scouts the alien village, finding some survivors. Nothing that she couldn't handle:

:shock:

It's time for tactical retreat after all!

Once again, we blow the remaining aliens up from the ledge above

There are three alien structures that have to be blown up. We do that with pleasure

Our Popamolers at the end of Mission 06:

Stats:

Hardon at the beginning of Mission 07:

 

[lightbane]

MOAR!!! It's sad that the decline devoured and killed so much of Shiny's quality...

 

[spekkio]

Start the truths lightbane - it's not Shiny's game...

You're probably thinking about Sacrifice?

FFS!

 

[spekkio]

Fuck! I have to do everything myself...

 

[spekkio]