Evolve (Roblox game)

Despite my “Dino Dad” handle, I don’t talk about fatherhood all that much on this blog, as my focus is mostly on the products I review. That being said, I’ve been trying to get more involved in some of my children’s interests lately, including some that I perhaps looked down on a bit at first. One of their favorite games currently is Roblox, an online game where players can create their own sub-games that other people can share in. I’m still somewhat reticent about Roblox overall, but through the course of monitoring my kid’s screentime on it, we discovered one particular game that we both enjoyed taking turns on together!

Called Evolve (or “Evolve [Era 19]” if you don’t find it right away), this game allows players to create different organisms out of various provided body parts, and attempt to survive in a server with other players.

The game has certain similarities to the earlier aquatic levels of the classic game “Spore”, which allowed you to guide an organism of your design through various evolutionary stages. While even more “modular” in its organism design that Spore, the broad strokes of creature creation are similar, especially in earning “DNA” through eating, survival, and combat to allow you to upgrade it back in the creator menu. Here players can create organisms from scratch, or build off of several premade templates. Unlike Spore, this game remains in the water, with no “dry land” stage (though a land-based spinoff called “Terra” is currently in alpha).

As mentioned, players compete with each other in an online server, with multiple options for resource gathering. Omnivore mouthparts are the basic type, costing less DNA, but they eat less efficiently and don’t fill the creatures’ bellies as much. Grazers eat glowing orbs throughout the map, while carnivores attack other players and reduce them to glowing cubes. There are also parasitic mouth parts that sap energy from other players, and even symbiotic attachment points where players can connect to each other siphonophore-style, allowing specialization and reducing “DNA cost” for the individuals making up the whole. In these colonial organisms, as long as at least one individual is gather food, some individual players do not even need their own mouthparts at all! Amusingly, I once saw a single cube of armor floating around on its own in search of a larger organism to attach to!

As you might imagine, some builds can get extremely complex, especially as players build up more DNA to spend on extra parts. I found myself preferring to stay small and nimble, however. I had the most success as a tiny ray-like grazer, speeding around and collecting orbs, as larger players ignored my in favor of “red in tooth and claw” battles with each other. In this inconspicuous form, I managed to live to over 70 years old before finally getting caught (with each “year” lasting a few seconds)!

I hesitate to give Evolve my full Stomp of Approval, as there’s certainly improvements that could be made to it (and I am reluctant on principle to get too enthusiastic about ANYTHING Roblox related, lol). For a Roblox game, it’s pretty good! My son and I had a good time playing it together, and it’s a good ecosystem simulator that encourages all sorts of creative gameplay amongst its userbase. If you happen to play Roblox yourself, I recommend giving it a look!

For other video games I’ve reviewed, check out THE BIG DIE, Lemme Splash!, Zniw Adventure, and Paleo Pines!