I'd like to start by saying that I take no pleasure in making this prediction. I like the work that Turtle Rock Studios does: I loved Left 4 Dead, and it seems that they're applying a lot of the gameplay principles that they perfected there to Evolve. But anyone who seriously played the competitive multiplayer in Left 4 Dead can immediately tell you why the competitive multiplayer in Evolve won't work.

Now I'd like to point out the problem with a question: Is anyone who reads this seriously looking forward to playing as a Hunter, or do you just want to play as a Monster? Of course, everyone just wants to play as a Monster - breathing fire, hurling rocks, devouring people and generally wreaking havoc looks like a blast. Everyone wants to play as a Monster! ...And no one really wants to play as a Hunter.

It was the same problem in Left 4 Dead: No one wants to play as just another jerk with a gun; they want to play as the cool, weird, scary things. When I ended up on the Survivors' side in L4D Versus, I frequently found that all of my teammates simply left the match because they didn't want to be the Survivors. When I ended up on the Infected side, the match frequently closed due to the entire enemy team leaving.

And that was when there was a 50% chance per match that you could play what you wanted to play. In Evolve, there is only ONE Monster per match, meaning that there is only a 20% chance that you can play what you want to play. Unless you have four reliable friends to play with, I predict that the Hunters will almost always be short a few people, which will throw off the power balance of the game and result in the Monster always winning. It just won't be fun, even for the Monster player.

There will be a few dedicated teams of players going on for a long time, but within two months of release, Evolve will basically be dead to the average player. I'd make a joke about "evolutionary dead-ends" or "the survival of the fittest", but I get the feeling that there will be a lot of other smug pr*cks saying the same stuff, and I don't want you to confuse me with them. I see what's coming, and I am genuinely saddened by it. ...Although, not so saddened that I won't gloat a bit when my prediction comes true.