Evolve now features a psychotic, homicidal robot named Emet

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Turtle Rock has added a new Hunter to its asymmetric shooter Evolve named Emet, a medical drone that's been "repurposed" for combat. Naturally, the upgrade process didn't go entirely smoothly, and so Emet suffers from a sort of robotic split-personality disorder that's left it part extra-helpful Claptrap, and part HK-51, but more homicidally unhinged.

Emet packs a Replay Cannon that tags a target with an explosive dart and then launches several rapid-fire homing missiles at it. He carries Healing Buoys into battle that will regenerate health in nearby allies, and a Respawn Beacon that teleports Hunters into combat directly from the Dropshop, thereby reducing respawn times to 30 seconds. He also has, when he's in murder-mode, a very foul mouth.

Emet launched yesterday alongside Evolve update 7, which features various fixes and balance tweaks, the addition of colorblind support, and plans for two free Hunter adaptations, Wasteland Maggie and Tech Sgt. Hank. Unfortunately for Turtle Rock and 2K, neither the android nor the update appear as though they'll do much to resurrect Evolve: The free weekend in September drove relatively strong numbers for that month, but its average player count over the past 30 days has sunk to just 333—well outside the lower limits of Steam's top 100 game rankings,

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.