In an incredible development no one could have predicted, on July 2022, 2K games restored the matchmaking servers for Evolve Stage 2! It is now possible to find matches directly from the game with random people! EVOLVE LIVES GUYS!

To matchmake with random people on Stage 2, do the tutorial for Hunter so that the Play button is unlocked. When the game asks you if you'd like to retry reconnecting to the matchmaking servers, choose No and then choose Arcade mode. The game will automatically find players for you. Stage 2 also has a Custom mode where you can invite your friends to play with you, the same as in Legacy.

You can still play Evolve Legacy by inviting friends/finding players on the Evolve Reunited 2.0 Discord, but it doesn't have the servers to find random people for you. In other words, only Evolve Stage 2 has matchmaking servers now, not Legacy.

The following guide is intended for Evolve LEGACY.

Background information by Nantes: The method will be different on whether you have Evolve listed in your Steam library (has played it at some point in the past) or you don't (have never played it).


If you've only played the Stage 2 (free-to-play) version of the game and haven't bought it, you can still play Evolve in the Legacy version. If you try to download it through Steam by going to the Beta tab in "Properties" and changing the game mode to Legacy, the download will finish instantly and you will get an error regarding the executable. That's a bug with Steam, which will not download Legacy's files if you don't have a valid key. You can get around this by downloading the game's folder from an external source and placing it on your Steam games folder. Then Legacy will be recognized and you'll be able to play it just fine.
The easiest external source for this is a torrent file created by members of the Evolve Legacy community.

Guide by Maximus:

step 1: download Qbittorrent: https://www.qbittorrent.org. Any other torrent client, also works.

step 2: when you finish installing it, go to "File", "Add Torrent Link" and paste the following magnet link:

magnet:?xt=urn:btih:A2A78151A071635F36A6E749C49AD475BF013ECF&dn=EvolveGame

Click "Download" and wait for it to finish downloading. It might take a few minutes for the download to start. In case the download doesn't start for more than half an hour, try restarting your torrent client. In case it doesn't start for more a day, you probably have a router blocking the torrent protocol from connecting. Try running qBitTorrent's connection checker.

step 3: when it finishes, left click on Evolve Stage 2 on Steam and click "Properties", and after that go to "Betas". Select the beta "legacyevolve - the original evolve product" and try to run it. You'll get the aforementioned executable error.

step 4: go to "local files" in the Properties window and click "browse local files"

step 5: a window will pop up in the "EvolveGame" folder, go back to "common"

step 6: delete the "EvolveGame" folder

step 7: go where the other folder that you downloaded from the torrent is (in my case its on the "downloads" location) and copy that file over to your Steam "common" folder

step 8 (optional): go to the properties window of "evolve stage 2 [legacyevolve]" and go to "local files" and then click: "verify integrity of game files"

Click Play and enjoy Legacy Evolve! To find people to play, see the Discord link below.

I did this tutorial because i have see a lot of videos or links that don't work or are very hard to install, so i wanted to do an "updated" version that is easier.

Thanks to my friend on discord Nantes who told me about this :D

Tip: you can join to Evolve Reunited 2.0 discord server: https://discord.gg/Aerjfh9 in there you will find people for play Evolve with :D

If you have any problems, please post in the comments.


As of May 2021, it is now possible to play Evolve without having it in your library with a method a community member developed! You can check the #announcements channel of Evolve Reunited 2.0 Discord for more information: https://discord.gg/RcYd2JnkbB

In case the announcement above is hard to find in the future, I'm copying and pasting the instructions here:

Disclaimer:
This whole thing only got tested on Windows10. I don't know if it will work on any other OS.
It uses Goldberg Emulator to run the game on and mitmproxy to intercept the games Network requests. Your antivirus software may see these as malware. Links to all software used can be found in the end.
If you intend to play the game on Steam the way it was before too you maybe want to back up the following thing:
ca-bundle.crt inside your EvolveGame folder.
cache.m2k inside your EvolveGame folder.
Your Steam saves that are probably located in: C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\userdata\\273350
Your Screen Shots.


What you need:

The Emulator (Steam has been censoring the link, so paste the URL on your web browser and remove both spaces around the dot):
mega . nz/file/TD5Uha6L#GsNstSoX56tzXXBQE1ntb55rlqvcuvVsGjCQQ7WWJ3E

Something to create a Network with: https://my.zerotier.com (see Knowledge Base for info on how to create a Network).

The EvolveGame folder of a legacy player:
RECOMMENDED METHOD: get the folder via the magnet/torrent link in step 2 the instructions above
ALTERNATIVE METHOD:
a) Go to #get-evolve
b) In your Steam App log into the following Steam Account: sendbugpls, Password: Bu77Bu77
c) Right click Evolve >> Properties >> Betas >> select legacyevolve The Original Evolve Product in the drop down menu >> x out of the window (you do not need an access key).
d) Hit install and wait till the download has finished completely.
e) Right click Evolve >> Properties >> Local Files >> Browse... Now you are inside your EvolveGame folder. You can put it out of the path if you want (in case you intend to keep playing the game on Steam as before too don't do so).

How to put everything together:
Drag and drop only the contents (not the Evo folder it self) of the Mega file into your EvolveGame folder. Everything that was inside the Bin64_SteamRetail folder of the Mega file should now be inside the Bin64_SteamRetail folder of EvolveGame.
In Bin64_SteamRetail you will now find gamelauncher.exe. This is the execution file you run the game with. You can add it as a none Steam game or create a shortcut to your Desktop/Task Bar for ease of you.
Create or join a Network of players.
Run gamelauncher.exe. A shell will appear that asks you to enter an username. You can later change your username and id in EvolveGame\Bin64_SteamRetail\EvolveCrack\settings
Afterwards it will launch the game. If you are stuck in the opening cinematic or got issues connecting with others in the next step just close the program and run it again.
If you don't want to play it Esc out of the Tutorial. In the main menu press Multiplayer. Answer the Window that pops about about Servers with "No" to get into the multiplayer lobby screen. There you can invite people in your Network. You can also press Shift+Tab to join/invite others.
Enjoy!

Side Note: Everyone but the host will see +100ms added to there connection if they press T ingame. Side by side comparrisons had shown that this is a display bug and not actual lag.


Software used:
Goldberg Emulator https://gitlab.com/Mr_Goldberg/goldberg_emulator
Mitmproxy https://mitmproxy.org
Source Code https://github.com/1101839859/EvolveLegacyReborn/