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You can get up close and personal with the dinosSo, that's the aiming, the screen blur, knife attacks and knock downs - four things that combine to really damage a solid game - but there's another, even more damaging flaw: the checkpoint system. It still baffles me how game designers can't implement fair checkpoints and how game after game we're forced to play through the same sections over and over again just because one section towards the end proves to be difficult. Turok has these in spades. Early on you're forced to replay a complete elevator section (including a part where you get off to shoot out an electrical hatch operation console) over and over again unless you make it to the top without dying. Even on standard Normal difficulty this is hard, but on anything trickier it's infuriating. And these moments keep on appearing throughout the game.
What's sad is how good Turok could have been. The environments are large and allow for a range of approaches, the dinosaur-on-man action is excellent and the range of weapons on offer is pretty good (although not nearly as impressive as Turok games of old). Despite its problems it's still an exciting game to play, often invoking memories of classic PC FPS Alien VS Predator, with the rushing dinosaurs and swaying grass making for some truly heart stopping moments. While the storyline relies on there being other humans on the planet, had the game been simply about your squad surviving against dinosaurs the end result could have been far better.
AdvertisementThere are genuinely great moments, like your first fight with a big dino in an arena-like area. Moments like this make you think the game is going to improve from then on, but it just doesn't. You'll encounter the above problems over and over again, and so much darkness that you'll laugh when one of your team mates states quite seriously that "It's starting to get dark". The fact that you've been fighting through dinos in near pitch black lighting for the past 15 minutes seems to have passed him by.
Multiplayer game modes are of course included, with up to 16 players able to take part in competitive matches for solo and team play. What's on offer is solid, but the fiddly aiming and some considerable lag make Turok's online modes something you're unlikely to play all that often. The co-op missions carry the most enjoyment, offering you unique levels not found in the single-player campaign. While the gameplay isn't suddenly transformed during these levels, playing with three other real players does elevate a few of the problems, simply because you're able to tackle groups of enemies more successfully.
Fighting soldiers just isn't as much funBuilt on the Unreal Engine 3 you'd expect Turok to look great, and it does... in parts. When you're looking out over a large landscape, the light hitting the trees beautifully and dinosaurs running amok in the valley below, it's a great looking game. Other than the odd moment where the dinos animate a little strangely the beasts look great too, but too much of the game is bland. All the indoor sections are awfully generic and at times the lighting is so subdued it's almost impossible to see what's going on. Still, seeing all the sights is one of the main reasons to play through the game, and it's only really some fairly regular slowdown mars the overall presentation. Audio work is a bit patchy, with some excellent surround sound but not so great voice work.
So, Turok isn't an awful game, it's just an unbelievably frustrating one. Try as I might to like it, the game almost insisted that I didn't. Every good moment is countered by at least a handful of near soul destroying problems and every stunning piece of scenery is blighted by too much darkness and an erratic frame rate. A selection of solid multiplayer game modes aren't enough to make up for a poorly put together game, relegating the latest Turok to a league it simply shouldn't have found itself in. It's definitely better than Evolution, but as reinventions go we wanted a whole lot more.
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litvamp wrote at 17:38 on 14 February 2008
It's a shame cos i loved it on the n64, i think i give this a miss.
Player wrote at 21:47 on 14 February 2008
Based on one review? It's averaging 70 on Metacritic - seems some people hate it, others really like it, and the rest are pretty indifferent...
Wido wrote at 10:45 on 17 February 2008
Okish review, but being surrounded by raptors is easy with the knife. I get on with it very well and I would give it 7/10 even a 8/10, its like they said with the first Turok on the N64. You hate it or you love it, its a normal FPS and being on a planet with large mass of jungle area who can moan about that....
Some people didn't like it because of the demo and being a very dark cave, well at least you didn't play the bit before the cave. As you must fend off a T-Rex to get into the cave, playing Turok on "In-Human" difficulty would be a pain in the arse as the dinosaurs would annoy the player.
Overall some areas of the review I agree on, and some areas I don't agree on. It could be that you keep dieing when you get a small pack of raptors on you, and the wave of soliders in some areas of the game. But overall its just a normal FPS with the elements of doing it stealth "Knife or Bow" or guns & blazing your choice.
william baxter wrote at 15:02 on 05 March 2008
Have toagree with review its spot on, aiming poor (to jerky) the instant kills with knife are good but after a kill i find him facing random directions there for loosing my barings AGAIN, so many little things that when added up make this actually pretty poor- loved the origonal and soo dissapointed, Hard to aim- hard to see what the hell is going on - bow is just two slow - aaaaaahhhhhhhh i hate game disgers who no nothing about gaming, this could have been very good but its not!!!! 6/10 4 hours in and still sruggling to hit the enamy that stands b4 me :) with all the good games Halo -gears of war etc that have great controls and aiming why games like this are acctualy alot worse in every department save your money!
phantasm666 wrote at 23:23 on 04 April 2008
I used to play turok when i had a p.c with voodoo graphics card back in the day!!! although certain elements of that game were "oh my god look how amazing that guy looks, the square blocks of his arm look so life like' it was a case of being a bloody good game to start with :) When i found out i copuld have this trip down memory lane on ps3 i jumped at it!! Sadly the thing is i've started playing it and again felt a wow factor with the graphics, but absolutly no other aspect of the game!! The grass does my head in!! stealth atack is just beyond slow, Aim is a joke, Save points are beyond bad into depths only worms know about! with only these few things listed i'm actually amazed anyone can defend this product in when weighed against money and enjoyment.. don't get me wrong we all have different tastes this i know but for £40 it leaves a bitter one don't you think?
Fade8way wrote at 19:47 on 18 April 2008
A 5? Sorry, I value opinions, but come on. This game was at least a 7. I go around on this site and all the reviewers are basically hated except a few, and now I see why
phantasm666 wrote at 21:17 on 28 April 2008
Are we talkin about the same game?
Cal wrote at 19:32 on 27 May 2008
OKey the game is kind of great in alot of ways but it also has alot of floors its totaly worth buying but things like after uve just kinifed a dino it leaves u faceing some random way usually looking at the floor so you have to figure out wer u are wer the enemy is and whos shooting you and its kind of a blag
dave wrote at 14:09 on 17 June 2008
i would give it a 7 out of 10