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Review written by Carlos X
December 20, 2003 | 10:00 PM PSTby: Donny Simpson
The Turok Series History
Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter (N64/PC) Turok began its legacy on Nintendo 64. It was exclusive to Nintendo 64, and was advertised heavily. From the advertisements on TV, magazines, posters in stores, and ultimately, Turok got its own street. The game was best known for the excessive use of blood in a console at the time, along with awesome weaponary, the game also had awesome graphics, the textures were not crispy, but the way they put the game together, with realistic environments, realistic locations, realistic characters, and HUGE bosses. Everything is about detail, now before you say to yourself "The graphics are detailed? Hah, not even close." I am simply not talking about the graphics, I am talking about the levels themselves, there's trees, there's rocks, there's boulders, there's all kinds of things, at an approximately 30-50 frames, and I had to search every part of the level, in order to advanced, otherwise, if I don't, I would've missed an item especially the most important item, if you want an extra life, called "Life-force" these are golden triangular, Triforce-like items. The graphics weren't the only thing that N64 owners like myself were so happy about, its about the length, and the challenge of Turok. The levels were HUGE, but broken into parts, because of its complex levels. (In fact, some levels need to be "frozen" or loaded, in order to get to the next part of the level, or a different area.) Believe me when I say these levels are huge, they are SO large, its not even funny, you'll spend more than 2 hours playing each level. The weapons were gruesome, fearsome, they were so powerful, some weapons will send some enemies through the skies. The controls were easy to remember, some of the best control setups on a console FPS (First Person Shooter) in my opinion. The replay value was great. This is the best Turok game on N64. And, it is the best selling First Person Shooter of all time for N64, and it is the best selling game in the Turok series.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64/PC) Turok takes the series to new heights. It had a number of improvements, the graphics were improved: The textures, and the polygon counts were all pumped up, all touched up. The detail on all fronts were improved over the original. In fact, the detail on the monsters, and the environments, or levels were noticeable, there was also a lot of use of light-sourcing as well. The weakness in this, lies in the framerate, the framerate weren't as smooth as the original, you will notice choppy framerate, slowdown, etc. The blood has been digitalized, making the blood's graphics look pixelated, in closeups. That's actually "Anti-alising." In the original, the blood was different, its not digitized, the blood was pure renderized. The number of weapons were upped over the previous game and, the weaponary are more improved over than the original. The levels were stretched, expanded, the levels were 4x the size of the original. You will spend more time on these levels over the previous game. The game has a great replay value, because of the size of the game. The enemies were HARD especially when you reach at least, level 3, there will be HUGE monsters waiting for you in their fortresses, with everything in the dark, the skies are NOT bright, they are DARK, there will be times that snipers will shoot you out of nowhere. Turok 2 was a good game, but did not take the award of being the best Turok game, but it did take the second place in that area. It was not advertised heavily, but it was advertised on magazines, and TV.
Turok 3: Shadow of Obvilion (N64) There was nothing improved in this one. I didn't like it at all. It is proclaimed as the WORST game in the series. So many problems with the game, that I could list, but do not want to list them.
First Impression:
I've been waiting for years to get a new Turok game, I went to my local gaming store, and was hoping a copy was available, there was a copy, so I rushed home, and started to play the game. The first level was a piece of cake, but at the time, I didn't know how to play, so, I try to fool around with the controls, and while I do so, I pass the level, the first level was too short to begin with. Once in the next level, I, once again fooled around with the controls, this time, I got used to the controls, and once I do, I passed the level, short level again. How does this feel? I felt that I wanted to return the game, because it was kinda boring, but since I am a Turok Fanboy, I proceeded to play the game longer, instead of returning the game.
After beating some levels, the next level became a new chapter, it is all about flying.....It was boring, in the first level, but once I get to the next two levels which I did, it all got better. You pilot a Quetzalcotlus, and your mission in this Chapter is to shoot any living, or air-pilots trying to shoot you. Meanwhile, you'll be given a mission to pass the level. The controls are not as easy as many flying games, an Quetzalcotlus is hard to control, considering, it flies like a kite, only you do not drop down, everytime you drop down, the speed increases, if you go WAY down too fast, you'll splat. If you hit a object, your health will drain, and moves your Quetzalcotlus to the opposite direction. There are boundaries when you fly high, the game will block you from flying TOO high. Turning left or right are slow, not as automatic, or as fast as many flying games does. The B & X buttons "Banks" your Quetzalcotlus meaning, your Quetzalcotlus will switch from horizontal, to vertical. (This is best for those "narrow" landmarks. If your wing touches a rock, life still drains.) The L & R buttons will shoot your enemies automatically via machine gun, and throws Rockets, respectively. There are a limited number of Rockets in your disposal, so you must find those brownish boxes, that hang from floating balloon, with a red cross, if you run out of Rockets. The A & Y buttons will speed and slow your Quetzalcotlus, respectively. The infamous GameCube "Z" button will change your camera view. (No first person view, sorry.)
Official Nation-wide Launch Day
I woke up, I wanted to finish the flying levels, so I loaded the game. The third level, is a temple, this one is the best flying level of the Chapter, yet. Why is this level the best? It feels like Star Wars, but smaller. There will be at least 5-9 air-pilots on-screen trying to get in your way, and shoot you, there will also be land enemies, that you must destroy before the Mothership-like Airship arrives. This temple has plenty of health, and once you aquire them as you are out of heath. Don't worry if you already have taken it, it re-appears sometimes. These Health are people that hang from floating balloon, with a red cross, waiting to be eaten. You will find a few rockets in the level, so don't expect to find too many rockets.
Second Impression:
I replayed the game last night, but I played the new Chapter for a while. I was at work in the morning, so, as soon as I returned home from work, I wanted to play the new Chapter. This level justified my decision to keep the game. It is HARD at first, I tried many times to beat the level, there will be snipers waiting, you go to a certain spot, the enemies will come out, and shoot you, just hide, and find the best view, when hiding, once you do, snipe 'em out! I tried to do this many times, in some spots, it works in all areas, you just gotta be patient, but later in the level, you will find big monsters, with a machine gun, they will take at least 10 percent of your health. The level may seem easy, because its a mountain, in the end, its hard to tell, because the detail of the level is tremendous, and the level is mostly, gray, and green, its hard to see enemies far away in the gray backround, or worse, green, considering there's a lot of bushes in some areas. At the end of the level, there's a lot of shells, and its hard to see which shell is the enemy behind. There will be a lot of enemies shooting at once, in the end of the level, but I managed to slay them, and proceed to the next level, which is full of snipers, and the level is hilly, if you've seen Jurassic Park III, you will know what this level is about. I haven't passed it, but this will do.
Gameplay:
The game is boring at first, but it gets better each time. It has variety. It will allow you to shoot dinosaurs, it will allow you to shoot any other living creatures, its so fun to do whatever you want. The controls is the best part of the game, I like the set up, in the original Turok, you had to use the C buttons, in Evolution you don't, all you had to do, is use the C stick. You make one mistake with the C stick, you can always move the other direction, its not looking down, and see which button you pressed, and press the one you want. (That's what happened when I first played the original Turok.) I am so glad that Nintendo created the C-stick! I am SO happy. Message to all FPS makers: PLEASE, use this setup!
The flying levels are great, I wish it was in the first one though. Nice levels, I really like it, I feel at home with these flying levels. It adds more variety to the game, and adds more replay value. The A.I was not good in the beginning in both FPS and Flying modes, but the A.I gets improved after Chapter 2 is complete. In Chapter 3 and above, the enemies will hunt you down, no matter how close or how far you are, they are so intelligent, that every move you make, they will shoot, or attack. Snipers are very dangerous, just step in their sight, whey will shoot you non-stop. (Okay, sometimes they do it slow, but some enemies, like the huge Sleg Troops, they have machine guns, and if you are far away from them they will STILL shoot you down, even if they are not snipers, they know how to shoot you from long distance.)
Graphics:
The graphics aren't top-notch, and definitely not the best that the game can offer, nor the best that the series has to offer. But the graphics are still lush, clean, and the game runs at a smooth, and fast 60 frames per second. You will notice loading times just before every level starts, or every Chapter starts, its not a big problem to me, but still is the biggest loading I have seen so far in a GameCube game. The FMV's (or CG or in-game videos) are awesome. Like the original Turok the blood is high, and rendered. The blood is SO high, it competes with the likes of Mortal Kombat, and Primal Rage.
Sound:
The sound in Turok games has always been great, this one stacks up to the others in the series. No problems here. The sound is decent. Its not perfect, but still decent.
Replay Value:
If you look at my impressions, the game DOES have a high replay value. You'll spend days, and days into beating the game.....I know, I will. I will take a quote from the back of Turok Evolution's cover:
"Every FPS fan in the country will be taking weeks off to play this game." - GameNow
So, therefore, the game will take a lot of your time. There will be times that you will die constantly, until you find the best possible strategy, or tactics to beat the level, by memorizing the level. (Which I always do. ALWAYS. Memorizing levels, is the key to beating these levels, not only you must memorize the levels, you must memorize he locations of health, weapons, enemies, and everything else, and that, is where the game interests me, it makes you want to play the game over and over again, until you find your way out.) First Person veterans will love this game. Its no Halo, but still a good game to keep GameCube gamers without PS2, or Xbox on their feet, until Timesplitters 2, or Metroid Prime comes out.
Turok: The Dinosaur Hunter (N64/PC) Turok began its legacy on Nintendo 64. It was exclusive to Nintendo 64, and was advertised heavily. From the advertisements on TV, magazines, posters in stores, and ultimately, Turok got its own street. The game was best known for the excessive use of blood in a console at the time, along with awesome weaponary, the game also had awesome graphics, the textures were not crispy, but the way they put the game together, with realistic environments, realistic locations, realistic characters, and HUGE bosses. Everything is about detail, now before you say to yourself "The graphics are detailed? Hah, not even close." I am simply not talking about the graphics, I am talking about the levels themselves, there's trees, there's rocks, there's boulders, there's all kinds of things, at an approximately 30-50 frames, and I had to search every part of the level, in order to advanced, otherwise, if I don't, I would've missed an item especially the most important item, if you want an extra life, called "Life-force" these are golden triangular, Triforce-like items. The graphics weren't the only thing that N64 owners like myself were so happy about, its about the length, and the challenge of Turok. The levels were HUGE, but broken into parts, because of its complex levels. (In fact, some levels need to be "frozen" or loaded, in order to get to the next part of the level, or a different area.) Believe me when I say these levels are huge, they are SO large, its not even funny, you'll spend more than 2 hours playing each level. The weapons were gruesome, fearsome, they were so powerful, some weapons will send some enemies through the skies. The controls were easy to remember, some of the best control setups on a console FPS (First Person Shooter) in my opinion. The replay value was great. This is the best Turok game on N64. And, it is the best selling First Person Shooter of all time for N64, and it is the best selling game in the Turok series.
Turok 2: Seeds of Evil (N64/PC) Turok takes the series to new heights. It had a number of improvements, the graphics were improved: The textures, and the polygon counts were all pumped up, all touched up. The detail on all fronts were improved over the original. In fact, the detail on the monsters, and the environments, or levels were noticeable, there was also a lot of use of light-sourcing as well. The weakness in this, lies in the framerate, the framerate weren't as smooth as the original, you will notice choppy framerate, slowdown, etc. The blood has been digitalized, making the blood's graphics look pixelated, in closeups. That's actually "Anti-alising." In the original, the blood was different, its not digitized, the blood was pure renderized. The number of weapons were upped over the previous game and, the weaponary are more improved over than the original. The levels were stretched, expanded, the levels were 4x the size of the original. You will spend more time on these levels over the previous game. The game has a great replay value, because of the size of the game. The enemies were HARD especially when you reach at least, level 3, there will be HUGE monsters waiting for you in their fortresses, with everything in the dark, the skies are NOT bright, they are DARK, there will be times that snipers will shoot you out of nowhere. Turok 2 was a good game, but did not take the award of being the best Turok game, but it did take the second place in that area. It was not advertised heavily, but it was advertised on magazines, and TV.
Turok 3: Shadow of Obvilion (N64) There was nothing improved in this one. I didn't like it at all. It is proclaimed as the WORST game in the series. So many problems with the game, that I could list, but do not want to list them.
First Impression:
I've been waiting for years to get a new Turok game, I went to my local gaming store, and was hoping a copy was available, there was a copy, so I rushed home, and started to play the game. The first level was a piece of cake, but at the time, I didn't know how to play, so, I try to fool around with the controls, and while I do so, I pass the level, the first level was too short to begin with. Once in the next level, I, once again fooled around with the controls, this time, I got used to the controls, and once I do, I passed the level, short level again. How does this feel? I felt that I wanted to return the game, because it was kinda boring, but since I am a Turok Fanboy, I proceeded to play the game longer, instead of returning the game.
After beating some levels, the next level became a new chapter, it is all about flying.....It was boring, in the first level, but once I get to the next two levels which I did, it all got better. You pilot a Quetzalcotlus, and your mission in this Chapter is to shoot any living, or air-pilots trying to shoot you. Meanwhile, you'll be given a mission to pass the level. The controls are not as easy as many flying games, an Quetzalcotlus is hard to control, considering, it flies like a kite, only you do not drop down, everytime you drop down, the speed increases, if you go WAY down too fast, you'll splat. If you hit a object, your health will drain, and moves your Quetzalcotlus to the opposite direction. There are boundaries when you fly high, the game will block you from flying TOO high. Turning left or right are slow, not as automatic, or as fast as many flying games does. The B & X buttons "Banks" your Quetzalcotlus meaning, your Quetzalcotlus will switch from horizontal, to vertical. (This is best for those "narrow" landmarks. If your wing touches a rock, life still drains.) The L & R buttons will shoot your enemies automatically via machine gun, and throws Rockets, respectively. There are a limited number of Rockets in your disposal, so you must find those brownish boxes, that hang from floating balloon, with a red cross, if you run out of Rockets. The A & Y buttons will speed and slow your Quetzalcotlus, respectively. The infamous GameCube "Z" button will change your camera view. (No first person view, sorry.)
Official Nation-wide Launch Day
I woke up, I wanted to finish the flying levels, so I loaded the game. The third level, is a temple, this one is the best flying level of the Chapter, yet. Why is this level the best? It feels like Star Wars, but smaller. There will be at least 5-9 air-pilots on-screen trying to get in your way, and shoot you, there will also be land enemies, that you must destroy before the Mothership-like Airship arrives. This temple has plenty of health, and once you aquire them as you are out of heath. Don't worry if you already have taken it, it re-appears sometimes. These Health are people that hang from floating balloon, with a red cross, waiting to be eaten. You will find a few rockets in the level, so don't expect to find too many rockets.
Second Impression:
I replayed the game last night, but I played the new Chapter for a while. I was at work in the morning, so, as soon as I returned home from work, I wanted to play the new Chapter. This level justified my decision to keep the game. It is HARD at first, I tried many times to beat the level, there will be snipers waiting, you go to a certain spot, the enemies will come out, and shoot you, just hide, and find the best view, when hiding, once you do, snipe 'em out! I tried to do this many times, in some spots, it works in all areas, you just gotta be patient, but later in the level, you will find big monsters, with a machine gun, they will take at least 10 percent of your health. The level may seem easy, because its a mountain, in the end, its hard to tell, because the detail of the level is tremendous, and the level is mostly, gray, and green, its hard to see enemies far away in the gray backround, or worse, green, considering there's a lot of bushes in some areas. At the end of the level, there's a lot of shells, and its hard to see which shell is the enemy behind. There will be a lot of enemies shooting at once, in the end of the level, but I managed to slay them, and proceed to the next level, which is full of snipers, and the level is hilly, if you've seen Jurassic Park III, you will know what this level is about. I haven't passed it, but this will do.
Gameplay:
The game is boring at first, but it gets better each time. It has variety. It will allow you to shoot dinosaurs, it will allow you to shoot any other living creatures, its so fun to do whatever you want. The controls is the best part of the game, I like the set up, in the original Turok, you had to use the C buttons, in Evolution you don't, all you had to do, is use the C stick. You make one mistake with the C stick, you can always move the other direction, its not looking down, and see which button you pressed, and press the one you want. (That's what happened when I first played the original Turok.) I am so glad that Nintendo created the C-stick! I am SO happy. Message to all FPS makers: PLEASE, use this setup!
The flying levels are great, I wish it was in the first one though. Nice levels, I really like it, I feel at home with these flying levels. It adds more variety to the game, and adds more replay value. The A.I was not good in the beginning in both FPS and Flying modes, but the A.I gets improved after Chapter 2 is complete. In Chapter 3 and above, the enemies will hunt you down, no matter how close or how far you are, they are so intelligent, that every move you make, they will shoot, or attack. Snipers are very dangerous, just step in their sight, whey will shoot you non-stop. (Okay, sometimes they do it slow, but some enemies, like the huge Sleg Troops, they have machine guns, and if you are far away from them they will STILL shoot you down, even if they are not snipers, they know how to shoot you from long distance.)
Graphics:
The graphics aren't top-notch, and definitely not the best that the game can offer, nor the best that the series has to offer. But the graphics are still lush, clean, and the game runs at a smooth, and fast 60 frames per second. You will notice loading times just before every level starts, or every Chapter starts, its not a big problem to me, but still is the biggest loading I have seen so far in a GameCube game. The FMV's (or CG or in-game videos) are awesome. Like the original Turok the blood is high, and rendered. The blood is SO high, it competes with the likes of Mortal Kombat, and Primal Rage.
Sound:
The sound in Turok games has always been great, this one stacks up to the others in the series. No problems here. The sound is decent. Its not perfect, but still decent.
Replay Value:
If you look at my impressions, the game DOES have a high replay value. You'll spend days, and days into beating the game.....I know, I will. I will take a quote from the back of Turok Evolution's cover:
"Every FPS fan in the country will be taking weeks off to play this game." - GameNow
So, therefore, the game will take a lot of your time. There will be times that you will die constantly, until you find the best possible strategy, or tactics to beat the level, by memorizing the level. (Which I always do. ALWAYS. Memorizing levels, is the key to beating these levels, not only you must memorize the levels, you must memorize he locations of health, weapons, enemies, and everything else, and that, is where the game interests me, it makes you want to play the game over and over again, until you find your way out.) First Person veterans will love this game. Its no Halo, but still a good game to keep GameCube gamers without PS2, or Xbox on their feet, until Timesplitters 2, or Metroid Prime comes out.
November 20, 2009
