Turok

Turok is back in the game with a new developer and publisher trying a reboot to the series as the protagonist’s name and race is the only connection with the previous installments. While it’s a competent end product, it fails to impress or be anything other than a rental in comparison to the other FPS juggernauts already available. Find out why after the jump.

Gameplay - 5

Trying to rekindle the magic of the original N64 Turok, this game takes place almost completely in a jungle environment filled with a multitude of various dinosaurs and rounded out with typical FPS factories and generic armored soldiers which wears thin halfway through the game as the level design and enemy AI is painfully average. Dinosaurs simply charge and run away while the soldiers stand/strafe and shoot.

To compensate for the average AI the game’s adversaries tend to knock off a bit too much damage along with the enemy soldier possessing super-human accuracy. This results in uneven pacing from replaying too many sections over and over as death is commonplace even on the default difficulty.

Turok does feature an optional stealth approach to combat to quietly take out enemies with a bow or knife but this never works as well as intended because there is absolutely no feedback to the stealth system aside from getting attacked after being seen. This wouldn’t necessarily be an issue if not for the enemy placement which hinders the stealth feature as there are just too many enemies too close together to accomplish anything but a single stealth kill before being spotted.

Guns, specifically outrageously designed guns have always been a hallmark of the series. Even the bad Turok games had cool guns but they’ve all been sadly left behind as this one only features FPS standards like the shotgun, machine gun, knife, etc with a few exceptions that fail to impress nearly as much as the previous games have.

Visuals - 6

The game’s look is on par with its average gameplay. Powered by Unreal Engine 3, the game makes good use of lighting and particle effects and while uninspired, the gun modeling looks and animates well.

Unfortunately the outdoor environments (where most the game takes place) doesn’t hold up as well. The foliage scattered throughout the environment is impressive initially until gamers move through it and realize that the grass rotates with the player which wouldn’t be all that bad if not for the fact that the game predominately takes place in environments where this gets noticed again and again.

Dinosaurs however are modeled rather well and animate very fluidly but this is offset by bland character models for the humans that seem out of place in comparison. Human enemies and allies have a hazy look to them as if the developers forgot to include high resolution effects on the models.

Sound - 7

As out of place as it seems in an FPS, Turok’s best feature is the sound, specifically the voice work which is both well written and acted. From the grass rustling to the roar of the dinosaurs the sound design in Turok is excellent.

Because the focus of the game’s sound is in its creatures and environments, little was paid to music. For the most part this works but in quite a few encounters having a more fleshed out musical score would’ve led to a much more immersive experience.

Longevity - 6 (Slightly above average (No campaign replay value, multiplayer isn’t that exciting but it’s still a plus))

In addition to the lackluster single player showing from a technical and visual standpoint, Turok also suffers from zero replay value. Aside from going back through the campaign on a harder difficulty there is no other incentive enticing players to revisit it.

Because of this Turok needed to include a top notch multiplayer experience to justify a purchase instead of a rental. Unfortunately it fails in this regard.

Unlike the campaign, the multiplayer doesn’t suffer from some of the single player shortcomings (slowdown, annoying checkpoints) but it’s still a fairly standard affair with typical FPS play-sets and variants; the only difference being dinosaurs who attack all players which doesn’t affect gameplay all that much. A stock multiplayer experience could have been acceptable had Turok been released earlier this generation but it simply can’t compete with the current big FPS’ and only a month after its release it’s already evident as finding matches takes a long time because the game’s online population pales in comparison to other games.

Learning Curve - 6 (Slightly above average (acceptable controls, bad difficulty design))

Since Turok is a standard “run and gun” affair its learning curve is simple and quick. Aside from a slightly different button layout from other FPS’ (which is easily alleviated through pop up icons), players will get accustomed to it fairly quickly. If only the difficulty was tuned in a similar fashion.

As stated, the game seems too hard on numerous occasions and is compounded more so because of the developer’s poor job at checkpoint management, forcing the player to slog back through medium-length stretches of the game after dying.