Turok
Even the cute little dinos want to rip your throat out.
By Matt Kelly
Note: This is for both the PS3 & Xbox 360 versions of the game.
The franchise reboot of Turok is upon us, albeit after a few delays, but it is here nonetheless. You won't find any real call backs to Turok's N64 roots in this new adventure but let's say straight out that this next gen adventure well and truly digs itself out of the hole that Turok Evolution on PS2 dug. We spoke about the game a few weeks ago in our hands on preview and were very impressed, but how does the final version perform after some serious game time? Read on!
The story of Turok's 2008 day-out is one very different from previous adventures. He still retains his native American roots, bow and knife but beyond that, you won't find any similarities between the previous generations of the man. Enter Turok, part of Whiskey Company, a space faring squad out to bring down Roland Kane, military leader of Wolf Pack, rouge military force. Turok has a shady past as former member of Wolf Pack, much to the crews distaste. Soon after arriving into the star system, Whiskey Company's starship is shot down, crash landing on the dino filled planet that Kane resides on.
Turok deserves kudos for some incredibly cool concepts and graphics brought to the table. After the initial "run and escape the starship wreck" introduction, you'll lay eyes on the lush beautiful environment which is arguably one of the games biggest selling points. Turok is, for the most part, a pretty hot game to look at. It's one of those games that look great providing you don't look too closely at it. The indoor environments are little more to look at than gray walls and crates with the odd flashy computer screen. Thankfully you won't be spending a lot of your times in doors. But what will get you excited are the outdoor environments, which, between the tramping through the long grass, the wide open vistas and and teeming wild life, will be one of the better environments you've seen in a video game. But like we said, don't look too closely or you will discover flaws. Textures, while very good to look at, do reveal their low resolution even when you're staring right at them. The long grass is done in a similar way to the original Halo's bullet shells, in that it's all 2D panels being pushed aside. All these elements make a beautiful picture, put the individual elements are somewhat flawed. There's also a distinct lack of physics with the objects in the world; throw a grenade next to a crate, BAM, and the crate is still where it was. Damn.
One thing that Turok does wonderfully is its characters. Turok, Slade, Roland and the rest of the gang look great and move beautifully, though a tad out on the pure realism factor. The enemies you encounter don't quite have the same level of cinematic "shinyness" but they aren't far behind. And speaking of cinematic, does Turok pull this off well. Turok's 'story moments' have taken on a traditional approach of 3rd person scripted scenes rather than the 1st person free view sort that seem to be all the rage at the moment. When you hit a cut scene moment, Turok will snap into 3rd person with no lag at all, delivering the required plot with no loading or blackouts. Combine that with the excellent voice acting, and Hollywood style use of the camera and these cut scenes keep the momentum going. Admittedly, the dialogue seems to get more and more cheesy as the game goes on, but after we talk about the game play, you'll understand that Turok isn't a game to play if you want an epic genre shattering game.
We've spoken about the game's pretty factor. It's very good to look at with a few flaws. But how does it play? Turok introduces a few very cool concept in the FPS cookie cutter genre but with a lot of roughness and a few balancing issues. At the core of it you'll find the traditional run and gun gameplay, which if you're an action fan you will fulfill your needs very easily. Weapons are dual weldable and there's enough enemies that you'll find yourself panicking when you run out of ammo and diving for the nearest clip you can find. The AI does a decent job of out smarting you and flanking you, but fairly often if you do something more than just strafing around, the AI seems to just stop thinking and will stand right in the line of fire. A large number of weapons are dual wieldable, from pistols to shotguns to sticky bomb launches. Then you get weapons which use two hands and are more badasss just as pulse rifles and such. Sadly Turok doesn't provide the unique and creative weaponry that previous games have. And yes, the cerebral bore is gone. You'll be able to choose two weapons to carry at any one time, regardless of dual wielding or not. You'll also have your classic Turok bow and knife on hand at all times.
Now up until now it all sounds very generic, mainly because it is. Where Turok gets cool (along with rough and somewhat unbalanced) is some of the concepts introduced into the dino filled world. Beyond blasting them in the face with a shot gun, dinos also serve the ultra cool concept of slaughtering Roland's forces for you. 'My enemy's enemy is my friend' said someone once, and this is very true of Turok. Through out the game you'll have many opportunities to manipulate dinos through many means. Dinos are drawn to flares for example. Stick one of them on Roland's troops and its all over for them as they get pinned to the ground and their throat is ripped out. Trash Raptor eggs and mum will come out attacking the first thing they see so just try to stay out of sight. Even the chilled out plant eating dinos can be used like this. Hurt 'em and watch them cut sick at your enemies. The problem with all of this is that these opportunities aren't very apparent. This really comes down to poor level design. After gunning down a ton of dinos and soldiers you'll frequently have moments where you see how you could have taken out everyone with only two bullets. It's very frustrating.
Knife play is another incredibly fun and cool concept but suffers from massive balancing issues. Aiding in the cinematic stylings of the game, stabbing enemies will cause the game snap into a 4 second cut scene of Turok executing the enemy, and in the case of dinos, will send blood spraying. While this isn't so much a game play thing, it really does keep presentation of the game going throughout. The big problem though is it is MASSIVELY unbalanced. Just for kicks we tried to see how far we could get purely using the knife, and uh, let's just say it was quite some time before we kacked it. Between the one hit kills and it being way to easy to pull these off, especially with soldiers, you'll either get bored of knifing very fast or just stop using guns all together. On the flip side watching Turok stab a dino in the head repeatedly and watching the blood spray is very cool. No blood for the soldiers though...
Multiplayer is also a part of Turok but doesn't really bring anything new to the table. The only thing really interesting in it is the knife kills and the wild life present in the multiplayer maps. While this doesn't save it from blending in with the crowd, there's a bit of fun to be had. There's also a short co-op campaign for 4 players. Again though, it just kinda suffers the 'been there, done that' feeling.
Audio is one place Turok is well and truly for the win. The cinematic element of the game is well and truly backed up by some ace voice acting. The dialogue may be cheesy and a tad repetitive (especially with those 'I'm reminding you to do this' lines) but the performances are great, nothing sounds forced and hammed up. Though it's not really surprising given who's behind the voices. You've got folks such as TimothyOlyphant (Die Hard 4.0, Hitman), Ron Perlman (Hellboy, Blade II), William Fichtner (Prison Break) and many more. While none of these folks are A list actors, you will hear some genuinely good performances.
Back this up with the moody orchestrated score through out the game, and you'll find overall, something that more sounds like a Hollywood action movie than a video game.
Summary:
Turok is something pure action fans are gonna enjoy. The concepts introduced in the game, despite the poor execution are worth checking out. All that being said, if you're looking for something with serious substance, you're not gonna find it in Turok. The plot kinda dies off pretty fast and falls into B-Grade action story. What story there is told well through its cinematic presentation, something that few games get right. Turok does 110%.
Gameplay – 7.0
Cool concepts, poor execution. If you like to gun and knife you'll have fun but if you need more than that to drive you, don't expect it in Turok.
Graphics – 7.5
Beautiful to look at providing you don't examine anything too hard. Camera use and presentation is excellent.
Sound – 9.0
Great voice acting and cinematic score. Dialog is cheesy though.
Replay – 5.0
Once you're done, you're done. Co-op and multiplayer won't save this title from being traded in. Achievements are kinda lame.
Overall – 7.2
Cinematically presented, poor actual gameplay. If everything had just been done just a little bit better, this could have been a real winner.
Submitted by Robtot
18/02/2008
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