Turok: Evolution

UPC: 021481652731

Platform: Nintendo GameCube

Publisher: Acclaim Entertainment, Inc.

Developer: Acclaim Studios Austin

Category: Shooter

Style(s): First-Person Shooter

Synopsis: Take the role of the progenitor Tal'Set as he first comes to the Lost Lands in this next-generation prequel set at the very beginning of the Turok saga. While in the heat of an Old West battle with lifelong enemy Tobias Bruckner, Tal'Set is suddenly pulled through a dimensional rift into a strange new land. The hero is close to death as he first finds himself in the Lost Lands, but is rescued by the inhabitants of a small village. Tal'Set agrees to help the villagers stand against their greatest threat, the merciless ruler Lord Tyrannus and his reptilian armies. This war becomes more personal when Tal'Set realizes that Bruckner was also pulled through the rift to the Lost Lands, and that he now serves the evil Lord Tyrannus. Turok: Evolution runs on a new game engine built with 128-bit generation consoles in mind. Environments are designed to be lively and interactive, with realistic water and landscape features, full of indigenous plant and animal life. The game's artificial intelligence is also designed to present believable behaviors, with alert enemies that react naturally to their surroundings and allied squad-mates that can take cover, position themselves strategically, or even surrender. As in previous releases in the Turok series, gameplay is a mix of stealth, tactics, and first-person shooter action. ~ T.J. Deci, All Game Guide

Package Contents: 28-page Instruction Manual

Controls: Joystick/Gamepad

The manual explains the basic story as well as lists the weapons and power-ups found in the game. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The graphics are wildly inconsistent. More time was spent on animating the tiny animal creatures than in re-creating a believable world. The characters you meet are especially ugly. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Acclaim's Turok series of first-person shooters began its Nintendo 64 run in 1997 and is largely credited as the franchise that brought Acclaim a degree of respectability. The success of the original Turok proved the company did not have to veil substandard games behind costly licenses in order to make a quick buck. The Turok series would continue on the N64 until 2001, enjoying much of its success from its inventive use of weapons, rock-solid multiplayer support, and an anachronistic storyline mixing science fiction with fantasy. The fact that few third-party titles on the N64 were worth owning also played a significant part in Turok becoming a bona fide hit. Turok: Evolution makes its GameCube debut with the promise of even more advanced features. No longer restricted to the cartridge medium and with a more powerful system, the game would ostensibly serve as the ultimate, at least in marketing terms, Turok experience. The developers also addressed a number of complaints found in the original games: the save system would now be automatic once players reached certain areas rather than having them search high and low for a specific save point. Levels would also be less reliant on constant backtracking and hunting for countless keys to access new areas. Although finding keys would still play a role, it would be a minimal one at best. Turok: Evolution does indeed address these shortcomings, but players will be surprised at how much has changed from earlier games -- and not for the better. The level design is less interesting than in previous titles, with linear stages taking minutes to complete. Also gone are the cinematic cut-scenes to help tie the story together and create a sense of purpose. In their place are garish text snippets that are read during excruciating load times -- many even occurring in the middle of a level. Since players aren't given much detail on what they are supposed to be doing, there aren't multiple objectives to worry about. Most of the time players will simply need to get from point A to point B, which may occasionally involve retrieving an item or rescuing some prisoners along the way. Usually a great game is judged by its attention to detail; it's the little things that help separate good games from outstanding ones -- the frosting on a cake, so to speak. Turok: Evolution is just a glop of icing. The developers did a great job on minute details to help bring the world to life, but only at the expense of the most important elements. You'll see a little frog swimming through the water with impressive animation, but the water looks horribly pixilated and fake. Ring-tailed monkeys dance merrily in the jungle, but leaves, plants, and bushes resemble ugly cardboard cutouts. An iguana or two will sit perched on a rock, but the rocks and cliffs feature blurry texture. The list goes on and on. For all of the heavily touted features designed to make the game more realistic, there's a greater amount making the game seem like a fraud. Instead of players exploring expansive jungles, invisible barriers artificially enclose the areas. While you can shoot trees with a single bullet and watch them fall to the ground, you'll be swinging forever trying to cut through a tiny shrub. Another missed opportunity is the trees themselves. Why aren't players allowed to climb trees to reach higher areas? Wouldn't it make sense to walk atop the trunk of a fallen tree that has just created a nice bridge? Unfortunately you just pass straight through them as if you were a ghost. Don't expect anything close to Red Faction in terms of being able to modify the terrain. Instead of using common sense to reach higher areas, Tal'Set must climb specific rock formations draped in ivy. In this way the levels are extremely linear and are much easier than in past Turok games. Health kits are abundant, and enemies tend to run straight at characters or stand there motionless while their comrades are being reduced into splotches of red goo. Aiming is also a problem, as the default control scheme feels too loose and imprecise. The developers apparently recognized this problem and created an auto-aiming feature in the options screen. This makes targeting even worse, as bullets automatically find their mark on multiple targets even if the crosshairs are positioned in a different area. There's no happy medium. The flying levels are also inconsistent. The developers have apparently tried to emulate Star Fox 64 or Star Wars: Rogue Squadron in style -- some levels are on rails while others offer players a limited range of movement, but it is often unclear which targets are supposed to be hit. The mount also has a tendency to speed up rapidly while descending, which is fine if you have full control over the surroundings, but the invisible barriers have players smacking into the sky and then plummeting downward. Due to the rapid speed of descent, it's often too late to recover as the mount plunges toward a rock. There are typically multiple targets to hit on both the ground and in the air, but an inability to lock onto targets coupled with default lasers that do little damage make for a frustrating experience. All signs point to a game that was rushed to get it onto the marketplace. The graphics are at times atrocious on the GameCube, looking like they belong on the Nintendo 64 with crude polygonal characters who don't even move their lips when talking, flat backgrounds, and blurry textures. At other times the game looks interesting with a surprising number of small animals and large dinosaurs all sharing the same environment. Other problems include inconsistent frame rates, horrific loading times, and a multiplayer mode that loses its luster after a few play sessions. Perhaps Turok would have been more acceptable had it been released a few years ago, but the genre has, interestingly enough, "evolved" to the point where this game looks and plays downright primitive. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

The multiplayer mode supports four players and offers some fun for those who only care about gaming with a group of friends. Don't be surprised when this game is quickly shelved for TimeSplitters 2, however. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

By far, the best aspect of the game. Excellent ambient sound effects make it seem like you are in the jungle even if your eyes tell you otherwise. A majestic orchestral soundtrack helps elevate the mood. Great use of Dolby Surround. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

Turok: Evolution simply is not engaging as prior games in the series. The sloppy graphics and control detract from the experience, and the bland level design doesn't encourage exploration. ~ Scott Alan Marriott, All Game Guide

the game requires Joystick/Gamepad.