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Inconsistent

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 9
Date: September 21, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Turok: Evolution has a terrible multiple personality disorder: sometimes it's this great action packed shooter with awesome lighting effects and high-res textures, and sometimes it's this really ugly-looking, tedious-playing, evil twin.

Turok: Evolution follows the story of the original Dinosaur Hunter: Tel Set. You learn how he was originally transported to the Lost Lands to become a Turok.(well sort of anyway...The story-line's kind of muddled.) Most of the game is just your standard FPS fare: you move through completely linear levels wreaking havoc and shooting everything that moves. It starts off really slow though, with lots of tedious sniping and ugly graphics, but things start to pick up around the fifth chapter or so. You then start doing more indoor levels, which show off the cool lighting and reflection effects, and allow you to engage in more close range combat. Also your weapons arsenal starts to get a lot more interesting.

I think the weapons are probably the coolest aspect of Turok. Most weapons have two modes of fire and some of them transform into completely different weapons (such as the Flechette gun, which can be transformed into a Mini gun). The graphic effects of some of these weapons are truly stunning: the heat-waves on the rocket launcher and flame-thrower are most impressive. In fact, I think the rocket launcher in Turok is probably the coolest rocket launcher I've ever seen in a FPS. There are some really interesting weapons here: for instance, there's the gravity disrupter, which when you press the trigger quickly, will knock enemies backwards, or you can hold the trigger in and it will charge up for a shock-wave attack. You can also switch to the alternate mode and use the gun to pick up enemies and hurl them off cliffs, or bash them against walls and other foes.

The controls are nearly identical to those found in Halo, only the aiming isn't nearly as precise, and your turning speed is far to slow...and then far to fast. You see, Turok has the same problem with aiming that MOH: Frontline suffered from: first the controls move far to slow, and then as you slowly press the thumb-stick further, they suddenly reach a point where they jump to high-speed, and move far to fast, causing you to overshoot what you were aiming for. Fortunately though, with the auto-aim feature enabled, this problem is far more manageable.

There are a few levels where you hop on the back of a pterasaur and fly through canyons in a rail-shooter mode. While the concept of a pterasaur shooter, (complete with lock-on missiles and radio chatter) is super cheezy, and the graphics are quite ugly, I still found it to be kind of thrilling soaring through canyons, narrowly avoiding obstacles, and pulling out of steep dives just in the nick of time. It's nothing terribly great, but it's not as bad as it sounds.

The graphics are just so incredibly inconsistent. Some levels look nearly as good as Halo: with nice lighting effects and reflections. However, some of the levels look like something from an average PS2 game. Even the textures within the levels can be inconsistent. Sometimes you'll notice some really nice looking high-res textures and then a few feet later there'll be an ugly blurry mess. Some of the effects (such as the rippling heat-waves from the rocket launcher) are quite impressive, but some effects are sorely lacking (like water for instance, which is just a flat bluish texture). The frame-rate is alright on the indoor levels, but it does drop a bit when you're outside.

One of my biggest gripes with Turok is the lack of save-points. You can only save after completing a level; this was acceptable on the N64, due to hardware limitations, but the Xbox has an 8 gigabyte hard drive and there's no excuse for using such an archaic save system. I get the feeling they used this system because they knew the inconsistent enemy AI just wouldn't have made the game challenging enough otherwise.

You see the AI enemies in Turok are just really unpredictable (in a bad way). For instance, sometimes you can attempt to snipe an enemy and he'll alert all his buddies to your location, and they'll all instantly know where you are and will immediately proceed to attack you. However, sometimes you can shoot an enemy and he'll just stand there and take it-as if he can't even feel the bullets ripping through his flesh. Again the problem here is consistency.

The multi-player modes are pretty much the usual: capture the flag, death-match, ect.. The frame-rate is fine when you play two players but it really takes a hit when you play with 3 or 4. Unfortunately, Turok does not support the System Link feature-which seems kind of stupid to me. I mean how much time does it take to add in System Link support?!

With 14 chapters, each consisting of several levels, Turok is quite a large FPS. I think maybe, it would have been better if they made the game smaller and then spent the extra time polishing things up. It seems they just spread themselves to thin and weren't able keep the level of quality consistent. At times Turok really shows some glimpses of brilliance. Perhaps, with another six months development time, Turok could have been a good solid FPS, but as it stands now, it's really not worth playing. There's just too many other FPS's of higher quality coming out this fall and Turok: Evolution just doesn't have anything original to make up for it's technical shortcomings.

Sound: 7/10 The sound is pretty solid, with some nice back-round music and cool sounding weapons.
Graphics: 5/10 A real mixed bag: sometimes they're really good, other times they're terrible.
Controls: 7/10 Would be terrible, but fortunately there's an auto-aim option.
Game-play: 6/10 Your typical FPS: Shoot everything that moves. The reliance on the limited save-points to make the game challenging is really annoying.
Originality: 1/10 Nothing new here.
Value: 8/10 With 14 chapters, and each chapter consisting of several levels there's a good 30-40 hours of
single player, plus there is a multi-player mode. No real replay value for the single-player though.
Difficulty:7/10 Hard due to lack of save-points.
Final Score: 6/10 If it could have been more consistent, it could have been a good solid shooter.

I really didn't like it

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: September 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

First off, I'm a huge first person shooter fan and I was really looking forward to this game. I even put a copy on reserve at the local store. I ended up taking it back the next day and exchanging it for something else. I just didn't enjoy playing it. It was like I had to force myself to play it which is saying a lot since I can be completely content playing Unreal Tournament of the PS2 for hours, or beating Halo for the Zillionth time. Anyways, here's what I thought:

1. Graphics were mediocre at best. If you expecting this to look anywhere near as good as Halo your in for a big disappointment. It doesn't even look as good as Red Faction or Unreal Tournament on the PS2.

2. The game play has much to be disired. I found it hard to control and aim. It's very touchy.

3. The weapons are weak. This is one of the main reasons I returned the game.

4. It's bloody. This is one thing I liked about this game. The opening scene was great. The characters put on a very dramatic show when you kill them, spraying blood up in the air (even though it doesn't really look very real) and getting arms blown off...even decapitated.

5. The water effects are pitiful. It just flat clear water. No waves, no reflection, not even any water noises. In fact, when you swing your tomohawk under water, you can still hear the wind sound effects.

6. The flying part is awful. I haven't cursed at a game this much since "Wreckless". It's like playing starfox 64 only it handles much worse, you have a decidedly annoying woman on a radio constantly harping at you, and if you run into anything at all your dinasour explodes. As a matter of fact, I was never killed by any type of enemy fire. Everytime I died it was from my dinosaur running into a wall or tree (usually when trying to turn around). Very fustrating.

7. It seems to have a lot of gliches. It frequently lags down. In multi-player, my friend suddenly lost his right thumbstick.

8. The enemy AI is a joke. I witnessed a lizard man runnning straight into the side of a tree as I fired my pistol at him....and it took me a while to actually hit him. When you use the sniper bow, you can hit them from long range and they just stand there letting you kill them, and so do the other enemies around them.

Basically, I just had zero desire to play this game after about the first hour. It's definately not worth fifty bucks. But, hey...that's just my opinion.

What is the hype all about?

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 8 / 10
Date: September 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I remember my friends raving about original Turok (N64) and how great it was. I read couple of reviews...and it seemed that all the people loved this game but probably most played only the demo instead of the full version. But being hyped by great reviews I decided to give it a try. Well I wouldn't call this game a total disappointment but a huge letdown. Things that would transform an average FPS into a great one are non existent. Enemy AI is not there. There is no challenge to fight the enemies if you can spot them from far away. If by any chance you engage in combat all you have to do is move back while shooting. Enemies don't take cover, don't run, don't use any tactics (unless charging you in a group is a tactic). Weapons are seriously weak. Yes it's fun to use bow and arrow for a change but it gets boring very quickly. Graphics was the part that everyone raved about. I'm asking what graphics? This things looks like a PC game from 2 years ago or N64 game. I don't understand why Acclaim didn't take full advantages off Xbox hardware. Yes the dinos are beautifully rendered and scapes are really nice but right away you start imagining how great they would look if only time was spent to sup them up. Controls are pretty straight forward. Saves are far apart and game saving feature may be a bit confusing. Only four different games can be played at the time. This may not be a problem for a regular folks but it becomes one if you share your Xbox with people. It's just an average first person shooter, nothing else. And to quote my roommate who was trying to finish a flying mission somewhere in the mid of the game: "I never had less desire to replay the level, this game has absolutely no reuse value". A funny thing is that people also rave about the gore and violence in the game. Violence and gore in Turok are as follows: you shoot an enemy, he bleeds a lot. Simple. Nothing else. Than the body disappears. If you want to see a real gore and violence play "Soldier of Fortune 1 and 2". I'm not trying to bring the game down but when buying it don't expect miracles.

Disappointed

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I've been waiting for Turok and hoping...only to be let down. This game is obviously an 'xbox port' as the graphics are simply horrible! Maybe I've been spoiled by the outstanding graphics of Halo, Oddworld, P. Gotham, etc., but nevertheless, Turok is pretty bad. Adding to bad graphics are the barely comprehensible sounds of your allies and a soundtrack that is more aptly called a one-track as there is one repeating track with no variation. The gameplay in FPS mode is OK and I like the weapon choices, but flight mode is a mess and the controls are extremely difficult. I still haven't figured out how to turn in relatively tight spaces. My last complaint is multiplayer mode: no cooperative play! It's deathmatch, capture the flag and a few other head to head games, but you can't play together (my girlfriend especially hates this oversight). One positive thing I can say about Turok is the concept and all the dinosaurs. I haven't played any of the other Turok games, but running around with dinos all over the place is cool. Anyway, hopefully I can get Fry's to take this back or trade it for 'The Thing' on the 6th.

Could have been a great game

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 5 / 5
Date: September 08, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I remember playing the first Turok game of this series on the N64. It was good, but had some annoying control issues and infuriating 'jump' sequences. I figured that by the 3rd game of the series they'd have things ironed out - wrong.

There's great potential here - the sound effects are very well done, the levels are huge, and the dinosaurs and A.I. are good. But...

* There are long levels with few saves and sometimes unclear objectives.
* There are 'cheap' deaths. Sometimes you have no idea why you were killed. I don't mind if a game is hard, but it needs to follow some sort of logic so you feel you were beaten fairly.
* The stupid jumps are back. I feel precise jumping has no place in a 1st person shooter unless you can change perspective. For example I just played 30 minutes to get near the end of a level, only to miss a jump and die. I am not particularly interested in starting over...
* The voice acting (especially the flying chick) stinks.

I didn't expect it to compare to Halo, but I figured it would be a fun shooter. I should have known when the box had a blurb from Maxim magazine saying the game was great. I love Maxim but they don't know doo-doo about games (judging by previous reviews).

I wanted to like it. I really did...

Turok is back

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 20 / 42
Date: April 06, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Turok is back and all shall feel the wrath of Turok coming to every system, personally turok is my favorite video game series ever. Ive owned every game. This new one really looks like its coming together very nicely. First off it is a prequel to the first and you have the ability to play as tal' set and there is an emphasis on turok's return to the jungle, lots of dinos, o lot more than the first. tricertops, braciasaurus, tyrannasaurus rex, parasolafalus, stegasaurus, velociraptor, and tons more and they all hunt with very a very advanced AI system. also the jungle levels are fully destructible. And other than the dinosaurs there are hundreds and alien, human, mutant hybrids to deal with, like endtrails and purlinns. think dinotopia, meets Jurassic park, meets Starwars, and mix it in with lots of very big guns, gallons of blood and endtrails, and a great story line youve got Turok:evolution. The greatest game to come out for any next generation console. also did I mention it has a great 4 player mode almost as in depth as super smash bros(exept with lots of blood and big guns in first person). This game is a definate must buy, forget about the previous tuork games you didnt like and read some more reviews on this game, you MUST OWN IT!!!

Oh..........my.............god

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 7 / 9
Date: August 30, 2002
Author: Amazon User

This game rocks! I confess, i hated last three turok games, but EVOLUTION will keep you glued to the tv. The graphics are awesome, control's silky smooth as Halo (no slowdows!!), and the multiplayer is a blast! Jumping is no big deal, since its used just for novelty. Story is alright, but who cares about the story when you are having soo much fun!! Two bad things though, the game can be tough at times, and there is no online multiplayer options, then again Xbox LIVE isnt out yet. These can be easily overlooked when you have friends over, and have a great time for hours to come! Either you liked Halo or not, you will love this!

Turok: Evolution: A Boring And Forgetable Disappointment

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 7 / 10
Date: October 01, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Turok: Evolution is the next-gen update to the popular first person shooter series from the N64. I've played none of the games in the series, but if this game is suppose to represent why these games were so popular (and as I've heard, good), then I guess I didn't miss out on a whole lot. Turok: Evolution was a highly hyped title, but unfortunately, it doesn't live up to its great expectations.

For the record, I played the Xbox version of this game (it's also hitting the Gamecube and PS2). Obviously, this game (as well as Acclaim, the game's makers) hopes to dethrone the current FPS champion, Halo, but it sadly doesn't come close. The graphics have some nice effects, such as the beautiful looking water, but the character models are only OK, and the some of the jungle foliage, particularly the bushes and jungle brush, were flat, 2-D models that look just embarrassing for an Xbox game. The load times in this game are only adequate, but what really offended me was that the game takes 2 to 3 seconds to load even a simple menu (i.e. the Options menu). On this console, I expect to press the button and go to the menu almost instantly. Even The Simpsons: Road Rage, which had the longest load times of any Xbox title I've played, didn't stutter when you accessed menus. It may sound here like I'm complaining about something stupid, but it really got on my nerves.

The game's sound is good. The voices are adequate, the gun shot effects are realistic, and the game's jungle style music fits well. The controls are decent for the most part, but some things bother me. It's easy to move, look around, shoot, jump and switch weapons, but it can get to be too hard to hit enemies. At certain times, you have to kill groups of ravenous small animals to proceed. You have to look down to see them, and it's very difficult to shoot them with your guns. Even with your spiked club, you sometimes swing it at them for what would look like a direct hit, but miss. It's a real pain. Also, sniping enemies is just painful. When you activate the scope for your pistol, your sight seems to move around on its own. You may be thinking that I'm just complaining about a head roll effect similar to Goldeneye and Perfect Dark, and that I don't like it. On the contrary. I didn't mind the head roll effects in the games I mentioned because they didn't turn the scope all the way to one side, like it does in this game. It's like the scope is possessed by the devil or something. This glitch makes sniping so difficult, that you'll never want to use it. All the better, I guess, because it doesn't help a whole lot anyway. I do appreciate that enemies die when you shoot them in the head in this game, though; I'm sick and tired of shooters where the guy is still standing from a head shot. However, I don't believe for a second that these guys could possibly die instantly by having their leg or arm amputated by your arsenal. They would be in extreme pain, obviously, but they would die a slow and painful death from excessive blood loss, not just by the dismemberment.

That brings up another point. This game is really, really violent. Heads, arms, and legs, are all lopped off by Turok's weaponry, and when this happens, the enemies bleed excessively. His spiked club even gets blood on it after you pummel an enemy with it. This is probably the most violent game I've ever seen, and defiantly deserves its Mature rating (ages 17 and up). In other words, don't let your kids play this game. If you're a kid who's complaining that you're not allowed to play this game, don't worry, you're not missing out on much.

To spice things up, Acclaim included a flying segment to break up the pace, but it's just awful. Here, you ride on the bad of a flying dinosaur (I'm not sure if it's a pterodactyl or not), and shoot down enemy bunkers, gun turrets, planes, and anything else that these guys throw at you. You're told in the story that riding one of these things across the Lost Land is the fastest way to get there. However, the control during these sequences are so jerky, I'd rather just walk there on foot for a week or so. Also, you'll die so much during these sequences, you'll be begging for mercy. Well, you'll do that, and belt out a string of profanities so strong that Chris Rock would blush.

The cardinal sin of this game, though, is that it's really boring. You run around levels, graphically ending enemies lives, and either get to the end or die. It can be fun to kill enemies in such gruesome ways for a little while, but it soon gets old. Also, there are no checkpoints during long levels, so if you die at the very end of one, you have to start all over again. One thing that I really didn't like about this game is that the levels feel so linear. They're pretty much just 3-D tracks, and let you do almost no exploring whatsoever. You also barely get to interact with the environment. Sure, you can knock down trees with your club (which is pretty cool) and kill wildlife, but there isn't much more to do than that.

The game also has a mutiplayer mode for up to four players, but since I did not test it, I can't tell you about it. If you're hoping that this review will tell you whether the mutiplayer mode is worth anything, then you should find another review that discusses this mode.

All in all, I was very disappointed by this game. It's not a terrible game, but I still can't recommend it as anything more than a rental. If you want a good FPS for your Xbox, get Halo if you haven't already, and if you have, wait for another anticipated shooter to come out (like maybe Unreal Championship or Brute Force), and pray that it will live up to the hype; something that sadly, Turok: Evolution couldn't do.

TUROK ROCKS! Could be the FPS of the Year!

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: September 02, 2002
Author: Amazon User

Let me start off by saying that I am new to the Turok series and I am not an avid video gamer. However, I started playing video games when Pong was introduced in the arcades that will give you an idea of my age. I own very few games for the XBOX, just Halo, Max Payne, Madden 2003, and NASCAR Thunder. I was apprehensive in buying Turok because some of the early reactions from gamers, not video game reviews in magazines. Well let me tell you that Turok was a very pleasant surprise and I would rate it right up there with Halo. The graphics of the environment are probably a bit tighter in Halo but the creatures in Turok equal or surpass Halo. The array of weapons is endless and the flight mode is ingenious. I purchased this game the day it was released and cannot stop playing it; it will consume a vast amount of your time. I think this game may be the FPS of the year! The only games that may, and I stress the word may, surpass it on the XBOX are Medal of Honor (Nov. 2002 release) or Brute Force (Nov. 2002 release).

Magnificent game for a 11 and up.

5 Rating: 5, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: September 17, 2002
Author: Amazon User

I recently gave this to a 13 year old who describes it as one of the best of the year. I've been watching over his shoulder (he was so much better at this game than I was), enjoying the lush jungles - the bushes that move as you move through them - and the hundreds of dinosaurs and other animals populating the environment. Is it too violent? I don't think so. Its bloody but then, you are hunting dinosaurs, crocs and dinosaur men that fully intend to kill you first. I was impressed the way the game distinguished between the herbivores and the predators. Even the 13 year old learned to make the distinction quickly. This is not the stark landscape of Halo, but here you will see butterflies flitting by, lizards scampering and stegasaureses (stegasauri?) grazing. Of course, the 13 year old also loves those weapons which get more and more impressive as you move through the levels.

This is a long game that takes considerable time to finish. You will definitely get your moneys worth. And then there are a whole range of multiplayer games,once you finish the 15 chapters (40 hours minimum I would guess for a decent gamer). And the game is very addictive. Some people have said how much the game improves after the third chapter. I disagree. It was fun from the beginning. Yes, my 13 year old reported a couple glitches where dinosaurs seemed to get stuck running in circles, but certainly nothing that harmed the enjoyment of the game.

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