Turok: Rage Wars

"Oh, what could have been."

On a recent trip to my local Blockbuster store, I perchanced upon a copy of “Turok: Rage Wars” priced at $10.00. I heard the game wasn’t that great, but being a fan of first person shooters, as well as multiplayer games, I figured I could easily milk ten dollars worth of play out of it. While I’m sure I got my ten bucks worth, I still feel disappointed by Rage Wars because it could have been so much more.

The original Turok had no multiplayer features, and its sequel had an extremely
c-h-o-p-p-y multiplayer game, so it came as a surprise that Acclaim would release a game based entirely around multiplayer. The idea certainly had potential, unfortunately, almost everything about this game reeks of mediocrity.

First of all it’s important to mention that single players aren’t entirely left out in the cold. The single player game is the means of opening up most of the secrets found in Rage Wars. The problem here is that the process for opening up all of the characters is extremely tedious. The process involves beating a long series of single-player challenges modeled after multi-player matches (similar to Perfect Dark). Beating the series as one or two characters isn’t that bad, and is actually kinda fun, but by the time you’ve opened most of the characters, you won’t care if you ever play the game again (single player anyway). The bots themselves also present a problem due to their dopey AI. The bots seem to always use one of two strategies. The first is simply running away and forcing you to chase them around the level and eventually shoot them in the back, which is simply not the American way. Their second strategy involves running at you in a straight line while firing their most powerful weapon. Yawn.

Sure the single player game stinks but the focus here is on multiplayer so that must be better, right? Yes, but not by much. First off, don’t plan on spending much time in any mode other than the basic deathmatch or “Bloodlust” as Turok calls it (Gosh, Lieberman would love this game!) Aside from simple deathmatching, all the modes seemed either dumbed-down, or just plain dumb. The most dumbed-down mode of all is the capture the flag mode where both teams share the same flag, and drop point, making capturing the flag much easier than it should be (especially when up against the bots). Now for the “dumb” mode. Let me just say that Monkey tag, or frag tag, is one of the most ridiculously unfun experiences I’ve ever had playing a game. At first I thought it must be good because it features monkey but how wrong I was. Monkey Tag is the first time I’ve ever actually seen a game encourage camping as the primary method of success. In a word, bad. Don’t play. Bad. Got it? Good. The second problem with multiplayer is that while the level design isn’t entirely cruddy, it’s far from memorable. Don’t get me wrong, there are a handful of levels that are actually pretty good, but don’t expect any that you’ll play over and over again such as Goldeneye's “facility” of Perfect Dark’s “The Grid”. There are quite a few levels to choose from though, so what the game lacks in quality, it makes up for in quantity.

As far as graphics go, Rage Wars is actually above average compared to other N64 games, especially with the expansion pak in place. There isn’t very much fog, which is a first for the Turok series whose second installment appeared to be entirely shrouded in murky pea soup. So on the visual front, Rage Wars succeeds overall; sound is somewhat of another issue.

Once again, there isn’t anything terribly wrong with the music, it’s just that all of the tunes range from vaguely annoying to entirely forgettable. It would have been nice to have some great tense music for a game like this but I suppose most people won’t notice. The sound effects are also less than inspiring, especially with the annoying chirps and grunts that accompany so many of the characters. (Play as Lord Dead and you’ll see what I mean…)

So is Rage Wars a complete disappointment? Yes. Is it a bad game? No, just a very average one. For fans of Turok, multiplay, or first person shooters in general, this could be a very enjoyable purchase (especially if you can get it at a discounted price). Surprisingly, Rage Wars biggest problem is its competition. A lot of people are perfectly happy (no pun intended) with the massive amounts of gaming goodness derived from Perfect Dark, and they don’t feel the need for another multiplayer shoot-out. People like that don’t really need this game and shouldn’t feel like they’re missing anything but for the completists out there, Rage Wars supplies an enjoyable, albeit forgettable multiplayer experience.

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/30/00, Updated 06/14/01