Turok: Rage Wars

"A multiplayer only game? But wait, there's more...."

When I first heard the concept of Turok: Rage Wars, I was skeptical. A multiplayer only game? I figured I'd certainly never buy it, as I don't constantly have another 3 people to play against. However, when I saw this in the pre-played (re: cheap) games, out of desperation, I picked it up and discovered a solid game. Anyway, on with the review.

STORY: 2
The 'story' behind this game is fantastically weak, but what did you expect? Basically, everybody in the Lost Land used to fight over the ''Light Burden'', a source of immeasurable power. Now, it's your turn to fight over it. Some of the characters are motivated by this(Turok, Adon), and others have entered the Rage Wars for the purpose of destroying Turok(Raptors, Mites). The story has almost no relevance to the game, and thus is a bad storyline.

GRAPHICS: 9.5
I honestly can't say how these look in Hi-Res, but without an expansion pack, they look great without causing slowdown. Many of the characters look fairly menacing, and the levels are convincingly real. The only fault is the annoying 'shadow' from your weapon, which remains the same dot of black whether you are holding the Warhammer or the Cerebral Bore.

SOUND: 6
The music is just awful. The odd indian chant, and some drum noises. However, the weapons effects are up to a good standard, and the sound of the raptors screaming will chill you. The sounds also help out in the game (when you hear a shotgun been cocked, RUN!)

GAMEPLAY: 8
Well, you'll either love or hate the gameplay. Basically it all boils down to ''Kill everyone and try not to die'', with variations like Capture the Flag, and the hilarious Monkey Tag. The one player mode pits you through a series of deathmatches againest CPU controlled bots, and a few bosses along the way. It's nothing special, but you need to play the 1P mode to unlock certain characters, guns etc. The one player mode goes from the amusingly easy ''get 5 kills with 11 lifes'' to the hair-tearingly frustrating ''Get 14 kills in a 3 on 1 match with 4 lifes''.
Once you hit the 4 player deathmatch, the fun just doesn't end. Complex team strategies appear between your friends. Trigger happy fools can idle away hours drilling out their friends brains with Cerebral Bores. A good match of Monkey Tag will result in you rolling round the floor laughing as you pop a cap in your helpless simian friend.

REPLAY VALUE: 8
As I said, with 3 friends the fun never ends. I get a kick out of replaying the 1P trials, but some may hate them with a vengance. But many will replay this game constantly, for the fun of building up the stats on your saved character. Also, there are 50 ''bonus'' medals to collect that will keep players striving to unlock them.

BUY OR RENT?
Obviously, if you don't like deathmatchs, this game isn't for you. If you don't have too many friends to play against, I recommend a rental first to check out how you like the 1P modes. If you have friends that like to deathmatch, and are available, buy it and have a running killfest. But don't forget to sleep.

OVERALL: 9
While Rage Wars may not be perfect, it blew me away with great gameplay and style. After all, you doesn't get a kick out of blowing the hell out of someone with a shotgun?

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 04/14/01, Updated 04/14/01