Turok: Rage Wars

"One of the few, and best N64 bot-supporting multiplayers"

N64 Multiplayergames with botsupport, now how many of those can you call up? Most developers probably thought the N64 just didn't have enough power to allow good botsupport.
Well, thank god Acclaim didn't give (...) about what other developers thought, and decided to try anyway. Now how well has TRW (released in 1999) aged over time?

Gameplay

Well, this can be summed up pretty briefly: think Unreal Tournament, only with much less bots in the arena's (3 bot maximum) and smaller arena's. This is not to say there aren't some real design beauties amongst the playable arena's.

The controls are pretty simple: Z fires, B altfires, the control stick let's you aim, you move around (including strafing) with the C-buttons and jump with R. Finally, you change weapons with A.
The downside here is not due to the game, but to the N64 controller: aiming with the control stick is pretty unsmooth and fiddly and takes time to get used to.

From the main menu, there is a variety of modes to choose from: multiplayer (1-4 players) 1-player trials (1 player only) 2-player trials (2 players only) and once you've advanced in the game a little further, Fragfest and Timetrial are added to the selection.

Multiplayer is as you might expect: pick a character, arena
and set the options (fraglimit etc.) to your liking and just frag away! There are 4 submodes: fragfest, team fragfest, monkey tag and CTF. The first to are your basic deathmatch and teamdeatmatch. Ctf is basically CTF as you know it, only with a little twist: there is only one flag, and multiple dropoff points. Monkey Tag transforms a random player into a monkey, that monkey must then get to a designated area somewhere in the arena. The other players can only score points by killing that darn little monkey! Once the monkey get's to the dropoff location he or she changes back to his original state, and another player is randomly chosen to be the monkey.

1-Player trials let's you pick a character and throws a number of challenges at you which you must complete. Completing these challenges earns you extra lives, and sometimes new weapons or ammo/ life expansions. Every character has his own path to take, but they don't differ much and are mostly the same anyway.

2-Player trials are pretty much the same as 1-player trials, only now with two players.

The weapons at your disposal range from a basic pistol, to rocket launchers, assault rifles and shotguns.
One top of that there are some 1-time only use weapons scattered around the arena, like beartrap, and the alltime turok favorite: the Cerebral Bore.
The difference with games like Unreal Tournament here is that you pick your weapons before the start of the match: you can equip 5 weapons of choice+ the melee hammer, and all you can find in the arena's is ammo for those weapons which comes in one of three forms: bullets, rockets, or plasma. (you can carry 2 bullet weapons, 2 plasma weapons, and 1 rocket weapon)

Fragfest and teamfragfest are good enough, as well as monkey tag. The problem is CTF: most levels have only one route, so when you grab the flag and make your way back to the dropoff point, you always run into your attackers, which is pretty screwed up. Why didn't they just use classic CTF setup?

All these modes have botsupport, which can be set to one of 3 difficulty settings. Although the AI is far from spotless, don't think the bots get stuck in walls or anything all the time. Despite the small number of 3 bots maximum (remove one for every additional human player added), the arena's don't feel empty, which is thanks to the good design and the fact that they are relatively small.

Last thing I want to mention is the medal system: you are awarded medals for certain achievements during gameplay, and there is a total of 50 medals to collect. The message is simple: collect em all!

While all these things are well thought-through, this game feels like a huge step down after having played 16-player botgames like in Unreal Tournament or Quake 3 on your Pc. Therefore my warning is: try to see this game in it's own rightfull category: the good old N64 is already being pushed to it's highest by this game, this is all it can do! However, when you look at it from such a realistic angle, this game is very impressive.

Gameplay: 9/10

Graphics

On the standard setting, the graphics are incredibly dark. A quick stroll down the options menu soon changes that, and after the darkness has cleared a little, some really fine looking levels appear. Everything looks decent (not exceptional, even with an expansion pack) but it does the job nicely. The characters move pretty realistic, look nicely detailed and the levels look sufficiently detailed as well. One minor problem is the lack of variety in textures: there is only a small variety in textures, so you will see a LOT of similar looking walls, but that's okay. The N64 needs all the power it can get, and if that means the developers had to save on the texture variety instead of gameplay, then I can only say I totally support their opinion.

Graphics: 7/10

Sound

Average, good soundeffects that suit the job, and nice music. The lack of variety strikes again, but you'll hardly notice.

Sound: 8/10

Overall

A very good game, somewhat tempered by the fiddly control stick of the N64 controllers: aiming is a lot easier with a mouse, but it's not impossible or anything. Just don't expect it ever growing to feel like second-nature.

Buy/ Rent?

Depends: are you mostly a lone-player, then I suggest renting it first. This didn't stop me from loving this game though: I practically play Singleplayer only and I love this game.

If you are mostly going to be playing multiplayer, then this is an essential purchase. All I can say is get some friends over, grab your rifles, and let hunting season begin!

Overall: 8/10

+ Pros:

+ Good botsupport
+ Nice selection of weapons
+ Pretty innovative in some area's
+ Good variety in gamemodes

- Cons:

- Fiddly controlstick-aiming
- Graphics are so/so even with an expansion pack

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 02/28/04