Turok

"I Am TUROK!"

Well I hope at least one reader gets the title name. I really hoped it would be screamed near the end of this game, but as Conker says We Live In Hope. Turok., the name that makes a gamer think of dinos more then just about anything. This however aint your older brothers Turok game that many came to know and love on the N64. This game however is a new gen filling that gap that first person shooters so often leave in the hearts of the players.

Graphics: 8/10
Now I know the drill around here. People playing the XBOX360 should be on par with the graphics as a whole by now. Nothing new or amazing here in Turok but if you play in HD like I do you can't help but see those things that make this game great. Be it the gushers of blood from the dinosaur you just knifed, the shockwave from the rocket launcher that second or so before the blast or even just the jungle itself. Standard fare that still looks great. Weapons look like they should and of course the things you fight cant go wrong with the damage showing on them after a shotgun blast to the snout. Sadly if you play anything else recently nothing has really improved.

Sound 9/10
Sound is sound. Once more you get what you are looking for in this game. Voice acting is rather good and all except for the shotgun which sounded like crap if you ask me. I expect a big bang when I shoot a shotty off but I am rewarded with nothing. On the upside the chain gun beeps when low on ammo in any mode something that helps, not to mention the sound of the gun itself as it revs is quite spectacular knowing that in moments there is going to be a row of foes you downed with little effort.

Story: 9/10
Now here is where I get a lot of mixed feedback. I found the Turok story fun and interesting. Once again nothing new in the whole dropped off and flashbacks tell the past. But never the less, I thought that the story though lacking in a few places and mostly needing a bit more time to grow gave you a sense of fullness. Though I thought it could have gone on longer. Thankfully I can say this without spoilers, It starts, there is conflict, there is an ending. No cliffhangers no real issues. This worked like a good bond movie.

Playability: 7/10
Now this though fun had the biggest issues for me. Nothing I as a gamer am not used to but things I wish would have been polished out a bit better. First thing is first. The AI is either a swat team hell-bent on killing you or a bunch of roobs who like the pretty trees around them. I have seen broken AI in the past but this was bad, now I need to say you fight Dinos and Men in this game (other things too but that's the most) the Dinos were distracted as they should be by pretty colors where as the men were a wonderful bunch of clowns half the time and ruthless well trained killers the rest. Sometimes I would be flanked and covered so well there was no stopping them from getting me while others I would sit not ten feet away from them and pick off morons with the bow or run up to a group of guards with my knife and gut them all before a shot was fired despite the fact I know they saw me kill their friends. Other things that brought this score down were little things like knife malfunctions where the button for a knife kill would be on screen and the victim would simply not get hit. Sometimes I would shoot an arrow from a good distance away and it would simply drop despite the button being held for a good amount of time. This issue, many would think I was a moron and broke the arrows for holding too long, or that this was only an issue with tech arrows. ( Tek arrows do not fly as far as normal) However this happened while in the jungle early on where I would fire and the arrows would go halfway to the target and simply drop harmlessly. The game also was sadly much too simple in that I was never hurting for ammo or health. The game having adopted the all too common wait and regeneration style as opposed to health packs like the Turok's of yester-year. To be honest despite the flaws there is nothing more satisfying then setting up a minefield with the bomb gun and then pinning stupid troops to trees and rocks while they try and flank you.

Online:
I do not give this a rating because I find it Biased. I dislike playing XBOX Live due to the sheer amount of whining and kids that populate it. I did like the multi-player however I cannot say it is anything new. Also I spent very little time on it due to having no time left on my membership card.

Replay Value: 3/5
Moderate. I enjoy going around every now and again to see if I can do better, not being seen in some parts or just jumping into the game and using a different weapon set, hell even a match where I can only use a cretin weapon is a challenge. Aside from that I don't see too many other reasons to play this again.

In closing, I like Turok. It is a change from the old style but anymore what is not a change, everything has to be different and now that graphics make up so much of the game we are set in the ways where things that were simply more common in days where it was 64 bit was special now try and make it today. I will always be sad not to see Primagen again or the Cerebral Bore, but I will live on. I liked the dino killing. I enjoyed the cliché sidekick. I do not think this game is bad however. I do not regret the $60 I spent on it. I do hope that soon we will all be given a second Turok and it will be more like the old days. But until then I am happy with this game. Maybe if it does well they will do a second one and give us even more dino killing magic to play with. But I am sure someday we will hear him yell it once more. I AM TUROK!

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 02/07/08

Game Release: Turok (US, 02/05/08)