Released: 2002
Difficulty: Hard
Time Spent: 20 to 40 Hours
Headline: Almost Prehistoric
Turok: Evolution lands an ironic name; it more plays it safe. It does not evolve to much more and instead, the core shooting mechanics are great, but in an aging time.
I am not fond of the past story lines in Turok, though I can tell you that the plot is appropriate enough for its own good. Basically, an Indian warrior and a Western solider are about to face off in the mid 18th century but they get teleported into an age of dinosaurs with a fair bit of futuristic locales. From there, you are asked to help defend a village from all those lizard descendant soldiers and of course, your archenemy. Think of it as a big, flawed plot that manages to be somewhat epic but also stretched over many, many hours of violence.
The graphics feature many varied models and many well done animations; but there’s some dullness in color pallet and a damned lacking frame rate. The sound department has voice acting too altered to enjoy or sometimes understand while the effects are clear and strong. The music is sometimes fitting but mostly forgettable.
So much violence, it’s great!
Turok is a long game and it will take about 30 hours to complete its relatively 20 hour campaign because of no checkpoints. The core shooting mechanics still feel great and you have secondary uses for every weapon. They each fit their use and are well balanced in many aspects; some weapons poison, decapitate, or basically vaporize all with great effectiveness and give good reason to swap between weapons. The platforming elements you encounter are responsible for a couple your deaths but they still are decent. The flight controls feel somewhat awkward, go to high and your bird is just going to explode and it’s too easy to get caught up in the sense of speed and hit a wall or something to kill you. In fact, I could have sworn I was playing Star Wars in some of the flight sections; they look extremely similar.
The level design of Turok evolution sometimes feels misplaced; the forests aren't bad but there are too many basic, repeated corridors and opening doors with enemies ready to plow away. There are a decent number of dinosaur types to be found but not enough of them, I only saw a T-REX twice but hundreds upon thousands of soldiers. Turok is also too linear; it’s focused on either killing them with guns blazing or quiet executions. You almost never guide a NPC and it doesn't matter if they die. Enemies can be smart in groups but they tend to pause if they are fighting alone, allowing for easy kills.
One more step and I'll shoot this arrow right between your eyes
Overall, Turok is some good ideas taken too long and too far back; its old school no matter how much the title says evolution. The best memories are few and far between but the last few missions become worth getting into if you've already gone halfway through. It should have definitely been condensed and given better idea implementation and much more of an updating for itself in the genre. So, if you rent Turok evolution, you won't get as much fun if you bought it because this is one of those games that you can play for a while and get right back into months later so, you decide?
6.5/ 10 FAIR (PS2)
+Gunplay remains very satisfying
+Lengthy game
+Great animations
-No checkpoints?!
-Flying sections are awkward
-Aged design
TWiSTEDmerc
Difficulty: Hard
Time Spent: 20 to 40 Hours
Headline: Almost Prehistoric
Turok: Evolution lands an ironic name; it more plays it safe. It does not evolve to much more and instead, the core shooting mechanics are great, but in an aging time.
I am not fond of the past story lines in Turok, though I can tell you that the plot is appropriate enough for its own good. Basically, an Indian warrior and a Western solider are about to face off in the mid 18th century but they get teleported into an age of dinosaurs with a fair bit of futuristic locales. From there, you are asked to help defend a village from all those lizard descendant soldiers and of course, your archenemy. Think of it as a big, flawed plot that manages to be somewhat epic but also stretched over many, many hours of violence.
The graphics feature many varied models and many well done animations; but there’s some dullness in color pallet and a damned lacking frame rate. The sound department has voice acting too altered to enjoy or sometimes understand while the effects are clear and strong. The music is sometimes fitting but mostly forgettable.
So much violence, it’s great!
Turok is a long game and it will take about 30 hours to complete its relatively 20 hour campaign because of no checkpoints. The core shooting mechanics still feel great and you have secondary uses for every weapon. They each fit their use and are well balanced in many aspects; some weapons poison, decapitate, or basically vaporize all with great effectiveness and give good reason to swap between weapons. The platforming elements you encounter are responsible for a couple your deaths but they still are decent. The flight controls feel somewhat awkward, go to high and your bird is just going to explode and it’s too easy to get caught up in the sense of speed and hit a wall or something to kill you. In fact, I could have sworn I was playing Star Wars in some of the flight sections; they look extremely similar.
The level design of Turok evolution sometimes feels misplaced; the forests aren't bad but there are too many basic, repeated corridors and opening doors with enemies ready to plow away. There are a decent number of dinosaur types to be found but not enough of them, I only saw a T-REX twice but hundreds upon thousands of soldiers. Turok is also too linear; it’s focused on either killing them with guns blazing or quiet executions. You almost never guide a NPC and it doesn't matter if they die. Enemies can be smart in groups but they tend to pause if they are fighting alone, allowing for easy kills.
One more step and I'll shoot this arrow right between your eyes
Overall, Turok is some good ideas taken too long and too far back; its old school no matter how much the title says evolution. The best memories are few and far between but the last few missions become worth getting into if you've already gone halfway through. It should have definitely been condensed and given better idea implementation and much more of an updating for itself in the genre. So, if you rent Turok evolution, you won't get as much fun if you bought it because this is one of those games that you can play for a while and get right back into months later so, you decide?
6.5/ 10 FAIR (PS2)
+Gunplay remains very satisfying
+Lengthy game
+Great animations
-No checkpoints?!
-Flying sections are awkward
-Aged design
TWiSTEDmerc