Turok

I've always felt that no matter how poor a game might be, as long as it has hype to back it, it will be well received by the vast majority. That doesn't really seem to be the case here with the latest dino-slaying frag-fest. It seems no amount of hype was capable of elevating Turok to anything other than mediocrity. While Turok has all the makings, and definitely the potential, of being a truly exceptional shooter, the general feeling of playing the game is a mixed bag of frustration and tedium.

Like virtually every other shooter, the story is merely enough to give you a purpose to what you are doing. You are a native American named Turok, and along with a cast of other uninspired masculine beef cakes, your mission is to track down the leader of a gang, Wolfpack, who is known as Kane, and to apprehend him. But before your mission can even begin, your ship is shot down, and it isn't before long before you discover that the planet is inhabited by dinosaurs.

Throughout the game, you will encounter a variety of species such as the Tyrannosaurus-Rex, Dilophosaurus, Velocoraptor, and a few others I can't name off the top of my head. They all look pretty nasty, which is good because you don't want to think their so cute that you can't put bullets in their heads. There are even these little guys, which actually do look kinda cute, but that didn't stop me from slitting their throats. It's a heck of a lot easier than hitting them with bullets, because a variety of the dino species are pretty quick, so your fire may end up trailing them.

Of course, dinosaurs aren't the only ones who inhabit the planet – Kane's gang has numerous outposts on the planet, and troops scattered all over. Sadly, if you are expecting a pure dinosaur butchering game, you will be in for a disappointment. Much of the combat, in fact I'd go so far as to say “most”, is combat with other human soldiers. All in all, I'd have to estimate that 60% of the time you are fighting soldiers and the other 40% is with dinosaurs.

The soldiers not only bear a striking visual appearance to those from Half-Life, but the sound effects they emit (presumably speech through an intercom) sounds even less unique. And they must be wearing armor made out of some incredibly genius synthetic material, because I can't even count all the times I made direct and unquestionable head shots with them merely acting startled. While there are a considerable variety of weapons at your disposal, all of them feel both generic and weak.

To begin with, this Turok game makes the same mistake that countless shooters before it have made, and countless others continue to make; that is, the dreaded rubber bullet feel. Games like Call of Duty and Rainbow Six aren't just worshiped by gamers without reason. One major differing factor is the way bullets feel fatal, and as a result, the game feels much more realistic. Turok, like many other unaware shooters, takes the opposite approach by making you pump magazine after magazine of bullets into your foes. It doesn't really matter what weapon you are using; the fact of the matter is that it feels like you are either shooting rubber bullets, or that every enemy is made of solid steel. When are FPS developers going to realize that gamers are drawn to games that feel more realistic, and don't require you to endlessly fill your enemies with fire power? Of course, Turok himself has just as much an immunity to enemy attacks, but it does little make the situation any more interesting. If anything, it only leaves the situation feeling even less dramatic and intense.

I'm a huge fan of the shotgun. I don't have the best aim, but I have excellent reaction times, so it's a perfect companion for me. Well, it normally is. I have to say that the shotgun in this game is incredibly weak, and virtually useless. Unless your target is some three or so feet away from you, it is basically useless. Even then, expect three or four (even more, sometimes) well aimed shots to the upper body before your opponent is affected. In fact, I'd probably go so far as to say that you'd have a better chance at killing your enemies if you throw toothpicks at them. Needless to say, I am extremely disappointed at how weak the shotgun is.

Since all weapons have an “alternate” fire (which really isn't the case), the shotgun comes with the added flare launcher as its alternate. Since many dinosaurs, such as raptors, are drawn to flares, you can shoot one as a decoy. Theoretically, you can also shoot a soldier with a flare, or even another dinosaur, and watch as the rest of the raptors attack the target. Actually, there is even an achievement for this, if you can manage to kill five soldiers this way. Personally, I was never able to achieve this – not even a single time. For some reason any time I would land a flare onto a soldier it would be burned out within three or four seconds, before any of the surrounding raptors would even feign an interest. Maybe there was a trick to it which I just wasn't aware of, but this gimmick didn't do much more me. Even so, encounters with both soldiers and dinosaurs are few and far between, so it shouldn't be given too much attention.

A bit more bewildering is the fact that the bow and arrows are somehow superior to virtually every other piece of your arsenal as well. I guess, the idea is that since you are a native American your weapons are more powerful and dignified than the white mans. Yeah, that sounds all nice and sappy in philosophy, but I have a hard time fathoming how in the hell an arrow, shot from a tensed piece of wire, is going to deliver more of a blow than a round fired from an automatic rifle. I don't know how that logic was conjured, but it makes no sense to me.

If you're the type of person that likes to play things covertly, then you'll be happy to know that roughly 75% of the game can be accomplished with nothing more than your trusty combat knife. I notice a lot of people making the comparison of Turok with Far Cry. Since I haven't played Far Cry more than a few minutes, I would have to say I thought it resembled Tenchu a bit (but not in any of those nasty-quality ways). With the knife equipped, not only does Turok run faster, but he is always prepared for instant kills. All you need to do is stand at the right position relative to your enemy and an on-screen indicator will flash telling you when to hit the right trigger. Upon doing so, the camera switches from first person to third person and shows an animation of Turok stabbing the soldier in the throat/chest, or wrestling a dinosaur and/or slitting the dino's throat. It sounds all fine and dandy, but the actual execution of the command doesn't quite work as elegantly as you might like. First of all, enemies seem to spawn out of locations in your immediate vacinity, as opposed to a good distance away from you. This means, they are more likely to catch you by surprise then you to catch them, since they spawn as you approach them, and when they “spawn” (or land) some 20 feet from you, that doesn't give you much of an advantage. Further, the on-screen indicator doesn't come up a lot of the time when you would expect that it should. Actually, getting too close to an enemy will cause it to disappear as well. Several times I ran up to a soldier and had pushed the button expecting it was on time, only to find out I need to back up from the soldier a bit for it to work. The range of the assassination area definitely feels in the need of some fine tuning. Sure, I can understand that the developers don't want it too easy to pull off an assassination, otherwise the game could be even easier than it is, but there is still quite a bit of precision to be desired. It's especially frustrating because there seems to be too much of an emphasis on the use of the combat knife, especially in multi-player matches.

Perhaps, even a bigger bummer than the imprecision you might feel from the knife, is that the combat knife is your only means of performing a melee attack. It feels a bit inefficient that you can't simply whack an enemy with your gun. Instead you have to switch to the knife and hope you are in range to assassinate them. What makes the matter worse is that cycling through your weapons is not done with the LB and RB buttons; instead the weapons are mapped out to the D-pad, which feels clumsy and inaccessible in the heat of combat, when both your thumbs are already occupied.

Believe it or not, but there is actually even a bigger problem and source of frustration than that, when it comes to the use of the knife. Actually, while this frustration is a common occurrence from the use of the knife, it is caused by a large number of things aside from the knife. That is: disorientation! Every time you assassinate a soldier or dinosaur, the animation in third person commences, and when it is all over you are facing a completely different direction than before! The result is feeling incredibly disorientated and having to turn around in circles, while avoiding fire, trying to find where an enemy you just saw moments ago is now positioned relative to you. Actually, this was one of my biggest gripes with the game, and one of the main reasons I was left feeling frustrated more than challenged during the course of the mission. What makes matters worse is that the disorientation comes from a variety of circumstances. Anytime a dinosaur attacks you, the camera swings around to face the one who attacked you, and anytime there is an explosion in your proximity, the camera again swings around in the direction of the blast. Because of all these constant adjustments of your sight, you end up feeling really helpless and frustrated. In the midst of battle, frustration and disorientation are the last things you'll want to feel.

The problem is that the developers have sacrificed the player's comfort for trying to make the game look as “cool” as possible. Fortunately, much of the game does look good. The character models are not superb, but are comprised of a moderate number of polygons. Some of the facial expressions are pretty crummy and could definitely use some work, but generally the people look good enough. Dinosaurs generally look pretty decent, although the tails not only animate kind of choppy but look quite jagged. At least, it's cool to see the dinosaurs moving around even after you've taken them out. It doesn't necessarily do much to compensate for the poor looking tails, but it's a start. The level design is mediocre, with a few highs and just as many lows. Many of the rocks, trees, and other natural objects look blocky, and out of place, in environments that otherwise look fine. Some of the levels are way too dark to even see what you are looking at. On the “bright” side, when you're not confined to a dark and cramped cave, you get to see a lot of varied plant life. Most areas host a good level of variety, but in some areas certain plants are overly used left and right, which leaves things looking oh-so last-gen. Texture work also comes with its ups and its downs. On the one hand, many of the textures are high resolution and varied, but in a large number of areas, there are lower resolution textures, some of which get repeated far too frequently. If you've seen many screen shots from Turok, you've, no doubt, notices that there is a lot of grass. It looks pretty cool at first, although when you start to turn around you realize that it is only two-dimensional, and changes direction as you change direction. Though, it is cool to see how it waves around when an enemy is lurking in it. You really get a sense of being in a jungle because of this little touch.

The absolute worst part of the visuals in Turok are the lousy particle effects. There wasn't a single instance throughout the entire game in which I didn't think the fire, grass, or explosions looked really shoddy. Not only are they obviously two dimensional, but they are all low resolution and extremely blurry. In fact, I honestly can't remember seeing such crummy looking smoke and explosions in an Xbox 360 game at all.

There is also an awkward little quirk with using the sniper rifles scope. For some reason polygons flicker, as if they are intersecting one another, whenever you move the aim around using the scope. It's not exactly a rare occurrence either. In fact, it happens most of the time you are using the scope, but you may not be paying attention to it. I, for one, don't see how you could miss it, and am quite perplexed at how it managed to sneak its way into the final build of the retail game.

I hate to say this, but I really didn't think all that much about the aural presentation either. In fact, the visuals were just slightly better than sounds. The music, while drab and unmemorable, tries to establish atmosphere and mood, but comes off as a bit too labored and doesn't do the job sufficiently. The voice over work is average, with a several instances in which it just plain stinks. To make matters worse, the dialog blows and the lip sync is off quite often. Sound effects are generally what you might expect from a shooter, with each gun having it's own firing sound and so forth. I can't vouch for the authenticity of any of the guns, but if comparing them to other shooters, what we have here is all very generic. At least the dinosaurs do sound a bit freaky, and there are some other nice touches, like foot steps in water, and the rustling of grass. Keeping with the overall theme of the rest of the game, what we have here is pretty much mediocrity, by definition.

And now, I am brought to that not-so-friendly part of the review in which I feel it's only fair that I go over the various annoyances and frustrations I encountered while playing. To begin with, as if I hadn't said it already; Turok is a really frustrating game. Don't get me wrong, it's not very hard. In fact, it's quite easy for the most part, but it becomes frustrating because of the various annoyances that really snowball together.

Aside from the problem I mentioned earlier about your orientation being frequently thrown off, there is another major cause for concern, which, sadly, too many games repeat: lack of well-placed checkpoints. Nothing is more frustrating than replaying the same twenty minute chuck of game play over and over. Checkpoints are extremely scarce, and nowhere to be seen when you'd want one the most. There is a particular part, towards the end of the game, in which you are trying to enter an enemy compound. If you've beaten the game, than you will likely remember this – there is a T-Rex chomping on some enemies while you and your squad are staying back and waiting for the feast to be over, after which the T-Rex will leave. The part itself is pretty long, but not difficult at all, as long as you keep your distance. However, after that, there are some five or more intense fights where you exchange fire with soldiers, and during the entire course of these fights there isn't a single checkpoint. So while you may make a simple mistake towards one of the latter fights, dying will mean you will have to redo a huge chunk of game play all over again. Seriously, what gives? I can't be the only one who thought this part in particular was missing something... Oh, I don't know; how about a CHECKPOINT? While this was the most memorable part of the game I can recall which was in desperate need of a checkpoint, there were many others as well - all of which are just as frustrating to deal with.

Now, making video games is a tricky thing to do, because you often want to create the illusion of reality, without ever crossing the line of throwing in reality which voids the fun, which is the essence of a game. This mistake was made in Turok. You see, we all know that when an explosion goes off, smoke rises, and you're vision may be effected. The problem; don't overdo it! Explosions aren't a frequent event in Turok, but they do happen from time to time, whether it is from a scene I will refrain from spoiling, or from an enemy's grenade, you will experience this. What happens is, you can't see a damn thing that is going on for several seconds. The smoke effect is far too drastic for a video game, and the way the screen blurs out red when you are under fire really make just understanding what is going on virtually impossible. When you're under fire, it's incredibly difficult to move in any direction. Whether or not the force of a bullet impacting your body would actually have such a dramatic effect is questionable, and one only those of us who have actually been shot could answer. I am glad to say that I haven't, but I find the way that you are virtually imobilized under enemy fire not the smartest move in a video game. Again, within reason – not overdone. Coupled with the way the camera flips around from the various causes I explained earlier, and you are left with a really unforgiving game. Add another point for “frustration factor”.

Control is generally what you'd expect from a generic FPS on the Xbox 360, but there are some major problems, and odd choices as well. Let's start with the poor choices – mapping the weapon selection to the D-Pad is not a very good move, yet many developers don't seem to grasp this. When both your thumbs are busy during combat, the obvious solution would be to map weapon cycling to the other buttons, such as LB and RB (as with many FPS). Crouching is done with the Y button, which defies all intuition. And then there are the problems, that aren't necessarily out of poor choices, but more likely, poor implementations.

Picking up weapons – a task that sounds incredibly mundane and dummy-proof, right? Not so! For some reason, as soon as you enter the animation of something like reloading your weapon, or stabbing with the knife, you are unable to pick up the desired weapon, no matter how many times you press the button. When combat is all about life and death in terms of milliseconds, having to wait several seconds before you can perform the desired action is ridiculous. It's also funny to note that if you interupt the reload animation, even if only a second from its completion, after you have clearly seen the ammo has been restocked, your gun will remain unloaded! For some bizzare reason, the coders strictly bound the effect of an action with the entire animation sequence, so that interrupting an animation either is not possible or voids the supposed effect it should have. Because of this, there is another problem in which you can be holding the fire button, but your weapon does nothing. This results when a dinosaur attacks you, and the camera flips around (as usual). Now, during this sequence, if you press the fire button too early, while you are still taking damage, then your weapon wont fire. It doesn't matter how long you hold the fire button, you first have to release it, and then press it again and the gun will fire as normal. You shouldn't have to keep things like this in mind, but unfortunately, that isn't so in Turok.

Turok isn't a complete disappointment, though. There are some good times to be had, and at times it even feels unique. But all too often, the feeling is in the other direction; repetition, frustration and generality. It's definitely not the most fun game I've ever played, and I hate to admit it but I did get bored pretty quickly. Yet, I'd be lying to you if I said I didn't go back and play it several times, and even spend several hours gaming online with it. The differences between Turok and other generic shooters are subtle, but there is enough of a personality to the game to dignify that you play it. It's not going to be the most memorable experience ever, but you're still probably going to gasp at least once or twice. The campaign shouldn't take you more than six hours on your first run, but if you're like me, you'll want to go back for another try, to earn some of the achievements you missed out on.

The online play is a bit more interesting than some shooters, mainly in part to the presence of the knife. The best aim or reaction times in the world don't mean a thing if you aren't aware of your surroundings. Now, you can take this as a good thing or a bad thing - I choose both. In some ways the knife may “ruin” experience by making you feel certain people are “cheesy”, but at the same time, you got to admit that it keeps things interesting. I'm not that great and handling the blade myself, at least when it comes to other real humans running around, but I at least have a bit of respect to those who can wield it really well. While you may choose to disagree, from a personal and bitter experience, but the fact is there is quite a bit of skill in being able to perform countless knife kills, while keeping in the shadows. Sadly, only twelve players can compete at a time in an online game, which is quite low for today's standards. That isn't so bad, but what is, is the semi-regular lag that is experienced. Granted, much of that should be accredited to Xbox Live, I'm quite confident that a good lot of it is directly caused by the game. It didn't happen to me very often at all, though. In fact, I played maybe six hours online, and I only had 2-3 matches which were absolutely unplayable. In any event, a rewrite of the networking code in the form of a patch would be a really welcome treat.

Turok isn't a bad game. But, for the past couple of years, it has been hyped to be something spectacular, which it definitely isn't. The game's core is mediocre on most levels, and the presentation is lacking in many departments. We've been hearing so much about this new amazing AI logic that was programmed, but I gotta tell you, I'm not seeing it. I don't doubt that the AI is actually making many more intelligent decisions than we are aware of, but if the experience isn't passed along to the gamer, than all that extra coding and patience is worthless.

There will be times that you're bound to drop your jaw with a “wow”, but you're just as likely to end up saying “give me a break” as many times. Just as much looks next-gen as last-gen, and the parts that look last-gen are what sticks in our heads, since we have come to expect a certain level of quality from current generation titles anyhow. A few times where I saw a T-Rex, in which soldiers were helplessly fighting it off, I couldn't help but observe a really sad, cheesy sight. A soldier stood maybe 10-20 feet in front of the T-Rex, and by some weird miscalculation by the game's engine, all of the sudden the soldier was literally sucked into the mouth of the T-Rex. I thought this was a one-time goof up, but not only did I see it again, but it actually happened to me during the final battle with the T-Rex. There I am staring the T-Rex down in the face, and a second later I am sucked into its mouth and being eaten! Now, this can only be one of two negative things: 1) a bug, or, 2) an entire animation sequence was just left out. In either case, how that managed to slip into the final retail release is beyond me.

And maybe it was just me, but I felt there was even a bit to be desired with the interface. For one, you can also see how many rounds are in your current magazine with the pulse rifle; all other weapons leave you completely clueless since there is no on-screen indicator, or action to check. The saving system felt a bit overly anal and clumsy as well. I already said you could overwrite the frigging save file once already; do you really need to ask me if I want to overwrite two separate times with each save?

I don't know, maybe I'm just being a little bit too harsh? I really don't think so. I mean, it's a decent game, but I had really expected quite a bit more from it. It didn't “wow” me in the way that I was lead to believe it would. I still feel like I got my moneys' worth, but I can't help but feel that so much can be improved. I guess you could say that I really have highly contrasted feelings in regard to this game. If you are on a real budget, and you don't have many Xbox 360 games, I'd have to tell you to check out some of the other, better, shooters the 360 hosts. However, if you've played most of them already, or just want to wallow in dino-blood, then go ahead and pick it up. But, a word of the wise – if you're the type of person that can get easily frustrated, back away!




Overall Score: 6.3

Gameplay: (6) Killing dinosaurs AND stealth - what more could you ask for? Well, less repetition, more fun, a better control scheme and more polished presentation for starters...

Graphics: (7) A mix between next-gen and last-gen - definitely quite the dichotomy!

Sound: (6) Weak voice acting suits the crummy dialog. The music is bland and unmemorable, and doesn't set the mood as best as it could. Some of the sound effects are pretty good, though.

Lasting Appeal: (6) If you have a high tolerance for frustration, then you just may make it. Otherwise, you may never see the end of this relatively short campaign.