Turok: Evolution

Acclaim should give themselves a pat on the back when it comes to Turok, they did the comics justice during the late nineties: generating three outstanding exclusive Nintendo 64 titles. Turok had always great design, pushing Nintendo's 64 bit machine to it's limits, with solid adventuring elements and thrilling gunplay. Acclaim had essentially made Jurrassic Park into a first person shooter by throwing us, the players, into exotic Jungle environments all the while kicking T Rex ass in the process. Yet as time passes by our expectations change. What might of made the original Turok: Dinosaur Hunter innovative back in 1997 certainly doesn't apply anymore. Enter Turok Evolution for Nintendo Gamecube.

Turok Evolution has you play as Tal Set, who we're introduced to during a battle with his rival Tobais Bruckner. When their fight reaches a cliff-hanger (quite literally) the two are suddenly warped elsewhere to a unknown world known as the Lost Lands. It is there, under the guidance of a dark wizard that Tal Set learns of his fate, to be the next Turok, a time-travelling warrior of great wisdom and strength. However the world Tal Set has entered is dominated by a tyrannical race of reptilian overlords known as the Sleg who threaten to conquer and dominate the human race. So it's up to Tal Set to rid the Lost Lands of the evil Lord Tyrannus' control and claim his role as the son of stone. And gain vengeance against Tobais Bruckner. The actual basis of Turok Evolution remains largely similar to its predecessors in that it's a first person shooter with an emphasis on adventure and exploration. Even so, Turok Evolution has a far more linear approach to its levels than the earlier games in the series. Generally speaking, levels are a task of progressing from point A to B and shooting anything that gets in-between your goals in mind. The familiar Jurassic themes and huge dinosaurs make a return to this new Turok and will undoubtedly turn victim to your assortment of weapons obtained later on in the game too. Your bow, pistol and shotgun make a return, each with their own set of optional upgrades that can be found with a little hunting around the levels.

As hard as it is to believe, the bow is probably your most lethal weapon in Turok Evolution as it is the best for precision and gory headshot kills when taking care of sleg patrols throughout the game. Alot of Turok Evolution will have you relying on sneaky attacks to get the better of your enemies. Although it is possible to have some good ole' visceral action: The shotgun and with the quad barrel add-on can pack a punch, with up to 4 shells at a time ripping through your foe's unfortunate skin and flesh. Alternatively, you can snipe the slegs out with the scope upgrade for the pistol. Making an appearance also is the alternating Flechette Gun, which purposes as both a dart gun of sorts and minigun and the gravity disruptor which topples any nearby foes. Turok Evolution also has the complimentary rocket launcher, grenades and homing plasma gun to use in the direst of situations. The difficulty of Turok Evolution is very progressive; it doesn't rely too heavily on cheap tricks to jolt the difficulty. Although the game will no doubt prove a challenge as you progress with more demanding objectives like destroying generators and escaping collapsing infrastructures in the nick of time.

Alot of the time you'll find yourself doing exactly that during the flight sequences of Turok Evolution. These levels have you fly a pterodactyl armed with twin calibre machine guns and a missile launcher. The flight levels are an interesting departure from the typical levels of Turok Evolution, varying the moments of gunplay with flight manoeuvres and techniques and feel genuinely Rogue Squardon of Lylat Wars inspired. Theres a good mix between on rails reflex sections and objective based level set-ups when flying the pterodactyl on Turok Evolution, and like the other departments of the game, are linear based. This is a missed opportunity really as the exploration elements have otherwise vanished during these levels. Although the flaws of the flight sequences don't end there. Navigating across the level on your winged beast feels imprecise and far more tarnished to manipulate than the game seems to believe. It can grow downright repetitive and perpetual at times when you're trying to aim at one specific target and one minor slip up (such as bumping into a piece of the scenary) sends you all the way back to the beginning of the level.

Turok Evolution has no checkpoints but rather a series of inconsistent levels which often vary in length and design sharply. But while this may be actually the opposite of what repetitive is, frankly the way in which the Sleg foes respond to your attacks in humdrum patterns, with little tactical approach to how you play the game. But Turok Evolution doesn't just have this common FPS bug but also is generally glitchy anyway with awfully tacked on cut-scenes, a broken physics engine and laughably useless level barriers/invisible walls. Of course, the largest problem with Turok Evolution is that it's no match for its competitors in terms of graphics, sound and even gameplay. Despite running with no fog what-so-ever and a smooth frame-rate of 60FPS, Turok Evoluton has very muddy visuals and static animations. It looks very stuck in-between Nintendo 64 quality graphics and Dreamcast grade cosmetic appeal with dull but clearly upgraded sets and creatures. Also while the score is suitably action packed and lively like the game itself, Turok Evolution suffers from some very poor quality voice clips and sound effects for a modern day shooter of its type. It feels compressed and muffled which often make conversation between characters illegible during the levels. Needless to say, it isn't pushing the envelope of the Gamecube's 128 bit hardware despite the far more capable processors and chipsets.

Then the gameplay. As explained earlier, Acclaim has tried to vary things around with this new Turok but all in all the game is far more infuriating and ill-conceived to play. In reality, it's more of the same as its predecessors. But without the engrossing characters, plot twists, hidden gameplay devices or even a mass number of secrets to discover Turok Evolution continues to appear unworthy of being alongside the new breed shooters such as Halo. Not even in its multiplayer is Turok Evolution able to make-up for shortcomings as an incompetent sequel. It's just your standard 4-player splitscreen pick a character and game-mode set-up which grows old, fast. All in all though, that is exactly what we're getting from Turok Evolution –more of the same. Granted an "evolution" (as the title dimly claimed) actually might have been in order now with the avalanche of new consoles and new shooters on their way. Turok Evolution is flawed with dozens of bugs and arguably under-developed graphics and sound, especially considering the system it has been produced for. But to some anyway, Turok Evolution is also a enthralling last blast from the series – at least to begin with and a seemingly lengthy one too. Give this one a rent.