Developer
Acclaim Studios Austin

Released: September 2, 2002
Genre: FPS/Action
Players: 2
ESRB: Mature

6
8
9
8
7.9

Supported Features:

But many years have past since the original Turok games and we now have a whole new crop of next-gen consoles. For the past two years Acclaim has been working on the next installment of the Turok saga and Turok: Evolution is the end result.

Evolution is not only the sub-title, but also indicative of the leaps forward this game has taken in graphics, enemy AI, and even a few new gameplay modes. Even with these bold new steps there are still some of the age old problems from the original game that rear their ugly head from time to time.

Turok: Evolution returns to its dinosaur-filled jungle roots as you return to the original conflict of the Lost Lands. You play as Tal’Set in what is actually a prequel to the other games. You will learn how Tal’Set was originally an Indian in 1886 Texas and fell through a spatial rift taking him to the Lost Lands where he got caught up in the local civil war. Armed with only a tomahawk, he sets off to save the day.

Turok: Evolution has these exciting features:

• A storyline that follows the original conflict in the Lost Lands
• A large 15-chapter single-player quest
• Dozens of different types of prehistoric and indigenous life
• Destructible objects and environments: knock down trees or create rock slides to kill enemies
• Turok can run, jump, climb, swim, fly, and sneak throughout the game
• Exciting flight sequences let Turok take the battle to the skies
• Squad-based AI creates for realistic enemy behavior and battles
• Many new weapons including Variable Payload Cruise Missiles, Gravity Disrupter Beams, and the Swarm Bore each with unique traits and damage
• Weapons can be upgraded for advanced features, such as adding a scope to your pistol
• Scripted events propel the story and keep things exciting
• Unique multiplayer mode developed by a dedicated team of designers, programmers and artists
• Graphics engine offers up lush, living jungle environments and realistic interior levels
• Amazing sound effects, offered up in Dolby Pro Logic II
• Incredible music sets the mood for this fantastic world

The first level of Turok introduces you to the gameplay, which is actually very straightforward. You move around with the left stick and aim with the right. Use the buttons to switch weapons, change firing modes and fire the weapon. The level starts off innocently enough with you hammering on some Compy’s that greet you on the initial path. Later on you encounter bigger dinosaurs and your first group of Slag soldiers.

Some of the new improvements include the dynamic foliage of the jungle that sways in the breeze or moves as you or other creatures pass through it. This can create some creepy moments when you are hiding in the tall grass slowly moving forward to have the grass part and be nose to snout with a Raptor. You can also shoot or chop down trees to fall onto enemies or create bridges; however this is implemented very erratically and knowing when and what trees will actually fall is nearly impossible.

The next big feature is probably what Acclaim was banking on as their primary selling point and ironically is probably the biggest disaster of the game. Of course I am referring to the new air battles. When I saw this game at E3 the designer doing the demo even told me that they had always wanted to include air combat in Turok and technology had finally allowed them to realize their vision. I was as excited about these new missions as the designers but after playing several flying missions I can’t help but feel this mode seems entirely out of place and tacked on to what should have remained a land-based game.

The first issue of the flight missions has to do with the handling of the bird, which is often erratic and disorienting due to the twitchy camera angles when circling in the few areas that permit you to do so. Most of the flight levels are linear in nature, almost on rails, and you simply shoot as much stuff coming at you as you can while dodging trees, rockslides, or anything else that might get in your way.

The second flaw of the flight model is the fact that you are now covering large distances using a game engine designed for ground exploration. This means that the game is constantly loading new sections of the flight path. Quite literally, you will fly for 30-40 seconds then the game will stop and load then resume your flight in progress at full speed. This is about as pleasant as playing a racing game, pausing at 220mph and then trying to resume your game and not crash.

It seems that the game has taken a new approach to the combat. No longer can you blindly charge into battle. Evolution has now become almost entirely a stealth game, or perhaps more accurately, a sniping game. Stealth is virtually impossible since the enemy AI has super-detection abilities that let them know where you are before you do. If you peek your head out from around a rock there will be some sniper 3 miles away who nails you instantly. Of course in order to find him you have to stay out in the open to draw his fire and look for his tracers or scan the horizon with your own scope.

From the moment I found my scope attachment for my Tek Bow and later my pistol, I seldom did any combat that wasn’t looking through a lens or some sort. This was mainly due to the imprecise nature of the gamepad. In regular non-scope combat you are basically trying to line up a tiny crosshair by moving two sticks at once trying to lock onto an erratic moving target who doesn’t want to get hit. I tried several tactics but the AI always seemed to counter by moving toward or away from me or from side to side to throw off my aim.

Ultimately, when sniping was not an option I was forced to get close enough to the enemy so he would resort to close-quarters combat techniques at which point I could fire at pointblank and generally hit him. Once you get about halfway into the game you will start to get some of the more advanced weapons and that is when the fun really beings.

Turok has the most kick ass arsenal in the history of FPS gaming. Some of your old favorites are back like the Tek Bow that fires various arrows like poison, exploding tip, etc. and there are new variations of old weapons like the new and improved Swarm Bore that fires multiple projectiles that pierce an enemy and slowly dismember him from the inside out. When conventional weapons just aren’t enough, strap on that Nuke Launcher or try out the multi-function Gravity Disruptor that repels enemies or captures them in a tractor beam and allows you to smash them against rocks, trees, or other objects.

Another highly hyped feature is the new Squad Dynamics System, which is the fancy name for the new AI your enemy, is programmed with. While it is definitely an improvement over previous Turok games it is nothing revolutionary and actually falls short of some more recent titles such as HALO. I will admit it is rather impressive to see an enemy retreat when he is damaged or becomes disarmed, and in later missions you will actually see a command structure with larger enemies seemingly in charge of the smaller troops. But as good as the AI seems to be, there are just as many occasions when I can snipe one of a group of lizards and the rest just keep going about their business.

Now we come to my biggest complaint about the entire game. NO FREAKING MID-MISSION SAVES! Each chapter is comprised of several smaller missions, but these aren’t that small at all. I will use Chapter 3 as my example since that is where I spent about six hours of my life before finally resorting to the invulnerability cheat code.

I spent countless hours on this mission and I even had other reviewers take a whack at it. This mission is huge, deadly, and nearly impossible. Snipers are on every cliff taking cheap shots at you. There is a giant hovercraft you have to shoot down with a bow and arrows, and even some tricky jumping puzzles to narrow ledges if you want to get the shotgun. I could get to about the same point in the level time after time only to die and have to restart. One time I made it further than I ever had and even had full heath only to fall off a blind ledge where I should have jumped if only I had known. After two days and about six hours I finally invoked the cheat code only to find that the furthest I had every made it was only about halfway through the level. I have not been so frustrated with a game since the Project IGI debacle on the PC back in 2000.

The only thing I hate worse than cheating in a game is being “forced” to cheat, but the massive levels and cheap designer tactics like super-snipers and putting instant-death jumping puzzles and huge ambush parties near the end of a 20-minute level are guaranteed to cause frustration in even the most forgiving gamer.

The level design is amazing considering that many of the levels are actually quite small when viewed at ground level. Much like the original Turok, the levels tend to work their way skyward reaching dizzying heights, but the PS2 is unable to show as much detail at a distance as the other two platforms so you will be unable to get those great vistas. Outdoor levels are full of lush greenery; often so thick you will want to chop your way through with a machete. You will stumble on towering waterfalls, majestic rock formations, misty swamps, and many other exotic locations, all perfectly designed, modeled, and rendered to ultimate detail.

The indoor levels are also quite interesting, featuring some unique architecture and texture work. Without the dynamic lighting of the Xbox these indoor levels can blend together and lose some of their originality.

Sound effects are equally as well done with a huge library of custom sci-fi sounds for all your weapons and the sounds of nature like chirping crickets in the silence of night or the roar of a dinosaur as it charges. Waterfalls roar and streams trickle through narrow canyons. The audio is a perfect companion to the visuals.

The voice acting is average in quality and there are some cases where it is downright horrible, both in content and quality. Early in the game you meet up with a female flyer who is teaching you how to do your aerial missions. When you first meet her on the mountaintop the quality of her sampled dialog is so poor it sounds like she phoned in her recording session using a cell phone with a bad connection.

All of these wonderful sounds and rich music are brought to life in a nice Dolby Pro Logic II mix, assuming you have a system capable of decoding the matrix. Otherwise, you will still get a very nice Dolby Pro Logic standard mix that does a great job of providing positional audio.

The multiplayer aspects of Evolution are phenomenal and are actually designed and implemented outside the confines of the main game. There are all new level designs, themes, and power-ups including some really original ideas like Jump Boots, and a reflective plate armor that absorbs half the damage you take and reflects the other half back at the attacker.

The multiplayer levels are huge and with that amazing arsenal at your disposal there are a hundred ways to frag your opponent, everyone more violent and disturbing than the last. Unfortunately, PS2 owners fall victim to the shortcomings of their hardware. Acclaim has chosen not to support the PS2 multi-tap, so multiplayer options are reduced to two-player games, thus eliminated many of the team games found on the other systems. There's still plenty of multiplayer action to be had; just not as much.

The flying missions are indeed unique and offer a fresh twist on the FPS genre, but seem out of place and are not really compatible with the game engine. The advanced squad AI of the enemy merely brings the difficulty and intelligence level of this game up to where we would expect it to be.

I really wanted to like this game and when I wasn’t pulling out my hair on some insanely difficult level I did enjoy myself. If you are a Turok fan or just want to explore some wonderful prehistoric levels filled with dinosaurs and evil lizard men then you will want to check this game out, but you might want to rent before you buy just to make sure you can handle the controls and unforgiving gameplay. Of course, if you have either of the other two major systems then you will probably want to try one of those versions, as they offer both better graphics and a more robust multiplayer component.