Turok 2: Seeds of Evil
Reviewed by Keith
Originally, Turok was just a comic book figure. If you're a
teenager like me, your parents might have read the comic
books. On the Nintendo 64, the first Turok game released was
Turok: Dinosaur Hunter. It was an OK game, I guess. The
weapons were good, but the graphics left some to be desired.
It also lacked an adventure element. All you did was run around
and shoot stuff in a rather repeating environment. I felt they
made huge improvements in this game. Both games have also been
released for the Game Boy, but they didn't bear much resemblance
to the original game
Graphics 9 out of 10
The graphics were truly incredible. With the Expansion Pak, the
resolution was awesome. Textures were very convincing, and the
skin of enemies had a very fluid look, without the choppy lines of
other games. I was extremely impressed with the flamethrower.
The flames were as real as they come. I really enjoyed the blood
physics. For example, if you shot an enemy standing right in front
of a wall, it would leave a blood spray on the wall behind it. The
only problems I saw were the use of fog in large areas, and if you
shot an enemy on a small platform, the blood would pool in midair.
Overall, the graphics were very impressive.
Music and Sound 10 out of 10
The music in the game was very good. There wasn't any singing in it,
so all I can say is that it was very good. It did a good job at conveying
the feeling of that particular environment. The sound was extremely
good. Like in Zelda, the surround sound was so good you could navigate
by it. Footsteps, enemy calls and roars, gunshots, waterfalls, breathing,
even seagulls screaching added to the fully loaded arsenal of breathtaking sounds.
Game Challenge 9 out of 10
The game had two main components. One was eliminating the
enemies in the game. The other was accomplishing your mission
objectives. It wasn't too hard to kill the enemies, but it could be
very hard to find all of the switches, gates, generators, prisoners,
etc. This left me wandering around a huge area with no one to fight
while I found the stuff. That can get boring. Challenging? Yes.
Exciting? Not really.
Game Play-Fun 10 out of 10
This one explains itself. Throw together six huge levels, a huge
arsenal of highly destructive weapons, A huge variety of enemies,
which can, by the way, loose limbs, heads, an vast amounts of blood,
and stick it in a world of amazing graphics and resolution. The enemies
are also very smart. They will investigate any noise, chase you, find
cover, etc. and make it much more realistic. Just watching an enemy
walk around in sniper mode, then blowing his head off is fun enough
for me. Do you wonder why it's rated M? A simple equation should
clear that up- Big Guns + Lifelike creatures= Fun. And even if you
do turn the blood off, it makes a really neat looking mark when you
hit them. It's like a big, purple-blue-pink swirly cloud thing. It's still
very fun without the blood. And also it is very fun with the cheats.
Besides the usual "all guns, unlimited ammo, invincibility" codes,
this has other things such as blackout, which makes it dark everywhere.
This and many other codes just make it more interesting to play the game.
Rumble Pak 9 out of 10
The Rumble pak did the typical thing in a first person shooter. When
you shoot a gun or get hit, it goes off. This did, however, create
problems. Turok 2 isn't just about shooting stuff. Sometimes,
when you're trying to think about what to do, the stupid rumble
pak keeps going off. I myself, play without the Rumble Pak. It
does add a nice touch though.
Frustration
This game can be frustrating, but not in the normal way. Usually
it is a matter of surviving or finding out how to do things. In Turok 2,
surviving isn't a big problem, and actually doing things, such as
releasing prisoners, isn't hard either. It's finding your objectives
that is hard. All they do is tell you, for example "Rescue three
children" And that's it. You have to find it on your own, and they
don't make it easy either. They hide things in tiny cracks or behind
destructible walls. It is very satisfying when you do beat it,
however, because you well earned it.
Replayability 7 out of 10
This is probably the only bad thing about the game. Once you beat it,
you know where everything is, and once you've gotten that far, which
is hard, you get tired of shooting the same creatures over and over,
especially if you keep dying and having to start at the very sparsely
placed save points. An awesome game the first time, not a repeater.
Game Value 10 out of 10
First of all, this game seems to be very low priced everywhere. I've
seen it for as low as $20, which is a HUGE steal on your part. You
rip the company off big time getting for so cheap. And even if you
only play it once, it takes so long to beat it, that you could have
replayed some other game 10 times by the time you beat it once.
I'd say it was well worth the money I paid for it two fold. (which
was, by the way, $30)
Overall 9 out of 10
All I have to say is that it was a truly incredible game, Well worth any
price. Don't let the previous Turok let you down, this one is a Winner.
The People at Acclaim have done a very good job, and I hope that
Turok: Rage Wars will be just as good.