Turok: Evolution
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| Turok: Evolution | |
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| Developer(s) | Acclaim Entertainment ; RFX Interactive (GBA version) |
| Publisher(s) | Acclaim Entertainment |
| Release date(s) | August 31, 2002 |
| Genre(s) | First-person shooter |
| Mode(s) | Single player, multiplayer |
| Rating(s) | ESRB: Mature (M) |
| Platform(s) | GameCube, GBA, PC, PlayStation 2, Xbox |
Turok: Evolution is a first-person shooter video game developed and published by Acclaim Entertainment. The game was released for the Nintendo GameCube, PlayStation 2 and Xbox in 2002.
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[edit] Characters
- Tal' Set - The game's main protagonist, Tal'Set is a Native American brought from our world, assumably, into the jungles of the Lost Land.
- Wise Father - He is considered the wisest and most revered person in the River Village, hence the name "Wise Father". In the game, he was captured and imprisoned to be executed by Tyrannus, but is saved by Tal' Set in level 5.
- Djunn - The leader of the River Village troops. Rescues Tal'Set and the Wise Father from the Sleg compound.
- Tarkeen - A mysterious seer who brings Tal'Set back from the brink of death. He is bound by an oath to the ancient god "Stone" to seek out a warrior who can bring balance to the Lost Land and take up the mantle of Turok. He is protected by the Six Points, spine-covered reptilian cat creatures who never stray far from their master.
- Tobias Bruckner- A frontiersman, Bruckner was famous for his extreme hatred against Native Americans and renowned as a killer of their kind. While locked in battle with Tal'Set's tribe, Bruckner fell through the same portal as the protagonist did. But unlike Tal'Set, who aligned with the humans, he joined the warrior forces under Tyrannus.
[edit] Storyline
The game follows Tal' Set, a Native American who is transported to the Lost Land while fighting Captain Tobias Bruckner of the United States Army; apparently this occurs in the late 19th century, around the time of the Indian Wars. He is rescued by the seer Tarkeen that says he is the legendary Son of Stone, known to them as Turok.
The story then introduces a new villain, the Sleg, who are a lot like the dinosoids and Purr-Linn from the previous games. The Sleg themselves largely seem to have no greater objective than enslaving humans; eventually, however, their leader, the genocidal Lord Tyrannus, reveals his plan to destroy the human city of Galyana with an army led by a colossal beast called the Juggernaut. He also allows Bruckner to join the Sleg army. When Tal' Set saves the River Villages "Wise Father" from a Sleg base, he re-encounters Bruckner and a team of Sleg. Both him and the "Wise Father" are quickly recused by Djunn. Later, Tal' Set destroys the Suspended City that bridges the gap across a ravine that Lord Tyrannus' forces are attempting to cross to reach Galyana. Following this, he engages and disables the Juggernaut.
At the very end of the game, Bruckner appears riding a Tyrannosaurus and serves as the game's only boss. Tal' Set defeats Bruckner, but refuses to kill him; he then leaves him to be eaten by Compies instead. He felt he didn't deserve a warrior's death.
The game ends with Tal' Set accepting his role as Son of Stone and becoming Turok. Lord Tyrannus is also seen at a Sleg castle, mourning his defeat.
[edit] Reception
Evolution has been seen widely as the worst game in the series. The game received reviews ranging from 'average' to 'below average' mainly due in part to the game doing very little (if nothing) to introduce new elements into the Turok franchise and not doing enough to stand out from other more popular shooters such as Halo and Timesplitters 2 . Gaming site, IGN gave the PS2 version a 6.3, the Xbox version a 7.1, and the Gamecube version a 6.9, but the difference in these three scores were only determined by graphical quality of the systems while most of negative parts were based on bad and stale gameplay and lack of a real story. Other scores the game received were given by GameSpot with a 7.3, GameSpy a 6.0, and GamePro a 6.0 all noting the game's average quality.
The game's graphics were lackluster if compared to contemporary games. The loading times for the levels are also seen as unreasonable (Some levels in fact took minutes to load). The maps had awkward boundaries and an endless maze-like quality. The air levels had tight confines and were increasingly difficult. The final air levels have practically no room or time to maneuver due to the overuse of invisible walls. Another problem with these flying stages stems from the inability to manually vary (increase or decrease) the speed at which you travel making it needlessly hard to evade or pursue enemies, make tight turns, and simply finish the stages faster.
The story line is disjointed. It supposedly takes place before the original game. It is revealed to us that Tal'Set is in fact a Native American who is brought to the Lost Land by a random power. The rest of the story is a long, monotonous string of levels with objectives involving killing everything on the map that can, in fact, be killed, punctuated only by poorly done air levels and eccentric puzzles (The puzzles also involved killing anything that stands in your path).
Compared to earlier installments, there are fewer occurrences of actually fighting dinosaurs, barring the occasional encounter with velociraptors and T-rex. You mostly fight an army of humanoid lizards called the Sleg, who seem to have a shaky command of modern/mystical technology. The plotline related to them seems somewhat odd, with a pivotal part of their plan being the capture of a bridge over a canyon despite their forces having full airmobility, and the target having an approach by sea. It also seems odd that the Sleg later assault Galyana in force anyway despite the destruction of the Suspended City.
The game inconveniently removes players' ammo and weapons in between levels. Some weapons are only available in certain levels. The developers did this for the reason of making the game harder, but numberous problems causes this idea to backfire. In some areas, it becomes all too possible to run out of ammo for a certain weapon simply because the programmers didn't provide you with enough of it or they just didn't think it was necessary. For example, some enemies, when killed, will drop an ammo clip for your pistol which you wouldn't be able to pick up and use because the weapon for the current level you would be playing would have already been disabled. These issues made those who played the game wonder why a more traditional 'difficulty setting' wasn't implemented in the first place.
The computer's AI is also erratic and inconsistent. Sometimes, the Sleg will, all at once, gang up and attack you making few parts of the game difficult for you. Other times, they will take cover at odd moments (such as at melee range). Opponents will randomly get stuck on objects or lose their sense of direction.
The game's villain, Tobias Bruckner, lives on through Electronic Gaming Monthly's annual Tobias Bruckner Memorial Awards, which "honors" the worst in video games in which they also consider him to be the worst villain in a videogame ever.
[edit] External link
[edit] References
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Turok: Dinosaur Hunter • Battle of the Bionosaurs • 2 • Rage Wars • 3 • Evolution •Turok |
