Turok: Dinosaur Hunter
Reviewed by Scott McCall
Upon putting Turok: Dinosaur Hunter into the Control Deck, it was
quite easy to see that this game would be one of love and hate.
Some will just love it (take a look at the other reviews) and
others will not. The game can best be likened to Quake. A game
with a lot of hype that just doesn't quite live up to it.
Turok has the most beautiful graphics you've ever seen in a
3D action/shooter. Everything is composed of polygons. But
the downside to this is the excess fogging to cover up the
pop-up in the game. Although cool on some levels, it gets
bothersome in some of the places you wouldn't expect to see it.
The sound in Turok is much more ambient than Quake could ever
hope to be. There are constant drum beats pounding throughout
the levels, and there are roars of lions, dinosaurs and other jungle
creatures throughout each level. Fortunately, you can also hear
when enemies are getting close to you. Just to gripe a little, the
music is all similar in nature and loops too quickly.
Everyone who has heard of Turok knows about the unique control
scheme. Using the C group to move, the Control Stick to aim,
the R button to jump and the Z button to fire is very difficult to
get used to at first. Once you do get use to it, however, you realize
just how important it is to the game. Turok's gameplay would lose
a lot without the full range aim that you have. The problem is that
this makes jumping somewhat of a struggle, especially those
diagonal jumps.
Turok's gameplay is, without question, the make or break part
of the game. Because the game uses polygon-based enemies
instead of sprite-based enemies, it means that you won't be
fighting hordes of Raptors. The levels in this game are also
huge. As a matter of fact, these are the biggest levels you've
ever seen. Each one literally takes hours to complete.
Although some will like the exploration factor of Turok, it
will become frustrating for others. The levels are so huge,
in fact, that you will almost assuredly miss one of the required
keys that you need to find on each level. This can be very
frustrating having to backtrack and trying to figure out where
they're at. To make matters worse, you can only save at designated
points in each level. The amount of space in between each save
point is almost ridiculous. There are also sporadic checkpoints
to start from if you die in each level, but it would have been much
easier if you could just save anywhere you want and restore your
game from there. Another annoying aspect of the gameplay is the
regenerating enemies. If they're going to force you to go back to
find a save point, then the least they can do is let all the dead
enemies stay dead.
Turok definitely does have some pluses beyond the amazing
graphics, though. First of all, the game has the coolest weapons
ever seen in a video game. Some of the weapons later on in the game
defy belief. Another plus is the cool violence factor. The bigger
the weapon, the bigger the mess. Each enemy has multiple kinds of
death animation, depending on what they were shot with. Blood also
goes flying through the air and even sprays on the wall. Disappointingly,
just about all the enemies and blood disappear after a few seconds.
Bottom line? Turok is not a game for everyone. Although I wanted
to like the game, it was too frustrating and boring for me. More
variety, less fog, smaller levels, higher intensity, more dinosaur
enemies and being able to save anywhere are improvements that
need to be made in my book. Let's hope the forthcoming sequel
addresses some of the game's problems.
Graphics: 4.7 out of 5
Sound: 4.2 out of 5
Control: 3.5 out of 5
Gameplay: 3.6 out of 5
Lastability: 3.2 out of 5
Overall: 3.7 out of 5