No What the Fuck Friday today but here's a game that will have you saying What the Fuck once you're done with it.
I remember when Turok first came out on the Nintendo 64. It
was a great game with some great graphics at the time that both my brother and
I enjoyed. It was also one of the longest and challenging games we played
(Keeping in mind that I was only 11 at the time) it was just an amazing to
play. While no back story was given it was still a great game. Now in a world
where story can make or break a game where only few games with no or lousy
story will survive because of its fan base (Halo3, Gears of War) story is
everything. Not only that but it must be combined with great game play and
visuals and keep the player entertained, Turok for this generation does not
meet the requirements to make it a great.
Turok
is a former member of wolf pack and is there to bring his former leader Kane
back to earth. While searching for him Turok’s ship is brought down, killing
most of his crew members and landing in an deserted planet which Dinosaurs roam
as well as Kane’s henchmen. Your enemies are Kane’s Henchmen or army if you
would like to call it and the mutated Dinosaurs. Your mission is to survive and
defeat Kane and his army.
Turok
starts off from where the ship before it gets blown to pieces. As you progress
through the first level you will see most of your team mates get blown up and
of course die. After you crash land and move on through the level things will
take a turn for the worse as your team mate gets dragged by a dinosaur and
eaten. You get his weapon and with it you must defend yourself or become lunch
for all the hungry dinosaurs that. Even though there are a lot of other
dinosaurs that are easy prey for some apparent reason they prefer human meat
and will chase you to the death until they have you in between their teeth.
While the dinosaurs will most likely help you in killing your enemies from time
to time they don’t seem to eat them most of the time. They just attack them,
kill them and then they are off. This basically makes no sense in my opinion
because if a Dinosaur got and killed his prey chances are the reptilian will
eat his prey right there. Another focus point that I notice is that no matter
how you shoot a dinosaur blood marks will appear all over his body even if you
didn’t shoot the dinosaur in that spot.
The
developers at Propaganda didn’t really do a good job with AI. Just like other
games where they just throw enemies at you like there’s no tomorrow, Turok is
no exception. Hoards or enemies will come your way and in order to move on you
will need to kill them all. What’s really annoying is that if enemies all
attack at the same time you will have no chance to fight back since all you
will be doing is running away. Since there is no Melee attack you can’t attack
your enemies damage them and then kill them. That’s right no melee attack which
would really come in handy in this type of game. All you get is a knife but the
knife is used more of a weapon rather than an accessory to kill your opponents.
In some parts of the game it will require for you to use your stealth to kill
off some enemies. Turok is a big person and there is no prone position in the
game so most of Turoks upper body will be on display yet enemies still aren’t
able to see him which makes no sense at all. I don’t know if the developers did
that on purpose or if they didn’t have time to add the feature.
The
enemies all look the same and use the same weapons over and over again. From
time to time it will feel like you are fighting the same person over and over
again as well as the same dinosaurs even though it feels like if you killed
thousands of them. There is no variety in enemies or Dinosaurs, even though
there are hundreds of species of Dinosaurs and many would make fine opponents,
Propaganda felt like on 10+ different species are more than enough for the
player.
In
order to master Turok you need to have a steady trigger finger and steady
thumbs. Literally this is a must otherwise you will find yourself throwing up
in the bathroom more than you play the game since it can get you dizzy. Even at
the lowest sensitivity the game move way too fast when looking left and right.
This can make it very difficult to aim or run away since you will constantly
need to turn. A single tilt to the left or right can mean the difference
between life and death since every shot fired from you will result in a 70%
miss ratio. While you are trying to aim your enemies are firing towards you.
The only way to survive is to shoot like crazy from left to right and even then
you run out of bullets fast.
One
problem that was found though is when nearing a cliff. If you shoot down it
looks like the bullet penetrates the ground in only a few feet. With that in
mind a person might think this is the way to go and jump to their death.
Another problem that I noticed is Dinosaurs inside a cave. Now I’m not saying
that Dinosaurs might not have lived in caves but there are just too many
Velociraptors for the cave to support if speaking in realistic terms. Not to
mention the few bugs found throughout the game. One of the main bugs in the
game is the ability to walk up to a dead dinosaur and make it look like you’re
strong enough to kick the dead dinosaur around. Another bug found in the game
is when parts of dead dinosaurs pass through the ground.
While
everything else may suck about Turok the graphics aren’t all that bad. Turok
was created using unreal technology, the same technology that powers Gears of
War. The Environments are all detailed and the Dinosaurs look great that they can
actually compete with a 1999 full render animation of a Dinosaur on the
discovery channel and win. The world of Turok looks massive and interacts with
the dinosaurs perfectly. If Turok would have had a better story line then the
story would perfectly match the environment. However one down side of the environment
is that you can get lost easily and there is no compass or GPS system that
tells you where to go or what to do. Yes R3 does tell you what to do and where
to go but at times it won’t tell you anything and getting around will be
difficult. Sometimes you will find yourself going around in circles and even
going back to where you came from without realizing it.
Multiplayer
doesn’t really introduce anything new to the series of online play. The only
difference is that Dinosaurs attack your opponents and vice versa. Capture the
Flag, Team Death Match, Death Match, etc. With the bad controls it is a guarantee
that you will have bad accuracy and will be lucky if you get a kill.
Achievement points on the 360 aren’t really worth it at all. The only achievement
that you will have and be proud of is beating the game, and that is a major
achievement not only for your gamerscore but for yourself as well. As soon you
beat this game the only way you’ll go back to it is if you lost some sort of
bet and are forced to beat the game one more time.
Closing Comments:
When
Turok was first announced as a Disney title, I thought to myself “Wow Mickey
mouse shooting Dinosaurs, this is going to be interesting to see what Disney
does to the series”. Now that I’ve seen it there is no going back. The game is
more of a chore to play than entertainment. If anything you should just rent
this game instead of buying it, trust me you are not missing anything.
Story: Not a bad story, it explains why you are there and it
does match together but come on They could have come up with an even story.
5/10
Game Play: If you love torture this game is just right for
you. 3/10
Sound/Graphics: Great sound effects and voice over. Nice and
clean graphics if played in HD. No complains here. 7/10
Controls: Controls are very sensitive even at lowest
sensitivity, you’ll be lucky if you hit something and that’s not saying much.
2/10
Lifespan: A few hours or torturous gaming experience and no
reason to play this game online. If you play this game more than once, you’re a
trooper and I salute you. 4/10
