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Turok EvolutionBy Chris Vavra - 11-29-05 Print  EmailThe Turok series had been going downhill since the original, which continues to tower over much of the FPS world as the gold standard for what an FPS should be and what we should, as gamers, expect. Evolution, the fifth title in the series (counting the terrible multiplayer game Rage Wars) decides to be like Star Wars and return to the origin story. This might not have been such a bad idea if the gameplay and game design didn't suck so much. The game, as I mentioned, returns to the original story and follows young Tal'set as he tries to save the Lost Land from complete destruction. After about an hour of getting used to the game, the story starts to move along and so does the gameplay. The problem, for the most part, are the flying missions, when come in and intrude every so often as Turok takes to the skies to rid the world of evil. The missions are often uninspired and have lazy game design. Evolution works at its best when it is an FPS, but even then the game has some major faults that it just can't get around. The FPS missions suffer from having cheap AI and weird hit detection. There are times when you'll pop someone with your pistol, but you won't hurt them. They hit you more often and that can be an irritation. Controls try to be like the old Turok games, but there is not much responsiveness and jumping is a real pain in the ass. Visually, the game is very lush, although pretty average when it comes to character design and so forth. The weapons, often the high point of discovery, continue to be well-designed. The music is almost non-existent at times through the noises of the jungle, which are fairly realistic. When the music does come through, it does set an effective tone, but the music won't keep you from putting down the controller. Multiplayer, which has always struggled to rise above mediocrity with this series, continues that grand tradition. Although, by comparison, this multiplayer almost looks pretty good because the single-player is a jumbled mess. No wonder they made completely separate levels for this mode. They must have realized their miscues in making this game. Overall, fans of the series, like me, will be disappointed. The single and multiplayer are pretty weak compared to the rest of the titles in the series and there isn't much reason to play through this game once you're finished. People looking for plenty of gore and body parts won't be disappointed, but to see some really interesting decapatations they will have to go through a majority of the game to get that, and I think they'll be long through with this game before they reach it. If this is the final game in the series, it really is a downer. Ratings |
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